Recording at home has a few down sides. Mostly technical. Because I wanted to keep the whole thing intimate I didn�t want to go into a huge studio with a huge producer. That�s all well and good but it did take us two days to work out that the reason my voice sounded so terrible this week was because I was singing into the wrong side of the mic. That was kinda frustrating and a blow to the ego but a relief that I hadn�t lost the ability to sing (the conclusion I immediately jumped to) So yeah, I have found myself on more than a few occasions thinking �my how things have changed!�... and 'gawd I wish we had an engineer!' But jokes aside I can�t imagine making this record any other way. The up side to doing most of this in a home studio (a bedroom really) are endless. More than anything I�ve had so much time to experiment and make this record in a bubble free of expectation. Right now I�m not trying to please anyone. Just myself. To be honest, most of this record started off as a side project. I thought I was making this really obscure, dark, and indulgent confessional record under a fake name. Then I realized I was making the right record for me and I didn�t want it to just slip out there and not be associated with the changes and evolution that I feel in my life. I�m going to do it in two halves. The first part will be here at �smuglab�.. the home studio I�ve put together in a house in Marin.. and part two will be in London with a few people I�ve been threatening to work with for years. It�s going to be terrifying but so satisfying. All of the co-producers I'm working with are radical. Even the mix engineer I've chosen is an obscure choice, but it feels so right to me. It may be a little bit of a departure for some people to swallow but I got to the point with music that I thought I almost couldn�t breathe anymore if I had to keep all of these feelings and musical ideas under my skin. I'm also so bored with 'pop' music. Whatever that means. Bored with myself. Bored with genre. I wanted to walk away from this project knowing I�ve pushed myself lyrically and musically. Wanted to walk away from the record making something that I'm proud of whether it's considered 'commercial' or not. These days, I think that real is the most important quality. So far so good.