Most of the songs were composed during a few months of fervent creativity when I moved to Australia in 2003. I’d been working with lyricists Tom Green (Twice its Weight in Gold) and Aidan Matthews (Star). Then I found myself a long way from home with a piano, a few months to spare and my beloved wife out at film school, and these songs just started coming out, lyrics and all - I didn’t have much choice! I knew I needed a big, decent voice to do the songs justice, so i teamed up with lush British vocalist Emma Lewendon. I first heard Emma sing back in the UK when she was with the contemporary folk trio Kai and I was blown away by the full, warm tone and beauty of her voice. What I didn’t realise at the time was how versatile a performer she is: far from being a folk music specialist, she’s equally at home with jazz, pop and music-theatre. When I found out through our mutual friend, English composer Richard Leigh, that Emma was coming to Sydney for six months, I knew I had to get her to sing these songs. In choosing the other musicians I was really influenced by the sound on Jamie Cullum’s first album. I wanted jazz players who could help create that same warm, natural sound of quality pop songs with jazz instrumentation. Dave Ellis (bass) and Lawrie Thompson (drums) fitted the roles perfectly, and there was some fantastic solo work from Graham Jesse (flute) and Peter Kartu (trumpet) on a couple of tracks. I don't like to say too much about the songs themselves. They're mostly pretty personal, but I hope people can find their own point of contact. I found on the occasions I tried to tell Emma exactly what a song meant to me she gave me a kind of look and I felt I was intruding...so i just let it go. One song, maybe, is worth explaining: Bird with the Burning Wings was inspired by a story from the partition of India. In a particular city many people kept pigeons on their rooftops, but so many houses were burning that the birds had nowhere to rest and they had to keep flying, but their wings had caught fire with all the fighting, so they were flying with burning wings and nowhere to rest. **************************************** Emma Lewendon – vocals, backing vocals Todd McNeal – piano, keyboards Dave Ellis – acoustic bass, electric bass Lawrie Thompson – drums Graham Jesse – flute on Black Dog and Star Peter Kartu – trumpet on Star Produced by Todd McNeal Recorded and mixed by Michael Bartolomei at One Chook Studio, Bondi Mastered by Albert Zychowski at Sony DADC Mastering, Huntingwood Art Direction & Design by Kathleen Woolford Photography by Jedda Bradley