Along with a million other people around me I was laid off in the height of the economic recession in the 00's. I lost a lot of things, material and emotional. When the dust had settled and I dug in for the long haul, a few tunes managed to work their way past security. These songs are much more pared down than previous albums and that's down to a lot of gear being traded in over the course of the recording - such was my humbling predicament. So yes, this is obviously a personal album and reflective of a period of uncertainty and loss, but the stalwart instruments beckoned.. I used to rely heavily on layering tons of instruments and hiding my vocals behind them, but without the musical camouflage I was forced to concentrate on actually saying something rather than filling in with flash solos or funky loops, this time it was about writing songs I could, at a push, play/ sing live. I grew up on a diet of Mike Oldfield and Jean-Michel Jarre but I'd had my fill of trying to emulate my heroes with previous bombastic productions, this time the vibe of losing ones job, identity, income, home, car, all the things that mean so much to us, filtered through to much more personal songs and that required a different recording style. Out went the synths and loops, in came a nice mic and a couple of trusty guitars. Out went drum machines and sampled beats, in came...well....not a lot actually.....I laid down guide clicks and simply played riffs until inspiration hit the needles and that was it. I can't write music, I don't know a G from an A or a F# from a Bm, I just muck about until something sounds nice and then add a few more bits here and there, hope it's in tune, hope it's in time and then sing on it. These were all recorded in various rooms in different houses and are therefore considerably homemade and with very insignificant recording gear, nothing individually above £100, and all laid down on an aging noisy old 16 track. 'Renegade recording' as someone once wrote. I can agree with that. So if you ever wondered what can be done when you have no PC or expensive software, and no money, then this is a reasonable place to start. Dedicated to all the folks who recovered from the scrap heap and forged a new way forward. Credits: The long and short of it? - I did everything: writing, playing, singing, recording, mixing and producing. Not in a 'how the hell clever am I?' style, more that I don't know any other way to do this kind of stuff and love all parts of making music from composing a nice lyric to spending hours trying to get the right reverb on my guitars etc, so I do it all because all of it interests me. Also, I can't blame anyone else for my mistakes so I carry the can for any bum notes or poor production values if you hear any...