What kind of journey does this album take listeners on, start to finish?
During the making of the album, I really tried to detach from how it may be perceived, at least until the stage of choosing the running order. I wanted it to start and end on a high as opposed to leaving the more stripped down tracks for last. The album focuses on close relationships and the growth, loss and boundaries within them and I’d like to think that the journey it takes listeners on is one that embraces change and brings them back to the present and back to themselves.
Was there a moment in making it where everything suddenly clicked into place?
I think it’d have to be the addition of ‘In Another Place’. We already had enough songs for the album and we had it pretty well thought out, but this song really takes everything this album and time period is about to me full circle. It’s a song written by the late Ian Child; songwriter, mentor and dear friend. Myself and Guille (engineer, co-producer) performed at a tribute event and reconnected deeply with his songs. The album was complete song-selection wise but coming in contact with that song again really struck me. It’s a well-wishing song about parting ways in relationships. I find it so versatile in the sense that you can listen and imagine it from many angles. The song wishes for peace to be found and for dreams to be chased outside of a connection with whole-hearted purity, despite the process of healing from that being ‘time we cannot feel’. It meant alot to me to have that message in the album, and it meant even more having those words come from Ian.
How has your sound evolved since your first record — what feels braver or riskier this time?
The whole approach to ‘A Chara’ has been different to anything I’ve made before. With my first album, ‘The Musical’, everything was a lot more thought out and the overall vibe is more polished. I wasn’t interested in repeating that formula and I really just wanted to make something that sounded like my life. I had that phrase going back and forth in my mind while writing the songs and recording rough demos. What I meant by that is that I wanted to listen back to this in years to come and straight up hear the personality and flair of the pals I’ve been playing with over the years at the forefront of the production. I just wanted it to sound like us playing and I wanted a more patient DIY recording experience with plenty of learning curves along the way. I knew that taking this route would mean a longer process but definitely a necessary one at this stage in my career.
Which song on the album feels closest to who you are right now?
Probably ‘All My Might’. Lately I’ve had to come to terms with the consequences of being a bit of a people pleaser where I sure as hell could save some of that energy for my own well-being. Learning how to be more assertive, to speak up for myself and to not fear confrontation so much is something on-going and very much still relevant for me. Pondering on hypothetical boundaries and communication only adds to the worry pile, only in approaching them head-on can you place yourself in a position to progress.
Working on that.
When people reach the final track, what do you hope lingers with them?
A sense of readiness or willingness of affrontation, or simply a thought of ‘well that was fun’.
