It’s been five years since we were last in a recording studio, and what a lot has happened!
COVID hit (of course) and while everyone assumed that this would present us with the perfect opportunity to do lots of writing, that isn’t the way it worked at all. Having moved house in 2019 there was a lot to do at home, but more importantly, we found that being stuck in one place away from people was just not a good source of inspiration.
So afterwards… when songs started to come, getting back to spend some time recording felt almost too good to be true. The team included Aron Bicskey on all kinds of percussion as well as being the album’s producer; Aron has played drums on all of the Out of the Ashes albums and was the producer on the last two; he’s patient, talented and when we work with him it’s always fun. Mark Walker on keyboards had four days that he was able to let us have between touring and just before he went off to play with The Jacksons in Monaco. Mark plays with major international artists all over the world but still makes himself available to play on a Sunday morning in his home church. Scott Whitley, who is the most amazing bass player we’ve ever met, lives with his wife and their two goats near Bolton. When not touring he spends a great deal of time teaching and (this year) doing DIY. We were joined in the studio by Danny Thomas who provided good natured glue as an excellent engineer and we were even visited by our good friend Vic Coppersmith Heaven (producer for The Jam and many others) who came in for a while and imparted one or two pearls of wisdom before leaving.
Backing vocals came a bit further down the line and, due to a few bouts of laryngitis among our regular singers, brought some more old friends into play. Sharon Jobbins from OOTA was fit to sing, and she was joined by Rowena Wakefield, Michael Davis, Chalmere Davis and James Washburn (our son) as well as Aron, who, when not bashing things has a more than adequate set of vocal chords. And finally, we got into another studio with three fabulous guys on brass: old friends to each other and now friends to us too, they were Dave Bush, Ted Smith and Peter Johnson who, it turned out, had met while studying music at the Cardiff Music Conservatoire.
We really hope you enjoy the result as much as we enjoyed putting it together and, should you decide you want to put some much needed money in our pockets, is available on all major streaming platforms, or you can buy a hard copy, direct from us, through our website.
Be blessed.
