Doves on: Some Cities

Drummer Andy WIlliams on Some Cities (2005)

After Lost Souls and Last Broadcast we set out to try and make more of a stripped-down record (in terms of production and parts), but as always with Doves we couldn’t help but add a few more parts in at the end, but I still feel it’s our most stripped-down record. It was also the first time that we worked with a producer on a whole record, Ben Hillier, who was a good crack to work with.

It was his idea and was pushing for us to get out of Parr Street studios in Liverpool where we had been working in for a while and decamp and build our own studio in a disused primary school way up in Fort Augustus, Scotland, for two months, which is where the heart of the record was made.

Good memories of staying in a rundown b&b up there and recording the song Ambition in a church which was due to be converted into flats, which is strange as the pulling down of old buildings and regeneration of Manchester ended up being the main theme/idea behind the record.

Keys songs for me are Black and White Town, Almost Forgot Myself and Ambition as it reminds me so much of that whole Fort Augustus time. I also remember a writing session before recording in this really knackered old farmhouse near Snowdon where, guess what, we wrote Snowdon (was a working title that stuck). The place had no heating or carpets and the bed sheets looked like they hadn't been changed in 12 months, old pubes all over the place. It was like something out of Withnail And I!!

Coming tomorrow... Jez on new album Kingdom Of Rust.

9:05 AM | 08/04/2009

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