I wrote this record after a break-up from my long-time girlfriend and whilst unimpressed with the world of professional employment in the ‘media’ industries. This is a very traditional time to pick up a guitar. I was in a band as a teenager but I hadn’t played my guitar for years, so it was a very cathartic experience to play music again.
The expression ‘play’ music is very apt here, because making this record was very much a playful experience. I spent ages at my friend Larry’s house and we got lost in creativity. It was a way of getting over a relationship, a way of expressing frustrations, a way of getting my confidence back.
There was no plan of action, as we had no previous experience of recording an album. I had some rough drafts recorded upon a Tascam 4-track recorder and we quite simply began to tackle songs whenever we felt like it. We sometimes tried to recreate the character of the original recordings (like Penguin Feet), and sometimes went in completely different directions (like In All Honesty). Only Skrew U was recorded in one take, with a guitar and vocals going down simultaneously from the makeshift recording booth in the bathroom. The rest was a mixture of Larry and I making it up as we went along, and being joined by his younger sister Bethan for We Both Lost Our Way In The End.
Lyrically I was inspired by Chris Corner’s work in IAMX, whilst melodically it was probably closer to The Moody Blues. I was also hugely inspired by Blur, especially their album 13 and the track Out Of Time from the Think Tank album.
I have always preferred ‘roughness’ in my work, the deliberate lack of perfection. I think it sometimes gets confused for laziness, but I genuinely believe that there is a sense of character that gets created when the audience can get an impression of the process that went into making something. I enjoyed the Dogme cinema movement for it’s imperfections and refusal to conform to Hollywood standards, and I think this influenced my musical approach too. I didn’t want the dynamic range of the music to come solely from the traditional drums/bass/guitar combination, so we tried to weave all sorts of sounds into the mix, especially effected vocals. This is most evident in We Both Lost Our Way In The End or the pitch-shifted melodica of Released.
credits
released August 1, 2005
All music & lyrics written by James Fair. Recorded between March 2004 – Jan 2005 at Pinelands. Mastered at the DAC. Produced by James Fair & Larry Smith. Bethan Smith guest vocals on We Both Lost Our Way In The End.