in the key of kintsugi

Vinyl had made a comeback. Despite years of recording with two bands, we'd somehow missed out on making a vinyl LP.

Then following the surprise of indie New York label Cloudberry Records getting in touch – and ultimately releasing the 23-song CD Digipak retrospective of my first band Macguffins – I had a new goal to accomplish.

And if this was the only vinyl album I ever got to make, it had to be the one.

The eleven tracks on 'in the key of kintsugi' include firstly, four brand new songs.

Then there are a couple of songs from Macguffins – an acoustic version of the hit single 'Rich Together', then 'Emotional Week', which was a setlist favourite but somehow never released.

And lastly, five songs where I'd had unfinished business. Four taken from my first two solo albums, either reworked and/or remixed.

Two of these songs in their first iteration had ended up being committed to record a semi-tone flat from my intentions, due to a wrongly calibrated studio tuner – and being too far into the sessions when someone noticed to go back. This had really bugged me about these otherwise favourite songs, for decades.

With a line-up featuring some brilliant musicians, including the reunion with Macguffins bass player Michael Paxton – who brought back a true musical alchemy to the record – there are wonderful stories and special cameos across most every track. There's even a Hammond Organ part in 'My Movie of You', from a demo recorded at Rondor Music and Studios 301, played by the late, great Larry Muhoberac – who was the keyboardist in Elvis Presley's TCB Band.

So the record for me is a deeply satisfying journey. I feel that 'in the key of kintsugi' glues all those pieces together.

What was pressing, now pressed.

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