I’m currently sitting on a train with snow covered fields all around me, listening to Ray Lamontagne’s excellent Till The Sun Turns Black album. I am on my way back to London and I get in 11 minutes before I have an interview for an online music site. The guy has asked me if I can kind of review my own album (hmmm track 1 brilliant, track 2 brilliant, track 3 brilliant...) so I am re-thinking about the songs that have become very well known to me. It is something I find myself doing a bit these days when I am on the way to gigs as I never want to appear to be going through the motions when I am performing them.

I had a secret showcase last night at the 12 Bar. It was rearranged gig after the evil snow god sabotaged the one that was supposed to be 7 days earlier and a tiny crowd as I couldn’t promote it with my Borderline gig coming up on Friday. It was rescheduled so that a few industry people could see me play and hopefully some good will come of the good reaction on the night. It was a good gig with Pravin playing Cajon instead of drums and my voice felt nice and free from tiredness or viral attack!

After this interview I just need to get back to my house and, besides rehearsing two songs in preparation for my gig on Friday, I have a free evening! I may go to the gym actually as I have just joined one I can’t really afford and I have just succumbed to one of the flapjacks that keep getting wheeled past me. Grrr evil metal wheeling food machine – nice flapjack though –just don’t come back three more times or I may crack again. I always thought ‘Donkey Oaty’ would be a good name for a flapjack..... (get it?...good yeah? No? Ahhh whatever)

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I have done the interview now – really nice guy – I didn’t really have to review the album much but he enjoyed the 12 Bar gig and he loves the album so I don’t have to worry about him stitching me up!
Anyway, tube then gym now...


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The Borderline gig comes and goes – a fantastic crowd turned up for us and the gig itself was great but 10 minutes after our departure our loyal following are treated to 2 heavy rock acts - which kinda kills the mood a bit in there. It was great to be back on the Borderline stage – several of my musical heroes have played there – Counting Crows, The Stones, Nerina Pallot plus people like Blur, Oasis, and Kravitz. I enjoy a few post-gig drinks but I have stupidly agreed to play football the next day - ouch. One of my believers from the Netherlands has combined a trip to London with attending the gig but he only introduces himself as I am leaving the venue. He doesn’t mind that I haven’t had time to chat much but I am anxious I don’t appear ungrateful for his fantastic support.

I feel like I have bitten off more than I can chew right now as straight after a 2-gig week I need to do much more organising and shot-writing for my video to be filmed in a few days time. The make-up artist drops out and one of the three models drop out – luckily they both suggest good replacements – but there are so many things to organise....insurance....tapes....
 .food/drink.....checking all the models and dancers know when to arrive and what to bring.....oh and write some of the shots so we know what we are filming. Arrrrrrrrrrrgggghhh....

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It’s now 11.09pm on Sunday 22nd February. I open my front door and almost collapse in the hall. I left the house at 9.10am carrying a massive rucksack that is 2/3rds the size of me. The whole day has been like the last 30 minutes of an exam but the people on the shoot were great – the crew, all 3 models and all 3 male dancers were patient and talented, and Pravin, Milo and Jennifer were on great form. We struggled a bit for time and some were suggesting the shoot should run into a second day but that would be a £700 decision, create a logistic nightmare and muck up the timing of getting the complete video – so we pushed on and hopefully got what we ne

I am now officially off the leash! Now I won’t just be updating you and bending your ear about all things musical, but also forcing general ramblings and thoughts on the general world upon you. I probably won’t even structure my thoughts that well as some kind of mini-rebellion against the organised world, but hey, I’ll try to at least make them semi-entertaining for you in return. Ok, let’s give you the update...

The long wait is nearly over. I started writing songs when I was 13 and in a few days time I will finally have a collection of my songs on a professionally produced CD. At the moment that is only really a big deal for me and a few people around me, but hopefully in a couple of weeks time it will be a big deal for some of you as well!

You Gotta Walk Before You Can Run
In some ways I am patient, in others I am not. I would like to tour across many countries playing gigs with my fantastic band and have a bass player, a guitarist, a mandolin player and piano/keyboard player guest throughout the shows. Well that is something that could happen, but at the moment I have face up to the fact that it has to be a slow, feasible transition that deals with the reality of my day job, my musicians day jobs and the fact there are no gig fees for the band (or me) at the moment. Someone these days has decided that you don’t make money from selling CDs, which means you have to get to the next phase of either having your music appearing in films/adverts/TV shows or selling out lots of shows – so that you can get some money and perhaps make this transition a reality. For me, playing big shows, small shows, working hard, promoting, interviewing etc – none of that is scary, but the transition is. I hope I have done the first part in creating a good album but the rest will require a couple of breaks and great fans showing me great support.

