Further Information

Trapped at Sea

My debut album 'Trapped at Sea' was recorded at home between September 2008 and February 2009. Most of the songs were brand new at the time, with each pretty much going straight down to tape as it was written. The material covers various different acoustic genres and lyrical topics, each trying to stretch and improve my song-writing in different directions. Little thought was given to how they would be performed live, and I heavily layered up the instrumentation and vocals throughout. As a result many of the tracks on the record have never been gigged, and those that have now have much simpler arrangements to that heard on the CD.
Along with the new material I chose to revisit two old songs previously recorded by bands I once fronted; To Fly A Plane (1999) & Light Blue Rendering (2001). Both of these are significantly different to the originals.

Everything was recorded on a Macbook with an Edirol interface and a handful of pretty cheap microphones, using Logic Pro as a sequencer.

Ultimately 'Trapped at Sea' is a series of 11 musical experiments, some are successful, some are less so. But regardless of this I am quite proud of the record which took me away from my comfort zone and set me on the road to folksville.

I tried to play as many of the instruments myself (Vocals, 6 & 12 String Guitars, Bass, Mandolin, Reed Organ, Keyboard, Banjo, Percussion, Production etc), but I did rope in a few friends to do overdubs ......

Dom Huxley: Vocals, Harmonica, Bass, Claps

Dom Huxley (January 2009) I used to play in Worcester's finest 'Gamble Gamble' with Dom, but we called it a day in September 08. This whole acoutisc project was initially started as a duo with equal input from each of us. However, it soon became clear that on record it would make more sense to keep our songs seperate, so I helped Dom record his solo album while doing my own on seperate days.

Dom provides backing vocals on many of the songs on TAS. He also plays bass on 'Painfully Slow Repetition' and harmonica on 'It's Been Long Enough'.

Dom appears on the songs: Rising River, Painfully Slow Repetition, Those Red Shoes, Raise a Flag, Save Us, It's Been Long Enough, To Fly a Plane

Tom Collison: Keyboards, Lapsteel, Drums, Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Percussion, Production

My best mate Tom. He and I played together in Toyskin & A Series of Wheels in the past and are always helping each other out in one musical project or another. Although he lives on the other side of the country multi-instrumentalist Collison played a key part in the record. Spending many hours painstakingly orchestrating and scoring parts, adding lapsteel, playing drums, demoing ideas for me, and co-producing many of the tracks via a ping-pong of lengthy emails and mp3s. He also engineered Andy's parts on the title track in December 08. In addition to all this he came up to Malvern in January 09 to add further overdubs and mix the whole album with me.

Mr Collison also records under the name Horses are Vermin & in the studio based duo Evaluation Workshop

Tom appears on the songs: My Siren, Raise a Flag, Light Blue Rendering, To Fly a Plane, Save Us, Painfully Slow Repetition, Trapped at Sea, Candles ,It's Been Long Enough, in fact.... pretty much all of the tracks on the album!!

Natasha Tranter: Vocals, Claps

My beautiful fiance Natasha, she isn't really very musical bless her. But I wanted some female backing vocals on a couple of songs, so she obliged! She has also been very supportive of my new solo effort and is now playing accordion live with me. A budding photographer, Tash also took the cover shot for TAS, frost on a Matiz windscreen (used in it's negative form).

Natasha appears on the songs: My Siren, Raise a Flag, Painfully Slow Repetition, Save Us

View Tash's page

Joel Garabedian: Drums

Joel is quite simply the best drummer I have ever worked with. We've known each other since we were about 4 years old and played in bands 'Warped' & 'Toyskin' together while in our teens (and for the 2008 toyskin reunion gig). Joel knocked out some beats for us from his home setup in Horsham and emailed me the results.

Joel appears on the songs: Light Blue Rendering, All I Got (on Dom's cd)

Andy Keith-Lucas: Vocals, Bouzouki

I've known Andy for years, we went to college together in the late 1990s. Sadly I dont often get the chance to work with him on a musical level, which is a shame cos he's a top musician and a fellow folk music fanatic. On this record Andy plays the bozouki mandolin and adds backing vocals on the title track.

Andy appears on the songs: Trapped at Sea

George Clarke: Vocals

It's an honour to have the talented Mr George Clarke provide some backing vocals on the album. I got involved with George in early 2008 when I put out the 'Live at Smile Cafe' EP on my short lived download label Cut Out Sound. This led on to me producing his self titled 5 track EP a month later. In January 2009 we met up again to record two of George’s new songs ('Locked Up Man' & 'Out of Bounds') and he agreed to lay down some backing vocals for me. Dead happy I am with them too!

George appears on the songs: Light Blue Rendering, Painfully Slow Repetition, Raise a Flag

Stephaine Trussler: Violin

I know Steph through my work, and she's also involved with local theatre in Malvern. I wanted some violin on 'My Siren' and Steph kindly volunteered. She learnt the four parts that I crudely scored out and we quickly recorded them on January 4th 2009. Tom C then bolstered these with the cello and viola parts you can hear on the final track.

Steph appears on the song: My Siren

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