…Are Still Missing: These songs were written and recorded before the first official Lost Penguinos album ‘When This Is Over – The Lockdown LP’ but the songs sat unfinished on a hard drive for a year.
Written during the snowstorms that hit the UK in 2018, the cover art is a photo I took on a road trip to Derbyshire, the same road trip where most of ‘Come on Baby’ was written. There’s something about driving that unlocks a state of mind where melodies and lyrics flow freely, and the anonymity and safety of the inside of the car allows you a space to belt out ideas into the voice notes section of your phone. From this album on I’ve often used traveling as a time to write songs.
Most tracks on this album arrived in chunks – a lyric or title here or there, maybe a riff. Two stand out as different for polar opposite reasons. I wrote ‘Hope’, built the track completely, then deleted the lead vocal line in search of better lyrics and a better melody. What followed was a long process of going on long walks in Cambridge and the surrounding countryside, listening to the backing track through my phone and trying to write a lead vocal line. I tried a painful process of starting with a rhythm of syllables or certain vowel sounds that felt right in certain places, and then having gaps to fill. This had limited success and had to be scrapped. In the end I knew what was needed – I had to drill down to a single focus and expand from that – the topic of ‘Hope’ came to mind and with that as the focal point the lyrics arrived.
‘Underground Station’ was the complete opposite experience, although it is the combination of both that were the learning curve in this album. Living in a tiny box room at the time, I had to move instruments, books, cables etc onto my bed to make room on the corner desk (about 1m square) for the recording equipment. After spending all of day two in this cramped and messy environment I set the acoustic guitar down next to the bed and it fell against the bed frame – I caught it as it began to slide and it rang out a sort of D chord. Thump-Chang-chang! – The strumming pattern rhythm for the verse leapt into my head and I thought – while I’ve got everything set up I might as well just record that line before I pack everything away and fit the room straight. 10 minutes later all of ‘Underground Station’ had been recorded. I learnt that when the conditions are right the songs arrive.
I sent Steve Corrigan the demos and we met up in Norfolk in his childhood home to record the drums. Most were cut in 1-2 takes with two rented mics. Steve is such a powerhouse drummer that I sat behind him with earplugs in while he played along to the track through the only set of headphones I had at an enormous volume. He nailed the parts and added a flair and flavour that raises the quality of every track.
Find the lyrics and stories behind the songs below: