13 September 2006
Cinderella is the song that needs the most weeding. There are at least sixty tracks running, and it sounds like it. So we go through and decide on where drums should be, where crazy lead guitar should be, where submarine backing vocals should be, and where free-form trumpet wailing should not be. Then Matt does the vocal and some harmonies, and that's that one finished. "Another one bites the dust," as John Deacon might say.
In the afternoon we turn to the vocal for Something to Believe in. Kim arrives with the final version of the lyrics. Matt starts recording them and we get into a tricky debate about the chorus, especially the last line. I have a problem with 'scratching around'. To me it doesn't have the emotional weight the song requires - it seems thrown away. Kim doesn't agree, saying to her it conveys desperate scrabbling, which is what the song is all about.
It's hard to explain why some words feel wrong and some feel right. It's like a crossword where all the answers fit but they aren't correct. But it's Kim's song, and I know from experience that final words are the end of a long train of thought. To change them at the last minute requires a very persuasive alternative, so it remained 'scratching around'.
Once we have the vocal, Matt remembers that in the demo he put a really long delay on the voice, which makes a very pleasing 'round' effect, like London's Burning.
Because of the long story of Aqualung and record companies, this album we're now making will be the first one that can be released by a single label all over the world. In theory this means that there will be a brilliant global strategy masterminded by Columbia in New York, that will steer us a course to the stars! Of course, it's not as simple as that. Columbia's labels in each territory will be expected to release the record, but it's up to them how much effort they put into it. We'd expect Columbia in the US to be very active, what with the relative newness of Aqualung in the States, and we also have a good relationship with DefStar (a Sony subsidiary) in Japan.
The territory with the most 'history' is the UK, which is our home. However, it's been at least two years since we released anything or toured here, and two years is a very long time in pop. When Still Life came out it was the very beginning of the re-rise of Bands in the UK In the wake of Coldplay's industry-clearing hiatus following their seminal album 'A Rush of Wind from the Arse'- Franz Ferdinand, Keane, Snow Patrol (names that will one day look as dated here as we do now). Whether the UK popfolk will embrace us as long-lost-supa-high-quality-prophets-of-heartbreak or reject us as tragi-comeback-Volkswagen-barely-weres remains to be seen. Perhaps we'll be a sensation in Sweden?
Anyway, accordingly, we have begun to be visited by people who may have some part to play in our resurgent career, to see what the fuck we're doing and find out if we've adopted Valley Girl accentsOh my god. We totally have. One such person is Andy Namewithheldforlegalreasons, who is a 'Press Person', which means 'Professional Good Time Guy!/Liar'. He was the Press Person in the UK the first time round, and so it's encouraging that he's interested enough to come and hear some songs.
It's horrible playing new stuff to people. It always sounds as bad as it possibly can, and you don't know what to look at and get quite interested in your arm hair. I decide as a new strategy to stare directly into Andy Namewithheldforlegalreasons' impassive face, but I don't think he noticed. He describes Rolls So Deep as 'the money shot'. I think this is positive.
