No. Because we are all so busy with our various satellite projects it was a real challenge to find chinks in our respective schedules to get down to doing some recording. Simon and I did some basic guitar and vocal guides in my front room in Camberwell (southeast London) and some drum tracks at studio near Bristol that Portishead has used.
Did you do any recording outside of the U.K.?
I went to Chuck in San Francisco where he pulled in his muso posse at Hyde Street Studios and we recorded 5 of the songs live, as a band with very little post production tinkering.
Working with multiple producers can be tricky but we avoided most overlapping and so there are songs that are entirely Simon produced and songs that are Chuck treatments.
And who else played on the album?
Both Chuck and Simon play guitars and bass throughout. The drummers are both called Paul, Revelli and Wigens to be exact. The one and only Danny Eisenberg on Hammond and piano, Tom Heyman on Pedal Steel, JJ Wiesler on guitar, Julian Wilson from the UK’s Grand Drive lent his organ and vocals and my great friend and collaborator Sandy Stewart did BV’s on our song Play Me.
You manage yourself, run your own label and, as you mentioned, are your own masseur when on the road, does the control of your music, your art, outweigh the hard grind this must be?
I know no other way. I would love to have the support that a great label can offer but it hasn’t come my way yet. Whether I would be able to let go some of the artistic control for the sake of having the help with the machinations of getting the music to a wider audience is unknown. Like any sort of working relationship it’s all about your ability to compromise.
Whats your plan for the coming year?
Gigs, gigs, and more gigs. I have put together a great band here in the UK and I am in the process of setting up a U.K. tour in September and regional U.S. tours starting with the South and Southwest in November. Because of the cost of touring with a band, the plan is to have a local pickup band in every region. It is another way of keeping it fresh too. Different players bring something new to the table and keep the stale bread at bay.
Article comments
1 - Rob
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