So it was felt that, like Ringo, I should sing something on the first album so I chose this one, not least because the key suited me best. This one more or less wrote itself, Huw and Jo created the opening groove in an improvisation between songs in a rehearsal in my old work office and I improvised the tune of the verse over that. Tim had already written the lyrics so it really was a case of simeply putting the bits in place and voila! Only we had a real problem with the chorus, so Huw and Jo sorted that out, I organised the harmonies for the girls and we were off! The lead harmonies were, again, imrovised in the vocal booth on the recording day.

Japanese Girl

Tim wrote the lyrics for this one almost as a joke, not realising that he'd created something beatiful. He does that. I tried to tread a fine line between JS Bach and Procul Harum and, as for Plenty City (lower down on this Sound Cloud page), we felt we needed a long high note for Poppy to show off her lung-capacity and powerful voice. There are lots of moments of serendipity in this one like where Jo didn't realise we weren't singing harmony on the last verse so there's his lone voice accompanying Poppy, giving that verse a real poignancy. Cathy Mills wandered into the studio to see what we were up to and we persuaded her to join Sally on harmonies. Gorgeous ... and their singing's pretty good too.

Redemption

A huge, white-walled photography gallery, a lone woman walking through, the sun through the ceiling-level windows creating bars of painfully bright light high on the walls.
Now, I adore this one but Cathy, who is singing on it, can't listen to it. Jay built this from the sounds of the bass-player, the wonderful Steve Pearce, tuning up. He then added the harmonics through a wah pedal and some strumming and a dusting of pure magic and there we are.


Photography In The 20th Century

This one has gone through more changes of mood and style than almost any other we've written. This is a Dusty Springfield style take of a song that Tim and I wrote so many years ago. It's about Tim's time living in China, pre-Tiananmen Square (some of you are too young ...).
This track feature Ed Benstead on trumpet. Thanks Ed, Miles would be proud.
Also Richard Castelmain on drums.

Love Has Hands

That A - C - F# is a straight steal from Oasis but I don't mind. When we wrote this we were so pleased with ourselves we played it again and again and again! It was the live show's opening number for a couple of years until we got thoroughly fed up with it. Oh well that's the way of it. Jay did a good job producing this one into a straight down the middle rock song. We had some words during the production process but nothing that permanently damaged our friendships.
Somehow, the line "The world is in your hand, make it from a grain of sand" got lost in the recording process, you see.

Clever Monkey

We get the sense that Jay found his natural metier in this song, we handed him a basic Country and Western song and he raised it to the level or a REAL Country Song all on his own. Turns out, the bst microphone for me for this song was the cheapest in the studio: Rode NT1 though a Focusright Voicemaster.
This song features Vinny Stapely on backing vocals but all the out-of-tune backing vocals are mine own, mine very own work (I can't listen to it!). I must also apologise to Tim for singing "they'll never be her" wrong.

Scrubs Up Nice

The grinding oppression of work, the rubish we have to put up with and the fakery of it all. Cheery little number. If you listen carefully to the words, you can tell as much from what's not said that from what is.

Caliban

If Roger Waters ever hears this, he'll be white with fury. Actually, Jay is on Roger's album Radio Kaos so maybe he will, one day, hear this. We think it's funny and so do others. This is Tim's chance to shine as a singer ... sadly ...
Tim wrote this one on his own - words and music, with a tiny bit of help on harmonies from me and my sound effects disks.
Some of the listeners may not get the references. We're sorry about that and we hope you enjoy the song anyway.

In The War

It's late into the night, you've woken up alone and you really don't understand what's wrong and your partner's not telling you.
This one makes Cathy cry ... actually it makes me cry too.

Come Back To Bed

Refences to Tennessee Williams but not to any other song with the same title.
It's hot, you can almost feel the heat and hear the crickets.
It's hard to tell exactly what happened here but it's definitely not good.
This is a show-stopper in the live shows, where it's done much more sparsely.
Jay gets to show off his slide technique ... we're saying nothing!
We utterly love the backing harmonies!

Talk To Me Like The Rain

This was originally written by Tim, Campbell Armer and me as an 80's dance number, it changed into a Prog Rock, a folk protest song of sorts and now this. Anyone know what genre this is, please let us know.
Tim is unclear what this song is about precisely but it's to do with expectations.
The brass are Ed Bensead and Chris and Jon Fry.

