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I thought it would be interesting to run through the album track by track giving an insight into how the album came and what the songs are about. My initial plan was to perhaps write an record an album over the course of a year to 18 months similar to the last album. I certainly was unsure of whether I would be able to come up with new material that would be good enough. However, what transpired over the following three months was 11 brand new songs that form the new album. It makes this a very cohesive album especially without tracks being released as stand alone singles beforehand. I had written the Nicole and Monique tracks for April’s bowel cancer awareness month release and in my mind I wondered if they would make up two songs on the album as they were really right up with anything I’ve written. I also had to decide whether to push on recording with Ad as producer (well at least asking him) after his amazing work on those two tracks. I think once I sat down and started too write again I knew that the album would be very much me on my own writing and producing it myself. I had a really good idea in my head of the type of sound I wanted and how I wanted to build on last year’s A New Dawn and I think I was best placed to do that myself. The big change and learning curve for me was switching from using my Boss digital recorder to using Logic Pro on my second hand Mac. I think this was a smart move as I’ve really been able to make a better album with more attention to detail. I guess time will tell whether my decisions were right, but I’ve put everything into making it as good as possible, so it’s now time for you, the audience, to decide…
This was the first track that I wrote for the album back in May. Having just written The Final Post EP and also Believe for The Majority I was on great song writing form. I had a guitar riff that was sounding great on Logic, so I built the song around it. The lyrics are very much about my feelings of overthinking and feeling out of control. Looking for that route to a better place. It’s a kind of starting block place in life where I was a couple of years ago. The interesting thing I did during recording was to use a bass sample. It fitted perfectly and complimented the riff. It was a totally new way for me to put a song together which was both exciting and so satisfying when the end result was both different to previous Fields of Dawn music, but also somehow a familiar return to that punky power pop guitary vibe. It always has felt like it has be the opening track on the album.
I wrote the music for this having having been listening a lot to The Wedding Present. It’s perhaps not that obvious now when you listen to the finished song. But I love the way David Gedge writes simple and fun melodies. There is an art to making them sound like this and he is a terrific songwriter. What I also like is how he builds his songs and in many instances will let the melody run and run to take the song to a close, and this is what I did with Footsteps. It is song about the influence that both my parents had and continue to have on me, even though they are both sadly no longer with us. “Walking in your footsteps” is the opening line and sets up the rest of the song. In terms of recording the track I was able to have what I call light and dark sections, whereby I took out a couple of the more powerful rhythm guitars during the verses. I think this is a more confident me coming through. This song would certainly have been a contender for being a single.
One of the later songs I recorded and by this time I was really in the zone. I’d found guitar sounds that were working well together and a comfortable vocal set up which was coming across throughout the album. I tried something a little different with the chords. I had the verse melody written and for the chorus I simply used the same chords but just played each chord for twice as long as in the verse. The end result was terrific. There’s no way I could have written this song a year ago. It’s a really positive song about looking forward moving on to your own next world and I was even able to make a lyrical reference to A New Dawn in this track. Perhaps my favourite track on the album and will be the next track to have a video made. A single but not a single…
The track which contains the Destination Unknown lyric. I had already gone with Last Train as the song title, but “Destination Unknown” just jumped out at me, so I knew I had got myself an album title there and then. It’s a song that is one of the tracks closer in style to the last album and I suppose is classic Fields of Dawn guitar. What I have done in a number of the tracks, including this one, is to work harder on the bridge sections. It’s amazing the effect of slipping in a couple of extra chords into a bar to aid the transition from verse to chorus etc. In this song I also used stand alone drums to bridge sections of the song. This is where that attention to detail comes in… It’s a song about reflecting on a past where I really haven’t known where I have been going, but it also has a positive vibe about living for today. A song that is very close to where I am at in my own life.
Another song on the album which for me shows my increasing confidence as a songwriter. I had an idea for the middle eight which contained a style of chord progression that I haven’t tried before and I am so pleased with how it sounds. In terms of the actual recording this is one of the most detailed tracks on the album with lots of layers, so I worked really hard on the mixing to get the overall sound that I wanted. Sometimes I can write a song on the acoustic guitar and wonder if it will work as band song. As I was laying the tracks down for this I flt so excited about what was forming. Perhaps one of the most confident vocals I did too. The song is about being liked for who you are and not trying trying to be something you are not. A personal lyric as I am filled with self-doubts from time to time.
