OCTOBER 2011
Wed 26 – Birmingham Glee Club
Thurs 27 – Nottingham Glee Club (duo gig)
NOVEMBER
London Borderline – Date TBC
Hello there.
My debut album will be available to buy at my gig at the Glee Club (26.10.11), and I will be taking pre-orders on this site sometime before that.
I am really excited to be sharing a stage with Peter Bruntnell, described as “One of the finest songwriters in Britain†by The Independent. I am sure if you are reading this you probably are familiar with Peter’s lovely songs, but if you haven’t worked your way around to him yet, click here to go to his myspace.
Album Diary
At the moment I’m about halfway through recording the album with my friend and producer Michael Clarke, and I think it’ll be a self-titled thing.
Working with Michael has been an enjoyable process, in fact on studio bound days I am so content and happy that I would not really call it working at all.
We went for a coffee on Monday January 3rd at 10am, and I plucked up the courage to ask him to record it. I was so pleased he agreed, but still a little cautious in case it didn’t work out. However, Michael kept responding to my mails and calls, and by Feb we were exchanging song files daily – things were coming together. We initially planned to buy in food supplies, camp up somewhere and do the whole session in a week – but then I managed to get ill on the day we due to start, so things were delayed somewhat. Michael was really understanding about me being poorly, and even suggested that a bit of a cold may enhance the sound of my voice! Not sure about that, but he is a lovely bloke and clearly well versed in how to deal with hyper-sensitive singer types like me.
We said from the beginning that we wanted to capture something simple, so we stripped the songs back to their core of guitar and voice. We tried to keep the arrangements lean and succinct, what with everyone losing their attention spans to the internet I thought that might be well received.
We didn’t use a click track for many songs, and when i was recording the first draft of the songs I loved having the freedom to roam around the beat a little, it felt like I was shifting the weight from one foot to another – getting comfy. Once we had a few tracks down to tape we invited musicians to come and collaborate and add their unique spices and sounds. Several songs are co-writes with members of my band, and yet again I am knocked out by their willingness to contribute and share so much with me. With the drums set up in the dining room, John effortlessly carved out some beautiful drum takes, followed my meanderings around the beat perfectly, and took the lead when I was wandering outta sight. Steve did some bass that sort of rolls towards you and gently pushes your head into the groove, whilst June takes flight with a counter melody. Good stuff.
We’re now adding little pieces of melody on banjo/uke/mandolin (Michael’s one of these annoying people that can get rhythm on whatever he picks up) and he has a good knack for harmony vocals too.
I’ve written a coupla new songs which may make the cut also, and then we’ll need to have a good tinker about with it for a few months, and then it should be done. Wouldn’t want to serve it up before it’s cooked;)
Love Dan