© JR Discs 2001
Chronicles a short period in the life of a downturn, roughshod tunehead - whose
passion for life and freedom leads him to delve into his past, in a desperate attempt
to break out of the consumer-led lifestyle that has wrapped itself around him.
The songs were recorded over two or three days in July/August 2001, on a Fostex
X-15 multitracker at a private house. It was done totally live, apart from two
overdubs on the title track.
"Originally, the album was going to be called 'Picture Yourself', because I wanted
to try to bridge the gap in time between my teenage 4-track recordings and
these new songs. I had this line of a song in my head, which started "Picture
yourself in the mind of a teenager...", using the same melody as The Beatles' Lucy
in the Sky with Diamonds, because that was one of my favourite songs when I
was growing up. The idea was to ask the listener to try to imagine they were in
the mind of a budding teenage rock star, who then failed to achieve his aspirations
and who now, at the age of thirty, was thinking hard about what went wrong and
was deciding to give it another go."
"At the same time, I was working on another idea to do with 'emotions' and how
much a person actually expresses about what is going on inside their head at
any given time. I came up with this notion that any form of creative product
(including a song) inherently shows something of what had been going on in the
creator's life at the time of making. The idea of producing a 'photocopy' of this
elusive 'mind-emotion' or these 'thoughts' came about because I liked the sheer
challenge of doing something as impossible as that. I also felt that the black
and white, grainy qualities that xeroxing produces would visually mirror the lo-fi
audio production methods that I had used for the recording."
"So, taking my inspiration from the people who photocopy their tits and bums at
office parties, I went on and photocopied my forehead, eyes and nose. I also
did my mouth for the inside cover. As luck would have it, I was working in an
office at the time, and was able to utilise their facilities in this subversive act!
By the way, I would sacrifice anything for my art, but I really wouldn't advise
trying to photocopy your face, as the light could possibly damage your eyes."
"Anyway, I had written the song 'Photocopy of my Mind' by this time; with the
introductory lyrics about being a teenager etc. It suited my purposes to also
put a backwards excerpt of the same song at the end of the album, to take
you back to where you are now."
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