Guitar and harmonica join forces in search of something new.

JUST ENJOY YOURSELF

What better way to start the album off than with one of the most important positive messages? It's all too easy to get caught up in the difficulties and dramas of life. Sometimes there's no choice, some of it we bring on ourselves but we can only take so much for so long. Sooner or later we've all got to set aside some time to simply enjoy ourselves; in the end, that's what we are here for. You are probably thinking “what does he know? He's just a musician,” but sit and think about it for a while and you'll realise I'm right. Musically this one is inspired by the energy of good old-fashioned rock and roll. I love the rhythm guitar sound on the break parts; I'm not sure how I found it and will probably never nail it down again, but that's OK; it's been captured here. The verses and choruses are pretty much bouncing off the walls... And the first solo you hear on the album is played on the bass, why not eh?

BLUE STORM

This one gets its name from the somewhat thunderous kick drum on the intro sections before the verses. 'Blue Storm' leans more towards the heavy blues side of things; there's definitely a darker tone throughout, at least in terms of atmosphere. Things really open up sonically for the bridge sections and there's a whole new width and clarity to the sound. Talking of width; for this album I finally decided against double-tracking the chorus melodies. This gave me the ultimate freedom to use spontaneous vibrato and string bends, along with melodic improvisation when the feeling took hold. In my opinion, it's all the better for it and I would highly recommend this approach if you are going for that more natural sound. Thanks to the oddity of the bass solo on the first track, this is the first tune to have a nice intense guitar solo.

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

I really had to trick myself to get through this. The next chapter of the album is dedicated to my Grandma, who made it to the astonishingly grand old age of 102. Thankfully she had a great Christmas and even saw the beginning of 2018 before we lost her in late January. Grandma often talked about a 'haunting' improvisation she overheard yours truly and my guitar playing pal Jim playing many years ago when we were kids. I knew I wanted to record an improvisation for the album, and if I was going to dedicate a piece of music to her, this was the way it had to be done. The aim was to capture that laid-back feeling of just two guitars, no drums, bass or anything else. I endeavoured to create a piece of music she would have enjoyed if she were around to listen and I really hope I succeeded. So, what did I mean earlier by 'tricking myself?' In order to reduce the pressure and strain of writing for a family member, I tried to tell myself this was just a nice improvised ballad that stood on its own like any other piece of music. Somehow this worked, but I knew deep down from about halfway through I was now writing it for her. Although my self-trickery was a way of making it to the end, I actually knew I was doing it... Aren't humans weird? Thanks for the memories, Grandma.

MAKING TIME

In the nine years I've been making instrumental music the focus has been on multiple guitars, bass, and drums, but the second ballad of the album introduces a new instrument; the harmonica! Not only that, it also dominates the tune and really establishes itself as a vital addition to the album. My approach to the instrument is different from many others; I don't use it to play 12 bar blues or country music; I want to play ballads, rock and pop music with it. I am still a beginner so my playing is pretty basic, but that meant my focus was on pure melody rather than trying to prove something. I've always gone for the best musical result over flash anyway, especially in recent years, but with a brand-new instrument like this, I couldn't rely on the experience and bag of tricks I've spent 21 years (and counting) developing on guitar. On the subject of guitar, there's plenty of that in here too. This is the only track to feature acoustic rhythm guitar to support the harmonica parts and guitar solo. The solo itself was recorded on an Epiphone ES 339. as much as I loved it, I eventually sold it to buy a guitar I'll mention later; one that played a hugely important role in this album and the vast majority of my playing since. This track continues the theme of the album opener but from a different angle. The message here is the importance of setting aside some time to chill out and recharge; something we all need, no matter how busy we feel.

I'VE GOT ALL DAY

Next up, a curious mixture of rock, jazz and pop. I like the fact that the rhythm guitar in the intros and verses have a little riff of their own built in. It's always cool to get the chance to play melodies inside a chord sequence, so I feel compelled to take the opportunities when they are presented. Unusually, this song was written as a potential soundtrack for a 'Life is Strange' (a famous independent video game) YouTube video I was planning to make. In the end, it didn't fit the feel of the game; the music was simply too positive. I'm not particularly good at writing to a brief; I can only really write what has to come out. Unless you ask me to write an instrumental rock piece with free reign, I'm not much use! In hindsight, I'm glad it didn't sit properly with the video, as it's far better suited to the space it occupies here. I really like the atmosphere of this one, and the strength of composition makes it one of two title tracks.

