looking glassˈlʊkɪŋ ˌɡlɑːs/ noun noun: looking glass; plural noun: looking glasses 1. a mirror."she stared at her reflection in the looking glass" 2. opposite to what is normal or expected. modifier noun: looking-glass usage: "looking-glass logic" Dear listener. Authentic writing is tricky business. It’s best to drop expectations and pay attention. It’s like looking in the mirror, hungover, having lost the awareness that you’re looking at yourself. If you’re lucky, a new perspective will sneak up on you. You’ll discover the day as a completely new and vibrant thing. That’s the feeling we were chasing in these songs. Kids don’t suffer from existential angst. They’d rather play. Or, if sad, they cry till they feel better. And they listen to music like it were something new… every time. Put the record on. Press play. Close your eyes… is that your story you’re hearing? If it is, we’ve done our job. Hugs, d & crew. This record could not have been made without the support of the following people & organizations: Vera & Yuri Mostovoy, Pola Anton, Tymon Tymanski, Boo Hewerdine, Marcin & Wojciech Sosnowski, Marcin Kot, Slawek & Wojtek Wieslawski, Marcin Cichy, Patryk Stachura, Ania Rapa Sojkowska, Kasina Studio in Warsaw, MDK in Slupsk, Slupsk Public Library & Teatr BOTO in Sopot. Side A 1) Virginia [Hertzov/Wright] 2:54 2) Trust the River [Hertzov/Pearlman] 3:06 3) Child of the CIty [Hertzov] 3:49 4) Looking Glass [Hertzov/Mostovoy] 4:01 5) Maureen [Hertzov/Ollier] 2:52 Side B 6) Blinders [Hertzov] 3:21 7) Lexicon of Love [Hertzov/Wells] 3:56 8) Greedy [Hertzov] 3:40 9) Rooftop [Hertzov/Mostovoy] 3:26 10) Strawberry Moon [Galazka/Hertzov] 3:25 Tracking:2,3,5,6&10 by Chris Pepper at The Hub Sound Studios, Cambridge, UK 1,4,7&9 by Slawek and Wojciech Wieslawski at Hertz Studios, Bialystok, PL 8 by Mark Freegard, Kyoti Studios, Glasgow, UK 2,3,5,8,10 overdubs by Marcin Galazka and Daniel Hertzov at Stray Runt Records, PL, IT and UK. Mastering: 1,2,3,4,7,8,9 by Slawek and Wojciech Wieslawski at Hertz Studios, Bialystok, PL 5,6,10 by Kasina Studio, Warsaw, PL Production: 1,4,7,9 - Lohokla Magic Crew 2,3,5,10 - Chris Pepper, Daniel Hertzov, Marcin Galazka 6 - Chris Pepper, Daniel Hertzov 8 - Mark Freegard Lohokla Magic Crew are Przemek Bartos - bass, vox; Szymon Burnos - keys, vox; Marcin Galazka - guitar, vox; Tomasz Koper - drums, vox; Daniel Hertzov, guitar, bass, vox. Guest Musicians: Natalia Przybysz, vox (2); Valentina Ostankovich, vox (6); Chris Pepper, drums (5,6,10); Greg Chapman, keys (6); Duncan Macdonald, bass (8); Mick Slaven, guitar (8); Stephen Douglas, drums (8), Fraser Spiers, harmonica (8). Booking: jaroslaw.maslanka@ymusic.pl Album Story - My mandolin hero, Mike Marshall, was scheduled to teach a workshop at “Sore Fingers” - a music camp in the UK. I’d procrastinated so long, however, that the course was full. So I looked for an alternative. Songwriting. Taught by Darrell Scott. I had no idea who he was, and you can’t really learn songwriting… can you? I’d thought that songs were a mysterious gift from the muse - how could one teach that? I looked Darrell up online… and was blown away by his energy, musicianship, creativity and, above all, his remarkable songs. A week later i was in a room with 19 other song freaks. Some had been writing for years. Others, like me, had loved songs forever but never put the pieces together. I’d found my tribe. I started to work on becoming a songwriter. They say it takes 10,000 hours to get good at something. I’ve been writing songs steadily for 10 years. I studied great songs and wrote and recorded many many terrible songs (and some really good ones!). I worked a regular job full time. Started a family. Moved countries. And on the way I met some extraordinary people who were generous with their time. Who saw something in me they felt like nurturing. Darrell Scott. Tymon Tymanski. Mark Freegard. Boo Hewerdine. I made a record and ran out of steam trying to promote it. I cowrote songs and loved it. I played open mics till they became excruciating. And finally, after years of practice, I gained the friendship of songwriters and musicians who wanted to put a piece of themselves into the songs. When the Lohokla Magic Crew came together, it felt like I turned a corner. Promoting songs no longer felt like a Sisyphean task. The verb for making music is “play”. Making “Looking Glass” was fun. Now it’s even more fun to play the songs live (as we did during the Hertz-Recording sessions). I’m proud of this album. It was years in the