Part 1 of this series is here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here.
2006:
The only music I released this year was ‘Sergeant Howie’s Holy Stamina Test‘.
I can’t really remember what inspired me to do it, but I woke up one morning and decided to write and record as much music as I could in that day. I only lasted till 6pm but managed to churn out four and a half songs.
There was a bit of cheating involved – I did overdub and mix at a later date but the basics were all done in one day.
The first track, ‘Bad Architecture’, inspired this nice post. ‘Perfect Moment’ was re-recorded later on for my Jesus is for Losers album, ‘One Good Eye’ featured a sample of the band of the same name (who counted Oldsolar‘s Mark Russell among its members) and the last track ‘This 20th Century’s Troubled Climate’ sampled a yoga instructor over some very Mogwai-inspired music.
You can download the EP here.
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2007:
The other ‘half-a-song’ that I mentioned earlier, which didn’t make it onto ‘Sergeant Howie’s Holy Stamina Test‘, eventually became the track ‘Spring Snow Storm’ which appeared on this album:
‘Calamateur vs Steve Lawson‘ is a collaborative album I made with the bass player and looper Steve Lawson.
(I’ve written a blog post about Steve Lawson before and don’t want to bore you by repeating myself, so if you don’t know who he is you can read more about him here.)
Most of the songs on this album started out as recordings I’d made in my own home studio. I then visited Steve at his home in London where we added his bass parts and made lots of fun noises together. I then took it all home and spent weeks editing and mixing what we’d done.
I’m really proud of this album. It’s definitely one of my more left-field releases but I still think the combination of my quietly-sung acoustic songs mixed with Steve’s ethereal bass makes for some pretty beautiful music, particularly the tracks ‘Wonder’, ‘How Long’ and ‘Endo’.
You can download the album from itunes here.
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2008:
The first music that came out this year that I had a hand in making was a track from Iain Morrison’s album ‘Skimming Stones… Sinking Boats‘.
The track was ‘Folklore & Distant Creed (calamateur remix)’. The original version had appeared on his debut album ‘Empty Beer Bottles and Peat Fire Smoke’ and he asked me to remix it for his new album.
You can buy it here.
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This was the year I also started the slow-trickle release of my album ‘Jesus is for Losers‘, which I’ve written about before on this blog.
Having been raised in a Christian home, and having decided myself to try to follow the teachings of Jesus, I have always had a fascination with songs about him, particularly those that have entered mainstream culture in some way.
I decided to attempt cover versions of a few of these songs and, when I added some re-workings of songs I myself had written about Jesus, I soon had an album’s worth of material.
You can read more about the album on this blog here and you can download the whole thing for FREE here.
Here are a couple of the reviews it got:
“The world needs mavericks like Calamateur….this latest offering is typically brimming with invention and considerable skill…it’s utterly engaging and heartfelt… 4/5.” – The List
“It would be too easy, given that Howie has chosen the tunes and arranged them himself, to suggest that his own material is better than that of Bono and American Music Club. But from the blatant pop of ‘Lonely Boy’ which combines gospel and football terrace chant, to the fantastic ‘Talitha K’, Howie himself constantly comes up trumps, putting the covers in the shade. They always say that the devil has the best tunes, but I’m not so sure.” – Is This Music?
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2009:
After I’d put out the last of the songs from ‘Jesus is for Losers’ early in 2009, I also released an EP alongside the album as a thank you for anyone who chose to donate via the Jesus is for Losers website.
The five exclusive songs on this EP are made up of three alternate versions of tracks from the album plus two brand new songs. You can get it here.
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As I wrote in my last post, I had also been spending time recording other musicians and songwriters in my home studio.
The last, and the longest, of these recording projects was with local painter, Allan MacDonald who wrote songs which his sister, Shona, sang. As well as recording the songs, I also played on and co-produced them.
We called ourselves The Trufflehunters and put out our debut album, ‘Signs of Life’, in early 2009.
Again, I’m really proud of this album. In making it I felt like I was stretched more than I ever had been before, both from a recording/production and a playing point of view. It also sounds unlike anything else I’ve ever done.
Some reviews:
“…More admirable ambition. Local trio of singer Shona MacDonald, painter Allan MacDonald and Calamateur’s Andrew Howie have got together to make a richly textured thing of some beauty, inspired by a combination of Highlands folk, plain song, chant and the strict Presbyterian tradition of unaccompanied psalm singing. If you saw Phil Cunningham’s documentary on the history of religious song you’ll recognise some of the roots of what’s going on here, but it’s transformed into a genuinely transcendent whole.” – I.C.A.
“…perseverance is urged…at times they recall the classic early 1970s atmosphere of Fairport Convention – a massive compliment” – Christianity Today
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The next release, and my last of the decade, was Commissions 2008-2009.
As is obvious from the title, this was a collection of songs I’d been asked to write or remix over the previous two years.
The songs include one of the first songs I ever released, the remix (mentioned above) I did for Iain Morrison, a children’s song with the chorus “There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather!”, an ambient soundscape inspired by one of the streets in Inverness city centre, a soundtrack for a short film and lastly, a hymn written for a charity appeal DVD.
Again, this is a free download which you can get here.
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And that’s it. A decade over.
Thank you for reading this series of posts. I’ve found the process of writing them really helpful – I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as well.
More soon…
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