‘New Album’ is where a band or artist answers some questions about their latest release. Up next is Del Thomas, who has just released his 3rd album ‘Changes Coming’.
When/where was the new album recorded?
It was recorded during May-Aug this year at my home studio – Summerfield Sound.
Who produced/engineered the album? How did the tracks come together in the studio, or at home?
I engineered and produced it with some input from the other musos and Davy Gollan – a good friend who has very good ears. We recorded the rhythm tracks – drums, bass and rhythm guitar as a band in order to capture a live feel with everyone feeding off each other’s playing. Vocals and other instruments were added as overdubs. The players on the album are Dougal Speir (guitar), Elliotte Fuimaono (bass), Mo Phillips (drums) and additional vocals by Lynley Christoffersen and Jade Eru (The Tempests). I played guitar, harmonica and various keyboard and synth noises as well as lead vocals.
How did the songwriting happen? Are there any overall themes within the songs/album?
Some of the songs are quite old, having been written back in the late 90s but have taken on a different feel from the original versions which I played with my first band in NZ (Glass Onion). These songs are Real True Love, Think of Yesterday, Fault Line and Close as You Were. I was going through my songbook and found them and thought it would be interesting to resurrect them with the new band. And I’m glad that I did as I really like how they’ve come out. The other songs are all new, some only having been written within the last couple of months. I like to think of this as being the third volume of a trilogy of albums which started with Driving Home Alone in 2013. There’s a theme of lost love and longing which comes through many of the songs but I’ve always tried not to turn them into dirges or ‘sad bastard’ songs. Instead I prefer to connect what could be seen as sad lyrics with uptempo arrangements. I think I want to make the next album more acoustic just to show a different side to my writing.
Were you going for a different sound/approach on this album?
I like to keep the sound fairly similar on all the albums as most of my favourite albums have been recorded in the old school way with everyone in the room playing together. I like the live feel that a band playing together can bring to an album. I don’t think I’d ever try to change that. Fortunately, my studio set up allows this. Having said that, there are a few different sounds on a couple of the tracks. I got a small analogue synth recently so I used that on a couple of tracks and also having the additional vocals from Lynley and Jade really added an extra something to the overall sound. Also, Dougal Speir’s guitar playing style and tone are very different to mine so having him play on several of the tracks introduces a different tone and texture as well.
Was there any specific gear you used to capture that?
I used my old Boss 1600CD recorder all the time. It has 8 inputs so you can track all the rhythm tracks together and the built-in effects are really good. It has a nice old-school analogue sort of sound. And the built-in mastering unit really brings all the tracks together. I’ve got a couple of nice Rode NT1 condenser mics that I use for vocals and acoustic guitar – and they’re also good for using as a room mic on guitar amps. Other than that, the drums and amps were mic’d using trusty SM57’s.
Is there a particular single/track that you feel captures the essence of the album?
I really like a couple of the tracks – Where the Sun don’t Shine and Real True Love. Dougal Speir’s guitar and Lynley and Jade’s vocals really make these songs stand out. I also really like the last track – and title track of the album – Changes Coming as it’s completely different to anything else I’ve done before. Once again, the female voices take this to somewhere I couldn’t have achieved on my own.
Is there a physical copy available? If not which digital platforms is it available on?
Physical copies will be available in a couple of months – the CD release gig will be at the Capital Blues Club at the Hotel Bristol on 5 Oct. The album will be on iTunes and possibly Spotify.
Are you working on a video/videos for any of the songs?
No plans for a video at this stage but that might change.