[Editor’s Note: Last year London-based alternative rock band Our Man in the Field, the project of singer-songwriter Alex Ellis, released their latest album Gold On The Horizon. Below is a session the group filmed for Water Tower Sessions and an essay penned by Ellis pens an essay about the his experience filming it.]
We recorded the songs at Henry [Senior]’s place. Henry is our dobro and pedal steel player, and he lives in Brixton, England. At the moment, he has a Ukrainian evacuee called Svetlana living with him, but she wasn’t at home that night so we weren’t too worried about making some noise (she’s actually into the band anyway).
We already had a rehearsal planned to do a little fine tuning of our harmonies before a show the next day at Hollycombe Home Farm in the South Downs, so it was easy enough to do a little recording at the end. I don’t have Martin Scorsese’s eye for a shot or any nice 35mm film lying around, but I think Marty would have probably had to choose the same set up anyway. I do have a little mic that sticks into an iPhone and a tripod. After consuming some of the finest burritos Brixton has to offer (Jalisco at the bottom of Coldharbour Lane), we arranged ourselves at one end of Henry’s living room and pressed record (Greg [Bishop], our drummer, opted for bongos so he wouldn’t drown the rest of us out).
Brixton is a cool part of London but can be a little dicey to say the least (there was a shooting at the end of Henry’s road during a rehearsal a few months ago) and the blue and red police lights coming through the curtains halfway through the film makes it extra authentic.
We played “Feel Good” and “Silver Linings” from our new record, Gold on the Horizon. “Feel Good” is about an old acting agent of mine who spent my money on drugs and prostitutes. His life was clearly spinning out of control until he’d begun a rehabilitation program which dictated that he would come and tell me what he’d done. He seemed pretty relieved after he’d told me, and I never heard from him again or saw the money. “Silver Linings” is about keeping going with whatever it is you’ve set out to do with your life — taking the hard road when an opportunity to take a compromise or second best presents itself. We picked these songs because they seem to have resonated with other people particularly well (I assume everyone has had a dodgy agent at some point?); they also have lots of harmonies, which we hoped would make for a cool live video.
I think Mr. Scorsese would approve, just as long as we don’t watch it back on the iPhone we shot it on.
Session Credits:
Alex Ellis – Lead singer, guitar
Henry Senior – Dobro
Maddy Cundell – Cello
Eva Perrin-Fontana – Bass
Greg Bishop – Percussion
Alex Ellis
Contributor
Alex is a singer-songwriter that fronts London-based alternative rock band Our Man In the Field.
