Wednesday 4th of May:
We arranged to have one last evening in the studio with Andy Bush. With everything recorded and listened back to we thought it would be good to sit down and listen to the album from start to finish.
In the car journey on the way through I listened to Ludovico Einaudi. Andy tells me he listened to the new Brian Eno record. Whilst driving I thought of how long ago the start of the process for this album felt.
It must be about a year ago that we first spoke of it. Andy had felt so inspired by living on the Isle of Coll that he pitched the idea of recording an album about his time on the island, as well as reflecting the sometimes overlooked aspects of life on the Scottish islands. Given that I had had my wedding on the Isle of Mull, it was something I felt we could both portray and relate to. We began sending each other melodies and chord progressions shortly thereafter. In what felt like a short period of time we had assembled about 30 rough ideas that we thought could be used and we started to structure some of these.
With these ideas more rounded we sat down with Andy Bush and managed to whittle these down to 9 songs that would form the album. What struck me at this point was the ease at which we managed to choose the best songs. Throughout the recording of the album, the 3 of us have seemed to be on the same page. The process has gone as smoothly as we could have hoped for in that regard. The core of the album has been recorded in Andy Bush’s home studio in Glasgow, but elements of the songs have been recorded all across Scotland.
We’ve braved the wind, rain and a broken toe to collect field recordings, and photographs on Coll. We’ve rushed home from work to record guitar parts in Edinburgh. In Gauldry, after a spot of DIY, we recorded brass, piano and arranged string parts. While in Sanna, with festive hangovers, we somehow managed to record additional cornet parts. Now that we have finished recording our thoughts have turned to the release of the album.
Having put so much work in this is the point where anxiety creeps in. I’m always hopeful we can gather some interest and find the record a good home to release it on, who knows. The next steps are unknown for now.
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