Louder Than Sound is released in two days. Pre-save it here.
The basic tracks for the LP were recorded at Nam Studios in Holt, Wiltshire in July 2024. Overdubs took place at the home studio of producer Jacob Myles Tyghe in Bath and at my mum’s house. Nam has a great pedigree, having been used by artists such as Robert Plant, The Mission, KT Tunstall and Royal Blood.
The guitar, bass and drum tracks were all captured live and performed with my long-time bandmates Paul Kench on guitar and Hugh Lyford on drums. Jacob played bass on three tracks. Other friends added overdubs at Jacob's home studio: Joe Brown on backing vocals and keyboards and Nick Sorensen on saxophone. My friend Chris ‘Magic Booka’ Booker added lead guitar on one track all the way from Australia!
The album is my fifth release of new material for the Subjangle label. (A pre-order of the CD is available as part of a four CD Subjangle October offer, here.) I attempted to produce an album of catchy three-minute songs inspired by two of my favourite bands, The Beatles and Badfinger; both groups who are these days associated with the illusive term, ‘Power Pop’.
Something that draws me to both bands is that their inventiveness isn't restricted to one type of music. They wrote brilliant songs in different styles, displaying their diverse influences, - rock, ballads, melodic pop, soul/RnB, country, folk, even music hall. A good song is a good song, and their musical arrangements always served the song; neither band was interested in showing off their musicianship for its own sake. Both bands had four singers and songwriters and made major use of harmony vocals. Obviously, I couldn't possibly reach their high standards, but I wanted to try and imitate the very best.
Here’s a track-by-track rundown of the songs:
She’s Inside My Heart
This song was written very quickly and easily came together in rehearsal. It harks back to my Karma Truffle days and I loved Paul’s Dave Davies/Paul Weller influenced guitar solo.
Blake – vocals, electric guitars, bass guitar, percussion
Paul Kench – electric guitar, lead guitar
Hugh Lyford – drums
Joe Brown – backing vocals
Lighting Up For You
I wrote this song after returning from a holiday in France where I had watched all the Pirates of the Caribbean films with my ten-year-old son. It’s a devotional song, really. It’s about being saved, by a person, by God, whatever it is that saves you. Joe helped me to develop the guitar riff and the backing vocals. He also played pianet on the recording. He had developed a beautiful Zombies-sounding harpsichord part that was supposed to feature in the breakdown but it proved impossible to overdub it because he wasn’t present for the live recording of the backing tracks (owing to a gig he had at Glastonbury Festival performing his own music) and we weren’t playing to a click. The drop-in was therefore just too difficult to achieve satisfactorily. We could have recorded the song to a click track but that wasn’t in the spirit of the album. Joe was worried that it sounded too much like Vampire Weekend anyway.
Blake – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, percussion
Paul Kench – lead and electric guitars
Joe Brown – pianet, backing vocals
Hugh Lyford – drums
Jacob Myles Tyghe – bass guitar
Sharks
A song about people who rip you off. As we know, it happens all the time. C’est la vie. It doesn’t mean you can’t be mad about it. My son helped to develop the drum parts to this song. The field recording was made on the beach in Barcelona where I was on holiday with my daughter earlier this year. There’s a nod to the ‘Jaws’ theme in the intro.
Blake – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, bass guitar
Paul Kench – lead and electric guitars
Hugh Lyford – drums
Joe Brown – backing vocals
This is the home recording of Sharks that I made in 2023. I was so dissatisfied with it that I was motivated to commit to recording my new album at a proper studio again, as I did with Plainsongs and Kaleidoscope. Having worked on Louder Than Sound for for four months with Jacob, I realise more than I ever that I know next to nothing about sound engineering!
Business Hours
Another song written in France, this concerns a relationship that has run its course. It’s sort of an answer song to Flight of the Conchords’ ‘Business Time’. I wanted it to sound like something from Quo’s Blue For You album. Although Joe didn’t play bass on Louder Than Sound because he was away for the initial studio recording sessions, this is largely his bass line that I played which he had developed in rehearsals and which I thought was brilliant.
Blake – vocals, electric guitar, keyboards, bass guitar
Paul Kench – lead and electric guitars
Hugh Lyford – drums
Joe Brown – backing vocals
Love x Forever
Jacob did a great job at recording and producing this song. Hugh’s drums have that lovely Dave Grohl-style in the pocket feel to them and Jacob suggested using a fuzz bass overdub in the manner of ‘Song 2’ in the choruses. I was really pleased with how this track turned out.
