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The new double A-sided single release of On The Way Back / Far Far Away by Fields of Dawn is out now. 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 single is available to order on CD, digital download and 7″ limited edition vinyl. I am sticking with the rivers2cross store for selling this release, although it will be added to streaming platforms later in the year. The initial aim is to raise funds for the charity and the best way of doing that is selling it myself.
I have been very much influenced by The Alarm’s new album WAŠÆ with this project. The album was written, recorded and released in just 6 weeks, and initially it inspired me to see if I could write some new material myself. These two songs were written as a result. Watching the YouTube videos of The Alarm remotely recording once again inspired me to look at recording these as soon as I could, and this is where things got very exciting.
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.
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. No messing around with Smiley as not surprisingly he knows exactly what he is doing. I wanted to push myself with this release and he has certainly ensured that I have done exactly that.
The two tracks are sounding immense! It has made such a different having Smiley at the helm. They 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.
Since the pre-sale was launched a few weeks ago and now with the official release over Ā£325 has already been released for Love Hope Strength. For the cost of a pint of beer you can help me raise funds for this wonderful charity x
