Eggs & Shep Studio

near Lake Yamanaka, Oshino, Yamanashi, Japan

Warmaker came about as a result of the buzz caused by Shaking Hands. My profile in Tokyo rose as a result of the way it came about and on the strength of the first album, a friend of mine called Gareth Monteath, journalist and promoter proposed a deal with the owner of the studio. They would give me down time in their studio, along with their in house recording engineers and I would supply the songs and musicians. They would use their contacts to promote the album and we would split any proceeds. There were not many proceeds to get excited about in the end but it was a dream to be recording in this residential state of the art studio. The sessions were as and when they had some down time and therefore a little disconnected. The engineers and producers only spoke Japanese. These made for challenges along the way but there are some tracks I absolutely love on this. All of them except one were based on live recordings as guide tracks, except for one “News For The Deaf’ which was recorded with a metronome. The idea was to concentrate on the feel. My favourite track on this is “In The Corner’ which I recorded with Andy Matsukami on Djembe and Ogata Keijiro on bass, live in studio 1, to which we added some overdubs. Of further note is the guitar solo I have ever recorded on New For The Deaf, of which i am very proud (mostly). I will never get over the excitement and joy I felt at having the chance to work in such a special place. As you recorded you could see Mr Fuji rising beyond the tree tops of the surrounding forest through the sound proof glass

Listening back to this album today I hear many things I would change if I had the chance. Unfortunately the master tapes remain with Inoue San, the owner who you can hear playing organ on ‘Orphan’, a track he particularly enjoyed. This track is the only one that had an actual producer on, someone whose job is to interpret, hone and polish a track to a professional standard. Stephen McKnight.

The album was completed a year or two before my seven year stay in Japan came to an end. It features also a photo of my new born son George on the actual CD, a portent that my life was about to change again.