We wrote this, me in Buenos Aires, James in Leeds, by asking questions about an imaginary woman we had a crush on, answering the questions, then putting that into a song. I don't particularly recommend this method of songwriting. 

If you listen carefully, you can hear two voices asking the questions and two voices answering.  It was during the recording of this song that I learned that I could sing lower notes than James. Small victories.

James's wife was going to record a clarinet solo at the end of this, but again, we ran out of time. Then I was supposed to move back to England and we'd finish it then, but I, er, met a woman. Priorities, priorities. 

Incidentally, the piano we recorded on for these songs was downstairs in James's kitchen, while he was at the console in the spare room upstairs, so he'd stamp on the floor to indicate for me to begin. You can hear the thud on one of these songs, I forget which.

Crush Song

A song about an imaginary woman who one tries to woo with the romantic arts, only for it to transpire that she was looking for a simpler life all along. The failure of the limp-wristed, liberal indie kid in the world of romance. A self-fulfilling prophecy, in my case.

This is one of the three songs we recorded at the end of May 2007, before going to Scotland for a wedding, taking the photo that accompanies these songs, before going back to Leeds and getting down to serious business. The other two songs were a bitter song about how Arctic Monkeys were more famous than us, and "Lights Brighten Over Night", a song about Billy Joel in a Billy Joel style. As is often the case, I had written a song musically too complex for me to play, and we ditched it, which is a shame because it was amusing in the way only bad songs can be. 

My version of "I Thought She Wanted More" is quite good too. It's a kind of swinging jazz affair. One day I'll upload it and you'll be able to see how bad it is. 

James's version started off as a very Blur-y kind of song, so we  (well, James) stripped it down to bass, swapped the guitar line for piano and was persuaded to stop singing with a Mockney accent. 

The song was only about 80 seconds long, so we wondered if we could record a random 20 seconds of portuñol nonsense on the ukulele and güiro in a different key and see if it would fit. Imagine how we laughed when it did!

The film director Mirko Stoper produced a video to this song. It's on Facebook somewhere, and possibly on his website.  

I Thought She Wanted More

James does most of this. I just played the bass. It's a fine bass line.


This was the first song we wrote for the Scroops project in September 2006, me in Buenos Aires, James in Leeds. We wrote one line each, then added our own version of the music, so you ended up with two songs with different music but the same lyrics. 

When we came to record the 24 songs in James's house in Leeds in June 2007, we only had time for 12 (we had 5 days, and I needed about 20 takes for everything I did), so we had to decide which versions were best. My version had started out as a copy of Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding", then I rewrote it as a copy of ELO's "Mr Blue Sky". I'm glad we chose James's version. It has a great bass line.

London Crawl (Áine's Theme)

We wrote a song based on Seinfeld episodes 49 and 50, "The Virgin" and "The Contest". James wrote my favourite line of the song "Packed out and left me to thrash it all out on my own..." 

This was one of the last songs we recorded, so we didn't have time to add any other instruments or a triumphant New Orleans brass band solo in the middle. You'll just have to imagine that yourself. 

Once again, if I could sing this would be brilliant. I really thought I was good at falsetto. My voice has dropped an octave since recording since and I do a passable Leonard Cohen impersonation. Too late, too late. 

The end chorus when everyone comes in was supposed to sound like "Wake Up" by Dr. Dog. It sounds more like a pub singalong, and I like it all the more for that. We should have got those people in to sing on the rest of the album.  

Marla

A song about a couple breaking up while doing the crossword in bed, because such things happen all the time. I like the lyrics to this a lot, especially the ones that James wrote. I'd just got up when I recorded the vocals, which may be why I sound better than usual. 

I like the middle section. My singing was always vastly improved by having James sing at the same time as me.

I had an idea for making a video for this song, with James in dressing gown and curlers, playing the woman. As with much of the project, we didn't have time, and I doubt we ever would. 

Letting Go

The second song we wrote for the Scroops. Katherine Ko was a girl I went out with for two months, though strictly speaking I was in England for one of those months. I was deeply in love, for I was young and stupid. She dumped me when I got back. Just before she did, she mentioned that her surname was actually pronounced Go. "Now there's a name for a song," I thought. A couple of days later, Katherine went, so to speak, and I had the basis for my song.

James was put in the uncomfortable position of writing half a love song for a woman he'd never met, but he pulled it off admirably. "I sit and wonder where her long hair went, and wonder whether I should do something with mine" is his. 

I'm very fond of the middle section, which manages to rip off the Beach Boys and Ben Folds Five's "Don't Change Your Plans" simultaneously. I also like the clapping. I should've written more songs with clapping. Make up for not having an audience. 

The strange echo noise that takes over the end of the song is a recording hitch, not the evocation of my desolate post-break-up soul.

Katherine Go

A song about a hangover. Unlike the hangover, it's over in a couple of minutes. James got up early and did everything on this track. I dind't mind, there were a lot of songs to record and we were running out of time. I awoke to his angelic "aaahhhs". There are worse things to wake up to. 

Everybody Knows

One of the later songs we wrote for the project, when we were running out of ideas. We both wrote over-ambitious music with many sections. As usual, I was unable to play my own version, and we ran out of time anyway, so this is James's demo. He makes a fine demo.

tunnard