I love this city / I met a lot of nice people here
So sings CHRIS TYE on his debut album SOMEWHERE DOWN THE LINE. The city in question is Birmingham, guardian of the Midlands, Englands proud second city and Chris home town. The song is Come Undone, one of eight tracks on what is a startlingly honest offering from a young man who is both shy and confident in equal measures; who smiles yet who holds back, and a man with a lot to say yet preferring and indeed able to convey his thoughts with words so carefully thought out you wonder if every conversation is scripted in his head far in advance. When he does speak you feel drawn to listen. Its a talent that translates well to his songwriting, as people who have heard the record are starting to attest. I love the strings on this track, says Tye thoughtfully as Come Undone plays in the background. I recorded the guitar and vocal live and we added the viola and cello afterwards. He pauses. The song is about reaching a point where change is the only thing that can save you in this case a change of town going home. We all need to go home from time to time. Its probably the most straightforward emotionally raw track on the album.
Thats quite a sweeping statement. On first listen its difficult to know whether to agree with him or try and talk him round on one of the other songs. The album opener Joanne an ode to first love was one of the first songs Chris ever wrote. Joanne was instant and very quick to write, he explains. Its mainly about the process of breaking up with a girlfriend called Joanne. He smiles, acknowledging the inevitability of the subject matter. It has been recorded probably more times than any of my other songs. The version that appears on the album was recorded completely live in a black room lit by a very dim red bulb. He pauses, remembering. Plenty of red wine. Late at night. All the tracks from this session were recorded late. It was the only time the studio was available.
The themes of home and change raised in Joanne are prevalent throughout the album. The wandering through the mirrors with a half empty cup line in Electric Tracks is a reference to drifting through a hallway of mirrors at a nightclub called Snobs with a half finished beer. Anyone who has been anywhere near Birmingham at night will know it. Metaphorically too, I was being very reflective that day. Moving out of a negative mindset involving the previous song! Another chuckle. Its a positive message. Its about finding new things appreciating life. I recorded a nice little banjo part over the end of this song. I was listening to a lot of Ryan Adams Gold at the time.
We talk about influences and where the album comes from. I found an old acoustic under my parents bed when I was a kid. It was so out of tune but my dad used to teach me the old Zeppelin riffs. I would sit with a microphone in front of the sound hole so I could play through the stereo. And there it might have stayed had a friend not leant him John Martyns Solid Air. I was hooked, he confesses. I fell in love with that whole image of cool hair & a brown Martin guitar. It was a world that drew him in and through Nick Drake, Richie Havens and Bob Dylan he learnt to sing and to write. It gave him a musical philosophy. A couple of chords, really letting the melody breathe over the top nice brown corduroy sounds, and his own songs started to develop. I was listening to a lot of Van Morrison when I wrote Like Wild Fire. Its my favourite track on the record. But Ive never played it live.
We digress onto his endless search for obscure Ed Harcourt bootlegs; how the early morning is his favourite time of day (I see things more clearly. Im definitely more optimistic in the morning); he extols the virtues of a Californian singer/songwriter he has just discovered on MySpace called Ferraby Lionheart (youve really got to check him out, hes so good), and then I ask Chris about how, and where, his own album was conceived. Making Bombs was recorded on live a balcony overlooking railway bridges and the Birmingham skyline. Same time as Electric Tracks and Slow Sad Swing Song. The only song that was recorded separately was Beautiful Morning which we just did on New Years Eve in the corner of a drunken, crowded room at my friends house. I really like the electric guitar in the middle interlude on that track.
What shines through other than a real love for the music he plays, is an overriding sense of home, and of belonging. How the album was recorded in a studio in Birmingham he has known since he started. How happy he was when a local singer (shes fantastic) called Jayne Powell agreed to sing backing vocals on Like Wild Fire. How the violin part in Slow Sad Swing Song was played by a friend from the Birmingham Conservatoire, and how he vividly remembers running out of work at a DIY shop and all the way home to finish Sidesteps. Its the feeling of being stuck in a job you hate for 9 hours a day while the ideas in your head literally bubble up and overflow. Sidesteps was very satisfying to write and it all fell out quite naturally. I dont mind saying / You people keep me from running dry he sings in Come Undone. You cant help but recall the old saying you can take the man out of Birmingham but you cant take Birmingham out of the man.
Taking the man out of Birmingham, though, looks like its already happening. A chance airing of Joanne at a party was enough to set off the chain of events leading to the eventual release of the Somewhere Down The Line album. Guy Massey (Spiritualized, the Manics, The Bees, etc.) heard some of the album demos and the 2 decamped to a London studio to start work on the follow up album with the rest of Chris band. The sessions were fast and passionate, recording in mainly live takes. There are real pop songs in there according to people who have heard them. Stephen Fretwell was in the studio after us and he came down & added vocals on a song I wrote called All There. And in between all the writing theres the touring. Sometimes with the band, sometimes on his own. Silencing the room at King Tuts in Glasgow is no mean feat for one man and a guitar. But I think he relished the challenge.
I guess at the end of it all this record is just a series of statements documenting how I became a songwriter. That pause again, longer than usual, and I look back down at my notes and the lyrics to the record weve been listening to. Found a room to be me in / Found a room where I can be myself I had underlined on Come Undone. On the strength of an album like Somewhere Down The Line its not a room Chris Tye will be able to hide in for much longer.
