After our initial introduction, Younee and I began writing together as she sent me a number of songs to consider. I was struck by her emotive and catchy melodies and her wide stylistic tastes. I chose two songs and began conceiving lyrical ideas. |
| My choice of musicians for the album was based on wanting people of the highest order. I have worked with keyboard artist Richard Cottle for over a quarter of a century. His credits include work with David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Trevor Horn, Alan Parsons, Eric Clapton, Seal… and many more! I knew that Hammond Organ would be a perfect compliment to Younee's piano, and Richard plays the organ like the Marquis De Sade played his! Richard is also the hippest programmer I know, as evidenced by his brilliant arrangement of Tomorrow Today. On drums, Gary Husband is another genius I'm proud to call an old friend. The overused word 'genius' is totally justified here. He has played drums with Level 42, Jack Bruce, Alan Holdsworth and John McLaughlin AND keyboards and piano with Randy Brecker, Billy Cobham… and John McLaughlin! His compositions are deeply emotional and full of energy and surprises. Rob Rickenberg is a member of that small group of guys who play both acoustic and electric bass beautifully. One of the most respected and in-demand bassists in Britain, all I can say is that this truly lovely fellow has unerring taste! |
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| Richard Niles, Younee, Richard Cottle, Rob Rickenberg, Gary Husband & Ben Fenner |
I chose myself as guitarist for this project when I saw how well I fit into the budget! I can't praise our engineer Ben Fenner enough. This guy has changed my life. A great musician with great ears, he is the Segovia of studiocraft. He makes everything sound phenomenal and makes everyone in the studio feel the way everything sounds!! He even lets me play his guitars! To know him is to adore him. The Songs True To You was written in my studio when Younee came to London to record the first two tracks (East-West and What Can I Do). I showed Younee a hip little shuffle piano pattern and she started singing a hip little melody. Then I started thinking about how she rejected 'fitting in' to the Korean image of a female pop singer, and how I had always been unreasonably individual. As Dr. Niles in my degree classes, I urge my students to reject the conformity of youth. I often use Frank J. Giblin's famous quote, “Be yourself. Who else is better qualified?” The message is the message of Imagine and the message of Buddha and Bob Dylan and lots of other hip cats I can't think of right now. Also featured here are Derek Watkins on trumpets (the guy played lead trumpet on most of the Earth Wind & Fire tracks you know) and the phenomenon that is Nigel Hitchcock on saxophones. East-West was an idea that occurred to me immediately because, DUH!, she is a 'chick from Korea' who wanted to make her career in the West. I used a similar methodology used by many gospel songs with lyrics that could be about a personal relationship or the singer's relationship with God. This could be about a romantic relationship with a man, but it is also about Younee's relationship as an Asian with the West. Coming from a serious classical background I knew Younee absolutely loved the songs of songwriter/pianists such as Elton John, Donnie Hathaway, Leon Rusell and Carole King. The very first lyric I thought of (after I had the title) was “I hear Bach playin' delta rock”. The fact that these contrasts of east/west, classical/blues, ballads/rock lived so happily together in the same person was impressive. The meaning of the song (and indeed of Younee as an artist) is crystallized in the lyrics “opposites excite” and “somehow it seems to fit”. As unfashionable as it is in our culture, morality has always been important to me. I don't care WHAT a person's morals are, but I believe it's essential to have them. Wrong Ain't Right says that however you slice it, however you “nice” it, wrong ain't right! I then wrote a story of star-crossed lovers for our amoral Millenium - Cathy overdosing in her bathroom and Johnny realizing that being a drug dealer is not all it's cracked up to be! If the groove sounds too much like Steely Dan, I say “sue me if I play too long”. And I wrote the “conquistador” instrumental as a hommage to Chick Corea from our chick from Korea. She plays the crap out of the piano doesn't she? Some great quirky noises from Mr. Cottle too. Home To You is a beautiful Younee melody. Anyone who has had to spend time away from their loved ones (soldiers, salesmen and travelling musicians) will get the lyric. I'm The One You Want is another American groove with another story of separation - this time from the point of view of the one who stays home and played pool while she waits for her jerky boyfriend to get tired of his aimless travelling. I love the way Younee says 'Pepsodent'. Tomorrow Today takes us to the dance-floor with Richard Cottle's inspired programming. This is a heroic song of hope that the perfect world we all wish for the future will be today - if enough people get together and demand it. OK, I'm an old hippie, I admit it. Younee and Mr. Cottle get down with their bad selves on this luscious track. By now you'll have noticed how gorgeous Younee sounds multi-tracking harmonies. I Won't Give Up may be seen as a big hug in the direction of Richard Carpenter, one of the most important architects of the contemporary pop ballad. Younee and I are big fans of Tower of Power and Friendly Fire proves it. Gary Husband digs on James Brown while Derek Watkins and Nigel Hitchcock put their hands in my pocket and feel me up. Younee eats up the solo (with kimchee) and Nigel gets saxy at the end! Younee wrote Dance 'Til You're Flyin' with The Bee Gees in mind and I wrote a lyric and arrangement suitably full of 70s disco idealism. This Is Our Song is a heroic slice of rock balladry. I resisted the temptation to burst into a searing guitar solo, instead opting for a solo from Younee - I was imagining Bruce Hornsby skateboarding with Sean William Scott at the time of writing! Here I Go Again started life called “Elton Groove”. I enjoyed subverting that paradigm by forcing Younee to play her solo as if Professor Longhair had spent the afternoon with Thelonius Monk. It should be obvious by now that Younee LOVES spicy food! When Younee writes her melodies, she sings, as many non-native English speakers do, in a kind of Anglo-babble. She sang the words What Can I Do on the chorus, and that suggested a story line to me; a hopeless tale of a girl enslaved to a love she knows is doomed, begging her captor to set her free by being unkind and heartless. Cottle's organ swells appropriately! (Ooh-er, Missus!!!) That's the album, kids! Everybody did such a great job and Younee is, to quote Ellington, 'beyond category'. Enjoy, and let me know what you think! |