The Story of "SOAR"
The "Soar" album really started in 2012 with the recording of two songs influenced by the movie "The Secret" and the subsequent things I learnt about the Laws of the Universe. Those two songs were "Extra Fine Quality" and "The Soul That Walks The Earth", both influenced particualy by Michael Bernard Beckwith and Agape International and the idea that no-one is a mistake, that we are not humans having a spiritual experience but spiritual beings having an human experience.
After recording those songs I had the idea to try to put together an album of positive songs that involved some of my musician friends, at least one playing on each track.
With that in mind I wrote several new songs and started asking around. Due to logistics and availabilty things didn't go as planned but "Soar" does feature two songs from that concept, "Lady Of Sun" featuring Pete Wain on keys and "Whatever Age You Are" featuring Tony Smith on percussion.
The idea of an album then went on hold but I did keep writing and recording myself. For a while I had been wanting to write a song as a tribute to my favourite singer Miyu Nagase and after several attempts I managed to write something I was happy with.
That song was simply entitled "Miyu" and, as Miyu is Japanese I wanted to include some Japanese lyrics. My friend Darlo helped me out with those (thanks Darlo) and I began recording. A few months earlier I had recorded vocals to a cover version of "Here Comes The Sun" that Japanese musician The Onda had recorded so I asked him if he would like to add something extra to "Miyu". I sent a recording I'd done here over to him in Japan and he added some wonderful instrumentation which he then sent back to me.
"Miyu" wasn't the first recording I'd done with someone overseas. I'd already recorded several songs with a friend in America, Margaret Foland since meeting her online in 2002. In December 2013 Margaret asked me if I could write a Christmas song for her to sing to her baby nephew who had just been born. I was more than happy to do that and wrote "Love Come To Thee". I did a quick recording of it and sent it to Margaret for her to listen to. She recorded her lead vocal and sent it back to me to mix together. The version that ends "Soar" is a remix of that original recording, still featuring Margaret's lead vocal.
Since watching the movie "The Secret" in 2008 as well as learning more about the Law of Attraction and other Laws of the Universe, I have been interested in my spiritual development. Part of that involved looking at resolving negative issues from my past and one in particular had been haunting me since school. At the time (when I was about 15) I had already begun writing my own music and one of those songs seemed related to the negative feelings that were still bothering me all those years later. So I looked at the song again. Part of it I thought wasn't very good (to be honest I thought it was dreadful!) but there were other parts that I was actually very happy with. As such I decided that I would rework the song to a) make it a better song and b) to help resolve the issues. With a lot of help from an old school friend or two (you know who you are, thank you!) I was able to lay those ghosts to rest and finally move on. I re-recorded the song which involved adding additional lyrics, a new beginning and keeping the bits I was happy with from the original. That song was "Shouldn't Really Love You".
By now I wasn't really thinking of putting together a new album, concentrating on playing live solo and with Scarbelly Blues. I did do a couple of new recordings though "This Is True" and "How Can A Love Not Be Right?".
"Welcome Them Home" and "Old Scottish Pine" were songs that had been popular live and although I had recorded them before (originally in 2002 and 2009 respectively) I decided to re-record them and bring them up to date. After realising how many songs I had recorded since my last album "Right Down My Street" I decided it was time to put them together as a new album. I wanted to add two more songs to the album so with that in mind I put some new lyrics to an old tune I had and recorded what became the title track "Soar". I also had a demo recording of "Smokeless Skies" a song inspiried by the musical "Hard Graft - All For Twenty Three Bob" by Brendan Hawthorn about the 1913 tube workers strike in the Black Country town of Wednesbury. My wife and I were involved in the play, helping out with rehearsals and painting the scenery and while we were there I was inspired by the events of the strike, the way the workers were treated and the way they were then expected to fight in the First World War just a year later. I finished the recording and the album was complete.
With the majority of the songs having a positive message the album has a lovely feel for me and it is a pleasure to include tracks I have recorded with friends. I hope you'll enjoy listening to it and feel the positivity in the songs.
