Third World

Being an intimate kind of album I wanted to include a 'friend' and William Topley is one of my best friends. The lyrics for Denver Sun are his and the music mine. It deals with the life of a musician on the road meeting a particular girl whenever he is in that town. I find it very romantic. Sounds like a cliché idea but it's both sad and beautiful. The title 'Devil's Punch Bowl' signifies a particular area on the A3 road about 40 miles south of London. There is some mystique surrounding this region. Kipper lives near there and I recorded this tune at his place. On my way home I was trying to think of a title whereupon this one came to me. 'Always' is about relentless love for someone. There is one note that keeps repeating which is this feeling. The chords around it are like different ways of saying 'I love you'. 'Altea' is written after the Spanish town. I wrote it while I was there a few years ago. I love the place (or the region) because it's kind of mysterious or witchy in a positive sort of way. I love the language they speak there and it comes as no surprise to hear that many artists and poets go there for inspiration. The gap after it was intentional. I wanted the listener to get a surprise track fifteen minutes later. The reason for this is because I didn't think that tune (titles 'Apres le Beep') should be on the album because it wasn't musically related to the other tunes but at the same time I wanted to 'show' it. The woman speaking is my wife (who is French) and she is basically giving me shit on the answer phone (hence the title) because I was I didn't live up to her expectations on a certain incident. I found this amusing but still quite therapeutic putting it on my album plus the concept of having the last laugh. She thinks it's funny too now. 'Letter Unsent' was originally imagined as a song because I was originally singing the melody. Most of my tunes start out this way. But in the end I made it an instrumental. 'Forgotten Dream' is exactly what it says on the label. I woke up one morning with a unique feeling that I had had some amazing beautiful, but sad dream but couldn't for the life of me remember what it was or who was in it. So I documented this feeling or emotion in the only language I really knew how. Music.