Strike To Ignite

I had been wanting to record another album for some time following the release of my debut album, Into Being, which first came out in 2009 and was later remastered in 2015. Since then, I’ve released several EPs and live albums, mostly in digital format with some physical releases, but I felt ready to complete another full-length studio album.

The idea for this album began in 2018, when fellow songwriter 8 Ball Aitken planted the seed of recording in Nashville. While Australia is home to an incredible pool of talent, the idea of heading to the USA really excited me, and I’d been looking for an excuse to return for a while. The next step was to save as much money as possible to make the trip happen, so I played every gig I could, taught wherever possible, and lived on very little to make enough to get over to the USA.

My plan was to record the rhythm parts in Nashville and then bring the sessions back to Australia to finish at home. We booked two days at Michael Flanders’ studio in Nashville, where we tracked the beds for twelve songs. The days were long but incredibly fun, working alongside such talented and experienced players and producers. After that, I brought the sessions back to Australia and set up a recording space underneath my mum’s house, where I continued tracking. Some songs had a clear sense of where their production needed to go, while others left me completely stuck and unsure how to finish them. Along the way, I met people who would later become essential collaborators in finishing the album.