Behind The Songs
I felt that as so often, listeners are left wondering what a song may mean or be about, what inspired it or how a particular sound was achieved, it might be useful to give some individual hints and explanations of these questions for each of the songs that make up this album. I will start with the track list and follow on with the song biography and at the end of each one will be a link back to the lyrics of the album should you need a shortcut. I hope you enjoy this new element to the web site and it is also exciting for me to be able to share some insight into the songs.
Mountain Rain
Samui
Don’t Think of Me Pt2
Fading Away
The Ballerina’s Last Dance
Downtime For Robots
Refuse To Dance
Melancholic Days
A Happy Day
Tribal
Silhouettes
Interference
Suffolk Jig
Mountain Rain
I was standing on a balcony in the Austrian Alps in the middle of summer when a massive thunderstorm came rolling up the valley. Fortunately, the balcony had an overhanging roof, so I stayed completely dry while recording the thunder and sharp cracks of lightning.
Evening storms aren’t unusual in the Alps, but the following day was so wet that we decided to stay indoors. That’s when I came up with the melody for Mountain Rain, using my recording of the storm at three points throughout the piece to bring a little of the real atmosphere into the music.
The melody itself is deliberately simple, but I used several different instruments to give it subtly changing moods as it progresses. There’s no conventional drum track, just a tambourine that makes its appearance during the final third.
The entire piece was composed and recorded on a laptop using Logic Pro while we were in Austria, then produced and mastered once I returned to the UK.
Samui
This track was born on a hot, sticky night while staying in a cabin right on the beach in Koh Samui, Thailand. I couldn’t sleep and found myself wide awake and unusually alert while almost everyone else was sleeping.
The music reflects some of that restless energy. A slightly aggressive rhythm guitar riff establishes the mood and continues through most of the track. Behind it, I introduced a slide blues guitar riff which, strictly speaking, probably shouldn’t work with the rhythm, but I really liked the contrast.
An acoustic guitar bridge provides a change of atmosphere before the music moves into a more club-oriented final section. Even there, the blues guitar makes another appearance, bringing the contrasting styles together before the whole thing finishes with a splash of sound.
It’s an unusual mixture of musical ideas, but sometimes those unexpected combinations are what make a track interesting.
Don’t Think of Me Pt 2
Don’t Think of Me Pt 1 began life as an acoustic guitar-backed ballad, but despite finishing it, I never felt it really worked. Eventually, it joined the collection of songs I’d decided not to release.
However, I was still happy with the backing track, so rather than abandon it completely, I began experimenting with a two-part guitar melody. Gradually, Don’t Think of Me Pt 2 emerged.
I like to think of the two guitars as having a conversation. Sometimes their voices intertwine, almost finishing each other’s sentences, while at other times they take turns speaking.
Around the halfway point, a cello introduces a new musical phrase which I wrote from scratch. This develops and changes as the guitars resume their conversation. Towards the end, additional strings join in, giving the arrangement greater depth.
What began as a discarded ballad eventually found a completely different identity as an instrumental piece.
Fading Away
I was browsing through some piano loops one day when I came across one that caught my attention. As is often the case with me, I couldn’t resist changing it, and before long I’d added a lead guitar melody, a bridge and a very subtle bass line that’s barely audible.
There is percussion too, although you’d have to listen carefully to pick out the bongos tucked away in the arrangement.
Originally, I intended this to be a vocal track. In fact, if you listen to the opening guitar melody while imagining the words “I feel like I’m fading away”, you might hear what I had in mind.
Eventually, though, I decided the melody worked better without lyrics, which is how the piece found its way onto Silhouettes.
And, appropriately enough for a track called Fading Away, the music gradually fades into silence at the end.
The Ballerina’s Last Dance
When writing this piece, I had in mind the ballerinas who perform during the Vienna New Year’s Day Concert. Ballet is an extraordinarily demanding career, both physically and mentally, and I found myself wondering what happens when a dancer reaches the point where that career is no longer possible.
I imagined a ballerina taking to the floor for one last dance, no longer concerned with the technical demands of a professional performance, but simply enjoying the movement and the music.
The piece bursts out of silence and moves along at quite a pace, yet I imagine the dancing itself as something more dreamy and restrained, full of gentle swaying and graceful turns rather than difficult ballet movements.
Two pianos provide the entire musical arrangement. There are no drums, no percussion, no bass and no guitars. Just the interplay of the two pianos carrying the melody.
I particularly like that simplicity. Sometimes there’s no need to add anything more.
Downtime For Robots
Two rather different influences were behind this track. The first was WALL-E, the little robot from the animated film who tirelessly goes about the enormous task of cleaning up an abandoned Earth. The second was Kraftwerk, whose pioneering electronic music made quite an impression on me in my younger days.