making. Literally dozens of people put a piece of their soul into it. Songs are like kids. They need the care and attention of a community to thrive - it really does “take a village”. You can’t give up on them. And in time, they return the favor, only magnified by the looking glass & transformed into something new, strange and beautiful. “Virginia” - I met Alex Wright at a songwriting workshop led by Darrell Scott. Darrell (wearing his shaman hat) suggested we should be friends. We hit it off over some bourbon. We’re both in our early 40s. We have kids about the same age. And like me, Alex has a regular job (doctor of internal medicine) while also being a committed musician. I visited him in Kentucky after the workshop. He visited me in London. Alex brought “Virginia” to the table half written. Two of his friends were getting married against all odds, having found each other after the death of someone they both loved. This was a song he was writing for them. After hearing the initial riff I knew I wanted in. And who can’t identify with needing to fall into somebody while grieving? The story included a funeral and a thunderstorm - both powerful enough to carry a song on their own. By the time we finished the session the song had moved on - a lot of lyrics had been written and there were some good ideas for a chorus. Alex went home to Kentucky. The final bits we finished on our own - sharing ideas by email. We settled on 2 different versions of this song. Alex’s version is meditative. Mine, celebratory - recorded live at Hertz Recording in Bialystok with the band. Fraternal twins. How cool is that? “Trust The River” - This song has gone through so many twists and turns - the title fits perfectly. Anouschka Pearlman and I wrote the song following the melody. The song really started to click as we harmonized it - Carole King was there in spirit. We did some free writing - one of us came up with the phrase “trust the river” & the rest of the lyrics flowed from there. I recorded the song on my first record, but realized a couple years down the line that it was still half-baked. I rewrote the first verse. My wife Pola, pregnant at the time with our second child suggested that the song was actually a conversation and should be recorded as a duet. I’d heard Natalia Przybysz sing “My Back Pages” on Tymon’s record & knew hers was the voice. So I went to Warsaw to work with her. She nailed it in a couple takes (inadvertently changing “flowing wide” to “flowing wild” & improving the song in the process). The song went through yet another transformation as the band came together about a year later - we overdubbed most of the backing tracks, taking it further into 70s songwriter territory. “Child of The CIty” - I wrote this one on my own with just the title to guide me. It was a title I’d thrown about with my sister Masha Mostovoy in our band, “Neverhome”. We were both city kids. We’d moved about a lot and knew what it meant to be foreign. We even wrote a song about it called “Looking Glass” - but that’s another story. “Child of the city” as a lyric fragment, was still available and unused. Traveling for work in Boston, staying in some airbnb room, I woke up at 5AM - it was cold outside and too early to go to the office. I lay there, half dreaming half remembering all the times I’d woken up in similar situations. In a strange city. Folded up on someone’s couch. The images in the song just flowed from there. The key, for me, came in the bridge - there was no “home” - and that was ok. As cheesy as it sounds - it’s about the road, people. Like “Trust the River” the band replaced nearly all original tracks on this song, turning towards our favourite 70’s songwriter albums for inspiration. Finally… as a joke Marcin did a crossfade between “Trust the River” and “Child of the City” that worked so well we knew that’s how it had to be on the record. “Looking Glass” - written with my little sister Masha for “Neverhome”. We were thinking about that sense of homelessness we felt as modern “children of the city”. And that sense of nostalgia for the places where we grew up. For the people we loved back then. How did we feel about it now? And what does that feeling say about us? Trying not to fall into the trap of thinking things were better then. But also recognizing the loneliness that comes with choosing a nomadic lifestyle. We recorded it live in the studio. The exuberant humor of the band cuts across and leavens the material. Like a haircut can make a dense head of hair look positively airy and