I write from North Devon, having made a journey yesterday that in many ways was more difficult than the one I made to America. The weather was stormy… a bridge-closing gale-force wind, and driving rain. The motorway was thankfully not as busy as it sometimes is!
So I arrive, white-knuckled and achey, to a warm welcome and a beautiful house. This is not a beige house. This is a house full of colour and life, lived in and loved. It is calm, but there’s plenty to look at. Good art, interesting books and music collection… and that’s what I am here for.
It’s the home (and studio) of Michael Clarke. I’m here to first of all bring together the collection of sounds and words I have been amassing over the last few months. This piece will be played as part of the Five, Six, Pick up Sticks installation at RBSA next month. It feels good to get it sorted, and Mike has done a sterling job as always, as I knew he would. He is good at interpreting my weird non-musical descriptions and gestures.
That came together remarkably quickly, and listening to it fresh this morning, there are only one or to minor tweaks I think.
Then the real fun starts… I love writing songs with Mike, I dump a whole load of words on the table (or in his inbox) and he reads and noodles about until he finds a fit, and then we wrestle the words into shape, do ridiculous things, make daft sounds, and out of the fun songs emerge… some sad and tender, some funny, sung with the voice of Springsteen, or Rufus Wainwright, or whoever Mike feels the urge to mimic… we share and borrow and steal and adapt, playing each other selections from our own collections and tastes, which inform and steer the writing. When an idea is sorted and done, we leave it and move on. This is not the time for perfect production, recording is done quickly on phones, just to document where we got to. Then start on another.
This group of lyrics – about six songs I think – I have been saving for this occasion. They are loosely themed around water, and most of them inspired by Tania Kovats’ book “Drawing Water” that I bought after her exhibition at New Art Gallery Walsall a few years ago. It is a book I dip into frequently. Thank you Tania!
I am now sat at the kitchen table, eating breakfast while I type. We have this morning to work some more, and then after lunch I will do the return journey, hopefully in better weather!
