Not Fade Away - 18 years in the making

Not Fade Away was originally released in 2006 on Rough Trade Records. As the record was being made there were rumours going around the music industry that Rough Trade was about to lose its financial backing and despite reassurances from the label that this wasn't the case I had a gnawing feeling that for the third record running something was going to scupper my album getting a proper international release. It felt like my last chance on a big label with proper financial support and international reach, something that ultimately proved to be true. My personal life was also a complete mess and general confidence was at an all-time low. It was the first time in my life where the sacred space of making music had been invaded by these kinds of fears and outside forces, it was a dark time looking back now and I guess that comes through pretty loud and clear in the lyrics. In spite of all this I have many treasured memories from the making of the album - Recording with Romeo and Michelle of The Magic Numbers in Woodstock at the famous Big Pink house the day after being to one of Levon Helm's famous Midnight Ramble parties which featured an all-star cast including Emmylou Harris singing Evangeline with Levon for the first time since The Band's Last Waltz. We even got to use the piano played on Bob Dylan's 'I Shall Be Released'! Working with Cardigans producer Tore Jonhansson in Malmo on Up To You and Sleep had some real moments of magic as did the recordings with my good friends Karl Odlum and Jimmy Eadie and drummer Graham Hopkins at Black Box Studios in France. Chipping away in the attic of my flat on the canal in Dublin on synths and overdubs and recording my old school friend Paul G. Smyth playing piano at The Church studios in London. A lot of credit has to go to Karl for really pulling me through as both a co-producer on the tracks and as friend and confidante at the time. At a time when confidence was so low he dragged a lot of good work out of me and helped remind me of what I was capable of and his skills and talents as producer/arranger/musician were essential to this record coming together and its best bits working so well. I really couldn't have done it without him.

Surely enough, shortly after the release of the record it was announced that Rough Trade had lost its financial backing and that incarnation of the label went under, meaning that my record didn't get a proper release in Europe or America and barely had any support in the U.K.. I was pretty devastated. I had spent two years making it and at the time I thought it was a really strong record. I had received a decent publishing advance and i threw most of it into making a ridiculously expensive music video(capturing for eternity a pretty shocking hair day) and promoting the record in Ireland where it did pretty well and was pretty well-received but it marked the end of that phase of my career and that approach to making records - traipsing around the world in fancy studios with a generous budget. Not Fade Away cost close to 80.000 pounds which is crazy to think nowadays. It's important to express gratitude to Geoff Travis and Rough Trade for giving me back my masters considering the financial debt I owe them. This doesn't happen with the likes of Warner Brothers!

When I got the rights to the record back 6 or 7 years ago I starting thinking about how to approach the reissue. There was a lot I loved about the record but I never loved it as a whole. At times my writing was below par or production wise I wise trying too hard or just off the mark and trying to fit too many ideas into one track. Of all my releases it was the only one that i would change given the chance and now I had that opportunity. I was very conscious of what the record meant to other people, so many people over the years have told me how it had helped them get through difficult breakups and tough times in their lives. I wanted to make sure I preserved what was special about it but make it flow better and trim off all the fat. At one point I thought maybe I should just use the album as material to sample and make a brand new thing but that would have been foolish and time-consuming and disappointing for a lot of fans waiting for a faithful re-issue. There were two tracks in particular that I thought were just plain weak so they were ditched. Say No More has been re-recorded to fit the flow of the record better and features a middle 8 that I wrote on the album tour after the record's original release. There's also a brand new song called Love Someone Else featuring Niamh Regan. The record really needed to empty out more in terms of drums/percussion and it needed something different emotionally. One of the great things about making records for as long as I've been making them is that when there's a problem to solve some part of your mind is always active, whirring away, unconsciously trying to solve the puzzle and Love Someone Else presented itself during peak Covid times when there were many overlaps with the emotional landscape that this record came out of and I knew straight away I had the last piece of the jigsaw. It was exactly what the album needed.

The new version of Say No More was recorded with Graham Hopkins who played most the drums on the original record and features backing vocals from Annie Tierney who sang on the original and her brother Mick of Republic of Loose and Mick Pyro fame. Niamh's vocals were recorded at Sonic Studios in Stoneybatter using a ribbon microphone that Sinéad O'Connor had used several times. It was shortly after she had passed away which added some magic to that session.

18 years after its initial release I finally have a version of the record I really love available on vinyl for the first time through Dublin Vinyl who will be releasing the bulk of my back catalogue
over the next few years. There are many reasons to be cheerful.

EDIT... 12 hours hours after writing this Dublin Vinyl went into liquidation. Pretty much the worst imaginable timing. Maybe this record is cursed! Everything was set up after months of planning and massive expense to press go last Wednesday. I have yet to receive any concrete information on the matter from Dublin Vinyl, complete radio silence and it's safe to assume none of our plans will be coming to fruition. I am now busy trying to find a solution to keep the vinyl re-issue alive. Dublin Vinyl were looking after production costs as part of our deal so this is something I now have to cover myself. I've decided to release the tracks exclusively through bandcamp ahead of the official digital release on May 24 to help raise the necessary funds and do this completely independently. There has been an amazing response from unexpected corners of the music community and it's looking like we can still make that May 24 release date. Stay tuned!