The official Website of Mostly Autumn

By Roger Newport

Update 7 - On Their Own Words

Behind The Glass – Update 7 – In Their Own Words

With the album being shipped as of 24 April people won’t have to wait much longer before hearing it for themselves. With that in mind, I thought it would be nice to finish off these updates with some words from the band themselves.

The following video clip is made up of various out-takes from the ‘Making Of Glass Shadows’ DVD that will be included in the limited edition and is a little taster of what is to come. Enjoy!

Update 6 – The Finale
06/04/2008

Behind The Glass – Update 6 – The Finale

After 3 months of non-stop work Glass Shadows has finally been completed. All the tracks are recorded, mixed and mastered and very shortly off to the pressing plant. The final tracks and running order can now be confirmed as:

1. Fireside
2. The Second Hand
3. Flowers For Guns
4. Unoriginal Sin
5. Paper Angels
6. Tearing At The Faerytale
7. Above The Blue
8. Glass Shadows
9. Until The Story Ends
10. A Different Sky

The accompanying DVD for the limited edition version has also been completed and contains the following:

• The Making Of Glass Shadows – A Video Diary
• Bonus Footage – A short but charming clip of Bryan and Troy rehearsing in the studio
• Bonus Tracks – Slow Down, Black Stone and A Different Sky (Alternative Vocal Mix)

The main video diary is a little over 1 hour 43 minutes in length and follows the development of the album from the early writing sessions in the Lake District right through to the recording, mixing and final production stages at Fairview Studio. Rather than being a technical documentary it focuses on the band as themselves and is a very open and honest account of events. It may cause the odd eyebrow to be raised and remove a few myths. Frequently highly amusing, occasionally very emotional, this is probably the best insight fans will ever have had of life behind the scenes in Mostly Autumn.

The bonus tracks are worth mentioning too. Both ‘Slow Down’ and ‘Black Stone’ are unfinished tracks that the band put to one side in order to concentrate on perfecting the main album tracks. Neither had got as far as vocals but instrumentally both were well developed. As such they make fascinating listening. It is also a testament to the quality of the songs on the main album that tracks as strong as these two didn’t make it. The alternative mix of ‘A Different Sky’ is also intriguing as the vocal mix is quite different (no pun intended!) to the final version.

As far as artwork is concerned, subscribers to the limited edition are in for a treat. Richard Nagy (creator of the artwork for Odin Dragonfly’s ‘Offerings’ album) has excelled himself and there is a plethora of wonderful illustrations that will be included. It’s not possible to describe them here, so you’ll just have to wait and see for yourselves!

The album itself clocks in at a little under one hour. As far as the songs are concerned I’ll leave you to hear for yourselves as they were pretty much covered in the previous update. Suffice to say that as a whole, I think this is the strongest, best-recorded and most cohesive Mostly Autumn album to date. Heather’s vocals are truly outstanding, Bryan guitar solos are packed with emotion yet are concise where they need to be and the contributions from Andy, Henry, Olivia and Anne-Marie are consistently superb. However, equally impressive, is the quality of the song-writing on this album.

Next up of course is the tour and as this is being written the full band are busy rehearsing (very loudly I can tell you!!!) both new material and older songs from throughout their back catalogue. And in amongst the old favourites you can expect one or two surprises!

This may well be the final update on the making of Glass Shadows. However, we just may be able to bring you another short video clip in the next week or two so keep checking back

See you on the road!

Roger

Update 5 – Nearly Done
23/03/2008

Amazingly enough everything is nearly complete! The band are moving into their final week at Fairview. During this they will complete vocals on a couple of tracks, complete mixing the album and then master it.

Much has happened since the last update. Troy Donockley has been into the studio to contribute his inimitable skills to two tracks, ‘Above The Blue’ and ‘Until The Story Ends’. Anne-Marie Helder has also been spending time in the studio. As well as bringing her own brand of madcap humour to proceedings, she has added some early Jethro Tull-like flute to ‘Flowers For Guns’ and joined Livvy on backing vocals for several tracks.

Andy Smith has also been a busy man, finishing off the odd track here and there. This album has certainly given him the opportunity to provide some of his best playing on CD so far. His latest contribution, on ‘Flowers For Guns’, almost verges on funk at times – but don’t worry, MA haven’t gone all James Brown on us!

