It's been sometime since my last blog update so apologies for the mammoth post. I thought it was about time to release a few more details about the new album and some of the guests that will be playing.
To bring you up to date, 'End of Ecclesia' has slowly been tickling the prog world's conscisousness since it's release in November last year. Have to say I haven't been killed in the rush sales wise and I think I learned a hard lesson about publicity.
There were some great reviews from the press and those that really matter went out of their way to tell me how good they thought it was. I must admit though I hit a bad patch earlier in the year and actually considered giving up recording. I couldn't get my head around the sheer number of man hours putting an album together and the tiny reward and recognition that comes at the end of it.
After I'd thrown my toys out of the pram, and received much support from fellow progheads, I realised I was looking at things the wrong way. Making music and albums is a joyous experience, and ultimately it's should be for yourself. You have to be selfish about it. It's for you, it's prog, and 90% of the population (including my wife) think it's self indulgent, too long, too complicated and a bit up itself.
Thankfully the last 10% of the sane ones are some of the nicest people I've met and do incredible things for their music, as well as having some of the most unrecognised blinding talents. It's these folk that convinced me to 'Keep calm and carry on'.
One such inspiration is Lee Abraham. A big man in Prog in more than one sense and an absolute gent. I've been spending a bit of time with Lee over the last 6 months and he's been more than generous in sharing his prodigious knowledge of high end production as well as his rather exceptional contacts list. It was Lee who provided constructive inspiration for my own garden studio, just like his but more than that he's taken great interest in my music and in particular allowing me to steal some of his production secrets. His album Black and White lays testament to what an armed and dangerous low budget producer can pull together in terms of top drawer talent, songwriting skill and the sort of production values that Sony would pay millions for.
When you sit at the helm with Lee he hears stuff that I can't. Timing errors, pitch problems etc. It's like Jedi training.
The biggest lesson Lee taught me was 'Don't try and do it all yourself'. I was on a mission with 'End of Ecclesia '. Apart from the excellent contribution on 'The Dark that follows the Light' from my long time friend Steve Dunn, I'd decided early on that I would write, play every instrument including drums, sing and produce the whole thing even doing the artwork myself. I managed it, but ultimately things could have been better in a number of areas. I learned at this point that sometimes you have to step back , recognise your limitations and 'phone a friend'. This has been the new approach for the latest album and it's already paying dividends.
When Age has Done it's DutyI really like the idea of concept albums and the freedom they give writing wise. You don't even have to keep the music in the same genre because somehow that common thread is keeping it all together.
The original idea for the new album was in fact to make a 3 track EP. Talking to both Steve Thorne and Graeme Bell I realised that it made more sense to push for a whole album's worth of material in order to do both the concept justice and to make enough impact.
The first track I worked on was 'When Age has Done it's duty'. The inspiration came from a recent death in the family which caused some rather interesting family history to be unearthed as well as a visit back to a tiny village called Cleobury North in Shropshire where I spent a lot of time with Great Uncles and Aunties as a kid. The central theme of the Ageing process dominates the album, Birth, youth, trials of adulthood, then ageing, frailty and ultimately death. Cheery stuff eh? Dark themes produce wonderful albums, ask Roger Waters.
Mixed in with this lot are some childhood memories of the area and the people. Lee suggested hiring Steve Thorne for some vocal work as he'd made a great contribution to Black &White. Steve is a real character whose previous collabs read like a who's who of rock and prog. He was rather flatteringly, hugely impressed with the demo I sent him. His resulting vocals are amazing, totally bringing the track to life. This one had to be big and dramatic being the title track. I also contacted a Voice artist in the form of Tom O Bedlam who allowed me to use his dramatic reading of the famous poem 'Growing Old' by Matthew Arnold which provides the chilling introductory monologue.
At this point my good friend Steve Dunn pointed me in the rather artistic direction of Graeme Bell also known as 'Twig'. Graeme had been working on the rather incredible artwork and concept of Also Eden's new EP, 'Differences as Light' , and was incredibly generous in offering to assist with my album. Talking with Graeme helped to cement the concept. We agonised for a while over names but it was staring us in the face. Graeme liked the title track idea of 'when Age has done it s duty' (WAHDID ) and it's stuck. When you get Graeme to do your artwork, he doesn't just disappear then come back with a design, he wants to see the lyrics, hear the music, interview and generally immerse himself in what you are trying to say. It works so well. Just take a look at Differences as Light, there's a whole raft of hidden meaning, connection to the lyrics etc. etc. This is what Prog art is about. I'm really looking forward to seeing the final results of his labours on WAHDID but from what I've seen so far I'm going to have no worries.
Next up is 'White Light Awaits' . I'd long been hankering to do a heavy guitar track with dropped tuning. This is what happens when you spend too long listening to Porcupine Tree!
I'd experimented quite a bit with Drop C but was having all sorts of issues with tuning stability and getting a good sound with my gear. Enter Mr Abraham again who came round one evening armed with 6 string bass, Drop C tuned guitar and Line 6 pod. He then proceeded to despatch 2 pristine Drop C guitar tracks and a bass line to boot, all in under an hour. He even had time to set up a draft mix. True Pro! So Lee guests on this track which concludes the album.
Also featuring on this track is an old friend from college days, Dave Ware. Dave was a top metal drummer and used to be in the Portsmouth based band Tarrasque, who managed to get quite a bit of airplay on MTV in the early 90s. They almost made the big time while the rest of us were struggling to find our creative grooves. These days Dave can be found recording in his own studio where he's managed to fit in a very well equipped live drum recording facility. He's also become a very capable multi-instrumentalist and superb song writer. Check out his work on
www.daveware.co.uk and his new Facebook page.
Next up is my oldest friend, Steve Dunn. I've known Steve now for about 26 years and it was he who got me listening to Hendrix and Purple in the school breaks while the music of the day was supposed to be Culture Club, and Duran Duran. Steve always had my recommended listening list ready. Hendrix, then Purps, Sabbath, Gary Moore, then UFO, Yngwie, Satch and a host of others. Post 16 I can't remember a time being with Steve where he either wasn't either playing guitar or listening to it. We were in three bands together, the last one 'Cry of Love' reached the heady heights of a few Porstmouth pub gigs before we retreated into obscurity. Steve had some wilderness years like myself where we did careers, kids etc. but he came back to music with avengence. I was thrilled when I caught up with him again thanks to Facebook and found him bassing for Also Eden and teaching guitar for a living. A lifelong learning advocate, when he has a spare 5mins he's also found studying for his next qualification!
Steve did an amazing co writing job on 'The Dark the Follows the Light' on End of Ecclesia also playing all guitars and bass on the track. This time round he's added his bass rumblings to 'Blacksmith's Hammer' where he took the track and gave it a completely different feel which I couldn't get to with my own attempts.
Then we have 'On Which we Stand'. I'd almost abandoned this track because I couldn't link the beginning and end section with anything creative. Enter Simon Rogers, Also Eden's guitarist. I gave Simon virtually nothing to work with and said 'Be as creative as you want'. I wasn't expecting the results. With nothing more than a couple of emails he'd written a staggering 12 string guitar ensemble that was very reminiscent of early Genesis. A few emails later and I'd added 3 vocal parts, keyboards, and Simon and contributed a very unique 'Ebow' ensemble. This is going to be a very special track for vintage Prog fans and I'm very happy to share writing credits with Si on this one.
I'm currently in the midst of completing writing on 'Into this World' which opens the album and also have one more new track to write. Watch out for a few more special guests which I hope I can sign up soon!
Expected release will be early December, hopefully.
