It’s been quite a journey so far.
When I met Oskar Vizan at the beginning of the year and welcomed him in as co-producer, I suspected he’d be good — but I wasn’t quite prepared for his exceptional levels of focus, detail, insight and motivation. His instinctive sense of what serves the music has been extraordinary, and it’s been a real pleasure working with him over these past few months.
Spring has been especially busy, with an array of guest musicians recording their parts. We’ve had some excellent drum tracks laid down by Oysterband drummer Sean Randle, which have given several songs a real lift. I first met Sean at the wake of Rod Stradling back in January, and I was excited that he immediately offered to play on the album.
Around the same time I contacted a few musician friends, including Will Pound — maverick musician and squeezebox maestro — who has played on some key tracks. He then recommended a fiddle player based on the Isle of Man, Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe and she recorded a rousing solo on the title track, This Is The Fire.
We also brought in acclaimed jazz pianist Al McSween and Benji Kirkpatrick from Bellowhead, who has just this week added some beautiful guitar, mandolin and bouzouki parts to the Campout chorus song Bubble of Love and my new composition The Power of Love.
A chance referral also led to a brass band arrangement for Rising Up. I’ve been fascinated by the idea of incorporating brass band into a song ever since hearing 'I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight' by Richard and Linda Thompson back in the 70s — the first “rock” record to feature a live silver band, I believe. We nicknamed our players The Risings Brass Band, and I’m delighted with the arrangement that George Shrapnell created for the one off my favourite tracks.
Another serendipitous moment came via an email exchange with long-standing friend and former The Swingle Singers member Willy Eteson. I mentioned that I was looking for someone to arrange vocal harmonies and chorus singing for the album, and he responded by putting me in touch with Infinite Vocals, a new outfit doing fantastic work across a variety of musical settings.
His wife Jo — who I also know from the Swingles — is closely involved with this exciting new project, and she immediately agreed to come onboard. Last week we received vocals for twelve of the fifteen tracks, which we’re now placing and editing. They sound amazing. I’m also delighted to retain a Swingle connection and bring things full circle, as I had The Swingle Singers appear on my last album, 'Under One Sun' (Chilled By Nature), twenty years ago.
It was also a huge pleasure recently to finally meet a musician I’ve admired since the 70s. On a trip to Kent I spent time with Geoffrey Richardson, who became such an important part of the Canterbury scene with Caravan. As a student, I spent many hours sitting cross-legged on college refectory floors and muddy fields at Reading Festival marvelling at his viola playing. I also loved his work with the iconic Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
Geoffrey and I had been Facebook friends for a while but had never met in person, so I tentatively sent him a demo version of Oh My Days. He came back saying he loved the song and its atmosphere — especially the sense of fragility in the vocal. He then recorded a very moving viola part which could also stand beautifully as an instrumental version of the piece.
A couple of weeks ago he invited me to his Richardsonics Studio in a village just outside Canterbury, where he is currently recording with another Oysterband friend, Alan Prosser. Alongside croissants, fine coffee and a great conversation, I was treated to previews of several tracks from their forthcoming album. They also spontaneously launched into the Penguin Café tour-de-force Music for a Found Harmonium. Embrace the learning experience as they worked it out in front of me here.
As we move towards early summer, the last few live parts are being recorded and the arrangements are falling into place. By mid-July we aim to have all the tracks completed before moving into the mixing phase, which should be finished by the time we stage our Sing Out retreat here at Trealy Farm over the first weekend in September, where we’ll be performing a couple of the more community choir-based songs live.
Even as rough mixes, many of the tracks are already shaping up beautifully, and the word “earworm” has cropped up more than once from friends who’ve had a sneaky preview. I genuinely think there are several songs here with strong potential.
I’ll publish another update as we near completion of the recording process. Then comes the autumn challenge: how best to launch and share the album with the world.
All ideas are welcome.
I’d especially love to find ways of creating videos for some of the tracks, and am looking for anyone who might like to collaborate with us on developing a visual dimension for the project.