One of the great joys of doing what I do is the inspiration and love I draw from the other musicians around me. We’re like a family, we don’t all agree all of the time, but we’re there for each other when it matters, and the respect for what we each do, however different, runs deep.
For the past three years, I’ve spent most of my time playing alone, and the last album ‘Love of Too Much Living’ was very consciously a record I wanted to, needed to, make on my own. But once it came out, and having played these songs hundreds of times over the last year, I started to hear the relationships implicit in this music and the musicians around me. I am delighted to say that the product of this exploration is a record of ‘reinterpretations and reimaginings’ of my songs from ‘Love of Too Much Living’ by some of the members of this diverse musical family of which I am lucky enough to be a part.
It has been a revealing, emotional and at times overwhelming experience to hear my songs remade in such different ways, by people whose own music is a constant inspiration to me. I can’t thank all the artists involved enough.
I see this record is an act of love, a demonstration of the communities we build around us, what they mean and why they’re important. As such all proceeds from the sale of the record will go to a charity that’s very close to my heart – the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). Check out their work.