PEDALLING IN
THE FAST LANE

Tracks:   
1) Breathe, 2) Professor Funklove, 3) Love Party, 4) Bendiem Dief, 5) Conspiracy, 6) Good Times, Bad Times, 7) Make Your Move, 8) We Got Married In The Rain, 9) Change, 10) The Mooosefunk, 11) Conspiracy (Choice Cuts vs Masters Of 1 Remix)

The album ‘PEDALLING IN THE FAST LANE’ was originally recorded at Grove Studios in Hove and then finished off at Round The Corner Studio, (01273 609331 www.roundthecorner.co.uk) in Brighton and mastered at the Esselle Beat Co (01273 561900). This album would not have been made without making use of the Brighton Musicians collective spirit where musicians and friends exchange musical favours and help each other out on various projects. I have used around thirty-five of the best local musicians that I am fortunate to call friends. I am very, very grateful for their help.
This album is being released through Big Love Records, a label I have just set up for this project.

-----TRACK INFORMATION----

Tracks 1&2:BREATHE/PROFESSOR FUNKLOVE
Far too many people ignore their intuition and their gut feelings which cuts them off from their higher power resulting in confusion disconnection and fear rather than being happy, connected and in a state of love. This may sound like hippy-shit to some people and I suppose it’s those people that this song is aimed at.

Track 3:LOVE PARTY
The original lyrics to this tune were a bunch of meaningless bollocks and whilst on the anti war demonstration in London in November 2003, I was touched, moved and inspired by the solidarity being demonstrated by the British public in their millions. I realised that through this song I have an opportunity to say something meaningful, to say something from the heart and maybe touch, move and inspire someone somewhere to do something wonderful. I believe that we all possess the capacity within ourselves to do something wonderful everyday of our lives. We just have to choose to do so. The new lyrics were motivated by my participation in the Advanced Course delivered by Landmark Education.

Track 4:BENDIEM DIEF
This song was written during a night of inspiration. As I was going to sleep one evening this gorgeous bassline came bouncing through my mind so I had to get up and write it down. I went back to bed and the horn line came through. Got up again to write that down. Next came the flute line followed by most of the melody. I didn’t get much sleep that night. I presented it to the band I was in at the time and the singer, Laura Borthwick, came up with some lyrics and we gigged the tune quite successfully. However I really wanted some African lyrics to go with the style of the song so years later a group of friends sat around a table with a bottle of wine and we each took it in turn to come up with an African sounding word. We put them together and ‘voila’! the lyrics to this song. (Actually not all the words are made up). The title of the song refers to an item of furniture in the flat we were in made by Lewis ‘The Master’ Punchard, one of the lyric writing group.

Tracks 5&11:CONSPIRACY
Being a devout conspiracy theorist I had to write a song that I hope will give some people cause to think a little deeper about what is going on in the world today and why. The world is, in my view, everyday getting closer to the world depicted by George Orwell in his prophetic book Nineteen Eighty Four written in 1949. For the intro to the song I have therefore included some sound bites from the film Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) [Umbrella-Rosenblum/Virgin Cinema Films] by Michael Radford (starring John Hurt and Richard Burton) including the INGSOC national anthem by (I assume) Domonic Muldowney. The writer of the dialogue over the intro is anonymous but the rest of the dialogue in the rest of the song comes from various sources including the Brighton based direct action newspaper Schnews and a couple of very interesting books 'Abuse Your Illusions' and 'Everything You Know Is Wrong' both edited by Richard Metzger.

Track 6:GOOD TIMES BAD TIMES
Too many times I have been overwhelmed by the dark times and ended up thoroughly depressed, unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel and seemingly unable to extract myself from the negative spiral of self-doubt. This song was written to try and express that life always will be a series up ups and downs, yin and yang if you like and we have to learn to take the rough with the smooth. Every cloud has a silver lining and you have to look on the bright side…[insert as many appropriate clichés as you can think of]. Funnily and obviously enough they are all annoyingly true.

Track 7:MAKE YOUR MOVE
This is another tune that I wrote some time ago when I was living in Leeds. I discovered this chord progression stored in a musical sequencer that I had bought second hand and wrote a melody for it. I have been mulling over various arrangements of it for a while now wondering what to do with it. It was the last tune to be recorded for the album and expresses my love for acapella singing, ska and positivity.

Track 8:WE GOT MARRIED IN THE RAIN
On 1st September 2001 I was privileged to be present at the wedding of my good friends Mella and Lewis. They got married in a little village called Zenner in Cornwall and it was probably one of the most fabulous celebrations I’ve been to. The reception was in a large tent/marquee in the middle of a field complete with a piano that Lewis had transported for the occasion. The food was fantastic as was the atmosphere. Like their relationship (no pressure guys) it was perfect. Even though it was not actually raining the experience inspired me to write this song. It’s as close to jazz as I get these days.

Track 9:CHANGE
A few years ago I was watching television and saw a documentary that was part of the ‘First Tuesday’ series by Yorkshire Television called ‘Cold Blood: The Massacre of East Timor’. [A small country north of Australia] This program depicted how that nation was in the midst of being overrun by Indonesian force and the subsequent genocide that was being perpetrated on its people. The fact that it had not been reported on mainstream news was probably due to the fact that the Indonesian weaponry was being supplied by the UK, US and Australian governments. I was so incensed by the injustice that I wrote a song that night to portray how I felt. The band I was in at the time added it to our set list. I then moved to Leeds to do my degree. While I was there I went to see a homoeopath Anne Gray who subsequently became a friend and invited me to a party at her house. While I was there I noticed that there was an award from Amnesty International on her mantelpiece. Being a member of Amnesty I enquired about what it was for and she told me that her husband Peter Gordon had been awarded it for a documentary that he had made on East Timor together with Max Stahl . It was an amazing experience to meet the man that made the film that inspired me to write the song. A kind of synchronicity I think.
The dialogue in the solo section is John Pilger and comes from the Carlton TV documentary by John Pilger, ‘Death Of A Nation: The Timor Conspiracy’. Although this was not the film that inspired me the clip expresses how I feel and perfectly fitted into the length of the solo section. Synchronicity again methinks.

Track 10:THE MOOOSEFUNK
The inspiration behind the idea of MOOOSE was the growing need in me to play music that I had written that would be great to perform and witness live. MOOOSE [Musical Overload Of Orgasmic Sexual Energy] was not only, in my opinion, a good descriptive name for the project but also portrayed my philosophy that music and life are to be taken on with passion and enjoyed to the full.
This song was written to try and explain both lyrically and musically where this band is coming from.