DISCOGRAPHY
DREAMS - October 2018
This 7 track EP was recorded at home between July and October of 2018. I had some small knee surgery, and had a week at home, a perfect chance to try and record some songs which I had been meaning to do for a while. It was a very hot summer, and my flat was unbearable. I lived by a busy street in the roof of a building. So I would do recording in 30 minute blasts, then have short breaks to open the windows and turn on all the fans. Warm!
I was originally expecting to just make some demos, but I was surprisingly happy with the quality of the recordings, especially since I had not idea what I was doing. After some naive mixing, I decided to release 7 of the songs on this EP.
The first song was called Fever Dream, and the last one In My Dreams, so "Dreams" seemed like an appropriate name.
Musically, this EP is very simple. It is pretty much guitar and vocals, with some sparse additional percussion thrown in. The percussion was particularly amateurish; I didn't have a drum stick so used a wooden spoon, I didn't have a cajon so wrapped my knuckles on the back of the guitar.
Songwriting wise, I really like this EP. Sometimes I wish I had saved some of the tunes until I knew a bit more about how to record well, but so it goes. We never got this properly printed, but sell some snidely homemade versions at gigs.
This elephant was pained by the very talented Oleksandra Panasiuk. Check out more of her paintings on Instagram.
TRACKLIST:
1. Fever Dream
2. Raging Bull
3. Obituary
4. Come Back Doro
5. Sweeter Rita
6. Too Good To Be True
7. In My Dreams
WIND IN MY SAILS - March 2020
One year after releasing the first EP and Boatboy had expanded from a one-man project to a small acoustic band. We were three, myself, Daniel on guitar, and Federico on Violin/Percussion. I was keen to make a proper album and so spent most of my winter evenings recording at home.
Unfortunately, Federico decided to leave the band before we got to recording his parts. So, we cut back the violin to the essential parts, and he appears as a guest on three of the songs. I love his contribution in White and Blue.
There were a lot more layers on this album. Most of the songs have a fair bit of percussion. And as well as the contributions from Daniel and Federico, there were some guest vocal appearances. My sister Ellie sings backing vocals on the last chorus of Forgotten. My best mate (and professional opera singer) Lawrence Thackeray does a brief backing vocal on You Don't Need It Anyway. And Damo, my former bandmate from Wuhan, sings the chorus of You Don't Know.
Probably the main difference between this and the EP is that it was mixed by someone who knew what he was doing. Daniel's friend Michael Grübl did a sterling job, generously giving many hours of his time to improve the raw recordings we gave to him. Our gratitude is enormous. Finally, we got this properly printed by some professionals, and the results looked beautiful.
The title was inspired by the artwork, and a very nice song written by Doro (Trolli Truffle), a former bandmate of mine.
This boat was pained by the very talented Oleksandra Panasiuk. Check out more of her paintings on Instagram.
TRACKLIST:
1. Susanna
2. You Don't Need It Anyway
3. Forgotten
4. Small Branches
5. Never Do That Again
6. Textual Stealing
7. Old Boy
8. Now
9. White And Blue
10. You Don't Know