Huge thanks to the full crew:
Kai Carter (clarinet / guitar / banjo),
Joe Mansfield (violin / viola),
Bill Frampton (double bass),
and Matt McNicholas (drums).

Can’t wait to share this new music with you soon!

On Wednesday the 15th, producer Biff Roxby and I put together an ambitious plan: record all the core band parts in just four days. And I’m very happy to say… we absolutely smashed it

The song I’m playing here is “Benevolent Hypocrite” — the track we chose to kick off these sessions. I wrote it between 2010–2012, so it’s one of the older pieces in this batch. I’ve played for years, sometimes as an alternate opener when rooms are quiet… so it felt like the right one to begin with

Biff Roxby’s plugging everything in, Matt McNicholas is poised at the drum kit, Kai Carter’s ready at his station, and Bill Frampton is somewhere just out of frame!

Had a super productive day setting up and making preparations. It feels great to be creating again — and to be back in my native Manchester for a few days too.

Also, a kid on a bike in Irlam told me I look French. 🇫🇷 I’ll take it.

This was the very first time Bill Frampton (double bass) and I played it together.
I’m on acoustic guitar in DADDAE tuning — here’s the instrumental intro as it begins to grow

I’m on guitar (in BEBEBE tuning — yes, really!), with Joe Mansfield on strings and Kai Carter on clarinet.
The song’s all about renewal and river restoration — this is where it begins to lift

Joe Mansfield and Kai Carter have worked some magic on strings and clarinet here. 🪄✨ This is taken from the middle of the chorus, through to the end of that section, from a new song I wrote, "I Was Not Dwelling in Darkness". Captured during our rehearsal on Friday 26th September

Here's the intro to a new song I wrote, "I Was Not Dwelling in Darkness" - with a beautiful clarinet and strings arrangement that Kai and Joe have worked on. I was blown away with how they've transformed this song!