GAME OF CHANCE

Another of my favourites, I came up with the bass riff some time ago. I was excited because it finally gave me the chance to write a tune inspired by 60s pop. There's nothing quite like early pop music and this is the only time I've written anything with that kind of feel to it. I had a good time with the verse improvisations and the guitar tone is really nice too. The tone on the chorus melody is just right as well. The harmonica makes its second appearance for the solo in the middle of the song before handing back the heavy duties to the guitar. The harmonica is a difficult thing for me to record and I was in two minds whether to convert it into a guitar solo after the fact, but thanks to the encouragement of a good friend of mine it kept its place. The structure changed a few times before the start of recording; the song needed a bit of time to figure out what it wanted to be. In the end, I think this was the right way to go.

SOME STORIES TO TELL

It's time for the second title track; a concept I've never tried before. While ‘Game of Chance’ was all about 60s pop, this one tries its hand at a modern instrumental pop approach. Being a rocker by nature I am surprised that the three pop tracks written for this release are my favourites. It certainly wasn't an attempt to sound 'commercial'; instrumental music (apart from electronic dance) hasn't been in vogue for decades. As ever I simply wrote what I felt and let it carry me along. I'm very fond of this one; that switch from the softer half-time to the power of the double-time has a real feel-good factor to it. 'Some Stories to Tell' is so focused on melody that it doesn't even make space for a solo; that spot is taken by the reoccurring riff that first appears in the intro. The title comes from a realisation I had about the messages carried by instrumentals; although there is no language barrier, it's virtually impossible to get a story across unless the title and the music are very vivid. For that reason, I usually focus on making the best possible music over narrative (unless there's a personal touch like the tune I improvised for Grandma). Then it struck me what was going on, at least in my opinion anyway. When people listen to instrumental music, they either pick up on the atmosphere or they imagine a story in their head. That's how I often pick titles for my music; by listening to the finished version and waiting for the interpretation in my mind's eye. Since we all imagine different scenarios, what I'm actually doing is providing a soundtrack for you to craft your own individual story. Take the opening track as an example; 'Just Enjoy Yourself' could mean anything to anyone, but the music is there to bring the story out.

ANONYMOUS ROADS

So far, we've had rock 'n roll, heavy blues, ballads, jazz/rock and pop. If like me you are left to your own devices with no one to curb your inner creative madness, the next obvious step is punk with a harmonica! I imagined this one as a good road-trip tune. The title comes from personal experience; thanks to a quirk of memory and an impressive lack of concentration I have terrible retention for directions of any kind. The only way this could improve would be to travel to every regular destination a couple of times for about fifty days in a row. As you can imagine, it's simply not going to happen. It does make life that bit more interesting though. So, as much as I love being in the passenger seat for the occasional road-trip, I have absolutely no idea what's going on. Anyway, we all need a good mystery and this is one of mine. In its original form ‘Anonymous roads’ was mostly carried by harmonica, but in the final version I ended up paraphrasing many of the harmonica parts on guitar, which was definitely the better choice. I've had the chorus melody kicking around for a while; I knew it could work but it had to wait for the right tune to come along. This one happened to be just that. The solo is actually a call-and-response between guitar and harmonica. This was also a nice opportunity for the harmonica to shine on its last appearance on the album.

OFFENSIVE CHARM

Next, it's time for the rock songs! 'Offensive Charm' is a dark, moody thing with an awesome sounding snare drum. This was quite difficult to mix; heavy overdriven guitars against another set of heavy overdriven guitars is not much fun from an engineering perspective. Although I've done a lot of that in the past, this was my first time dealing with it on the new album and I'd almost forgotten how much gets lost in the background. Part of the problem was my insistence on using very thick guitar sounds in both the rhythm and lead parts. Eventually, I found a good compromise and it ended up sounding rather nice. I really like the 70s rock vibe coming from this one; it's right up my street in that sense. Unusually there are two solos this time. I had to use a different rig for the wah-wah solo as increasing back trouble over the last year made it far too painful to sit in an unsupported chair to use my traditional wah pedal. So, Blackstar HT-1R and Boss auto-wah to the rescue, replacing my much-loved Vox Tonelab LE for that little section.

