‘New Album’ is where a band or artist answers some questions about their latest release. Up next are Up next is Joseph E Harrison (Tower Of Flints) who has just released the solo collection Therapy For A Cynic.

When/where was the new album recorded?
All of these songs were recorded on various versions of my home studio, in various homes, over a number of years, along with many others. But my commitment to turning the tracks I chose into an ‘album,’ as such, began about three years ago. It was then that I started turning demos and sketches that had hung around me for a long time – some as much as twenty-five years – into something more polished.

Who produced/engineered the album? How did the tracks come together in the studio, or at home?
I did everything myself. For better or worse, I didn’t want to release the final product and find I disliked some element of it, and then have an excuse to blame someone else! It was important to me to put the songs out there, and finally call them finished. They had to be right. Taking on the role of producer, engineer and everything else became a bit overwhelming at times, and I had to walk away quite often. That’s why it took so long to finish! Eventually, I had to bully myself into admitting the job was done, and probably as good as I was going to get it. In a few cases, the ‘final’ versions of the songs still contain parts of the much older demos.

In Five Thousand Days, for example, I tried redoing the main vocal several times, but none of the new takes was as good as the first time I sang it, so I cleaned up the original. That first take was raw and emotional – I just couldn’t capture that moment again, so many years later. Crocodile, on the other hand, was completely rewritten about five times and the end result is nothing like its ancestor!

How did the songwriting happen? Are there any overall themes within the songs/album?
I’ve never been one for sitting down with an acoustic guitar, starting a song at the beginning and finishing at the end. I tend to write in scraps and snippets. I might hum a few notes, for example, or muck about with a couple of chords, then my brain goes, “I know what the bass should do!”. So I record five seconds of bass, then think of a backing vocal harmony – or whatever. The songs get sort-of patchworked together bit by bit. As far as themes go, there was nothing deliberate, but I think it’s clear the songs all came from the same head. They’re dark in places, and personal, and the creation of this album was cathartic for me. I think that comes out.

Were you going for a different sound/approach on this album?
I wanted to hear the songs the way they sounded in my imagination, as my own personal versions. I perform several of them with my band, Tower Of Flints, and I wanted the two entities to be distinct. With TOF, they’re stripped back and pretty lively. On ‘Therapy For A Cynic’, they’re big, and grand, and do things we can’t do on stage.

Was there any specific gear you used to capture that?
Yes. I used a lot of MIDI, which we never do as a band – in particular the BBC Symphony Orchestra by Spitfire Audio. And I played piano on a couple of tracks too. I also went to town on big backing vocal harmonies.

Is there a particular single/track that you feel captures the essence of the album?
The Rest Of My Days is literally about writing the album, and my need to finally get it done, and to move on, not just in terms of songwriting, but in my life too. The dark times that I reference on the album are over now, and my life is so much better than it was back then. It’s funny, because musically, it’s the oldest song on the album – I wrote it twenty-five years ago and the structure hasn’t changed at all. But the lyrics are the most recent. They came out in a rush, all at once, in the space of about twenty minutes. That was hugely emotional.

Is there a physical copy available? If not which digital platforms is it available on?
Only digital, sorry! But it’s on all the usual platforms – Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, YouTube, etc. etc… Bandcamp is best, because if you buy the album, I actually get paid!

Are you working on a video/videos for any of the songs? Are you doing any gigs or promotion for its release?
I’d love to do videos, but frankly, my brain is exhausted! I’d rather give creative license to someone else, as I haven’t got a clue how I’d interpret these songs visually. So maybe.
I’ve got a couple of interviews and things lined up, and we’ve got some Tower Of Flints gigs coming up, so the band sort-of promotes the album, and the album sort-of promotes the band. We’re playing The Next Big Thing (Masterton) 19th August, Valhalla 31st August, and Paisley Stage (Napier) 2nd September. Always up for more gigs if anyone’s asking!