The album also feature Heather’s debut on record as a keyboard player, specifically on two of her own compositions, ‘Unoriginal Sin’ and ‘Above The Blue’. All the other keyboard parts have been played by Bryan.

Artwork for the album is also progressing well. The band have drafted in the talents of the hugely gifted Richard Nagy, who was responsible for the highly acclaimed artwork for Odin Dragonfly’s ‘Offerings’.

The album has been condensed down to 10 songs in order to deliver a condensed and focused album with every song developed to its full potential. The confirmed titles so far are (not in order):

Glass Shadows
Tearing At The Faerytale
Until The Story Ends
Flowers For Guns
Above The Blue
Unoriginal Sin
Different Sky

3 tracks are still unnamed.

All tracks have been written by Bryan, Heather or both with the exception of ‘Until The Story Ends’, which has been written by Bryan and Liam.

Well, now is time, I think , to give you all some indication of what to expect. So if you want it all to be a surprise, look away now!

Actually, I won’t tell you much about the as yet unnamed opening track except sit back and brace yourself! Jimmy Page would have sold his Les Pauls, his dragon suit and probably his fellow band members to have written a riff like the one that powers this song! You want a guitar hero? You’ve got one!!!!

Throughout the whole album, Henry Bourne’s fabulous drumming makes its mark. Clearly hugely talented, he nevertheless always plays for the song, ever tasteful, holding back when required but full of intelligent and delightful fills where appropriate. His sense of rhythm and groove is tremendous

The second, currently unnamed, track shows some more contemporary influences and is one of the two tracks that still need vocals recording.

‘Different Sky’ is quite unlike anything MA have ever recorded before. Harking back to the Summer Of Love in style it is a perfect 3-minute piece of infectious pop – but in the old-fashioned, classic sense. In a fair world this would be a no.1 for several weeks.

‘Unoriginal Sin’ is based is based on a mid-paced, hypnotic piano riff from Heather coupled with a great vocal. A magnificent yet concise solo form Bryan and some superb drumming from Henry make this a highlight amongst an album of highlights.

What could quite possibly be Bryan’s most passionate and expressive guitar solo ever can be found on what is currently planned to be the next track, again as yet unnamed. This is the second track that still needs vocals, this time from Heather. Bryan’s piano playing on this tack is also something that deserves mention – full of subtly and emotion. This is also a song that takes the album into its middle, hugely emotional, section.

‘Tearing At The Faerytale’ will undoubtedly rank alongside ’Heroes’ in terms of emotional charge. There’s no way that anyone with a beating heart could fail to be moved by this song. Seize the day indeed, my friends.

The second track that features piano from Heather, ‘Above The Blue’ is also a standout out track on an album that has nothing but standout tracks. This is probably the most definitive Heather Findlay vocal recorded to date. Simply stunning and guaranteed to bring tears to the eyes of even the hardest of men, it is a superb illustration of one of the most beautiful singing voices alive today. Quote incredibly, Heather has surpassed even herself on this. Troy Donockley’s outstanding string arrangement is the icing on a perfect cake.

I’ve spoken about the title track in an earlier update but suffice to say that Bryan has once again come up with a masterpiece to rival both ’Heroes’ and ‘Mother Nature’. Epic. Superb. Evocative. And lots of other words! And lots of words that don’t exist! This is quite simply one of the best pieces of music I have heard – ever!

After the emotional sledgehammer that is Glass Shadows, Heather’s wonderful ‘Flowers For Guns’ lifts the mood in a strange kind of way. Strange, because this is a song that has evolved during the recoding process. While it has a serious theme, it has morphed from an acoustic, almost folk, song into an upbeat, even bouncy, song. In fact so funky is Andy Smith’s superb bass line that, God forbid, you could easily dance to it!!! One of my favourites on the album, it is topped off by some joyful flute playing from Anne-Marie that almost embodies her playful, optimistic and yet slightly mischievous character.

And so the album comes to a finish with ‘Until The End’, an uplifting song from Bryan and Liam. Troy’s contributions on this song help to lift the spirit even further.

I sincerely believe this is the most complete, cohesive album that Mostly Autumn have recorded to date. The ingredients are perfect: the ever-present creative core of Bryan and Heather, the rock solid bass of Andy Smith, the amazing rhythm machine that is Henry Bourne, the sublime backing vocals of Livvy and Anne-Marie – and of course the band’s long-standing friend, Mr Troy Donockley. All glued together by the man who, in a musical sense, arguable understands Mostly Autumn better than anyone – John Spence.

