A Coming Of Age Track by Track pt1 of 12

So here we are just a week away from the release of our new album A Coming Of Age, 3 years to the month since The Great Unwanted hit the shops and 4 years since our first single My Brittle Heart. A long time. I think the writing for this recod started late 2007 and we first hit the studio in December 2008 with a punishing 10 months of recording, editing, mixing and mastering until it was finally finished 6 months ago. Without boring you with too much record label promotional guff, you have to wait at least 3 months if you want the big glossy magazines to review you. Add in Christmas and here we are at last.

So I thought I’d give you a track by track run down of the album to get you geared up for the release. We’re really proud of the album, particularly the way it runs together as an album should. Some great tracks got left off, but we felt it was really important that the album felt good a whole. It clocks in at 36 minutes which is pretty short and sweet (although one minute longer that The Beatles’ Revolver). We set out to make a warm, direct album with a timeless feel and I believe we’ve achieved that and I hope sincerely hope you enjoy the fruits of our, sometimes hard labour.

So here goes…

1. Woah Billy!

This one came about after I watched a TV show featuring Billy Bragg. I was really struck by his demeanour and by the fact that he always seems to be fighting for a cause and doing something worthy. Plenty of people do that of course but not that many marry a pop career with it and that’s what he is to me, a pop singer. I’m always a bit in awe of supreme confidence and I started off this conversation with him in my head where I was saying basically “You always seems to be doing the right thing and juggling that with making making mostly great and very soulful music. How do you do it? and not end up making a complete Bono of yourself?”

So for me the crux line of this song is “You seem so sure about yourself. What’s your secret?” Basically it’s a song about insecurity and frustration.

I met Billy Bragg himself recently but I was far to shy to say anything about the song. He was incredibly confident and a towering presence and maybe slightly overbearing with it. It was definitely a public persona though and I never did find out if inside he’s a secret worrier like the song says.

It’s a weird song and doesn’t really have a traditional verse/chorus structure, but I new I wanted it to say ‘Woah Billy!’ as many times as possible. I think it came together pretty quickly in rehearsal and the big glam riff was there pretty much from the start and I’m pretty sure that the disco break down felt like a really obvious thing to do. We’ve been opening shows with it for a while, so it felt right as the big introduction to the album and a statement of intent for a more powerful sound that we were after on this album, partly due to the arrival of a new rhythm section. Paul (Mr. Atkins) and Russell (Rusty) immediately clicked together when Rusty came to audition. I remember Paul saying it was like his kick drum had a remote control for the bass on it and we’ve become a much more solid outfit since they came along.

Here it is, in the slightly surreal context of our new video which was made entirely by Lucky Soul (see news section). Stay tuned for the rest of the album…

Woah Billy!