Chalk Son by Simon Lord

blurb...

The minimalist approach to these recordings is informed by the desire to replicate them easily live with electric guitar and foot controlled drum sampler. A kind of one man band. Though this seems up in the air now.

The slapdash feel is an admission that I will never be that slick and because mistakes, looseness and honesty are what I want to hear at the moment. The airbrushed world of production where everything is edited, tuned and mixed to perfection doesn’t seem in keeping with the feeling of these times.

I’ve been informed by artists like Bo Diddley and Ali Farka Touré where the guitar playing is less about chord changes and complex arrangements and more of a rhythmic tool to create a dynamic space for the song’s story to emerge. Vocally I’m not interested in melodies or finding impressive notes but want the voice to stay in a natural almost conversational position so meaning can emerge in a calm and collected style, no emo, no drama. The lyrics are about what I know, finding enchantment in the everyday, they’re influenced by the likes of Ivor Cutler, Alabaster de Plume and poet Crispin Best.

I don’t think I’m there yet but I feel these songs are another stop on the way to finding out what my own fantastic shit is.