It’s here.
The new album from Coosticks.
Seven Imaginary Songs: Volume 2.
It has taken a while to get this album out there. The next one will be quicker.
I started demos on this album in 2015 and then in early 2016 I got together with my friend Tim Charlton and we started working intensely over a couple of weekends on what would closely resemble the finished versions of Running Out Of Time and Return Of The Chameleon Kid.
I hadn’t done any kind of version of Running Out Of Time and just played it on acoustic to Tim. He worked up something extremely close to what you hear now in a very short space of time. Then we started on Return Of The Chameleon Kid. The mid section that I had originally recorded was slow, predictable, ploddy and didn’t work at all. I told Tim it needed something in the middle of the song and he seemed to realign his brain in front of me in anticipation and then, like some wild whirlwind, he added all the sounds to what you now hear as the middle section and transformed it into the most dizzying work of genius in an afternoon. I will be forever grateful for his work on it.
But then, as is the way, life and work got in the way. It was 2017 before I made the decision to revisit all the songs, some of which were half-finished, some of which hadn’t been started.
I started a new version of Singer from scratch and realised that I really needed to re-record the whole album at a better quality and I knew that if I didn’t do it myself I would never be happy.
So I started again.
I tried to keep Running Out Of Time as close to the previous version as I could. It was pretty perfect as it was so I did that, then Chameleon Kid needed recording again. It was no mean feat trying to replicate that song again. In the process I discovered extra guitar parts and harmonies and the final result delighted me.
Singer finally came together as did You Are The Sea and Butterfly thanks to the addition of some dreamy synth craziness, a very good friend of mine described them as “fluorescent flourishes of sound”.
Temperature was a tricky beast to pin down. It required something and I couldn’t figure out what it was. Eventually, I took things away from it, percussion sounds, synths and suddenly the melody came through more directly, brought it to life and I was happy.
And then from the start of January, I started to ask some friends of mine if they would like to participate on the final track. That track, Catch A Flame, is documented in the previous post although I forgot to mention a few enjoyable games of snooker after one recording session.
There are a handful of other honourable mentions I need to make, people who were invaluable in helping to make this album come together.
When I started again, I had a gnawing lack of confidence in re-recording, singing and mixing the album all by myself. My friend Paul Pavely was there at many points, encouraging, discussing, reviewing, suggesting and his support was absolutely vital. I simply wouldn’t have started again without his encouragement, help and advice. Thanks Paul.
And once I felt I was close to the finished article I asked another friend, Ian Roberts, if he would listen to it and give me any feedback he felt was necessary. Which he did, and it was great and valuable advice. Thanks Ian.
Finally, Graham Paul Kendrick, who is a constant supporter of what I do, thankyou.
I’m really pleased with the finished album, really proud of how it sounds, so happy to have my friends singing on it with me, and I hope you like it too.
If you do like it, please do me a favour and let me and others know. Share it around and do that whole social media shmoozaroonie. I’d love people to hear it.
https://coosticks.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7mMU8FcisybKCwhsZKqgaM
Thanks
:)
G @ Coosticks HQ x