DN: Talk about "For A Brother." Where did you get the name and what the inspiration behind the album. Does it have a special message?
I had the idea to do a solo album for quite some time and had been throwing ideas around for a year or so before I got the chance to finally record this. The actual title came about through an awful turn of events.... while we were recording the album, the drummer’s brother was killed under tragic circumstances - I asked him if he wanted to put the recording on hold for a while, but he insisted on finishing it as he felt his brother would want that - I suggested calling it “For A Brother” as a mark of respect to him - he died way, way too young. I then wrote the title track “For A Brother” in his memory. The rest of the album had already been written beforehand. Some tracks were already a year or two old, for example, “30 hour journey” had been written after a train journey I took from Boston to Chicago... It took around 25 hours as it stopped at what seemed like every small town along the way - character building for sure! I think I will fly next time! Ha! I thought 30 hour journey sounded better so it ended up as that... I put the track down with some help from friends of mine in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - that was back in January 2004. I then re-worked it as an acoustic arrangement for the album.
I feel the message of the album is pretty eclectic as it draws inspiration from life’s path... ups and downs, relationships and travels... I seem to write best when I am traveling or in isolation from any distractions. Then again its a mystery to me - sometimes I get into the zone and ideas don’t stop flowing an other times its just a brick wall! - I think every writer experiences this.
DN: Talk a little about the musicians in your band. Who are they and tell us a little about them.
The musicians in the band are guys I met during my time living in London, UK. The drummer is a guy I was introduced to at a gig by a mutual friend who said we shared a lot of the same musical tastes... I saw him play and he was awesome. His name is Marius Rodigues and he is from Porto Alegre, Brazil. Marius really brings a strong latin influence to the album, naturally. He won best technique on Batuka in the Brazilian National drummers competition in 1997 - he is an awesome drummer and it was great to have him on the album. The bass player is a guy called Zad Adda - I met Zad at a jam session in a London bar.. He had such an unusual technical and rhythmical approach that just blew me away. Zad is from Algeria, North Africa and really has such an intrinsic feel for rhythm. These guys are the core of the band, and, for the most part its just us three - I did a lot of rhythm guitar overdubs as opposed to keyboard work. Most of the keyboard parts I programmed in.... There is a keyboard solo on one track called “End” . That’s a friend of mine who plays great jazz piano... his name is Alex Stanford. Also worth a mention are Jon Plotel who co-wrote the only vocal on the album and played fretless bass on the same track - he also painted the artwork! Jon is a great friend of mine and was the bass player for Billy Ocean amongst others. And also, Egypt is a female vocalist from London who I got to know through a mutual friend - she is awesome.
DN: Who are the producers of the album? Who engineered/mixed it?
The album was produced by me for the most part... excluding the vocal track which I produced with Jon Plotel. It was Engineered by a guy called Dave Wooster who is the engineer for Gary Moore and Van Morrison to name just three :) Dave also mixed it along with me.
DN: Do you have any future projects you are working on? Any future Goals?
I actually have another album in the works... quite different from the first with a lot of programmed instruments... and, lots of tricky melodies! I already solicited some exciting guests who will do solo spots and a few vocals also. Should be very cool. I would also love to do a live performance DVD, perhaps with some instructional content. I guess my goal is to get a band out touring the music around the world and having fun. The two things I enjoy are playing and writing... as long as I can strike a balance I am happy.
DN: Any cool stories you would like to share with us about the recording process? Was it fun? Exciting, hectic, boring, etc.
We recorded the album in about 3 or 4 days.... very hectic! anyone that knows the process of recording will realize it can take a long time before you actually start to record.... When the clock is ticking it can be a stressful experience.... I actually really enjoyed doing the album - next time it would be nice to have a little more time and focus. In a way I guess the situation surrounding the album kinda made us rise to the occasion. Once we had the tracks in the can we spent a further few days with the mixing - again, it would have been nice to have had more time. I had fun experimenting with amps and mics... I had a couple of amps to hand - one was kindly loaned from Mesa Boogie... We A/B’d my amp with it and the boogie just blew it away.... we ended up hooking up both amps with a stereo ping pong delay and the blend worked quite nicely.... Of course, my sound is evolving and I now use different equipment from the time of the album - but I am happy with the sound.
