Click this link to buy! http://confessionofthewholeschool.bandcamp.com/
Okay fellow Confessioners… the day has finally come. The day I have banged on about for a long, long time. I have released All Monsters and Dust. You can click on the music link at the top of the screen and buy it. Go on, you know you want to. Wouldn’t the sound of ten years of effort go down well on your Ipod? The answer, in case you’re struggling, is yes. Ha ha!
I know I’m like a broken record when it comes to this ‘record’ but it is the end of an era of my life. When I started recording All Monsters and Dust I was in a completely different studio. Many of the earlier songs such as The Comedy is Over and Double Click … Delete document a totally different time of my life. I was a different person back then. I had just disbanded Alexi in Winter and I was starting a journey as a solo artist. Now, although many of my projects up to that point had in reality been solo works, I was still surrounded by talented musicians and producers to help me realise my imagination. With Confession of the Whole School I chose to take on the all-encompassing role. To write, play and produce all my own music. Not only that but also to create the artwork and all marketing material.
As the recording of the album progressed I then changed studio environment as I moved into a flat. ’50s Teen Flick is the main product of that time. I like the sound I achieved on that song and the lyrics are very much a diary entry of that ‘middle period’ of the album. I was quite disillusioned and although I still believed that music was my outlet I also felt that no-one would ever want to listen. For that reason ’50s Teen Flick will always have a place in my heart.
The final period of the recording of the album took place in my current studio. My dad and I built this studio. You can see pictures of it on this very site on the top menu somewhere. The latter era songs, for me, are summed up by the song which I actually decided to make the opener of the album. The Last Gasp. It is an important song for it allows me to escape the baggage of ten years. I came to the realisation that a lot of the things that once made me angry are no longer of any concern to me. I am a free spirit and no one has held me back. No one has stopped me accomplishing anything. For you see everything is still out there for the taking. The lyrics of The Last Gasp reflect this. In fact, the Last Gasp and Perhaps I’ll Kill You are a neat little double act as they represent both a ruled line under the past and an indication of what I can achieve in the future. Both songs map out a plan of action for forthcoming material. They point a direction. Yes… they point a direction. A direction I have since expanded upon with Action Hero… but All Monsters and Dust laid the foundations. A move from strict indie pop to ‘no boundaries’ flight of fancy. Listen to the album as a whole and you will hopefully get an appreciation for the decade it took to make.
Oh… and I promise the next album won’t take 10 years!!! 🙂
confessionofthewholeschool.com 