Teusner, O'Toole and myself went into Sun Studios in Dublin with Paul Thomas in October 2002 to try out a few ideas. That two day session resulted in "I Don't Know You Anymore", Nowhere Fast," "Feel It In My Bones," and one that didn't make it onto the album, "The Sharpest Tooth".  Some overdubs were laid down at Paul's crazy old Dickensian  run-down house along the banks of the Grand Canal. On wet days the rain would run down the walls in the hallway, and the staircase had rotted away badly, so you had to tread carefully when venturing upstairs for a leak. I felt very at-home in that house.  

During times of confusion and/or fatigue we would take a ramble to the nearby Harold House for reasonably priced pints of Guinness. Paul, a raconteur extraordinaire, would tell me all the latest gossip from the U2 folks. He had worked on 3 of their albums and still has contacts within their camp. Due to litigation based paranoia, I cannot share with you these tales.....but my favourite (non U2 story) concerns a very famous movie director who was on the receiving end of a few slaps recently because of his disrespect for a certain charity. Can't say who hit him but I had met this movie mogul a few years back, when I was trying to hussle one of my songs into one of his movies, and he was arrogant and ignorant....and so was his personal assistant. So, I was heartened to hear the little shit had one of his ribs cracked.

Vinny O' Connor called over to play piano. Paul wasn't happy with the sound we were getting , so we ended up trying out an old Fender Rhodes piano that was gathering dust in the corner. It happened to belong to Ronnie Woods from The Stones, and it sounded great. Apparently Ronnie is looking for it back.
Another 3 day acoustic session yielded the bones of "Don't Believe What They're Saying," which is the closing track on the album. Also "Roll The Dice," which saw the light of day as the B side of the "I Don't Know..." single. Songs recorded at this time that haven't been released are "Down On The Ground," "You Make Me Feel" and the original version of "Under Blazing Midday Sun."

I rang Paul Gleeson to help out with sorting out some other sessions. Most of the material that had been stored on a Roland VS80 digital machine . Of about 10 songs, we scrapped 8, cos they sounded shite, but "I Can't Go On But I Will" turned out great. However it didn't make it onto the album  because (a) it didn't fit in with the over-all sound, and (b) I was a bit concerned about the legal implications of using a Bobby Womack sample. It's most likely Mr. Womack's publishers would want a few grand up-front for use of the sample, and i don't have that kind of spare cash lying around. Hopefully someday, it will get a release. Cian Loughnane who had toured with us arrived down to add fiddle and mandolin to "Never Did, Never Will," and it works great along side Bill Whelan's precise banjo.

January 2003, we were back in Sun Studios where we lashed out the remaining  7 or 8 songs. By this time, Mr. Thomas had re-located his operation to rooms over The Cobblestone pub in Smithfield Market. Foxy Murphy called over to do his bit, as did Swifty, Fi, and Åsa. Carl Harms dropped in and played lap steel and Brian fixed the bass parts on "Trouble." We tried out a few other songs from scratch, recording in the venue next door...songs like "She Drives Me Mad" and "Under Blazing Midday Sun," but they were eventually shelved. I got my hands on a Boss BR11 80 digital recorder and we got lots of work done at home....vocals, guitar parts etc. Mixing took forever, but all the hassle was worth it, and in between sessions I got to see some great gigs over at The Cobblestone and suffered the occasional black-out. According to my old diary, I spent 20 days with Mr. Thomas over a 10 month period getting parts down, mixing, re-recording. Then there were sessions over at Vinny's place, at home, with Alan Gleeson, but eventually we got it down. Fergal Davis mastered the record in Apollo, and all along there was the never-ending hussle to get labels interested.  So, after all this time, we hope you like the record. See you soon.

Eamonn