Hollows
Hollows was recorded between October 2005 and April 2006. We recorded in our studio again, which moved only twice over the course of the project. No children were born. The police weren't called on us.
Hollows lingered for a while before pressing; reasons many and too convoluted to list. We think it was worth the wait. As you would have read, it's darker than Serpent, but much more balanced in many ways...
The album is a palindrome of sorts. It's like 'kayak', or the year '2002'. It reads some what the same forwards as it does backwards. Each song has it's equal either side of the centre piece, "Ash, & Blown Away." Hollows winds you up then unravels, leaving time only for one short breath before it starts all over again.
Symmetry
Could we possibly give away more about the album in one word? (Skip to track 11 and the answer would be, "yes"). Symmetry wasn't a founding member of Club Hollows, too busy making a case for its inclusion on Serpent. Silly song. We had bigger and better things planned for it!
Where our first album bleeds in from whispers and nothing, Hollows (and Symmetry) bleeds in from static and noise. Maybe it's inadvertent comment on the changing ways of our sped-up world. Yeah, lets go with that. Symmetry is a slow pulsing, noisy beast.
- • Lyrics by Tim Fairless.
- • Music by Tim Fairless.
- • Demo recorded well before our first album was completed.
- • A song about the places we hide.
Always Tomorrow
Always Tomorrow was the first in a string of new songs written and recorded in single sessions. The studio would be full of Tim working for hours during the hot, hot day, joined by Vanessa in the cool of the evening to record vocals. This was the first entirely new piece of work between Serpent ending and Hollows beginning.
Always Tomorrow has become, in our heads anyway, a song that defines this album texturally, lyrically, and methodically.
- • Lyrics by Tim Fairless.
- • Music by Tim Fairless & Vanessa Cronin.
- • The first entirely new thing since Serpent.
- • A song about losing out but hoping for better.
Sixteen Cranes
Some songs just arrive and you feel like you've known them forever. Some songs take their time, but you don't mind. Others you have to drag kicking and screaming. Sixteen Cranes was a stubborn tooth. The lyrics came easy, the song managed to take about 4 weeks away from us, and a few months of our lives. After punching it into shape we're left with something oddly driving.
Sixteen Cranes is a favourite lyrically depicting nasty things about vodka, ants, bones, German trains and of course a multitude of cranes.
- • Lyrics by Vanessa Cronin & Tim Fairless.
- • Music by Tim Fairless & Vanessa Cronin.
- • The most difficult song to produce *ever*.
- • A song about skylines and the things that happen beneath them.
The Longest of Days
The Longest of Days is the first of two short interludes. This track is the starts of things, the curiosity and amusement; it's a Saturday that lasts a life time.
The Longest of Days had three incarnations before resting. The clicking Hammond switches were a feature of all three; the 1st was a percussive super-lo-fi thing, the 2nd was an industrial warehouse full of Flaming Lips.
- • Lyrics by Tim Fairless.
- • Music by Tim Fairless.
- • Recorded in the dark alone, 'cause it's easier.
- • A song all about bugs.
Bare Foot in the Grass
As we progressed through the album it took shape fairly quickly. Though Bare Foot in the Grass came out of nowhere about half way through recording, it immediately found its place.
This song possibly best shows off a progression of musicianship and production techniques. There are layers of guitar harmonics, intricately designed to weave around the vocals; lashings of real hammond merged with The Organ sound we use everywhere during the prog-section. I could go on.
- • Lyrics by Vanessa Cronin.
- • Music by Tim Fairless & Vanessa Cronin.
- • Recorded backwards.
- • A song dedicated to Vanessa's aunt.
Ash, & Blown Away
Ash, & Blown Away is the album's centre. It was designed that way almost from the start. This is the only track to not have an equal opposite, but that's because it is it's own mirror. At the half way point of Ash there is a literal musical palindrome. Dead centre of that short section is dead centre of the song and the album. After that point you are over the hump.
Ash began as an experiment that involved dangling some chimes between two microphones, finding a loop-able point, adding noises we sampled from our Hammond and recording a rhythm with a steel table-top. Yeah, it didn't really work out. Add a vocal line from Vanessa and Ash jumped up and said, "Hello there!"
- • Lyrics by Tim Fairless.
- • Music by Tim Fairless & Vanessa Cronin.
- • Dead centre of Ash is dead centre of the whole album.
- • A song about the bad old Bardon days.
Anaclasis
Anaclasis used to be called something else, but we were much younger when we first tried writing this song. Anaclasis came out of a writing gush in 2001 that gave birth to the likes of "Mantra", "Fall to Earth" and "Gentle Sport". This version has been completely re-written (a few times), aside from a nod to the original about two thirds the way through.
- • Lyrics by Tim Fairless.
- • Music by Tim Fairless & Vanessa Cronin.
- • Happier than it may seem at first.
- • A song about refractions of light.
The Shortest of Years
The Shortest of Years is the sister track to The Longest of Days. This takes an element of Always Tomorrow played on grand piano and adds some darker prospects about there not being a tomorrow. It responds to The Longest of Days - answering questions you never knew existed at the time.
This track is the ends of things; looking back on hopes, what used to amuse and paths travelled.
- • Lyrics by Tim Fairless.
- • Music by Tim Fairless & Vanessa Cronin.
- • Recorded as an after thought on Grand Piano Day.
- • A song about losing years.
Small Pulses
Small Pulses existed as a brief lyric and a rough keyboard part, never intended for recording. But things weren't going to plan one afternoon in the studio; the juices were still firmly stuck inside the fruit, so we set about roughing up a demo of this one. Vanessa's articulation on that demo spurned a mis-heard lyric that stuck when we recorded it for real.
This song is particularly haunting. It might be the grand piano, or the atmospheric noises or the vocal execution. It may be that what you need at that point in the album is some time to float, alone.
- • Lyrics by Tim Fairless.
- • Music by Tim Fairless & Vanessa Cronin.
- • This was the real reason for Piano Day.
- • A song about solitude, entrapment, & escape.
Wish I Were Here
Wish I Were Here; the founding member of Club Hollows. So early on was this song written that it had the name "Hollow" pinned to its chest for years. We have a habit of taking song names, using them as album titles and renaming the song. Wish I Were Here morphed from a lumbering and slow monster of a song into the relatively compact (for us) and to the point thing on the record. It's amazing what a 3 minute shave can do.
- • Lyrics by Tim Fairless & Vanessa Cronin.
- • Music by Tim Fairless & Vanessa Cronin.
- • Originally written way back in '02.
- • A song about where you go, and how you get back.
Full Circle
Full Circle marries up with Symmetry. Add the palindrome in the middle of Ash, & Blown Away and... have you got it yet? Full Circle brings you back to where you started; lifts you up, brings a little lump to your throat then rests you gently in the static and noise from which you came. It's like finally exhaling - and then taking a short sharp breath right at the very end before you start all over again.
- • Lyrics by Tim Fairless.
- • Music by Tim Fairless & Vanessa Cronin.
- • A definite movie-closer.
- • A song about missing out, but not realising until after.
A Note from Tim on the Hollows Studio Journal
I kept a studio journal during the recording of Hollows, and posted it as a blog. You can read all ten thousand words of it by clicking below. Before you do though, it's full of opinion - mine mainly - and gives away more about our production techniques, ideas etc than people may want. In a word, it might ruin the magic of the album if you read it. Plenty of it may come across like boring muso-talk. Though, for anyone solidly interested in (a) Manzuma's sound and how we get it, and (b) sound recording and production, you may get something out of it.
