A SERIES OF HAPPY ACCIDENTS

I have been playing guitar for 42 years, picking one up, strumming it, sometimes productively, sometimes irritatingly, putting it down. I have never liked to do covers, and that’s possibly more to do with confidence than ability, a need to feel I have done justice to someone else’s work, but it is also something I have never really been interested in doing. So to find myself after all these years on the cusp of releasing Moorscape™ is a massive but pleasant surprise.

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

What changed? Well I went to Johnny Roadhouse in Manchester to buy a set of bouzouki strings for my son as a Christmas stocking filler. There on the wall, I saw what I  thought, in my ignorance, was a ten string bouzouki so I asked to have a play and soon I felt it was playing me! It was a cittern, and I felt an immediate connection that led to me buying an Ashbury cittern in July 2014. It was only later that I found out there are ten string bouzoukis, twelve string citterns, and that the mandolin family of instruments is far more varied and versatile than I had ever considered.

A SPECIAL INSPIRATION

I have written hundreds of songs over the years but most are not repeatable and most are not very good. Yet within a month or so of buying the cittern I had created a number of tunes and remembered them by videoing the results, and had written and recorded a passable song, borne out of a special inspiration. Although Garageband  has huge limitations as a recording medium for a technical ignoramus like me, it showed me that song writing was something I could do. So encouraged, I set about writing more.

AN ACCIDENT OF TUNING

I created songs in the tuning that the cittern came with, only later to find out that GCGDG is one of its less common tunings. The whole of  Moorscape™ is based on that tuning and therefore the same key, and although I thought that might be limiting the resonance of the cittern seems to carry it through.  There is still a lot of recording to do, but I feel confident of a decent result.

TWO PASSIONS COMBINE

I have always had a passion for the English countryside, and especially for its moorland scenery. There is something pure about its bleakness and there is no hiding place for anyone brave enough to work or travel through it. I love open spaces and that feeling that you are on your own with the elements. My (not terribly good) degree is in History & Landscape Archeology, so I am also aware of much of the social history of rural Britain, and that there are parallels in today’s selfish society with historical divides between the ‘haves and have-nots’, the rich and the poor. Moorscape™ is therefore partly a stab against the current clueless Conservative government whose policies are creating misery and privation among the poorest in society while the rich continue to thrive. The album evokes the sights, sounds, spirit and atmospheres of the British moorlands and is loosely based on the life of a drover taking his stock to market or herding them from summer to winter feeding grounds.

SOMETIMES YOU MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK

In my day job I am a self-employed international trade consultant, and as part of my work I hold regular export surgeries in a number of locations around the North and Midlands. The locations have been selected either because they are close to areas of manufacturing and industry or because many of the venues are run by cooperatives or non-profit organisations. I was drawn to The Fuse in Partington near Manchester for the latter reason, and because a friend and his brothers started to rent the offices there to help with sustaining this vital and valuable community resource. Little did I know that The Fuse also housed a fully equipped recording studio. It suddenly felt like Moorscape™ was meant to be!

AN EXTRAORDINARY PIECE OF GOOD FORTUNE

As if to confirm that feeling, when I first met with Jabzz (Jabulani Mhlanga) at The Fuse, he decided he needed to bring in another engineer –  good friend of his – who had more experience with acoustic instruments.  And so I met 25 year old Ali (Hey Gamal) whose experience of sound recording and live performing stretches back to when he was 14 years old, and whose pedigree has come from him learning his trade with some of the country’s top record producers. It shows!

WITH (MORE THAN) A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

As well as being hugely privileged to work with these two guys in a fabulous recording set up, it has also been a massive encouragement to me to have the support of two close friends in giving Moorscape™ a further special dimension. I have been great friends with Kieran Heaney since my schooldays. We skived off school to watch Woodstock at Blackpool’s ABC cinema, went to (remember hitching?) multiple gigs and festivals together back in the late 1970’s, and attended the same University in Norwich, where we met Jad (Rajendra Jadeja). Kieran is a more accomplished musician than he would ever admit. He has been a guitarist in a number of bands on the Blackpool/Lancashire club and pub circuit, and can play pretty much any string instrument (currently lead guitarist with The Cobras). Jad is a classical tabla player and general all-round good bloke who lived with his family in New Zealand for seven years, before returning to the UK about five years ago. When we met together again after 33 years it felt like 33 minutes and as I write, Kieran still has that wonderful experience to come – in three days time. All I have to do now is to do justice to Moorscape™ and to make it a really special piece of work. With the help of all these guys we will. I already believe this is meant to be. ALBUM RELEASE DATE (…ISH) Moorscape™ will be released in the Spring of 2016, although we all feel it will be released when it is ready so it could be sooner and it may be later. JOHN ‘WALDO’ REED There are Waldeaux everywhere