SONGS FROM THE SILVER BOX - JAN 21 09

My new album was released earlier this year, here's
a description of each song and its influences and
place in the record.

Songs from the Silver Box

The first song I wrote for this project was Musique Pour Irakli,
it’s the last song on the album but it really set the mood for the
whole record so I will start with that one then go from the top.

In the fall of 2006 I was in touch with a friend from France who
has lived all over the World and has friends everywhere, her
name is Sabine. She had made friends with a fashion designer
from Georgia whilst living in Japan ! I guess she had known
that one of my ambitions was to write the music for a fashion
show and she was trying to put her friend and I together.
Finally I think in December of 06 I was sent some drawings
and film footage from a previous collection and then finally
the drawings from his to be shown collection. I was instantly
inspired and began composing a 15 minute piece of music.

I already knew after my last record how I wanted the next one
to sound and where I was going with it and by chance the
imagery of the clothes and fabrics was part of the same one
vision. I saw “The Truth In Me” as very broad brush strokes with
very bright primary and secondary colours, I wanted this one
to be much more detailed and finely structured. I wanted a very
high top and a very low bottom. I wanted to use a more controlled
palette of sounds, far less experimental and I wanted to incorporate
more rhythm.

Musique starts with a repeated plucked motif which was inspired
by the elegance of the stitching and embroidery of the clothes.
A soon as I had finished the music I gave the song to Erin and
she made it beautiful layering vocals on top of it like flowing layers
of very rich fabric. The song develops over quite some time and
then comes back to the introduction for the climax. It is at all times
very controlled and measured.

So back to the beginning. At one time I was thinking of calling the
record “ The Prince of Time” but I found it too literal and too confining.
This title observes that we can never master time we can’t rule it but
we can serve it and understand it.

Again it starts with a plucked rhythmic sequence concentrating on
higher frequencies and then a very low bass. I had decided to open
this record up a little and to work with some people I respected.
I never have the patience to work out very intricate drum patterns so
I turned to an artist who I know that does. Bryan Michael of the band
Alka who Erin and I had signed to our label 99X/10 for the sampler in 05.
I gave Bryan the track and he gave it back to me with the amazing beats.
The song spread out before me and I played a long and time delayed solo.
The Prince of Time stretches his legs…..

Endlessly; this song probably sums up better than any of the others the
meaning of and the formula for the record. It is very controlled and compact
yet the emotion is very intense from within that restraint. Bryan again graced
the song with his beat programming. There is one phrase
( @ 3:50) which for me “is” the record. It describes an love which is endless.
Again it defers to a sequence of plucks and a very deep bassline.

The third song is a collaboration which spanned several continents and
thousands of miles and was a really fun process. I was introduced to a
singer from Australia called Lenka through my label, she was looking for
song writers to collaborate with. I started with the music and sent it to her,
she cut it up a little and sung on it and sent it back, I then re edited the
music to suit her vocals and sent it back and so it continued. It was originally
intended for her album but finally she went in a kind of different direction so
I asked her if I could use it on mine and the deal was done. I really like the
way the song is so free form yet at the same time quite dancey. Lenka does
all her own vocal effects and her voice and the Moog really worked together.

Falling features a sequence from a pretty special instrument and its actually
the original sequence, I think I only edited it slightly. That’s something I never
do , I never use stock sounds or sequences but I love this sequence and the
guy who wrote it invented the instrument, Dave Smith, he actually invented
MIDI and the Prophet 5 and a whole bunch of stuff and I had the honour to
meet him recently. Anyway that’s the basis for the song and themes come
and go over it, a simple but cool song.

If You Were Alone. I hate being alone in any circumstance and this song
derives from that fear. Its very urban in its textures and emotions and is
heavily driven by one of my major influences of all time Frank Zappa.
Bryan programmed the beats and actually added some melodic content …
Hahahha I must like him to let him do that ! A pivotal song for the middle
of the record, a turning point. It hangs around one small frail phrase and
builds from there.

Changing. This really is an expectant song, the spring of 2007 was
incredible, for weeks on end it was Sunny but you just knew it couldn’t
last and that it would Change. Sure enough it came and the feel of the
changing air and emotion inspired this song. Its very orchestrated and
again quite confined to a very strict palette of sounds. It compliments
If You Were Alone in its pastoral rather than urban mood and is or rather
would be the end of side 1…. Ahhhh Vinyl !

Tiny Pieces of You was the final song to be completed for the record
and was written during a very emotional and difficult time during which
Erin was very ill. I was constantly having to come and go, leaving her for
weeks at a time. I found every time I left that I took tiny pieces of her with
me and I would find them literally in my pockets or coming out of my mouth
or spinning around in my mind. I gave her the basis for the lyrics and she
as usual fleshed them out into a song, a very moving and touching song
really and simply about love and being apart.

The music is interesting as it lies across time signatures and pays no regard
to proper rhythm. Again its made up of layers of plucking sounds and a
simple but very low bass line.

Always is the song most similar to the last record in that it really is organic
in its growth and not so controlled or scheduled. I felt the record needed
some freedom at this point in it . One of the phrases toward the end of the
song will probably be developed into a Piano and Cello piece for the record
I am working on with my old friend Paul Van Dongen.

The title track is very interesting technically and sonically. I used a very
different form of synthesis on the Moog called FM which makes very
brittle and bright sounds that seemed very apt for the title. The rythmn
again crosses over all the boundaries and things change when you don’t
expect them to. It also is very sparing with the phrases and is very short, it
all makes the song quite jewel like somehow. It also makes an excellent ring tone !