Email to Flawedcore Records (12 April 2016).

Hello Mate. Glad you liked the tracks. They were made using the attached contrivances (!). Hackneyed Empire was based around chord change practice, which I just put down to a click track on Audacity. I then stuck a bit of keyboard in as a bass, and 'sampled' (aka recorded) drum sounds off the keyboard; cutting out the pauses on the recording and lining them up to the click track in order to get the rhythm. The electric guitar was just to add body and a bit of drama to the chorus. Then, about a week after I'd finished, I thought it might be funny - as it's essentially a thing about being a Little Englander - to have a kind of hysterical vocal bit in it. So I just copied the mixed down version, and laid it back in lower in the mix but with the pitch shifted up an octave. This is an old trick I use. It makes it sound like you've double-tracked at different pitches! It also gave it a kind of Paisley Park sheen, which I quite liked.

Hoarse Ouvres (a pun, again) was based around a riff I used to hum to myself whilst waiting for the bus to work, about ten years ago, but never found a use for. At first I was going to do it on the electric guitar, but it was more controllable on keyboard. The initial sound (it might have been the 'trumpet' voice, but the thing is so cheap none of them sound like what they're meant to be!) was recorded 'live' again to a click track, but I wanted it more dynamic. Not having an ability to double up the notes (like, say, 'I Feel Love') I recorded each note of the riff separately, cut out the gaps on Audacity, repeated them to double the notes, adding reverb etc, and laid it in on top of the live version. Then I feeled out the bottom end by recording a simple bassline on the electric, dropping it an octave to sound like a bass (necessity being the mother of invention). Then I could let loose a bit with some bad soloing on top! The cowbell drum bit was done the same as above.

If you think they have legs, you're welcome to put them out. At the moment I'm listening to alt-rock, noise, free music generally (yes, including jazz) and folk as opposed to blues. I've done quite enough blues for one lifetime!

Hope you're getting enough sleep. I was awoken by what sounded like Buddy Rich and his drum kit being kicked down a flight of stairs, so I knew the kids were back at school.

Best wishes and hope all is well with the family. Lost an uncle recently. We're all getting old!

Alexander the Not-So-Great