rivers2cross

The new double A-sided single release of On The Way Back / Far Far Away by Fields of Dawn is now available to pre-order. This is a very special release with all profits raised from every sale donated to the Love Hope Strength Foundation co-founded by Mike and Jules Peters from The Alarm. Mike has been living with leukaemia for over 20 years, and in recent times Jules has had her own breast cancer fight. The LHS charity promotes innovative, music related, outreach and awareness programmes for leukaemia and cancer sufferers, survivors and their families. It raises awareness and recruits potential donors to the organ and bone marrow registers.

The idea behind this release is heavily influenced by Mike Peters of The Alarm. In January he announced plans to write, record and release a brand new Alarm in 6 weeks. That album entitled WAR is nearing completion, and is an exciting fresh new body of work. The idea got me thinking, and I wondered if I might be able to something similar albeit on a much smaller scale. As much as I enjoy song writing I have found it hard in recent years. I find myself thinking about and writing about personal loss, which is fine but it has also put a block on my creative outlet. So I thought to myself start from scratch like Mike Peters and literally see what happens. I came up with some lyrical and musical ideas and suddenly I’d written these two new songs, On The Way Back and Far Far Away.

On The Way Back is a personal song about how I’ve come back from being in a difficult place in 2020. Not just because of a global pandemic, but on a personal level too, and this is about coming back from that and getting back to the place I want to be. It’s a very positive song, with an uplifting melody and for a song written so quickly it’s as good as anything I’ve ever written. Far Far Away has bit of me in it, but is also more of a story. It certainly references a world that we used to live in that seems far far away now. And no it’s a not a cover of the Slade song! 😆 It’s fast, and only just over two minutes long, and once again another uplifting tune.

The songs are very alternative and punky in their influence. We are talking The Clash, and of course The Alarm here. Over the last few months I have been listening to a lot more late 70s early 80s guitar music which is my real music grounding I suppose, and why I wanted to make a record with that kind of feel to it. They are sounding every bit as good as I was hoping for and a whole lot more.

I wanted to follow Mike’s process and get them recorded and released as soon as possible. I’ve been very happy with the previous releases using my home studio, but it has always been my ambition to produce and release something with the help of the professionals in the studio. I approached Steve ‘Smiley’ Barnard to see what was possible during lockdown. This extraordinary musician not only drums with The Alarm and Archive to name just two bands, but also is a top class producer with his own recording studio. The deal was signed and Smiley came on board to play drums and bass, and also to produce the release in his studio with my bits being recorded on my digital recorder and wired over to him. Smiley explains more in the video trailer.

Smiley knows exactly what he is doing and there was no messing around things moved very quickly. I also wanted to really challenge myself with this release with my own performance, my song writing, and come up with something that I could be proud of. Without doubt as far as I am concerned it’s mission accomplished. A massive thanks to Smiley and Matt for their support with this release, and I think it’s something pretty decent. The hard work now begins with trying to get the song exposure and convince as many people as possible to buy a copy.

The single is available to order on CD, digital download, and also as a 7″ vinyl release from rivers2cross.com. I will probably add it to streaming platforms and online stores later in the year, but the initial aim is to raise funds for the charity and the best way of doing that is selling it myself. The vinyl is a lathe cut pressing, which although being expensive will allow me to get it produced in very small quantities and it will cost £25 with between £5 and £10 per sale donated to the charity depending on how many vinyl copies are ordered… I will be doing one run only of the vinyl with pre-orders up to March 1st.

The CD costs £5 from https://rivers2cross.com/product/on-the-way-cd/ and copies will be sent out on March 1st.

The Digital Download costs £2.99 from https://rivers2cross.com/product/on-the-way-download/ Order now and get the download on March 1st.

The 7″ Vinyl costs £25 from https://rivers2cross.com/product/on-the-way-back-vinyl/ Vinyl orders will receive a digital copy on March 1st with the vinyl pressing following on as soon as they arrive.

The two tracks are sounding immense! It has made such a different having Smiley at the helm. I am so excited and can’t wait to share them with you now that the pre-sale is up and running. The video for On The Way Back is coming very soon.

I was very fortunate with the wonderful support for my music releases during 2020, and I am hoping that will continue with this very special new project, so please order a copy if you can… x