To me, this is shaping up to be Mostly Autumn’s definitive moment. It truly is a wonderful, wonderful album. I’ll tell you how good it is – it’ll even displace Passengers as my favourite Mostly Autumn album. And, believe me, that’s saying something!

Update 4 – Taking Shape !
12/03/2008

The band is now in the final stages of recording before mixing starts in a week or two’s time. Full attention is being paid to the 11 tracks that will form the album, with Bryan and Heather being determined that these are as good as they can be before even considering developing some of their additional ideas.

At the time of writing all keyboards, rhythm guitars and drums have been completed, as has the bass on all except one track (which Andy will add this week).

Unusually, Bryan has even put down a couple of guitar solos, something he normally leaves until the end.

The focus for the remaining recording time is mainly lead and backing vocals, plus the remaining guitar solos. Troy Donockley is also in the studio this week to add Uilleann pipes to the closing track and a string arrangement to one of Heather’s songs. Confirmed song titles so far are now:

Glass Shadows
Tearing At The Faerytale
Until The Story Ends
Flowers For Guns
Above The Blue

There are two working titles, namely Fireside and Second-hand which may or may not end up keeping those names. The remaining songs are presently still untitled.

In the past Bryan hasn’t decided the running order until all the songs have been finished but this time the album has developed its own natural running order in the studio - something that will save him some agonising later on!

My own impression of the production so far (bearing in mind that nothing’s been properly mixed yet) it that it has a rich analogue warmth to it while still maintaining clarity. Think ‘Passengers’ rather than ‘Heart Full Of Sky’ – hardly surprising given that it’s being recorded at Fairview with John Spence twiddling the knobs!

It’s probably still a little premature to talk about the songs themselves except that I can’t resist mentioning the title track, an epic number that rivals ‘Mother Nature’ and ‘Heroes Never Die’ in length. Even in its present stage with no vocals it is already perhaps one of the most dramatic, evocative and impressive pieces of music the band has ever recorded. There’s little point is trying to describe it further – you’ll just have to wait to hear it for yourselves!

More soon...

Update 3 – Serious Work !

Things have moved on at a rapid rate since the last update and Glass Shadows is really starting to take shape. Both Bryan and Heather are enormously pleased with how the album is progressing and as always are working really well (and hard!!!) with John Spence at Fairview.

The basic instrumentation for 10 tracks is now complete, that is drums, bass, rhythm guitars, keyboards and guide vocals.

A further 3 tracks will have drums and bass added this week (w/c 3 March) and there is one more track that needs everything laying down. That makes a total of 14 tracks, although not all will necessarily be used on the final general release version of album, some possibly being kept back for the limited edition or even not used at all if they don’t fit the overall mood and feel of the finished album.

Surprisingly there are few confirmed titles as yet apart from three – ‘Glass Shadows’, ‘Until The Story Ends’ and ‘Tearing At The Faerytale’.

The next two weeks will focus on lead vocals, backing vocals, guitar solos and flute. Troy Donockley will also be popping into the studio to add his unique contributions. There will also be a couple of other special guests making an appearance. The two weeks after that will be spent mixing the album before it goes off for mastering and pressing.

As something a bit different for this update, we’ve included a short video that is taken from the mountain of footage filmed for the video diary that will be included with the limited edition version of Glass Shadows. In it both Bryan and Heather talk to me about their thoughts on the album (as they saw it then, when this was filmed a few weeks ago) plus there are a couple of snippets of ideas that may well be the embryonic ideas of songs that might appear on Glass Shadows. And not forgetting a word from Mr John Spence himself!

Until next time!

Update 2 – Into Fairview 16/02/2008

For this update I thought I’d get Heather to do all the hard work, so I caught up with her for a chat at the weekend. You can hear what she has to say about the album’s progress on an audio file by following the appropriate link.

However, for those of you who might not have time to listen to her interview, here’s a quick summary of what’s been happening in the two weeks since the last update.

The jamming and writing sessions concluded at the rehearsal studios near York and on 4 February all the equipment was moved to Fairview Studios to start the recording of Glass Shadows. As has always been the case in the early stages of recording, so far it has mainly been just Bryan and Heather at the studio, working with John Spence on putting down guide tracks to act as templates. In essence this involves Bryan recording guide guitar and keyboard parts together with some programmed drums and occasionally a guide bass. The majority of these get replaced later on as they are purely there to provide a structure for when the real drums etc. are recorded.

