Prologue
This record was a mistake.
I never intended to write this EP at all.
In fact, at the start of 2020 I had already finished writing my second album.
But as you likely guessed, the Covid-19 pandemic changed everything.
The drum tracks for album 2 had been partially recorded, but the Easter lockdown in the UK meant we had to wait till Summer to finish the recording.
..so I ended up getting bored during lockdown.
Lockdown
I have a heart condition so I fall into the ‘vulnerable’ category. Therefore I’ve been in lockdown since March, but this EP is NOT about Covid, or anything. It’s quite a boring topic ain’t it?
I just wanted to mention the lockdown because if I wasn’t completely bored I would never have written this EP – and to be honest, I’m really happy that I did.
I also put out a cover of The 1975’s ‘Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America’ that you can watch below. This was the first track I recorded and filmed during lockdown.
The Record
This is the first record where the tracklisting matches the order that I wrote each song.
Oxygen was written first, followed by Dreaming and then Hills.. etc.
In fact, my favourite part about this EP is how easy it felt to write each song.
Each track felt really natural.
And while there is an underlying theme tying all the tracks together, it didn’t feel forced and hopefully it doesn’t sound that way either 😉
Recording & Production
I record everything apart from the drums at home.
Most of the synths are MIDI instruments and I DI (Direct Input) the Guitar and Bass.
The drums are recorded done by Fiverr user Kostas_vass and the mix, mastering and additional production was done by Matt Bond of Night Odyssey Creative.
And obviously the vocals are done by myself 😉 I use a Shure SM27 mic.
Themes
Since the EP was written out of boredom it didn’t initially have a theme in mind. I was mostly writing for the sake of writing.
However, it came to a point about 3 tracks in that I realised that the theme was Love. Each track is based on a specific kind of love:
- Oxygen – This song is based on pure desire & lust.
- Dreaming – This song is about young love.
- Hills – This track is about self-love and having belief in yourself.
- One In A Million – This song is about complete and utter devotion to one person.
- Church – This song is about the loss of love, in this case via death.
In Conclusion..
..I felt it was important to establish that the record was a ‘happy accident’ born out of boredom. That boredom allowed me a lot of time to write five tracks that felt extremely authentic. It’s also worth mentioning that several of these tracks feel like songs I’ve always dreamed of writing, adding to how chuffed I am with the final product.
It’s something I’m really proud of and I hope you can appreciate the love & effort I put into it. So let’s dive in shall we? 😉