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Island
Recording Notes by Gordon Maclean  This whole adventure began in 2006 when I suggested to Colin he might like to record a few songs in An Tobar, The Tobermory Arts Centre for an EP to be released as part of the celebrations of the organisation’s 10th birthday in 2007. Knowing how prolific he is, I thought he could use some songs from out of the cupboard and record them with purely acoustic instrumentation using a few local Mull musicians. I didn’t want to get in the way of his next album but I thought it would make for a special limited edition release. We made plans and talked about dates, musicians, songs and eventually Colin came back to Tobermory in September 07 to make a start. I’ve always loved Colin’s work but, just to be different, I saw my main job as being the guardian of the kitchen sink – it had to stay in the kitchen. I saw the focus of the recordings as Colin’s voice supported by a low-key production. What a time we had – we got some great musicians involved including Christopher Marra on pedal steel, Christine Hanson on cello and all of the Sorren Maclean Band including Sorren on guitar, me on double bass and John Barlow on drums – late night sessions and great songs. I’d said we should aim for 5 songs maximum but Colin paid no attention to that whatsoever and arrived with 10 which was a tall order for a week’s recording however it all fell into place very quickly and we finished them all. 3 of the songs were already coming out on his new album The Water so these were acoustic versions, which ended up being used on the BMG Japanese release of the album as bonus tracks. On the last night of the first sessions we all got together to play as a full band. It can work either way in the studio and a few of the songs are built up from a basic couple of tracks with Colin’s voice and guitar, but there is something uplifting about recording a whole band playing in the same room and you can see the session where we recorded Be My Saviour on Colin’s website, filmed by Tobermory artist Gus Stewart. The other 7 songs would have made a great EP but by this time Colin was thinking we should take the project further and make a whole album. As time passed he was writing new songs with this in mind so we got together for a second session, this time with Seonaid Aitken on violin and Jean Johnston on clarinet plus the Mull crew. These new songs were brilliant – quirky with great stories, beautiful and powerful. Even with a no-kitchen-sink approach the results were often anthemic and grand but always leaving room for Colin’s voice which is sounding deeper and warmer than before, although he still does a lovely edgy rock squawk when he needs to. We left some room on the songs from the second sessions so we could bring in Ross MacFarlane on a few tracks. Although busy with Sharleen Spiteri these days, Ross is Colin’s regular drummer and he came to Tobermory a couple of months later to put down some fabulous kit and percussion. An extra session happened when King Creosote was playing at An Tobar - he was immediately roped in for some vocals and accordion. B&B disaster with Ross when we ended up working flat out all day and I forgot to take him to where he was staying until it was a bit too late on the Sunday night, however Sorren went off with him in the car to sort things out. Sorren came back alone saying it was all fine but then I found out he’d taken Ross to the wrong house! And had told her that Colin would be coming later, but that was never the plan! Luckily Gill at this B&B is really nice so she took him in anyway leaving me to phone the correct landlady the next morning to apologise for the no-show – she was nice too and didn’t give me the row I deserved. By now the new songs were starting to edge out the ones from 2007 when it came to choosing what was to go on the record. The new ones hang together in the way that makes for a good album and the mixes seemed to be working with Colin test driving them on various people in London. We talked about other records we felt were related – Neil Young’s Harvest and the much later Harvest Moon, Astral Weeks, Johnny Cash’s last recordings and a few Dylan albums – all records with loads of grain and atmosphere. We were near the end of the second Island sessions and it had been quite a long day. Working on a couple of lead vocals, Colin was starting to sound a bit tired so we jumped in the car and headed up to Cnoc Fuar for the view. It’s a hill north of Tobermory which looks out to Ardnamurchan Point and looking west you can see past Coll to the Outer Hebrides on a clear day. (See the photos on the MHS single ‘I Tried’ for the view). It was a beautiful sunset and a fresh, dry wind. All these islands – like a collection of worlds in space. They each have their own stories and mythology and a sense of belonging and they’re all