About the Album
As with No Expectations, this album was released on the same day, just before Easter 2018 and indeed the reasons for writing some of the tracks were the same and they were recorded mixed and mastered at the same time as the tracks for No Expectations.
Ultimately, the differences were thematic; it was my belief that the songs that made it onto No Expectations were more coherent and based on the same themes and all bar one of them had been written exclusively by me, both words and music. London Road conversely, was a collaborative album and, as I have said rather pithily before, it was like a showreel to prove that I could play nicely with other songwriters, particularly professional ones, and that professional results could be achieved when we played to each others strengths.
One of them that was originally included, but has been skipped from this iteration of it, is What Became Of Love? The hook for that particular track was a piano motif in A and I had found it on a pack of supposedly royalty free midi piano loops. I managed to build a track around it and was subsequently mortified to find out that it was an exact copy of a piano motif from a song called Vox by Sarah McLaughlin. As a consequence, I tried to reach out to her publishers and her management and offered a 50-50 on the track should it ever make any money, but never heard anything back from them.
Some of the others have more in depth stories which you will be able to read about further on this site, particularly songs like Elia and Come Talk To Me. Most of the others – Are You Coming Home With Me, South To The Sun and Without You were all written on successive BASCA songwriting retreat weekends at Monnow Valley between 2014 and 2016. Without You was recorded on the ProTools rig at Monnow Valley in 2016 using their Yamaha grand piano and the now departed Andrew Schepps-owned Neve 8038 desk, which had replaced their old ex PWL SSL 4000G a year before. South To The Sun was recorded by Lisa Fitzgibbon on her own Logic rig between 2014 and 2015. This particular version of This Time was recorded on my Cubase rig at my home in Calne in 2016/17. Talk To Me was written by Dave Barnes and I in Calne in 2014; he provided the initial top-line and the chords and I provided the lyrics.
Again, like No Expectations; there may be some tracks that may be washed through a Gen AI provider to see just how much fairy dust could be sprinkled on them as cover versions – especially where Talk To Me, Without You and Elia are concerned but that isnt a decision that has been taken yet. If and when it does, those versions are likely to be on the Echoes Of Unmade Miles album, when that is done, which is some way into the future.