I had the idea to do a solo album for quite some time and had been throwing ideas around for a year or so before I got the chance to finally record this. The actual title came about through an awful turn of events.... while we were recording the album, the drummer’s brother was killed under tragic circumstances - I asked him if he wanted to put the recording on hold for a while, but he insisted on finishing it as he felt his brother would want that - I suggested calling it “For A Brother” as a mark of respect to him - he died way, way too young. I then wrote the title track “For A Brother” in his memory. The rest of the album had already been written beforehand. Some tracks were already a year or two old, for example, “30 hour journey” had been written after a train journey I took from Boston to Chicago... It took around 25 hours as it stopped at what seemed like every small town along the way - character building for sure! I think I will fly next time! Ha! I thought 30 hour journey sounded better so it ended up as that... I put the track down with some help from friends of mine in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - that was back in January 2004. I then re-worked it as an acoustic arrangement for the album.
I feel the message of the album is pretty eclectic as it draws inspiration from life’s path... ups and downs, relationships and travels... I seem to write best when I am traveling or in isolation from any distractions. Then again its a mystery to me - sometimes I get into the zone and ideas don’t stop flowing an other times its just a brick wall! - I think every writer experiences this.
DN: Talk a little about the musicians in your band. Who are they and tell us a little about them.
The musicians in the band are guys I met during my time living in London, UK. The drummer is a guy I was introduced to at a gig by a mutual friend who said we shared a lot of the same musical tastes... I saw him play and he was awesome. His name is Marius Rodigues and he is from Porto Alegre, Brazil. Marius really brings a strong latin influence to the album, naturally. He won best technique on Batuka in the Brazilian National drummers competition in 1997 - he is an awesome drummer and it was great to have him on the album. The bass player is a guy called Zad Adda - I met Zad at a jam session in a London bar.. He had such an unusual technical and rhythmical approach that just blew me away. Zad is from Algeria, North Africa and really has such an intrinsic feel for rhythm. These guys are the core of the band, and, for the most part its just us three - I did a lot of rhythm guitar overdubs as opposed to keyboard work. Most of the keyboard parts I programmed in.... There is a keyboard solo on one track called “End” . That’s a friend of mine who plays great jazz piano... his name is Alex Stanford. Also worth a mention are Jon Plotel who co-wrote the only vocal on the album and played fretless bass on the same track - he also painted the artwork! Jon is a great friend of mine and was the bass player for Billy Ocean amongst others. And also, Egypt is a female vocalist from London who I got to know through a mutual friend - she is awesome.
DN: Who are the producers of the album? Who engineered/mixed it?
The album was produced by me for the most part... excluding the vocal track which I produced with Jon Plotel. It was Engineered by a guy called Dave Wooster who is the engineer for Gary Moore and Van Morrison to name just three :) Dave also mixed it along with me.
DN: Do you have any future projects you are working on? Any future Goals?
I actually have another album in the works... quite different from the first with a lot of programmed instruments... and, lots of tricky melodies! I already solicited some exciting guests who will do solo spots and a few vocals also. Should be very cool. I would also love to do a live performance DVD, perhaps with some instructional content. I guess my goal is to get a band out touring the music around the world and having fun. The two things I enjoy are playing and writing... as long as I can strike a balance I am happy.
DN: Any cool stories you would like to share with us about the recording process? Was it fun? Exciting, hectic, boring, etc.
We recorded the album in about 3 or 4 days.... very hectic! anyone that knows the process of recording will realize it can take a long time before you actually start to record.... When the clock is ticking it can be a stressful experience.... I actually really enjoyed doing the album - next time it would be nice to have a little more time and focus. In a way I guess the situation surrounding the album kinda made us rise to the occasion. Once we had the tracks in the can we spent a further few days with the mixing - again, it would have been nice to have had more time. I had fun experimenting with amps and mics... I had a couple of amps to hand - one was kindly loaned from Mesa Boogie... We A/B’d my amp with it and the boogie just blew it away.... we ended up hooking up both amps with a stereo ping pong delay and the blend worked quite nicely.... Of course, my sound is evolving and I now use different equipment from the time of the album - but I am happy with the sound.
