Carmelo…
We decided to see if we could write something on just one chord and this features quite a layer of drums, loops, tabla and percussion with Irish Bouzouki rather than guitar being the main instrument. The bouzouki’s brighter sound coupled with its more ethnic tone seemed to suit it better. What sounds like bongo’s is in fact Chris Chavez whacking the bodies of some open tuned acoustic guitars!


Useless

Kiki…
Again this song runs on a similar theme although it is musically very different. It is honest and raw to sing and is about how none of us are perfect but we still have great value, It expresses how we can limit ourselves but it’s possible to break free, open up and take the ride. Sometimes when writing a lyric it is a bit of an unknown and it’s not until later that it becomes clear what the song really means!! I am really interested in what makes people tic and this song makes that apparent

Carmelo…
Although in open tuning there are quite a few descending chords giving a sense of darkness and mystery. When Kiki started singing I was reminded of Dusty (Springfield) on ‘Nothing Has Been Proved’ from the film ‘Scandal’. This was a great pointer for the direction of the production although I broke up the smoothness with some electric guitar .Have to mention the drums played by Justin Hildreth. He came over just so we could hear drums on the track and we only used 2 microphones on the whole kit to record it. We later tried to re-record the kit with a ‘proper’ sound but never matched the spontaneity of that original first take so that’s what we used!

Walk of Faith  click here to listen

Kiki…
The title track of our album, this song is about adventure and trusting that if I take the step I will find the right way forward, The more I look the more I find there is a mountain to be climbed, the walk of faith is always there says I can look too hard and try too hard but using my instincts and trusting is often the best bet, it also has real optimism which is something I always have in my woodsier Fear of flying will not hold me down, it’s in the stars for us to hit the heights.

Carmelo…
This track is really a rescued demo where we just kept first takes and built around them. Every time I would listen to an instrument on its own I’d think ‘we’ve got to re do this’ yet in the mix everything just seemed to hang together which somehow gave the track more edge!

Running up that Hill (A Deal With God)  click here to listen

Kiki…
The only cover on the album written by the wonderful Kate Bush, I think Carmelo has done a great job to arrange it in such an original way. I love the idea that Kate Bush brings to this lyric of changing places with someone that you love and seeing things through the other persons eyes, it has great drama and originality which makes it interesting and challenging to sing

Carmelo…
This started life as something we could perform live as we are always looking for interesting covers and Kate is a favourite of us both. After a few live renditions we knew we should try and record it!
Inspired by an unusual tuning I found that gave the ethereal voicing of the guitar . Jack Hues put some interesting Keys down and Martin and Dinesh on Drums and tabla are superb but what an interpretation by Kiki ! Hope Kate likes it.

Just Killing Time

Kiki…
The first track on the album about relationships, about missing someone but feeling okay,Iv’e always liked walking and found it very therapeutic especially by the sea so this song is reflective but quite positive about just killing time till you see that person that you really want to see again, also I often think of my parents when coming up with ideas and the first line of the song is for them I’ll make a world in this small sand dune it’s an ode to you …

Carmelo…
Another song which started as a live number and the recording is fairly faithful to that
version. Lovely tabla from Dinesh and great brush effects from Martin. The spacey echo guitar was last to down and gave the track an extra dreamy quality.

Like Nobodies Child

Kiki…
We can all feel down sometimes and loose hope, this song is about the times when we start to heal, feel better and trust again ,:It’s just a trick of the light when the candle dies :says it’s not as bad as it seems and everything is okay in my world. I enjoyed doing the vocals on this track because I like the mood it sets, plus it’s always a thrill to sing a song that you have written and feel excited about.

Carmelo…
This has quite a blend of modern and traditional to it. It has a breakbeat loop and a beautiful viola solo by Clare Finnimore. The song is quite dark but lyrically and musically it turns more hopeful.
I love the mixture of rhythms too but most of all Kiki’s vocals AND backing vocals are sublime.
We had a few goes at this and the art of under singing is perfectly displayed here.

