Spottiswoode to release album "I Have So Many Friends" on August 1st
Spottiswoode Unplugged or Spottiswoode Unhinged?
I HAVE SO MANY FRIENDS is an enchanting potpourri of greatest hits and newer songs recorded acoustically in extremis.
I’m standing tip-toed on an abandoned German lavatory holding a ten foot long branch. My arms are squeezed through a tiny crack in the window. Two large men hold my waist to make sure I don’t come a cropper. One of them is a virtuoso guitarist, the other a double bass player/part-time scuba instructor. My arms are burning. I keep swishing them back and forth in the hope that the twigs at the end of the branch will somehow hook onto a keychain on the mixing console. How did it come to this?
When Matti Müller tells me he can get us a weekend of free studio time in Germany I’m skeptical. I live in London. My partner has just had a baby. Plus half the songs Matti suggests we track I’ve already recorded before with my Enemies in New York. “But you need to make an unplugged album!” “Are you sure it’s free?” “Yes! And Achim is a great engineer!” I’ve never met Achim.
I bid farewell to my exhausted partner and fly to Berlin accompanied by an exuberant double bassist. After a few gigs with Matti and a beautiful Berlin siren we make our way to Hildesheim for the recording; the real justification for the trip. The mythical Achim isn’t there. Family problems. Matti finds a last minute replacement, a university student who only knows how to use ProTools. The studio’s operating system is Cubase. After five or six wasted hours we only have time to track a couple of tunes. I pick the angrier ones. Why the hell have I left my family for this?
The next morning’s session is relatively stress-free. If we’re efficient we might still be able to track enough for a full album. Matti prepares a picnic lunch in the sunshine. We wolf down our sandwiches and hurry back to the studio only to discover… we’re locked out.
Frantic telephone calls are made to strangers called Heinz and Gunter in the hopes of corralling an extra set of keys. At times like this I usually curl into a ball of self-pity but something in the sauerkraut brings out my inner superhero. I sprint to the woods, forage for the aforementioned ten foot pole with twigs attached, march back to the studio window, discover a disused toilet, clamber on top, zoom in on the keys on the mixing console and summon the spirit of my Norwegian fishermen ancestors.
Life is made of such triumphs. Music is just a bonus.
I HAVE SO MANY FRIENDS will be released digitally on all platforms on August 1st. The supporting UK tour includes sets at the Twinwood Festival and London’s Green Note.