Heather has been working on further developing her songs and has also found herself performing the role of camera-woman to make sure there is plenty of footage for the ‘Making Of’ DVD!

As of this week things the pace picks up as we move into the next stage. This involves Andy “The Crow” Smith “flying” in to start laying down his bass parts. Work will also begin on replacing the programming guide drum parts with real drums.

In terms of the songs, it’s still a little too early to say too much. However, Heather feels that while they sit comfortably with the last three albums, there is definitely a harking back to ‘The Spirit Of Autumn Past’ and ‘The Last Bright Light’, with tinges of folk and lots more acoustic guitars present. As always though, that could change as things develop!

Well, there’s a lot more in Heather’s interview and as she explains things far more eloquently than I do, I’ll leave you to give that a listen rather than write any more.

There’ll be more in a couple of weeks and who knows, maybe we’ll get a few words from Mr Josh himself!

Right Click here and select "Save File As" to download Heather's Interview

Update 1 – Lakes & Geese!

Bryah Josh Welcome to what is the first of several updates that will take you through the journey of the making of ‘Glass Shadows’. It won’t be a precise sat-nav type journey but more of an organic rambling across the countryside with a dodgy compass, with a good idea of where we want to get to but knowing we’ll inevitably get a bit lost on the way and take a few wrong turns here and there – but all the more interesting for it!

It’s been a pretty hectic time for the band since the New Year, so let’s bring you up to date so far.

Bryan and Heather took themselves away to the Lake District for a couple of weeks in early January and locked themselves away in a lovely old (and allegedly haunted!) cottage to concentrate on writing the new material. As always, they tend to write separately, Heather setting up a small studio in one room and Bryan doing the same in another, and then compare ideas as they start to progress. These sessions were very productive, not in the sense of producing loads of finished songs, but in thawing the creative juices and re-igniting their inspiration. As a result both Bryan and Heather have come away with some good seeds for new songs, ready to take to the next stage.

In mid-January the band set-up in a recording studio near York to start further developing the ideas produced in the Lakes as well as continue writing more songs. Unlike ‘Heart Full Of Sky’, this set-up has also allowed them to start jamming through the new material with some of the other band members, so that they are familiar with it when they going into the recording stage in early February. Andy Smith has certainly had a few busy evenings last week coming up with new bass lines!

At this stage it’s always a bit risky talking about the new songs as they can change so much once recording starts, things are rearranged and other instruments added. However, early indications suggest a couple of interesting trends. Firstly, there appears to be a lot of acoustic guitar present, not as in acoustic only but as in blending it with electric guitars in much the same way that Led Zeppelin did with some of their earlier material. Secondly, so far at least, there is a more riff-orientated approach with some songs. There’s one song in particular that in some ways is a distant relation of ‘Winter Mountain’, with an incredibly catchy and groove-driven riff that is slightly reminiscent of early Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin or even mid-70s Fleetwood Mac.

Heather Findlay Heather has found herself writing at the piano more so than in the past, which has also produced some strong contenders for the album. Bryan too has been experimenting a lot with keyboard sounds and structures.

The only song yet to have a confirmed title is ‘Until The Story Ends’. A very uplifting and positive song in a ‘Prints In The Stone’ atmosphere about it, this will possibly be the closest thing to a love song that MA has recorded. Don’t worry though, they haven’t gone all soppy on us!

There is another number that Bryan describes as a bit like a cross between Evergreen and Mother Nature. Having heard an early version of the band jamming on this, it actually reminded me a little of the theme to ‘Paris, Texas’ to start with before building up and almost going into psychedelic territory towards the end.

Overall, on first impressions, this is shaping up to be a more organic feeling album and as such the band have opted to record at Fairview Studios, where they recorded all the albums up to and including ‘Passengers’, as well as bits of “Heart Full Of Sky’. They will be working with their old friend John Spence, who engineered those earlier albums and knows how the band works inside out.

Anyone who has pre-ordered the special edition will be please to know that the video diary is progressing well. The band have carried camcorders with them at every stage to capture some of the more intimate moments and this is being supplemented with some set-piece interviews, band jams and, er, geese (don’t ask!!!).

And so that brings us up to date. Next week the real hard work starts as the band go into the recoding stage. We’ll aim to bring you updates as and when we can so keeping checking back. It’s going to be fun!