We just finished mixing and mastering the latest track for “Tales of Dark and Light” “The Other Me” This has Dave Bowie on Double Bass, myself on vocals and Shimo ukulele and Agi on vocals and harmony vocals. I’m really pleased with how this has turned out and it is set to a waltz rhythm. The lyrics are also interesting in that they talk about different perceptual positions, “the other me” and “the other her”
Here’s a sample of one of the verses
“The other her is smarter, the other her has fun.
Killing them with kindness, more deadly than a gun,
The other her in dancing, in spaces yet unknown,
Tripping through the shadows, always on her own”
I think this is my best work to date and we have seven tracks already recorded with another five more to record at this point in time. Mid April Laurent will be flying in from France to put violin down on three tracks and Phil Doleman will be adding banjo to some material. Some of the tracks have a lot of musicians and have fairly complex arrangements while others are very stripped back sometimes to just one instrument and two voices.
These tracks are all initially written on ukulele and then deconstructed on piano until we get the right expression for the lyrics. Special thanks to everyone involved, especially Laurent Zeller, Agi, Dave Bowie, Adrian Knowles, Rich Ferdinando and Carl for his magical production.
In forthcoming weeks I’ll be playing some of this material live in New York where I’m playing some gigs. This is a long way from stereotypical “ukulele music” but I have never considered my music to be “ukulele music” I just happen to find the uke to be an excellent writing tool. Many of the tracks don’t feature the ukulele and those that do, usually feature the Shimo Comet 3 which is really nothing like a typical uke!