So sings CHRIS TYE on his debut album SOMEWHERE DOWN THE LINE. The city in question is Birmingham, guardian of the Midlands, Englands proud second city and Chris home town. The song is Come Undone, one of eight tracks on what is a startlingly honest offering from a young man who is both shy and confident in equal measures; who smiles yet who holds back, and a man with a lot to say yet preferring and indeed able to convey his thoughts with words so carefully thought out you wonder if every conversation is scripted in his head far in advance. When he does speak you feel drawn to listen. Its a talent that translates well to his songwriting, as people who have heard the record are starting to attest. I love the strings on this track, says Tye thoughtfully as Come Undone plays in the background. I recorded the guitar and vocal live and we added the viola and cello afterwards. He pauses. The song is about reaching a point where change is the only thing that can save you in this case a change of town going home. We all need to go home from time to time. Its probably the most straightforward emotionally raw track on the album.
Thats quite a sweeping statement. On first listen its difficult to know whether to agree with him or try and talk him round on one of the other songs. The album opener Joanne an ode to first love was one of the first songs Chris ever wrote. Joanne was instant and very quick to write, he explains. Its mainly about the process of breaking up with a girlfriend called Joanne. He smiles, acknowledging the inevitability of the subject matter. It has been recorded probably more times than any of my other songs. The version that appears on the album was recorded completely live in a black room lit by a very dim red bulb. He pauses, remembering. Plenty of red wine. Late at night. All the tracks from this session were recorded late. It was the only time the studio was available.
The themes of home and change raised in Joanne are prevalent throughout the album. The wandering through the mirrors with a half empty cup line in Electric Tracks is a reference to drifting through a hallway of mirrors at a nightclub called Snobs with a half finished beer. Anyone who has been anywhere near Birmingham at night will know it. Metaphorically too, I was being very reflective that day. Moving out of a negative mindset involving the previous song! Another chuckle. Its a positive message. Its about finding new things appreciating life. I recorded a nice little banjo part over the end of this song. I was listening to a lot of Ryan Adams Gold at the time.
We talk about influences and where the album comes from. I found an old acoustic under my parents bed when I was a kid. It was so out of tune but my dad used to teach me the old Zeppelin riffs. I would sit with a microphone in front of the sound hole so I could play through the stereo. And there it might have stayed had a friend not leant him John Martyns Solid Air. I was hooked, he confesses. I fell in love with that whole image of cool hair & a brown Martin guitar. It was a world that drew him in and through Nick Drake, Richie Havens and Bob Dylan he learnt to sing and to write. It gave him a musical philosophy. A couple of chords, really letting the melody breathe over the top nice brown corduroy sounds, and his own songs started to develop. I was listening to a lot of Van Morrison when I wrote Like Wild Fire. Its my favourite track on the record. But Ive never played it live.
We digress onto his endless search for obscure Ed Harcourt bootlegs; how the early morning is his favourite time of day (I see things more clearly. Im definitely more optimistic in the morning); he extols the virtues of a Californian singer/songwriter he has just discovered on MySpace called Ferraby Lionheart (youve really got to check him out, hes so good), and then I ask Chris about how, and where, his own album was conceived. Making Bombs was recorded on live a balcony overlooking railway bridges and the Birmingham skyline. Same time as Electric Tracks and Slow Sad Swing Song. The only song that was recorded separately was Beautiful Morning which we just did on New Years Eve in the corner of a drunken, crowded room at my friends house. I really like the electric guitar in the middle interlude on that track.
What shines through other than a real love for the music he plays, is an overriding sense of home, and of belonging. How the album was recorded in a studio in Birmingham he has known since he started. How happy he was when a local singer (shes fantastic) called Jayne Powell agreed to sing backing vocals on Like Wild Fire. How the violin part in Slow Sad Swing Song was played by a friend from the Birmingham Conservatoire, and how he vividly remembers running out of work at a DIY shop and all the way home to finish Sidesteps. Its the feeling of being stuck in a job you hate for 9 hours a day while the ideas in your head literally bubble up and overflow. Sidesteps was very satisfying to write and it all fell out quite naturally. I dont mind saying / You people keep me from running dry he sings in Come Undone. You cant help but recall the old saying you can take the man out of Birmingham but you cant take Birmingham out of the man.
Taking the man out of Birmingham, though, looks like its already happening. A chance airing of Joanne at a party was enough to set off the chain of events leading to the eventual release of the Somewhere Down The Line album. Guy Massey (Spiritualized, the Manics, The Bees, etc.) heard some of the album demos and the 2 decamped to a London studio to start work on the follow up album with the rest of Chris band. The sessions were fast and passionate, recording in mainly live takes. There are real pop songs in there according to people who have heard them. Stephen Fretwell was in the studio after us and he came down & added vocals on a song I wrote called All There. And in between all the writing theres the touring. Sometimes with the band, sometimes on his own. Silencing the room at King Tuts in Glasgow is no mean feat for one man and a guitar. But I think he relished the challenge.
I guess at the end of it all this record is just a series of statements documenting how I became a songwriter. That pause again, longer than usual, and I look back down at my notes and the lyrics to the record weve been listening to. Found a room to be me in / Found a room where I can be myself I had underlined on Come Undone. On the strength of an album like Somewhere Down The Line its not a room Chris Tye will be able to hide in for much longer.
Acoustic Easy listening