Kontiki - Cotton Mather

The world of popular music is littered with great, lost albums, terrific records which somehow dipped beneath the public radar, only to be unearthed years later when the band members were either too old to rock out or had actually rocked completetly off of this mortal coil. Maybe the lost album is, in itself, a lost art. With the way music is now released in the digital domain and stored for perpetuity, no recording should ever be deleted and, therefore, lost? Think of Big Star and their first two records; two of the most glorious slices of Power Pop heaven you are ever likely to taste (I'm still not convinced about the "Third"). Out of step with the music of the early '70's, their hooks, melodies and achingly, beautiful harmonies languished in record collections of only the very knowing, until a fan chanced his arm and wrote a letter asking them to reform. The subsequent reformation unfortunately came to late for founding member Chris Bell who was killed in a motor accident in 198. Even if you were lucky enough to catch the new line up, Alex Chilton could never understand how these early and, to him at least, embarrassing songs were held in such high esteem.

Back in the late '90's(1997 to be exact)I got my hands on a copy of Cotton Mather's Kontiki CD and I was hooked from the very first listen. What the f*ck was going on in these songs? A vocalist (Robert Harrison) from Austin, Texas who sounded more like Lennon than Lennon, but also sounded like Sir Robert of Dylan in equal measures. Operatic interludes (I can dig that), audio bleed (lots of it), tape hiss (yum yum) and chock full of Power Pop hooks you'd sell your kids for. King Mono-Brow, Noel Gallagher liked it so much, he got Cotton Mather to support Oasis on tour! I saw the band in London about 4 times and even managed to have a great little chat with Robert Harrison about the recording of the record. Many years later I discovered him alive and well on MySpace and emailed him, mentioning our little chat. Gracious as ever, he even said he remembered it.

So, coming full circle and, even though he has been busy with his new band, Future Clouds and Radar, we find that Robert has decided to fund the re-release of Kontiki as a Kickstarter project. This basically enables fans to pledge money to the project in order to reach an agreed funding target. As long as you hit the target, the funds are released. The good news is that the target has already been met and the re-release is set for January 2012, thus ensuring that this great, lost album never goes M.I.A again.

Pop is NOT a dirty word

Greetings loyal reader,

Long time no blog, I know, but, I do have a good excuse. I have been spending every spare minute locked away in the recording studio working on my debut album. Now, debut albums should be, in my mind, at least, something that you complete by the age of 21 and then fade away into the land of pop obscurity. Perhaps rearing it's head a few years later in the 50p box at your local Our Price, store but, vanishing without a trace all the same.

As the saying goes, "life is what happens while you're busy planning other things" and that is true for me. When I started out as a musician, I gave myself the target of "making it" by the the time I was 18 or else I would throw in the towel. That target got pushed out to 21, which, in turn, got pushed out to 25, then 30, then 35, after which the brain and I never discussed the target again. As the learned professor of history, David Lee Roth, once pointed out, "life goes on without me". He also set his poodle rock hairdo on fire, so maybe he's not the best scholar to adopt as a life coach.

As the pop star life, seemingly, went on without me, I got married, travelled the world, worked for "the man" and had kids. I still bought the weekly rock bibles of the NME & Melody Maker and pored over the monthly mature rock publications like Mojo & Uncut and watched as many bands hit the target as was humanly possible. Some nights were so awe inspiring, they were almost like a religious happening. One night in Cambridge, Jeff Buckley actually made me cry, so heartbreaking was his delivery of "Lover you should have come over". Another night, Jellyfish hit their harmonies so perfect that people swore that 4 guys on stage could not sound that huge without the use of backing tapes. I watched Superdrag rock the life out of me and my bottle of Samuel Adams in the searing afternoon sun of downtown Charlotte. The list and the ticket stubs (yes, I am a geek) go on forever, but, one sunday night watching Dillon Fence support the Black Crowes in London I realised that although the Pop life was going on all around me, I still wanted to hit that stupid target.

There were plenty of other crutches along the way to convince myself that I could be happy without livin' the dream. The purchase of vintage guitars, the riding of hi-end mountain bikes and even 5 years playing in a covers band. To this day, when I hear the opening few bars of Mustang Sally it still makes me want to eat my gun. So, as the creative juices were all but sucked out of me, unconsciously, I just decided to stop playing when my second child was born. I didn't really pick up the guitar and I had absolutely no desire to try and write a song. The creative well was drier than a mormon wedding. It wasnt just that i couldnt write a song it was almost as if i had forgotten how to.

As I have previously mentioned, A few key things happened to get me back on track . The first was seeing my old pal, Danny Wilson, play a solo show and being blown away by his ability to totally captivate the audience and the second was buying a piano on a whim. The third was hooking up with Philadelphia musician and all round good guy, Jim Boggia. So, one day, after taking a trip down memory lane, which involved a visit to my old primary school and a walk around my beloved birthplace, Hoxton, I came home chock full of memories and the "Hoxton Song" came tumbling out from the very first time I sat down at my newly acquired piano. A quickly recorded demo was beamed across the pond to Jim and, after a few anxious months of waiting, Mr Boggia delivered the glorious backing vocal arrangement and sublime bass line into my inbox. What happened next all seems a bit of a creative blur now, but, I seemed to go from one serendipitous encounter to another. I was introduced to my co-producer, Mick Wilson, through a friend of a friend and we hit it off straight away. Not only did he live a stones throw away, but, he had also just finished building his own recording studio in his garden. Rates were agreed, harmonies were sung, timing was questioned, nuclear strength coffee was consumed and, over the period of 10 short months, my debut LP, "The Grown Ups" was born.

So fast forward to the present day and you find me with my album released and available at the click of a button. You can download it, stream it, buy the CD and even come and see me play the songs live. So, as I write this, I'm sitting here waiting for the latest issue of R2 (Rock 'n' Real) magazine to hit the newstand (it features a review of my LP) and trying to put a band together to play a show at the IPO Power Pop festival in London on May 30th - How cool is that?

As Woody Allen once said "80% of success is showing up". What I have learned, is that, if you ask nicely, people tend to say "Yes" a lot more than they say "No". So, put your Chuck Taylor's on, step out into the sunlight and get yourself some happy!