My pal Jack and I had a day out. We went to an overgrown, abandoned railway platform; looked at a medieval painting in a village church; went to a pier amusement arcade full of strange contraptions made by an old man; visited a maritime reading room; had beer and pizza at a pub and walked along a beach where no one goes. I found a piece of a gravestone on the beach. We saw a seal. My lovely old car from the sixties nearly ran out of petrol in the middle of nowhere. It was a grey but happy day.
Today marks the first ever release for @samuel_taylor_music . Samuel is a brilliant singer and writer and this is the first song from an EP that will be out in due course. Have a listen. It’s the kind of easy, folky stuff that is perfect for an Autumn day in England :) Oh, it’s out on a little record label that I set up called @noroadsrecords
Written by Samuel.
Produced and mixed by me.
Samuel sang and played guitar and banjo and I played the other stuff. The extremely handsome @paulfrithmusic played the horns.
Mastered by my longtime, excellent G @tuffmastering
Huge love and gratitude to our little @noroadsrecords gang @loumwriter , @billieroderick and @gavinfanatic .
Love also to @concrete_state and @millenwsn for photos and styling respectively.
Also love to @graciehailstone for the artwork.
❤️❤️❤️
What a month. Favourite ever US tour.
Incredible crew. Grafters but also lovely people and always fun too. Special high five to my tech Adam (great catch) and our tour manager Mark for both being first point-of-contact for my bullshit - including me buying an ancient amplifier that weighs 45kg and expecting Adam to make it work on stage and find a way to ship it home.
Also amazing touring with @e_e_ I have such respect for their craft but I can also confirm that they are thoroughly great hombres.
Amazing, warm, energetic fans. Just the best.
My bandmates. Love you guys. Despite your long, long list of flaws. Steady away.
Jx
Excellent photos as ever from our good friend Mr Jon Stone. 📷 @jonstonevideo
I recorded an album back in 2015ish. Noone was interested in releasing it and so it’s just sat on a hard drive ever since. I didn’t really know what to do with it and I go back and forth from thinking it’s rubbish to thinking it’s a shame if it doesn’t get heard at all. Part of the reason I never just put it on Spotify or whatever is because I don't like the sound of my singing. But now enough time has gone by and I guess I’m grown up enough that I just think, fuck it, who cares. I guess there are also parts of the record that I’m proud of too though. Anyway, now is as good a time as any to release it - “release” being the operative word. LET GO OF. It’s up on Spotify (link in bio)and the various other streaming places.
I wrote a lot of the songs in 2013 just after my Dad died. So a lot of it is about processing that loss. Even when it isn't. He was an amazing guy. He was only 59. He was an absolute rebel and lived in a very full and fearless way. I don’t know if I’ll ever stop missing him, I hope not. It's called While the World Sleeps because when he died I remember feeling like I was separate from all of the other stuff happening in the world around me. Like everyone else was just going along in a dream while I was wide awake in my loss.
I recorded it with the windows open because I didn’t want it to sound like it was recorded in a studio. So you hear the weather a lot. Lots of the songs start out one way and then make a sudden left turn. I like that.
I made the record pretty quickly and played and mixed most of it but I did have some very precious contributions from friends.
So a big thank you to this lot:
Violin - Phil Renna
Cello - Katherine Joyson
Horns - Paul Frith
Harp on the Broken Wheel - Serafina Steer
Charity Quin plays the part of St Teresa on What May Be.
Tracks 1, 4, 8 and 10 were mixed by Mr Cenzo Townshend, which is why they sound better than the other tracks.
It was mastered by my old friend Kevin Tuffy, a man who encourages people in the most steady and valuable way.
The cover art is a painting called Edge of the Forest (Nightingale) by my friend Emma Green.
Thanks to Billie Roderick for her help with uploading it!
Alright.