carefree. Contrast has a way of making material stand out. “Maureen” - written with Bill Ollier on a songwriting workshop led by Boo Hewerdine. The assignment was to write a set of verses as limericks then pass them on to another person to write a melody & changes. Bill wrote the initial limerick. About a guy that fell in love with his sat-nav. What a concept! I felt that for full effect it needed to be treated seriously - not as a joke. The D to A-minor change had the drama i was looking for. The melody flowed from there. And the longing in the one word chorus “Maureen” also stemmed from that change. I’ve since written and rewritten the first third and fourth verses, but the second has remained Bill's original lyric. This is why I love co writing - there’s no way in hell I’d ever come up with this concept on my own. And this is consistently mentioned by people as one of their favorite songs of mine. Boo suggested I work with Chris Pepper on a record. As usual, Boo turned out to be right. Over the span of about a year I’d drive up to Cambridge and we’d work. Chris was instrumental in determining the direction of many of the songs on this album. He played drums and found sounds and built spaces for them in the songs. His mixes are architecture. Recordings of “Trust the River”, “Child of the City”, “Blinders”, “Lexicon of Love” and “Strawberry Moon” all got their start with Chris. But “Maureen” is my favorite showcase of his work. Obsolete toy instruments from the 80s? Check. Tubular Bell samples? Check. Mellotron? Check. 8 bit drum machine? Check. Low fi ribbon mic for vox? Check. David Bowie “Space Oddity” drum break in the bridge? Check. Circus / Fun Fair organs & atmospheric guitar swells overdubbed by Szymon Burnos & Marcin Galazka to make the “Lohoklized” final version on this record. “Blinders” - This song came to me in about 30 minutes and has not changed since then. Some songs really are a gift from the muse. But I tend to write/rewrite/sweat 10-15 songs for every “magic” song. Do you have kids? Have you been with your spouse for 5 years or more? This song is for you. Playing in a band (“Neverhome”) with a great singer like Valentina Ostankovich makes you think about how to arrange a song using many voices. Sometimes those voices blend to support a singular point of view. Sometimes they separate to represent different perspectives. This song took advantage of the latter. I asked Valka to overdub her voice on one of my “Neverhome” songwriting trips and the result still makes my hair stand on end. It’s hard to sing low - and this was at the very bottom of her range. There’s no high end hype & it sounds exposed and vulnerable. It’s hard to control breath and pitch. But listen to Johnny Cash - or Cassandra Wilson - digging through muck of the bottom register keeps one grounded and humble. It’s also where the gold is. This is the one song the band didn’t touch when they heard it. I played guitar, mandolin and double bass. Greg Chapman played Keys. Chris played drums and produced. “Lexicon of Love” - I met Simon Wells on one of Boo’s songwriting courses. Simon recognizes no boundaries and is only happy exploring the wild fringes of unstructured life. Like a beat poet. Or an Amoeba. I’m not sure which analogy he’d prefer. Naturally, being structure obsessed. I love writing with him. We never go down the same road twice. “Lexicon of Love” was Simon’s phrase. I brought fingerpicked acoustic changes in dropped D and a melody. We wrote & compiled lyrics together. The song went through lots of revisions, but the turning point came when, in St. Petersburg for a Neverhome gig, I showed the song to the band. Valka suggested that the song needed something to break the monotony of the verses in D. I started playing the B flat / F / C / G - “Hey Joe” change & “I’ll never be the same again” came together with a melody. Cause if being in love doesn’t change you forever, it’s not really love, is it? I love playing this song live with the band - as we did when we recorded the song. The acoustic fingerpicky stuff was too cute. Telling a story with so much distance is safe, but runs the risk of being out of touch with feeling - boring. The decentralized chaotic energy of the band suits the song much better. Like lighting the fuse to a cannon, then climbing inside. “I’ll never be the same again” sounds different from in there, than floating above a travis picked acoustic guitar motif like some astronaut. This song belongs in the trenches. “Greedy” - i wrote this song as a joke years