Sarah Weller Band: Sarah Weller (vocals), Simon Golding (guitar), Duncan Haynes, Ross Stanley and Arthur Lea (keys), Jules Jackson (bass and drums) and Simon Pearson (drums)
On the eve of our release I am looking back at how we arrived here and just how long it took. Jules said to Simon, “Have we really been doing this album since 2005?” I know we started it before Dolly was born in 2005 so yes, we have.
We had been touring with the Tarantino’s and continued until January 2008. It was a sad end to an enjoyable six years of gigging, recording and visiting many European countries. Those gigs (I’m sure) will be some of the best gigs I will ever experience so it was a hard thing to let go off but then we had two young children and some of the band had reservations about us bringing them on tour, (“Not very rock’n’roll!”) and then there was the usual internal wranglings of leadership and decision making…and egos. Yes, it was just those things that made us leave…sadly.
We picked up on the project again in 2009. It was a busy year: my last year of studying to be a homeopath, we relocated from London to Herne Bay and then Dolly started school. See how life gets in the way? It doesn’t take much.
In 2011 we did our first SWB gig at The Spice of Life. It was a double bill with Rough Ramblers. I met DJ and jazz expert Seymour Nurse and we got talking. We had just performed Stormy and he encouraged me to record it. Yes, why didn’t I? I loved the sound of Hushabye Mountain and realised that the album should move towards a fusion sound – after all, that’s where my heart lay. Poor Simon, back to another arrangement.
By 2013 I decided that we needed a couple more; I knew how I wanted the overall album to sound. We recorded Mancini’s Slow Hot Wind, and The Carpenters All I Can Do. By this time we had been playing with Ross Stanley and Simon Pearson on and off for years so brought them on board as our collaborator Duncan Haynes was no longer around. He had flown to Lima via New Orleans and is currently studying and residing in Paris.
New songs give you a renewed enthusiasm and I recorded the vocals again…for continuity of course.
While living in Herne Bay and dancing at the fantastic Soul by the Sea night, I met DJ/photographer Carl Hyde and asked if he could take some pictures for the album. We met on the bandstand one Sunday afternoon and talked about music and album cover ideas. He came up with the idea of standing on the jetty beside the Old Neptune pub in Whitstable with just enough of the jetty showing so that I could walk inwards, and it would look as though I was walking on water, with the grey sea behind me. If it was early enough it would look as though the sun was rising.
We got there for 5.30am, Easter Sunday 2014. It was freezing. I applied my make-up and got into my thin white dress. I tried to fill my mind with images of warm baths and sunshine as I walked across the cold pebbles and got splashed by unexpected waves. My facial muscles were tight trying to keep the shivers away. But Carl was right; the early morning sun rose up as I was standing at the end of the jetty. I got home in time to watch the children hunt for their chocolate bunnies in the garden.
Once the album was mastered I sent off four copies. One to Mike Chadwick, one to Helen Mayhew, one to Seymour Nurse and one to Paul Pace. I knew they would be honest with me. Even at this point I said to myself that if Paul thought the album had nothing new to say and it was little more than an expensive vanity project then I would stop and not release it.
Mike suggested that I should get a remix done of Stormy and suggested Italian bossa king Nicola Conte. It was extremely difficult to pluck up the courage to ask such a thing but I did and what a lovely person he was! I also asked producer Mr Mundy to take the song in his own direction and we ended up with an album of jazz – and two house remixes.
The next step was having the album designed and manufactured – the least time consuming of the lot and of course I was chomping-at-the-bit to finish and release.
The album was due to be delivered on the 22nd December. It didn’t turn up. They tried again on the 23rd. Nothing. I was called Christmas Eve with the promise that it would be delivered that day. The driver called me around one o’clock saying that he was outside and no one was in. They had gone to my previous address in London…no wonder! It arrived Boxing day and from then onwards I emailed, packaged and sent off in the hope of possible distribution, radio play, reviews, be talked about…
Will it be received well? Will we sell any copies? Will it be in the shops? Will anyone review it? Will anyone give me a gig. Here’s where it all begins.
Jazz Notes 