Cool Water

Kiki…
We enjoyed writing this lyric a lot partly because it’s a very up and happy song and they can be harder to work on. When I was young and in love and the experience was very magical I have a photograph of me with newly washed hair and such a huge smile on my face that I used that picture for inspiration in this song, these moments in life can be fleeting but worth holding on to so I took the theme of water(not for the first time)as being inspiring and filled with life.

Carmelo…
Quite a quick recording this, one of the first finished tracks. Inspired by first aquiring a Parker Guitar which has an acoustic sound of its own, very clean, but suits some songs and this has two tracks of it. Came alive with Martins playing on brushes and I am particularly fond of my hammered dulcimer effect on the bouzouki. Anyone notice anything about the flute solo?

Seamless

Kiki…
For me this was a big challenge to co write with Carmelo, he had created a great mood on the guitar by tapping the body percussively while playing the chords, this created a very smooth sound that inspired the idea of singing ‘’seamless, seamlessly I go’, this then developed into a lyric about the better self talking to you ,almost like a guardian angel saying I am always there to protect and inspire you! Even though you don’t know that I am, quite difficult to put across but eventually I could make sense of the ideas that had come naturally, I hope after a couple of listens you will understand it too.

Carmelo…

This originally had quite a production with big Arabic strings and many percussion layers but was sounding more like a ’Bond’ theme and this track was looking like not making our final selection so we stripped it back and I added a Spanish guitar which seemed to give a more haunting and ethnic quality. Clare on the viola added great touches too and Dinesh held it all together with a solid Indian Conga part.

Oh Life

Kiki…
Full of optimism through and through about how good life will be and how good I am feeling!
I had fun writing these lyrics although it took a while to develop the second verse after the first came very easily. The song says whatever is thrown at me I feel great. This is my Godsons’ favourite track and it’s nice that someone in there 20s is very enthusiastic about the album, Carmelo worked very hard on the middle section as he wanted something that really lifted and was atmospheric, I think the end result is unusual and surprising.

Carmelo…
Quite a soul tinge to this track which also started out as a stage song where we have an improvised section in the middle. For the recording we have gone for it and it is quite different to the live version. We created this unashamedly ‘Pink Floyd’ middle section which really builds and I wanted to find some commentary to put over it and it was then that Kiki mentioned Eric Moussambani from the Sydney 2000 Olympics. He seemed to really represent ‘going for it’ no matter what so we found the original footage and then tried to convey an ‘audio fantasy’ of his courageous moment! (see album notes)

Loving You

Kiki…
A ballad inspired by unconditional love and one of the more intimate tracks on the album .It has references to nature and breathing and my favourite line is :Thoughts of you like Angels at my door.
There are many songs I like which have a touching quality like ‘Fields Of Gold’ by Sting or ‘Dimming Of The Day’ by Richard Thompson.I had these in mind while working on this track with Carmelo.

Carmelo…
This took a while to get right. It had a different incarnation as another song which we almost scrapped. Kiki persevered and kept trying different lines and finally sang ‘Loving You Is In The Air I’m Breathing’ and it immediately touched me. That one line transformed the song and we were away . Love Clare Finnimore’s string arrangement and Annabel Lamb’s backing vocals.

Everybody Falls (Love to be Loved)

Kiki…
Sharing a title with track one makes this unusual in the sense that both songs are very different but share some of the same lyrics, one of my favourite tracks, it has a real mood to it for me and is very sensitive.

Carmelo…
This is another song that nearly didn’t make it! We started performing it live and it was OK but not great. We worked and worked and were about to give up on it when one of those rare moments of
inspiration came and it was rescued and turned into one of my favourite tracks too!
It is quite unusual in many aspects :The octave vocals, the great cello by Jane Fenton the unusual arrangement and Dinesh’s improvised vocal link. Most of all though a strange thing happened , I thought it might be nice to re introduce some samples from our ‘Where Rivers Meet’ album as a reminder of the spirit it has as this was the last track. Technically this involved ‘flying in’ the samples manually on an ad-hoc basis which I would put in the right place later. Well when I listened back to what we had I didn’t need to do anything because everything was already in the right place as if by magic , AMAZING!
Lyrically too this song sums up the theme of the album. We had some words but needed more so I asked Kiki to write down as many opposite human emotions and conditions and what a list! It inspired the whole recording…