RED LIGHT SYNDROME

It's about time I was honest about this. Red light syndrome is something that gets to a lot of musicians, myself included. You might already know the feeling; you can play something fine over and over again without mistakes, but the pressure of the record light all of a sudden makes it very hard to get through a take without tripping up. Obviously, if you are very confident and not prone to worrying about things, this won't affect you at all, but for many of us, it's a big hindrance. Every now and again I can do things in one take but for the most part, sessions take hours and it's just something I've learned to deal with over the years. If you have the same problem, remember it's an anxiety thing and in no way a reflection of your capabilities as a musician, it's simply a reflection of how you are under pressure, and there's no shame in that. These days I find gigs much more pleasant due to the amount of preparation that goes into them, there's some tension there, but it's mostly manageable tension. The problem with the studio is, I don't want to be over prepared, I want to sound a bit surprised by what's happening and leave room for some extra spontaneity. Interestingly, being over prepared for a gig doesn't actually reduce that extra spontaneity because there will always be a point where you get too caught up in things or lose concentration, meaning you have to improvise something on the spot to keep the ball rolling. There's another major difference too; on stage, I'm looking for the absolute best performance I can manage on that particular day, in the studio I'm looking for the absolute best version of one song, and it's simply got to be great, so imagine the pressure there! Musically this one is a mixture of funk rock and sci-fi, with a really weird over the top fuzz octave solo at the end, just to keep it nice and creepy! This is also the final appearance of the ES 339, heard here on rhythm guitar duties and the aforementioned solo.

CIRCADIAN

The final pop tune on the album. I've been trying to get this going for a while and it finally turned out really cool in the end. There's a heavy emphasis on the enjoyment of improvisation this time, but I also really like the multi-part chorus melody, which took time to come out of its shell. I got something really summery out of it in the end, despite recording it in gloomy October; the power of music, eh? The title comes from the body clock term 'circadian rhythm' which I thought was a really cool sounding expression. I've also been looking into it a little bit as I have an amazing knack of lying awake most nights rather than sleeping. Unsurprisingly that got me thinking again; "does this song represent how I feel when I get into my proper circadian rhythm?" I quite like the randomness of the solo break; a little bit of minor key tension between the smiles is always an interesting emotional shift. Some of that awkwardness is nicely softened by the way the chorus and solo fit together by happy accident. The second part of the solo goes back into happy mode, which leaves a positive impression in your memory as it fades out.

STILL DREAMING?

Accidentally continuing the theme of sleep into the closing track, this time we make it all the way to the land of nod, Hurray! 'Still Dreaming' is a mix of ballad and power ballad. As with many tracks on the album, the star guitar here is my beloved Ibanez PGM80P. Looking at the specification of the guitar I was intrigued by the fact that so much of it was new to me, and of course, I trusted Paul Gilbert to design a good guitar (it was made for him in celebration of his long relationship with Ibanez). It's not often a guitar turns up at the door and exceeds my expectations, but once I got it set up to my requirements, I realised I'd got myself an absolute gem! Nothing I've played feels quite like it and it's a shame it's only a limited run. Limited run guitars in some ways annoy me, because if something is good, then as many people as possible should have a chance to at least try it out. I can't grumble though, it's my favourite guitar in the world. Equally important to the sound of the album is another Ibanez, my trusty JS1200 (a superseded Joe Satriani model I've had for ten years). Sometimes it's backing up the PGM, sometimes it's in front of it, and of course there are tracks where they individually take on all of the guitar duties themselves. You may be thinking "is it wise to use signature guitars when you are pushing for originality?" The short answer is; if the specification and feel is right, yes. If you have your own ideas about tone, you will always sound like... You. A Paul Gilbert guitar makes me sound like Joe Saunders and you can probably guess what a Joe Satriani guitar makes me sound like. On top of that, there's no getting away from your individual playing style; the way you bend strings or use vibrato, your general feel and touch on the instrument... That's like a musical fingerprint. Anyway, let's get back to the song. The chorus, solo and lydian outro are pretty intense sections here. On the subject of the solo, it's not a perfect performance, but it's really purposeful and full of feeling. I'd go as far as to say it's my favourite freestyle moment of the whole release. There was no question of any other song closing the album; the aforementioned lydian outro felt like the perfect conclusion to this new musical adventure.