Whilst back in the old recording studio of late, and as we scoured through the hundreds of song ideas we had written over the years, I was reminded of one particular song that I had written all of 10 years ago (and recorded in the studio 5 years ago). We listened back to the old, poor quality, recording and decided that this long lost writing relic should be revived. My great friend, and even greater producer, set about breathing fresh life into this long gone limp musical work. When I returned to the studio to hear his progress, I felt something quite magical on hearing the track.

The lyric remained and the vocal melody and vocal recordings were lifted straight from the original track. Aside from that though, everything else had changed.

The instrumental was tight, colourful and crisp. A far cry from the muddy mess of the old recording.

The re-structure of the vocal stanzas had allowed for the same message to be delivered more clearly. The concept was tidier and more relatable.

The whole thing sounded different, totally different. Yet, it remained the same.

I was silenced by the simplicity of what we had done.

We had matured the track.

Matured of mind, we were able to rework the idea into something more cogent, a more complete artistic vision, one that finally did credit to my initial idea.

Moments after we had finished listening to the track I turned to my producer and simply said…

‘What a journey we are on’

…and then continued by listing 3 faults that I had picked up on in the mix.

Music for me is a journey of self-expression that will never be truly complete, and there is something simply marvellous about that as a metaphor for life.

(Photo – Eli Woodbine, London, England, 2016)