The album’s finally mastered. Aka, it’s done, finalised, actually complete!

I know, you’re most likely thinking, this album, “Solip”? Wasn’t that made years ago? Well, we started recording it well and truly ages ago – in the dreaded plague times, actually. We started with a bit of funding, too. And blew through that in the studio, with the recording of the band, taking mere days, then, the mixing, and constant little additions, on my part, slowly adding on-top of our cascading tower of sound, until the shaky mass stood before us, full of ungodly, homemade percussion parts made of tin, glass and pennies precariously held together by string.

Tobias Tinker, my wonderful trumpet, accordion, and keys player – loved what Cameron Laing did with the mix, but, thought we lost some of the grit of the album in the initial masters we produced with a fancy California based master engineer.

He was right!

So, Tobias basically learned the art of mastering, just for this album, and mastered the whole album, including re-mastering the original single. This took a while, and I finally got the last of them last week. I rearranged the track list, and, there is was, a finished cohesive whole! That sounds, oddly enough, like the thing I originally heard in my head, years ago writing it.

I have an album on my hands, that sounds like what I imagined, not, what I settled for. The instruments are just right, the voice is manic where it needs to be, and it’s been so long since we started it, I can listen to it with fresh ears enough to go: oh dear, this is far too mental, isn’t it?

Yes, it is. But, that was the point.

An album of mania, that doesn’t shy away from the madness of life at present.

Tis fitting of the times. That’s how I took it in, anyway.

Now, I’m in chats with PR people – some saying, it’s a bit too mental, and others saying “maybe we can sell the folkier stuff on it.”

To be honest, regardless of whether they can sell it or not, it’ll be four more grand I don’t have.

Suffice to say, it’ll most likely be an independent release.

I’m looking into making vinyls at the mo, and there’s a great spot in Estonia, Kaarel of Viktor’s Joy has got me onto – that has a good price, a great quality end result.

If you’re interested in a vinyl, let me know, as I’ll only make a bunch if I know I can earn back the production costs, but, as the album comes in at exactly 44 mins (the max for a single vinyl), I kind of think I half to.

Here’s a live release of an upcoming single, Fell in Front of Trouble, to wet your whistle. I just finished the edit last night. Thanks for reading! If you want to hear a pre-release of the album, just write.

All the love,

Conor