ago. After making my first album I was caught in a trap. I was writing songs left and right, on fire to make another record, but had no clue what I was doing. I’d spent a ton on money making a record - multiple takes / cut and paste sessions had taught me that I couldn’t play well enough to make it. And despite some nice words in alternative press I sold records in the single digits. It was a tough lesson. I still have hundreds of copies of that record in storage. I had no idea how to get gigs or put a band together. My first child had just been born & my life was being restructured daily. I knew I couldn’t just repeat what I’d done. So I called Mark Freegard again. Before making my first record, I’d gone to Mark to audition some songs. He’d been my first choice to record and produce. But even though my songs had something he’d liked, he declined, telling me to go practice & come back later. He was gentle & it was a genuinely kind act, though I had trouble seeing it that way. I was disappointed, of course & went on to make a record anyway with another producer/engineer who was happy enough to take my money. I had to learn the hard way. Afterwards, I respected Mark all the more for trying to teach me before I put all that resource into a project I wasn’t equipped to carry. When the time came to try again, I went to Mark. This time, it seemed he heard something he could work with. This was my first real studio experience with inspired musicianship & a “vibe” that comes from people playing music together. We recorded stems for 5 songs with Mark when I realized that, even though the results were inspiring, I had no band, and no energy reserves for promotion. Part of the equation was missing. We would have made a great record. But nobody would have heard it. I pulled the plug. Years later, the Lohokla Magic Crew heard a demo of “Greedy” and loved it. Drums by Stephen Douglas. Bass by my friend Duncan MacDonald. Guitars by Mick Slaven. Harmonica by Frazier Spiers. What’s not to love? Szymon overdubbed upright piano at the culture centre in Slupsk. I overdubbed acoustic guitar and vox. The song was reborn. “Rooftop” was written with Mashka on a 3 day holiday in Bordighera, on the mediterranean coast. Writing songs with her is such a gift. It’s so much easier to plug into the collective brain when you and your partner crawled out of the same womb. It feels like we’ve known and loved each other forever. We know each others shorthand. The song came together after a series of free writing exercises. Masha had a particularly powerful lyric-riff celebrating her friendship with Valka. I chose the word “rooftop” as a pivot/entry point. Grounding the song in a particular location deepened the stream of lyrics. I grabbed Masha’s nylon string & fingerpicked a pattern. The descending chromatic line suggested the melody. The key that swung the song open came with a pre-chorus which broke the descending chromatic cycle with a straight ahead ascending diatonic line that resolved in a rock & roll chorus over a 3 chord loop, stating in plain words, over an over, how friendship transforms into family. Writing a song about that transformation with my own sister was magic - pure magic. This might be my favorite song on the album. “Strawberry Moon” came from one of my visits to Marcin Galazka’s house in Slupsk. Since meeting Tymon Tymanski near the start of my songwriting obsession, Marcin has been my fellow traveller. I’d visit him whenever I came to Poland to share songs and just hang out. He’s come to visit me in Glasgow and London. The sheer enthusiasm and willingness to get into geeky (sometimes overwhelming) detail on any subject - from chord substitution to building amplifiers, to navigating the square meters of pedals on his board, to different methods of brewing coffee is great to be around and inspiring. His phone never stops ringing. Oh - and he plays guitar like some bastard love child of Mike Campbell, The Edge, and Mark Ribot. One morning Marcin made up the changes and melody to the verse. I wrote some lyrics and took the song fragment home. The chorus came during a walk. My mind wandered, but kept coming back to the birdsong all around. I hit record on my phone and sang the four note melody that became the chorus to the song. The song was done half an hour later. This was the first song I brought to Chris Pepper when I started the process on this record a couple years ago. Apart from the clavinet solo after the chorus by Szymon, this song survived the Lohokla Magic treatment unchanged.