Musically, this is very much a piece of construction rather than conventional performance. I made extensive use of loops, combining and arranging different sounds to create something with a distinctly electronic character.
I wasn’t entirely convinced by the result at first. In fact, I had quite a few doubts about whether it really worked. But the more I listened to it, the more it grew on me.
Now I really like it. Perhaps even robots deserve a little downtime!
Refuse To Dance
This track ventures into trance and club music territory, opening with a short riff before settling into a bouncy beat supported by a wide variety of percussion.
There’s a slightly quirky combination of guitar riffs and sounds reminiscent of early electronic music, creating an unusual mixture of styles.
As the track develops, it moves into a more straightforward dance sound, bringing together techno elements and rhythm guitar riffs over a thumping drum beat that drives the music from beginning to end.
Everything builds towards a sudden, crashing finish.
Despite the title, I find it almost impossible to sit still while listening to this one.
Melancholic Days
This piece began with a comfortable acoustic guitar backing and a simple piano melody. After about 45 seconds, strings join the arrangement, and around the halfway point a bass line appears, followed by a flute and several other instruments, each taking a turn with the melody.
It’s a gradually building composition, gathering more sounds and textures as it progresses, while retaining the gentle character of the original idea.
I was feeling slightly melancholic on the day I wrote it, although not in an unhappy way. It was more a reflective mood, and I think that comes through in the music.
I really liked the finished piece, but wanted to give it a slightly worn, nostalgic quality. So, just for fun, I added the sound of scratches at the beginning and end, as though it were being played from an old vinyl record.
Perhaps an unusual finishing touch for a digital recording, but I felt it suited the atmosphere.
A Happy Day
Unusually for me, I set out to write something deliberately upbeat, reflecting the happy mood I was in that day.
Initially, I hadn’t expected the piece to develop beyond the piano, but as it progressed, I introduced an acoustic guitar, leaving the piano firmly in the leading role.
Then I decided to try something I’d never done before: adding brass instruments to the melody.
It was a bit of an experiment, but I felt the brass brought an extra brightness and warmth to the arrangement, complementing the cheerful character of the music.
Whether it works is for the listener to decide, but I think it captures the spirit of the day rather nicely.
Tribal
I was experimenting with some loops one day when I came across the unmistakable sound of a didgeridoo. It immediately caught my attention, and the rhythm of the loop gave me the starting point for the entire track.
I wanted to create something dark, moody and powerful, the sort of music that might accompany a dramatic car chase in a film.
A heavy, thumping beat drives the arrangement, joined by an aggressive guitar riff and a deliberately simple lead guitar solo. Throughout it all, the distinctive resonance of the didgeridoo continues in the background, adding an unusual atmosphere to the music.
Despite the contrast between the instruments, I think they work surprisingly well together.
The didgeridoo has its origins among the Indigenous peoples of northern Australia, and that connection inspired the title Tribal.
It’s certainly one of the more unusual combinations of sounds I’ve experimented with, but I really like the result.
Silhouettes
The title track of the album is an upbeat, techno-influenced piece that begins with a long introduction, building towards a sudden crash and a moment of complete silence before starting again and developing into the main theme.
The music is built around a repeating four-chord descending pattern, occasionally interrupted by changes in intensity. Percussion holds everything together while the keyboards carry the melody.
Interestingly, neither the track nor the album was originally named after the music itself. Both take their title from the photograph I chose for the album cover.
The photograph shows Great Gable in the English Lake District, viewed from Green Gable. A cloud inversion fills the valleys below, with the sun illuminating the scene from behind.
Look closely at the summit of Great Gable and you’ll see a group of people standing against the light, their figures silhouetted against the background.
Those tiny figures inspired the title Silhouettes, which eventually became the name of both the track and the album.
Interference
This track began when I came across a collection of sounds that I thought might work together over the same beat.
Rather than build a conventional melody, I decided to experiment with the sounds themselves, allowing one to gradually transform into another as the piece developed.
The track begins with a single sound before moving through several different textures, each overlapping with the next. Eventually, the music works its way back to the original sound, bringing everything full circle.
It was this constant overlapping and interaction between the different sounds that inspired the title Interference.
A simple idea, perhaps, but an interesting experiment in how different sounds can interact and evolve.
Suffolk Jig
I wanted to create a lively, traditional-style jig, the sort of tune that might get people up and dancing in a country pub.
The arrangement uses acoustic guitars to provide the rhythm, with a tambourine and bodhrán supplying the percussion. Slide guitar and banjo add to the character of the piece, giving it a cheerful, distinctly folk-influenced sound.
Being a Suffolk lad myself, Suffolk Jig seemed the obvious title.
It’s a lively, upbeat way to bring the album to a close, and although I don’t imagine it setting the world alight, perhaps it might find a home in a pub somewhere, who knows?