"Receive"

Well I recently finished recording a new cd. This was a bit of a "bedroom affair" having recorded 5 of the 7 songs at home. Not only are many of the songs quieter in mood and tone, the process was laid back as well, out of neccessity more than anything. Stealing bits of time late into the night after everyone was asleep and having to sing a bit quiter as a result, lent an intimacy to the overall vibe only glimpsed at on previous records. I have often recorded demos that I enjoyed more than the songs that ended up fully produced on an album. So I wanted to capture something that had that kind of live and raw sensibility. Working alone (for 5 of the tracks) and not being in a professional studio, I didn't have to work too hard to acheive this. Of course there were also moments when recording that I could here ABBA bleeding into the headphones and then I realized that my daughters were blaring it in the living room.
I must say that I will always prefer a live drummer, but for this little project it was fun to experiment with writing to loops
and playing with minimal percussion like bicycle spokes and boot taps. And though I consider myself more of a songwriter than a guitar player and know well my place in the chain, i enjoyed the challenge of tackling the guitar solos on my own. The cover is a loose drawing of a cup i drew sometime ago, which seemed to fit the tone of the songs as well.
Now, I must give a huge nod of appreciation to producer Craig Ross (Shearwater,Patty Griffin) who helped with two of the tracks. Though scheduling conflicts prevented us from completing the entire album together, i found working with him incredibly inspiring and enlightening and he played a huge part in my approach and direction to the songs.

(This will be a limited hard copy release and availavble first on my upcoming European tour. After that it will be available on line.)