What do you recall about the ideas and emotions that inspired the
songs on Organisation
?
Photo: Trevor Key
Organisation was, for me, a transitional album. It was a record which
reflected Andy and myself coming to terms with the fact that at the age of
20, and having spent all of our teen years wondering what kind of a career
we were heading towards, all of a sudden we were 'professional' musicians!
Also, after the previous album OMITD
had featured pretty much all of the
best songs we had ever written to that date, we were all of a sudden
confronted with a blank page and something new called a DEADLINE! Which at
first was a very scary prospect. Fortunately for us, Andy had written a song
called Enola Gay
the making of the first album but it wasn't ready in
time to include on OMITD! We at least knew that we had a potential first
single from the outset which I think helped calm the nerves!
Why didn't you want to record the entire album in the Gramophone Suite?
Organisation was initially written and 'partially' recorded in the Gramophone
Suite but the bulk of the recording was done at a residential studio called
Ridge Farm.
What was it like working with Mike Howlett?
I loved what Mike had done with Messages
on the previous album and I think
he was a really good producer. I think however, in our early days
particularly, we were so opinionated about what we wanted to sound like , it
was sometimes hard to accommodate an 'outsiders' ideas and perspective.
Which probably made it harder for him working with us, rather that us
working with him!
Promise
was the first song you had written without Andy, and also your debut on lead vocal. Can you explain a little bit about how Promise came about?
Photo: Kevin Cummins
Andy had written a couple of songs without me, so Promise
was kind of an
experiment to see what would happen if I wrote a song without Andy for the
first time. Also I had been singing back up vocals on the OMITD album and in
live performance so we thought perhaps it would be interesting to have a
song with me on lead that would also serve to add another dimension and
variation to our sound.
Was Promise ever considered as a possible single?
Not that I remember.
Were you happy with the songs on Organisation?
I was generally pleased with the song writing on the album. For me, I think
that Stanlow
was its finest moment and an obvious precursor to the more
grandiose sound of Architecture & Morality
.
Motion And Heart
was re-recorded as a possible second single. Why was the decision taken to shelve this?
We felt then, as I still think now, that as much as I like Motion And Heart
and others, Enola Gay was the only single on the album.
How do you feel about the album today? Do you think that it stands up to the
test of time?
I do think that, with the exception of The More I See You
, it stands up
well against the test of time. It was an album I don't think we expected to make. We always kept thinking from OMITD onward that every album would be the last.
The most wonderful thing I find with all music, is that you attach time and
events of your life to specific songs in that when you hear them you are
instantly transported to a specific place in time. When I hear Organisation,
I'm instantly transported back to a time of transition (as I referred to in
the first question) for both myself and Andy when I think it finally sunk
in. Wow!, a career in music!! Who would of thought!!
