How The Album Was Made
Having returned in the summer of 2017 from a holiday In Ibiza inspired by the whole culture out there, and clubs such as Pacha, I proceeded to write the 5th track on the album, ‘Feels So Good’ as the beginning of a new club chill project, having not produced club music for a while and instantly falling back in love with the genre. The plan was to produce the album during ‘time out’ from touring with Van Morrison and my TV work.
Needless to say, the required ‘windows’ never appeared during my hectic schedule in those days, and the project sat on the shelf unfinished for a few years. Then ‘Lockdown’! As with many artists who also compose, I was one of many who thought to myself ‘hold on, what about that project I started a couple of years ago”? Now is the perfect time to finish writing that album’!
And the rest is history. Over the space of a year, I finished writing and performing the album in my studio at home. What a buzz……I’ve never been so excited about a project for years….it sounded great. It was like the ideas were just jumping out of my fingers on a daily basis. The next 8 months were spent at the famous Konk Studios in North London England, famously owned by Ray Davies and The Kinks.
This was time to put the icing on the cake. High end production and superb overdubs from Jo Harrop, myself on Trumpet and Flugel Horn, and Mark ‘Snowboy’ Cotgrove completed the project. And what a product we ended up with. This is one of my finest pieces of work, of which I am very proud. Please read on for more interesting reading on ‘Konk Studios’, together with some history and photos. Enjoy!
About Konk Studios
Konk Studios is a London recording studio located in leafy Crouch End at the foot of Alexandra Palace and is one of London's longest standing privately owned studios.
It was established in the early 1970s by The Kinks as their private studio and a few years later opened to outside acts with the likes of the Bay City Rollers, Thin Lizzy, and the Bee Gees working here. The studio grew largely from word of mouth with a huge client list including Depeche Mode, The Stone Roses, Massive Attack and more recently The Arctic Monkeys, Bombay Bicycle Club and Wild Beasts.
Konk's comfy Neve studio has excellent acoustics, as well as a large collection of vintage valve mics and outboard, including vintage compressors and EQ's. There is a choice of Pro Tools Ultimate HDX or Studer A820 2" tape machine as well as a choice of 2 track tape machines. Please see our equipment list for full details.
The Desk is a completly custom Neve console from 1974, which was brought in from Utopia Studios and had previously been put to work on Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and Heatwave's "Boogie Nights". It also has a spectacular wood panelled main live room and various booths, which make for an ideal band tracking environment. Konk's SSL Mix Room houses an SSL 6000E desk.
The acoustics of the control room are brilliantly true and the studio has been used to mix hit records since the early 80's. The studio has a large recreation and dining room which was formerly the Konk Club. There are full catering facilities available if required, we can provide a chef or you can bring your own. The lounge features a pool table, table tennis and comfy sofas. There is also wireless broadband available for clients.