Collaborating with Ludwig Mack
I woke up one morning in October 2020 and noticed I had a new Instagram follower. A guitarist from Argentina. I checked out some of his videos and really liked his style and, as you do, followed him back. A couple of weeks later I saw another post from him saying that he had moved into a small village in England called 'Hullavington'. Weird. That's just a few miles from where I live. I messaged Ludwig Mack to check he was living in the village I was thinking of and to welcome him to Wiltshire. A few days later, we were jamming.
The timing was perfect in between lockdowns and in just a few very inspiring sessions we had written a couple of beautiful tunes and had worked on a couple of old songs of mine that I always felt needed acoustic guitar. The songs had appeared so quickly and spontaneously that we agreed we should go and get them recorded and released.
We headed to 'Polyphonic Recording' in Stroud, owned and ran by Lukas Drinkwater. I knew that Lukas would do an excellent job of recording and producing this recording and the three of us spent a couple of days laying down the bones of our new music. In addition to being a wonderful engineer and producer, Lukas is a talented musician and sprinkled some of his musicianship on areas of the songs that needed enhancing.
We came away with a four track EP called 'Heroes'. It features two news songs 'Heroes' and 'Clouds' and a song of mine called 'Westbound Road' which, although a couple of years old, has never found a home on a release. We also recorded an acoustic guitar version of one of my most popular songs, 'Atlantic-O'. The music has a country/americana type feel to it. The songs are simple and fresh held together by the wonderful guitar playing of Ludwig Mack. I haven't written and recorded music like this for a few years now, since my days with The Home Fires so it has been a welcome return to this rootsy style music.
Given the current climate and lockdown restrictions, it has been a small miracle that I have been able to collaborate, write and release new music. All this thanks to Instragram. Whatever you think of social media, used in the right way it can open some very unexpected doors in life if you are willing to turn the handle.
Heroes is due for full digital release on 16th February 2021 - CLICK HERE TO LISTEN