‘Fan’ is a strange word. Some artists tend to collect them like scalps, but for me it is simply people who like your music enough to do something about it – whether that is tell lots of people about it, buy a t-shirt, or buy your next album. These people are special and make such a difference. I think sometimes people under-estimate the power of people power....

You Gotta Keep Something for Yourself
Everyone who makes music tends to be a bit different. Some are in-your-face and self-confident, some are shy, retiring types and some are very sensitive and a bit fragile. I don’t think any of those really apply to me but I would say I don’t feel the cathartic need to lyrically express myself. This means I don’t need to ‘let it all out’ (visions of someone patting a sobbing DWM on the back) and that after I have written a song I don’t need to walk up to a friend and say ‘hey, that line was about you’. My songs tend to:

- be about the past, the present and the future
- talk about things that have happened to me and as well as things that haven’t
- use loads of metaphors
- be about several things in one song

Throw all that together and it is a wonder people ever say ‘I know exactly what you mean there..’. If I was trying to describe something in the simplest terms, I would be disappointed if I couldn’t get my meanings across – but I am not trying to do that. As a singer/songwriter growing up in late 90s/00s London, you don’t get a great deal really. You work hard, you rehearse hard, you don’t get paid for your musical endeavours and you can generally get treated like a disposable rag doll – so for me, this is the one thing I keep some of just for myself. It has no cash value, but I suppose it is worth something to me. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a closed shop, when asked in interviews about particular songs I will give an answer that reveals half the truth, but I will just keep the other half for myself.

Learning Things and Writing More Songs
Making Until The Morning Light was a great experience. Contrary to popular belief it d

Things seem to be moving pretty fast now. When I last wrote we had nearly completed all the recording. The next task caused a few days delay as were trying to book a different studio for one extra recording day (as we couldn’t get back into the studio we used for all the other recording days), but fortunately another great studio was available and we had a really productive and enjoyable day.

THE LAST RECORDING
There were quite a few guitar parts still left to record, a couple of backing vocals and the lead vocal for Act of Defiance. I laid down the remaining acoustic guitar parts first and then I got to play an amazing Fender Telecaster through a good-sounding Vox AC30 amp, which was a real treat for me. I live in a flat with thin walls and I have never had the money or space to own and play these amazing things - so to be in a soundproof room and told to turn it up loud and play was great. I laid down a bit of electric guitar on Act of Defiance that in truth I had never previously envisaged being on the song, but I tried to make the guitar confidently call out the same way the vocals do and we will see how it sounds in the mix!

From a vocal perspective I felt good throughout recording this album, as I finally felt like I knew how bits would turn out if I did them in certain ways. The last bit of the day, and indeed the final thing I had to record on the album was singing Act of Defiance. It was quite fitting really as this is often the final song in my live sets and I really have to, well, kind of trash my voice at the end of the song. Singing in a recording studio is a bit different to singing live – there is no sizeable audience, the microphone technique is a bit different and of course you know you can do most bits again if need be. When you combine all this with the fact you are surrounded by great equipment and a talented producer, it can sometimes make you feel too safe and lead to less-emotional delivery. I forced myself to be aware of that throughout the sessions and get myself up for every take – not like Rocky pacing up and down in the corner but just by remembering why each lyric was written and delivering the right emotion. You can sometimes forget that in the cold light of day, when someone plays it on their car stereo or a kitchen radio, it is only as good as the performance you give. In the last song, as my torn vocal chords delivered the last chorus, I remember thinking that I had given it all I had.

I had only ever done 3 day recording sessions before and I was determined that I was going to enjoy the whole experience. Many people would wish to record an album of their own material and to work with Tony Platt and the musicians I had around me. When I write my songs, I have always thought about what would be suitable for second and third albums but the honest truth is that you never know if this is the last time I would get to do this, or if it would be the first album of many. It will all be tied to how this album does and who shows faith in me.

The next day, Allan Burls, who some of you may know as the bass guitarist from Francis Rodino's band, came to the studio in Old Street. Happily for me, he had agreed to guest on three tracks where we wanted bass guitar to accompany the cello. He experty laid down the basslines and the final note on 'Until The Morning Light' had been struck.

THE ALBUM TITLE
The album will be called ‘Until The Morning Light’. It’s a lyric from Act of Defiance – which as the name suggests is a pretty defiant song born out of listening to a lot of opinions and also enjoying being a bit reckless and breaking the routine from time to time. I thought the name was fitting as I have kept on going through the night when I thought I would either get there or give up by nightfall. There is no rock ‘n roll story here, but I feel like I have lived, I have written, I have persevered and I have created. People have helped me to get it all put down on an album and