The deeper I get into this project, the closer I get to something that has been eluding me from the outset: how the overall feel of the record should be. The songs and voice are there, so all I should essentially have to do is press record. But the stuff that Bec and I have been discussing for each track have been much more ambitious... a sparse, barren landscape with an occasional splash of lush colour... at times dry and warm, a vintage aesthetic, with rough edges kept in the mix (albeit discreetly in the background)... interesting sounds. I'm still trying to nail down a definitive definition. St. James' Infirmary Revisted is the closest I've got to this sound so far: a combination of mellotron, sax and choral effects skirting the periphery of the song itself, with hours spent paring down anything unnecessary. Agonising whether I'm over cooking it, drowning things out. Reminds me of doing Sinead and Ode. All it needs now is the percussion, for which I am going to have to find some chains. Heavy, slave ship ones.