Avalon Cassettes

Avalon Cassettes
The title comes from the where and how of the recording which had a very strong impact on the end result. It was recorded in a run-down shack out the front of a property in Avalon that was lent to us. Thus the bleeding, spilly haphazard non studio quality. Secondly, it was all recorded mostly live to an 8 track cassette recorder by my friend Chris Colquhoun… It does sound kind of evocative and fantastic-like too though so I think it’s apt. I like it’s unanchored “private reverie” kind of feel.

I always wanted it to be beautiful and ominous at the same time. Heavy mellow, like you say. I’d tried to get rid of that heaviness on the last album for something different but now I wanted to let it back in but in more of a simmering, subliminal way as it’s a pretty intrinsic part of what I make. It just happens. Like a summer storm or something. I’d initially wanted to make it super bare but with alien sounds falling in and out with lots of space for them to reverberate. It did change once we all started playing together particularly with Scott and Jared both on traditional and found percussion. I rehearsed a lot with Reuben on bass but for everyone else it was like I was leading them through a dark tunnel with a torch. The others mightn’t agree but I don’t feel I over prepared them compared to usual so there’s an intuitive “playing by the seat of one’s pants” feel to it and this feeling very much informed and guided the recording. There were 14 songs recorded but I culled it to 10. I think the main points are the format and circumstances of the recording. That it has a kind of “fever dream” “heavy mellow” feeling to it. I think I’ve let the tension of my previous work with Bluebottle etc seep under the skin of the songs in a way, the lyrical themes: the everyman taken out of his comfort zone and thrust into alien terrain.

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