It is fair to say that British band Touchstone’s first full length album Discordant Dreams has attracted a great deal of interest and some extremely good reviews since its release. The album has seen former Asia, Wishbone Ash, and Uriah Heep member John Wetton describing it as "fantastic" and none other than Jeff Wayne of War of the Worlds fame declaring it to be "stunning, passionate music with wonderful singing".
Touchstone went on to win the Classic Rock Society Best New Band award for 2008 and quickly added Best New Progressive Rock Artist in the Progressive Hall of Fame Awards in the United States. Add this to the Album of the Year Award from Sonicbond and it becomes clear that something very special indeed has been produced.
So who are the band Touchstone and what inspired such a well received release? To answer these questions I turned to founder member, lead vocalist, keyboard player, and lyric writer Rob Cottingham and fired off some questions. By then I had heard the album myself and could see exactly where Messrs Wetton and Wayne were coming from.
Discordant Dreams is a remarkably constructed album put together by a band that has evolved over the last five years. Back in 2003 Rob Cottingham and guitarist Adam Hodgson began to work together, adding bass player Paul Moorghen three years later and drummer Al Melville the following January. With this lineup they recorded and released an EP. From this point on Touchstone became a band to watch and their first album became eagerly anticipated by those in the know.
In April, 2007 Touchstone added the vocal talents of Kim Seviour and the recording process that resulted in Discordant Dreams commenced. Over to Rob...
This album has an interesting and effective mix of atmosphere but with an edge; how long did the whole project take to put together?
This is a very perceptive question. Whilst the album was recorded in only ten days, a lot of time and effort was put into preparing for the recording. We properly started in January 2007 when we had to recruit a drummer who could put in the time to prepare for the album, and found the awesome Mr Melville. We then recruited Kim in April 2007, so she didn't have a long time to prepare to lay down her vocal parts. We were in the studio in June!
Also key to keeping it efficient was the preparation and mapping of click tracks to rehearse to, which I did in my own studio. I also laid down guide keys so that we knew 'where we were' during the recording process, and - to save time - recorded some of my keys parts at home to upload, as time is money. Adam and ‘Moo’ (bass player Paul Moorghen) rehearsed hard at home, so that when it came to laying their parts down, it was all done quite quickly. Al also did a great job — drumming to a guide and click track at the start of the recording process is not easy! All in all the key was preparation, and when it came to recording everyone had a lot of fun, but was totally pro, because we knew we had to finish all parts in a certain order and within certain times.
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