Blake – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar
Paul Kench – electric guitar
Hugh Lyford – drums
Disguises
One of the first songs written for this project, in May 2023, my son again came up with ideas for the drum parts. It’s about how we all wear masks so it’s difficult to know if someone is trustworthy when you begin a new relationship. Joe recommended his friend Nick Sorensen when I mentioned that I’d like a sax solo on the track. I had a definite idea of how I wanted the solo to go but when Nick came round to Jacob’s studio and started spontaneously riffing, I immediately let that idea go! His solo is possibly my favourite thing on the album.
Blake – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards
Paul Kench – electric guitar
Hugh Lyford – drums
Jacob Myles Tyghe – bass guitar
Nick Sorensen – tenor saxophone
Coming In From The Cold
I co-wrote this song with American singer-songwriter Jeremy Morris whom I met at the International Pop Overthrow festival in Liverpool in 2023. I say ‘co-wrote’, but it’s more of a case of needing to give Jeremy credit because I realised in hindsight that I had been entirely influenced by his song ‘Who Holds The Future’ after I had finished writing ‘Coming In From The Cold’. Jeremy had given me a copy of his CD The Day The World Stood Still after catching my performance with my band at the Cavern Club. I listened to it and loved it, and that first track must have got stuck in my subconscious.
The lyrics are influenced by Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew, “So the last shall be first, and the first last”; also paraphrased in ‘The Times They Are-a Changin’’.
Blake – vocals, acoustic, electric and lead guitars, keyboards, bass guitar
Paul Kench – electric guitar, wah-wah guitar
Hugh Lyford – drums
Joe Brown – backing vocals
Strawberry Way
A song about new beginnings. Jacob played bass on this (and also on ‘Disguises’ and ‘Lighting Up For You’) and he worked out the bass line in about five minutes before we recorded the song. This was one for which neither Joe nor I had come up with a bass part before we started the sessions. Jacob is a bass player by profession (as well as a sound engineer/producer) so it was an absolute pleasure to have him perform on the album, too. He played my Squier Mustang bass on this.
Blake – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, percussion
Paul Kench – electric guitar, slide guitar
Hugh Lyford – drums
Jacob Myles Tyghe – bass guitar
Everything About Her
This was another song written in the summer of 2023. Joe was responsible for working out the lovely bassline which I had to replicate in the studio due to his absence. My musician friend, Chris ‘Magic Booka’ Booker, had kindly offered to help out with any lead guitar that was required on the album and I thought that this would be the perfect track for him to show off his skills, which he duly did.
Blake – vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar
Paul Kench – electric guitar
Hugh Lyford – drums
Magic Booka – lead guitars
Slippery Slope
This is the final song written for the album and took place after the initial recording sessions in July. I recorded this at home and it is a confessional piece. Jacob did a great job with the sound on this at the mix stage.
Blake – vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards
Something About You
This song is a tribute to Pete Ham and Tommy Evans from Badfinger. The group were the first to sign to The Beatles’ Apple label in 1968. They produced some unbelievably good music before their career ended in tragedy with Pete’s suicide in 1975. They had been ripped off by their manager, Stan Polley, and the band was not receiving the royalties due to them, despite Pete and Tommy having co-written one of the biggest hits of the seventies, ‘Without You’, made famous by pal of The Beatles, Nilsson. Tommy was never able to recover from his best mate’s death and in 1983 took his own life. Despite their tragic story, Badfinger left a wonderful musical legacy that continues to provide joy and inspiration today and I wanted to write something that summed up my love and gratitude for the group. The lyrics are composed from Badfinger song lines and album titles.
Blake – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, percussion
Paul Kench – electric guitar, lead guitar
Hugh Lyford – drums
Joe Brown – keyboards, backing vocals
One by One
I wrote fifty-four new songs for consideration for Louder Than Sound. I originally conceived it as a double album (The Moon Dog and the Sourpuss), although in the end it could have been a triple. As a single LP, pared down to twelve songs, it’s probably a good thing because I expect I would have lost a bit of quality control had I had the opportunity to release a bigger set. It was a result of running out of time and money to do any more recording. I was determined to get this song on the record though. It has been a difficult year for me in my personal life. Jacob, again, did a smashing production job.
Blake – vocals, acoustic guitar, piano
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