Wednesday, 3rd August 2022
I was listening to my old compilation album 'No Heart's a Wasteland' and thought I may as well do a listen/commentary on it.
I LIKE YOU TOO
So all I can remember about this recording is that is was actually the 2nd take of this song. The first take being called 'I Like You', the 'Too' was added as it was take 2.
The first take was a very sickly sweet acoustic version and I didn't like it at all, so I made it very different in the 2nd take.
Using a drum machine (played 'live'), a detuned electric guitar as a bass as I didn't have a bass at the time, and taking cues from Nirvana's 'Drain You', and playful vocals, added 'Beatles-esque harmonies at the end harking back to Revolver.
ALISON ROSE
This song was actually written a year or 2 before this recording, and when I originally wrote it there was a line in the song inspired by Nena who then became the drummer on it.
Nena and her sister had a stall on Brick Lane Market and I went to visit them once, I remember they were selling T-shirts and one T-shirt has the imprint of a persons face on it, and when I came to write 'Alison Rose' the line 'I wiped her bloodied head upon my T-shirt' was in reference to this.
Little did I know that 2 years later Nena would play shows with me and record drums on the song.
We recorded it at Oliver Price's studio, and I came up with the bass line on the day, which I've never really been sure about. I felt I was doing a bit of a 'Modern Life is Rubbish' Blur-era bass line in the first verse, but actually it may detract from the vocals. Anyway, it was all done in a day and Nena did some amazing backing vocals. The screechy 'Rose, rose, rose roosesee' at the end is her, with the Pixies-infuenced deadpan 'Alison Rose, Alison Rose'. Great song
VICTORIA'S ROOF
This was a song recorded at Glen's aparment in Berlin when I went to visit him in the summer of 2008 before I went to Meadow Harvest Farm in Potsdam, NY.
I wrote the line 'Blue stars on Victoria's roof' in my diary (before phone notepads) because when I was on the Victoria Line on the Tube once I noticed these single blue stars stuck upon the ceiling in the carriages. I wondered why they were there. I wrote the lyrics using a very loose technique of linking the lines to the previous one
'Blue stars on Victoria's roof'
Became 'Secrets (Victoria) on her underground' (Tube line)
'Hiding (Secrets) from the wandering hands' (lingerie)
'Pulling up the weeds' (underground)
And used that technique throughout the song.
We recorded my guitar and vocal at Glen's apartment, but we only recorded a midi flute that day, the flautist recorded with Glen on another day and I never met her
ISABEL
I think I wrote this song really quickly, like in about 20 minutes. I feel like I pretty much wrote it and recorded it on the same day because the lyrics just flowed. The tuning is I think in open D, or similar. I'll figure it out when it's not too late to pick up a guitar.
I remember thinking 'I can do a Johnny Flynn-type song' and using his voice as a bit of guide to the conception of it.
I'm not sure where the name 'Isabel' came from, it wasn't inspired by anyone called Isabel. But I had written 'Alaistair' and 'Alison Rose' within the same time frame, so name's just seemed to come to me back then.
JEREMY'S GERMS
Can't remember much about this one at the moment, apart from thinking 'I could do a 'Libertine's-esque' song, even though I had never really listened to them.
Then adding an acoustic breakdown at the end. I remember recording it when I lived with my Mum in Croydon.
YOU CALL ME TOO LATE
Mostly written in New Orleans just after I had left the farm. I had gotten a Greyhound from Potsdam, NY to New Orleans which was over 24 hours travelling on a bus.
I had been hearing a lot of country music I hadn't heard before like Hank Williams, and Ernest Tubb, not forgetting Patsy Cline.
Recorded late at night on an Olympus voice recorder from 2007. Quality was pretty low, but works with the type of song it is
TBC