quite different. Our island is getting more modern – we were standing beside various communications masts at the top of the hill and the music we were making felt the same – there was a sense of distant past and stories becoming vague and blurred as time passes but it’s still pop music and Colin is speaking to you right now. It was made with acoustic instruments, lots of human voices, sounds resonating in a room, but it’ll be out there on digital media and beaming through the air waves. Back to the studio and nailed the vocals in single takes. Cnoc Fuar – the cold hill. Is that right? Must ask someone. It was cold. There is no doubt in my mind that recording music is all about capturing something a bit magical and it so often happens that the best performance will be the first one. With all these good players and singers there was no need to work on parts for ages – a couple of times through sorts out the arrangement and then it was usually the first take that would be the best one. Even some of the lead vocals are the very first guide vocal put down for reference – these kind of unselfconscious performances really let the spirit of the song work and there was great energy from all the musicians. Maybe that’s the most striking thing about Island – Colin’s previous work has been largely built up single-handed – he plays a lot of instruments and in the true spirit of pop music, even if he can’t play them, he can use them to find that elusive sound that a song might need. However, this time it was great to see him inspire all the players, often giving them lines to put down (no dots here) or other times letting them loose to see what happened. Mostly Colin knows what he wants and has a great sense of harmony. Lines quickly fall into place – I think there’s a reason why his hair looks as if it’s been charged with electricity! Lot of good singing sessions on this record. There was a family night with cousins Emma and Louise and Uncle Donald (from The Wave Band who gigged around Mull in the 80s and inspired a young Colin MacIntyre). Emma and Louise have sung with Colin before, memorably on the London Eye to Damon Albarn at a charity event. Another session saw Emma turn up with Vairi and Kirsty, both of whom have been involved in a lot of music around Tobermory. Kirsty sings on An Tobar, Aidan O’Rourke’s recent solo record, and received rave reviews in the national press including being said to sound kinda like Natacha Atlas. Pretty cool. Then the last night of the final sessions we pulled in a big choir. Colin put a notice in the Co-op and that brought in lots of local teenagers, a few of the Mull Gaelic choir and most of the band Moishe’s Bagel who were in town for a gig the following night! Sounded like a football crowd – excellent. Before the first sessions I was wondering how things would go – Colin knows what he wants and I was aware I was trying to steer him in a slightly different direction and we’d never really worked together before. It would be very easy to hit a brick wall in no time and for the whole project to fall apart but instead we would often wind up late at night chatting about the old days in Tobermory and various local characters or family and I think that underlying sense of who we are and where we’ve come from really helped to keep us heading in the same direction. The sessions were quite a rush, in all senses of the word, and there were loads of laughs. What were we doing this for? Maybe for the island we come from, which is not to say that the record is any kind of obvious tribute to Mull or celebration of island life, it’s just that the atmosphere and our sense of how this place affects us pervaded the whole process. Recording in An Tobar was special – Colin actually went to primary school in the building and it has soaked up a lot of atmosphere over the past 10 years from all the musicians who have performed and recorded here. I think all that fed into the grooves on the record (not that records really have grooves any more) and helped create something special. Island Personnel Colin - Vocals, acoustic guitar, Spanish guitar, piano, harmonium, Hammond organ, bass drum, vibraphone, scaffolding pipes, but no kitchen sink. Sorren Maclean – acoustic guitar Gordon Maclean – double bass, shaker Ross MacFarlane – drums, big drum, percussion John Barlow – drums Christopher Marra – pedal steel guitar Christine Hanson – cello Beccy Roth - harp Seonaid Aitken – violin Jean Johnston – clarinet King Creosote – vocal, accordion Bird calls – Gordon Buchanan Backing vocals – Emma Barlow, Louise Barlow, Donald Kirsop, Kirsty MacKinnon, Vairi MacKay Rowdy choir – Greg Lawson, Pete Garnett, Phil Alexander, Donald Kirsop, Alan Jack, Elizabeth Jack, Gordon Maclean, John Barlow, Ruaridh Howells, Alex Stevens, Katrina MacLean, Elise MacLean, Beth MacLean, Islay McNaughton, Katy MacAdam, Dexter Govan, Adrian Lear, Julie Kirsop.