Let The Man Be Paid

Another live show-stopper. Featuring Sally Fairburn on backing vocals. I'm rather proud of this bassline, Huw finds it really hard to remember ... oh well.
Joe does a lovely job on lead guitar.
You've heard of 4-chord songs? Well, if it wasn't for the middle 8, this would be a 1-chord song!

Plastic Blow-up Tears

Ex-lovers can be so scary, don't you think? Especially when they're a bit intense. You want to get them out of your head but you can't help thinking about them and asking about them.
This was one of those tunes that just arrived under my fingers at the piano. I was sure it's another song and searched and searched but could not find what it was that I thought I'd copied so I decided to go with it.
It actually works pretty well as a Richard Clayderman-type piano piece ... try it.

Heather

When you're not talking properly to your lover, there's only one thing to do - go into your boat-building shed and build a boat! Build a way out of the situation, set up an escape route for the two of you from whatever it is that ails your relationship ... but be aware that, while you're building, they may just wander off ...


Drifting

Huw and I are really jazz players so, when Tim presented this lyric, I had no choice, really, but to write a jazz blues song. 
Sally Fairburn does a fabulous job on about 4 hours of sleep - it really makes it. I reccomend any blues singer to party really hard the night before ... and the night after the recording session.
The brilliant trumpet-playing is Quentin Collins (QCTrumpet78 on Sound Cloud), the other horns are played by Huw. Cigarette-lighting sound performed by Sally.

Nobel Prize

Internet sex and pent up lust; plans and promises ...
Jay does a breath-taking job on this one, I utterly love his playing ... there's one point where my reaction is a real "where did you learn to do that?" ... it's like a tongue on the back of you knee (try it when your lover is unresponsive! but hold on to their heel!!)
Our favourite line is "The best-planned lays of mice and men"!

Plans For Love

WAITERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
We haven't quite worked out whom this is about but we know him ... oh, we know him well and he's definitely a bit of a Johnson.
This song is chock full of references to 60's culture - if you want a primer, message me and I'll send you one ... or you could just enjoy the song.
Huw's vocals were meant to be the guide track but it was such a good and slightly insane performance that we kept it. Jay was sneaky when recording this one, he had us in the studio "to do some backing vocals" and faffed around for ages in the control room "getting the sound right", then put our chatter on the start of the tack!

Johnson

Our title track.
I'll give a very small prize to whomever identifies the classical (well, more Romantic) piece this is based on musically. Tim is a fan and student of 1960's UK culture and so every single line in this song has some reference to that. I have an annotated version of the lyrics if you want to follow the allusions - message me. Or just enjoy the song :-)
We're especially proud of the fase-reversed whispering - listen in stereo and you'll hear it.
Anyone want to make a video of this? It's crying out for that!

Wives & Servants

WIVES&servants is a family band that's been around for ... ooh no, don't remind me how old we are! We started when Poppy, my sister, brought home her boyfriend, Tim Haigh, and we started writing songs together, soon to be joined by Huw Pryce, my best friend. That was and is the core of the band.
Along the way we've been joined by my wife Leilani Roosman (also on Sound Cloud), Jay Stapely (yes, THAT Jay Stapely AKA Dammit Music on Sound Cloud), Catherine Mills and, at various times by Kirsty Jones, Maria Philips, Keith Carter Harris, Campbell Armer, Joseph Brown, Sally Fairburn and Peter Smith. Tim and I mostly write the songs and Poppy mostly sings them, accompanied by more or less everyone else.

We've been trying to work out the genre for what we write and Poppy came up with Cabaret Rock: songs that are clearly in the rock idiom but where the lyrics are barbed, complex, clever and really, really important.

At the moment, we're:
Poppy (A. M. Poppy) - Lead Vocals
Jay Stapley - Lead guitar, rhythm guitar, producer, vocals
Huw Pryce - Bass, vocals, percussion
Tim Haigh - Rhythm guitar, most of the lyrics
Catherine Mills - Vocals
Leilani Roosman - Vocals, rhythm guitar
Johnny Mindlin - Drums, bass, vocals, keyboards, programming, rhythm guitar, most of the music

Tim and I would love for anyone to cover our songs. If you want to, please message us and, if you choose to play one in a live venue, please remember to say it is our song and do let us know or even invite us to hear you play it.

WIVES & servants

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