A change of pace and Fields of Dawn doing a love song I hear you say? In fact, anyone who knows about my disastrous life-long life of being single will perhaps wonder where this song comes from. So, before I get asked who the song is about I have a stock answer for that… It’s about whoever you want it to be x It’s a stripped back recording of me and the guitar. Well a few guitars, but you get the drift. I considered using a keyboard or even ask Jason Bradley, who played on No Man’s Land, to play on this. In the end I decided that I wanted the song to be a very personal experience. It has a simple melody and chord progression, although once again I found a really nice chord progression to move from the end of the chorus back into the verse. Out of all the songs on the album this is the song I am the most nervous about as far as the audience reaction.
For a long time I’ve wanted to write a song about the period when I was travelling all over the UK writing the fundraising books. Both Lives & Times and The Record were life-changing experiences. Different in that one was while Mum was alive and the other after she had died. For such an insular person these books really brought me out of myself, out of my comfort zone and found a bit of that person inside me who had been crying to get to get. The people I met on the travels were amazing and all took a chance on this unknown stranger. Friendships were made that continue to this day. Obviously, lyrically this track needs no explanation. This was a track that I wasn’t sure that I could pull when it came to recording it. I knew how I wanted it to sound and that meant stripping back the instrumentation in the verse part and needing to put in a strong vocal, which hopefully I’ve managed to do. It was one of the more difficult songs to mix, but once I’d cracked it the end result is really pleasing
I tried something different with this track. I wanted to make a punk style song, which also had a very raw and live feel to it. So, almost get an underproduced sound to it. It has a distorted feel to it and an energy which I am really pleased about. Catching chord progression was a must and I didn’t try to add anything into the track that wasn’t required. A track which is very much about the problems I have with overthinking and not always being able to switch off. Mental health is something I no longer shy away from. I have come to terms with my own long-term issues and am facing up to them head on. I wanted the music to resemble the busy mindset I can have. It’s a loud and in your face song…
Continuing the mental health theme, I wanted to write a song about my own issues and highlight mental health. I’ve suffered from depression and anxiety for a long time, which I finally did something about in 2021 and am in a much better place these days. Loneliness has been at core of much of this. So, it’s a very personal lyric as it’s me and my story, and the perhaps makes this the song that I am most proud about on the album. Add a really energised tempo into the mix and the end result is a big big song. The music of this really took shape in the recording progress rather than on the trusty acoustic guitar. It was one of the last songs I recorded and I was so comfortable with the Logic software by this point that I knew exactly how to get the sound I ended up with.
Another love song of sorts. I suppose semi-autobiographical to a degree. I’ve never had much success when it comes to love and always found myself on the end of one disaster after another. My own fault and not helped by vast amounts of alcohol back in the day. So, it’s a tongue in cheek light-hearted account of the typical thing that would happen to me in days gone by. I liked the idea of using Cinderella as the basis of the love interest as it brings a romantic element to the lyrics. Another song in the more classic Fields of Dawn mould with that punky power pop guitar sound that I love. Nothing too serious about this song just one to enjoy.
The closing song and it was the last track I wrote specifically to close the album. On the last album I closed with the epic The Sun and Rain so I wanted to try and do the same here. I am so pleased with this song which comes in at just over six minutes. The chords are very simple, but it really took shape during the recording progress. I’m no master guitar player especially when it comes to lead guitar, but on this track I played to my strengths and it’s probably my finest performance musically on the album. It’s a song about living for the moment and seizing the day. I have seen too many young lives lost to cancer in recent times, so it’s a way of live that I am working to achieve. Although it’s not an official single this the track that I made the recent lyric video for to promote the forthcoming album release. The support of so many people sending me lyric photos was amazing which makes the song and the video something I’m ever so proud.
So that’s a wrap. Destination Unknown was written and recorded in just three months. Yet, I could have spent 18 months on it and not achieved anything better. The whole experience has been amazing and I can barely believe that we’re within touching distance now of the album release. The hard work of being a one-man band as far as marketing and promotion is well under way. Pre-sales have raised over £400 so far for Bowel Cancer UK, Love Hope Strength and The Bowel Movement. I know times are tough and we are in the expensive Christmas season, but every order is greatly appreciated and 100% of the profits are donated to the charities. Thank to everyone for your continued support x