‘Island’ Sleeve notes extracts, written by Colin MacIntyre

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This wasn’t meant to happen, until I realised it had.

Gordon MacLean, who runs An Tobar, the arts centre in my home town of Tobermory on the island of Mull, had asked me to come home and record for their 10th anniversary. The recording of The Water album took a while but I was still feeling quite fresh after it and keen to record again. There is some good symmetry in that An Tobar translates in Gaelic to ‘The Well’. The timing of Gordon’s request was good for me and got me thinking. We spoke about the recordings being stripped back. I started picking at the acoustic. Then while I was in America, in NY, and NE Florida, a lot of the songs were formed, lonesome, in various basements and gardens while logs piled up around me. The Atlantic Ocean rushed to the shore as I cycled alongside it, a reminder of what was on the other side. I had a child’s miniature guitar to write on that made the world grow annoyingly big. ‘No barriers’, I told myself, ‘it’s time to lay myself bare’.

When I stepped off the ferry back onto Mull - I’d left all the electricity plugs behind on the mainland - I could just as well have jumped off a cliff. On the first night of recording there was a Harvest Moon, which we took as a good sign. I was creating back home again; the last time would have been as a teenager in my bedroom just 200 yards up the road. An Tobar also houses what was the first classroom for me when I was 5 years old. That’s the room we were to record in. I remember that the wood panels in the room once seemed as high as the sky. The room is now also a venue, all wooden floorboards and remnants of pupils, teachers and ghosts-past. It felt odd at times to be recording back home, but good odd. Great odd. I’d never have thought that I’d actually become a professional musician and be back here, where the same wooden floorboards used to graze my knees and I’d peak under my teacher’s skirt.

It was a beautiful night that first one, with the sun setting over lumpy Mull. 10 full-on days, but every part of it was great fun. The songs were coming out as I’d hoped. It’s rare for me to record live in the studio with other musicians in this way and I knew then this was to be my next album. For the second session I arrived feeling shaky and vulnerable, but still a lot of work was done. But I was struggling. I looked out at the Atlantic Ocean roaring away and busied myself with string arrangements because my voice wasn’t doing much till late each night. I was lucky the Mendelssohn on Mull festival was on and suddenly a brilliant string section of one arrived, called Seonaid. But that trip was a tonic. I got involved in a music workshop with some of the local kids. I taught them ‘The Final Arrears’ and they'll keep playing it each week. Who knows where they'll take it. I could identify with the sight of the boys leaving to walk home with their electric guitars over their backs, the rain coming in sideways, with no cases to take the brunt.

During the last session, for the final night's recording, I put a notice up on the local Co-op (the scene of the 'Barcode Bypass' / ‘The Supermarket Strikes Back’ story) to invite fishermen, plumbers, pupils, teachers and whoever else in the local community wanted to come up and sing choir and foot-stomp on the last song. It was a special atmosphere in the room as the dust circled the dim light. Some of the songs feature my family members, including my uncle Donald, who was the first person I ever saw with a guitar, and being a plumber, reminded me of that absent sink.

I've never been so laid bare as a songwriter, and it’s felt right to be back home for it. I remembered where the blackboard used to be, so I sung in that direction, and the mixing desk, Gordon’s den, is now located where the old headmaster's room was. Some days we had to ask the local council workers if they'd pause their garden strimming because the mics were picking them up. They nodded in agreement.

I've loved recording the album, and it’s been special to use local musicians including Gordon & Sorren MacLean; sparks have flown, but somehow I’ve stuck entirely to acoustic instrumentation. My first album to do that. In some ways the album is an accident that's sprung out of pure instinct, and now I realize, necessity. I needed to make it, to go home, to go back to where I started. This is 'Island'. Belated Happy Birthday to An Tobar.

Gordon, I couldn’t have done it without you. If only all angels had sideburns.

Thanks:

I’d like to thank Gordon for his wisdom, passion, musicianship and friendship, also to Sorren McLean, Ross McFarlane, and all the other amazing players & singers listed above for making the trip both musical and geographical. Off the island, thanks to Mark Fraser for his enthusiasm and web design, Jo Burton for being inspiring to work with, Mark Howe, Jackie Da Costa & Marcus Skinner at EAI, Andy Prevezer, Alan Smith, Andy Hipkiss, Doug Hall & Adam Nicol at PPR, Tracie London-Rowell, Dot D’Souza & Nick Moxham at London Calling, Ursula and Mark at Pomona, Michelle O’Connor, Phil Hill, Joe, Stuart & all at Cargo Records, Calum Malcolm, Cammy Young, Andrew Burton, Fiona Shannon, Mick Pryde and all at MAD Crew, Douglas Keeley at PRS, Mark Ghuneim & all at Wired Set in New York, Dom Morley, David Gentle, Elias & Peggy Ghuneim, Steve Cheyne & all at Berkeley 2, Brendon Rowan, Joss Maines, Alan Malloy, Paul Kirsop, Balazs Bolygo, King Creosote, Donald Kirsop, Lisa Gottheil, Steve Ferguson, Kevin & Joan Mitchell for the Florida guitar loan, Penny Nagle, Irvine Welsh, Rupert Davies-Cooke and The Original Writers. On the island, thanks to the An Tobar staff: Jo Caskie, Lee Hendrick, Jane Wilde, Adrian Lear, Ester Nailen, Dawn Reade, for looking after us; Mary Kirsop (my Gran, for looking after me, and the scones/curry/soup provision), Alan Jack, Gill Govan, Andrea MacPhail, John Bright, Gordon Buchanan for the bird calls, and the Tobermory Co-op for use of their window. And to Pam, my Mum, family and friends, and my uncle Eric for talking of following dreams. And you, for listening.

Colin

April 09.

Class Primary 1; teacher: Mrs McNabb.

Below are two movies documenting the inspiration for City Awakenings and how the album was put together (right) and a behind-the-scenes tour of the studios and recording the album (left)