This album started off as a simple little writing and recording project, the onus was on simplicity, going with the first idea and trimming the fat. I was a bit tired of obsessing over tiny, insignificant details and ideally I'd end up with a bunch of songs that would be fun and stress-free to play live.

The songs came together in a remarkably trouble free way over 3 months and then it was studio time. The majority was recorded across a few weeks, and then I allowed the rest to drag on for 3 years...

The vibe I was aiming for at the start was a lofi indie garage rock sound, with baritone guitar, drums and vocals. As an experiment, I used no condenser mics at all to record, only dynamics and ribbons.

I also realised after recording most of the parts, that the tracks would really require bass guitar, so bass parts were added in. In hindsight, I took quite a pretty lax approach to recording things, which created various issues when it came to mixing.

I'm pleased with the songs that came out of it; they're an honest, neat little snapshot of a period of time for me. I feel I could have done a better job of sticking to the sound brief and with the recording side of things, but alas, I can learn from these mistakes for next time.

Thank you greatly to Gregor Graham, Matt Kay, Dave Major and David Hill for your help. Also a special thank you to Graeme at Chamber Studio for all your time and kindness over the years.

Written, recorded, mixed and mastered by Stephen Foster
Assistant Engineer for drums day - Matt Kay
Drums on all tracks except 5 - Gregor Graham
Percussion - Dave Major
Drums on track 5 - David Hill (sneaky wee COVID living room session)
Recorded at Chamber Studio and in my bedroom

Parlance

Stephen Foster

Related tracks