Artists' First Impressions

I've always been the frontman in bands, and they've usually been of my creation. After a self-loathingly slack three years in Nottingham, walking into someone else's band was a bit scary. Would I come across as a loser?

I'd been too depressed to even play my guitar after my old band fell to bits because of that wicked mistress geography. Tom hadn't done the same when his old band went bitty. He'd been thinking big.

I'd spoken to him on the phone once before, I think I needed his name for a review of Tom's old band, Dead City Presidents, I did some time ago. But that was it. Out of the blue, a big idea came buzzing out my mobile's earpiece. It wasn't the first invitation I'd had to play with a band in Nottingham, but it was the first I accepted.

I listened to Polymath and fell in love with it, all of it, like I had with DCP. It sounded a bit odd, a bit quirky and a bit beautiful. Lyrically intriguing, musically beguiling, peppered with the kind of promiscuous ambiguity anyone would want to shake a stick at.

I was jealous of the cello. Amy's melodies were intrinsically perfect. There was chemistry in the demos which brimmed with enthusiasm. Meeting them at the studio was a bit odd. I'd forgotten I had a big "Don't be a dick" sticker on my Les Paul.  I should've heeded its words and removed it a while ago, change is good for the soul.

- Ali

  • Lessons Learned
    So it's all over now! About 4-5 months of planning went off with a bang on Sat 3rd May. A huge success and huge fun for everyone involved!
    by Tom Walsh on May 14, 2008 at 10:50:16 AM

  • Adventures in mixing
    A quick talk through the recording process of our debut EP.
    by Tom Walsh on February 11, 2008 at 09:20:10 PM

  • Artists' First Impressions
    I've always been the frontman in bands, and they've usually been of my creation. After a self-loathingly slack three years in Nottingham, walking into someone else's band was a bit scary. Would I come across as a loser?
    by Tom Walsh on November 19, 2007 at 07:07:57 PM

  • Radio Ga-Ga
    Like a kid outside a dreamy sweetshop, I just wanted to press my nose up against the glass in Dean Jackson's BBC studio and peer around the radio station.
    by Tom Walsh on November 19, 2007 at 06:57:14 PM