<3 - see, 3 Is Greater than EVERYTHING. This is an album about love, journeying, gratitude, growing older, enjoying london, becoming a dad, being comfortable having fewer and fewer answers but better and better questions... The album has ended up being a LOT longer than I first intended. I’m not generally a fan of massively long albums, but one of the joys of digital music is that it’s pretty easy to rearrange a collection of music to suit the listener. So while it definitely hangs together as an 11 song set, with a beginning a middle and an end, you’re more than welcome to cherry-pick playlists of the tracks that make most sense to you at any one time. Or indeed, to sit back with a glass of wine, put it on the big speakers, turn the lights down and just listen for 80 minutes, like it’s a film in 11 discreet acts... The recording took place between October 2010 and April 2011, with the album mixed and mastered in April/May. The majority of it was recorded at Muswell Hall studios, using all my own toys, but the amazing head-space and mellowness of the surroundings played a big part in the relaxed nature of it. It’s a SLOOOOW record. Nothing happens too fast, there are no clever twiddly up-tempo tunes (my next project may well be an EP of clever twiddly up-tempo stuff, as I rather like playing those tunes!) So, two tunes - Travelling North and Nothing Can Prepare - were recorded at our flat in Catford, and The Time It Takes was recorded live at a gig in Sandwich in Kent in April 2011. ---o0o--- Everything on here was played by me, in real time. There are a handful of edits - boring bits chopped out of the middle, rogue notes 'disappeared', but it's basically me live in the studio. Except The Time It Takes, which is me live live. Here’s a gear list for the recording: Recorded in Reaper on a MacBook, making liberal use of Blue Cat Multi-band Mixer plug in, and the OhmBoyz filter delay. The Basses are all my Modulus 6 string basses. One fretted one fretless, with Bass Centre Elites Strings, and East UK Preamps. The weird noises are courtesy of my Lexicon MPX-G2 processor, and my Line 6 DL4 (which is courtesy of Mike Smith). The Looping is, as always, via the awesome and amazing Looperlative LP1, controlled via my Keith McMillen SoftStep controller. There’s no eBow on here, but that’s just cos the battery was flat. There’s a lot of slide - I used two Jim Dunlop Slides, a really heavy one, and a lighter brass one. The recording and mixing interface is a MOTU Ultralite Mk III. I listened to it all as I was recording it on Mark Audio AS602 speakers, and then on Sennheiser HD25 headphones, and referenced on Alesis M1 Mk II Actives. All the cables are lovingly made by the awesome Tony Farinella at Evidence Audio. Thanks - no solo album is ever actually just the work of one person. Despite me playing, recording, mixing and mastering all of the music on here, I’m beholden to the wisdom and generosity of a whole load of people, foremost amongst then is my amazing wife Lobelia, whose influence on this music is huge on every level, and our son “Baby Flapjack”, who adds so much to every day of our lives. Additional thanks to Tim Hall, Steve and Lorna Brown, Mike Outram, Ian Shepherd, Sue Edwards, Trip Wamsley, Todd Reynolds, Neil Alexander, Mike Smith, Laura Kidd, Mike ‘Sizemore’ Atherton, the Amplified gang, The Phunkettes, everyone who has ever hosted a house concert for Lo and I - we’ve loved every last one of ‘em. Long may they continue! A special thanks to the people who choose to converse with me on Twitter - it has become a treasured part of my brain, a permanent community of smart, funny, insightful, creative people, who daily inspire me to think deliberately.