ADAM PAVITT

You need to surround yourself with the people that can help you to fly

Alone again explores a vulnerable side of my writing that i am not too sure how to explain. Some songs are hard to sing through emotional attachment or lack of technique. I have always tried to keep my songs on the emotional pulse and not hold back despite my inherent vocal limitations. In this song the emotions got the better of me. My voice cracks revealing a passion that i want to feel and yet it hurts to feel. The vocals first talk about feeling out of place and the claustrophobia having no time, no space and no extra space. This can be seen as being overworked, underpaid, being lost in a consumerist culture and being out of touch. Sometimes the world gets you down. And so sometimes cannot help it. It happens to all of us and you go inside yourself to be alone. There seems to be so many with some power and privilege who just don’t seem care for others who struggle. Those that have the house of gold can often have the heart of stone. It may be true in many cases, yet there are also so many people fighting for justice, peace, equality and our environment. These movements are global and gaining momentum. W e should not give up hope. We are relying on the people to sand up, the corporations to be more humanitarian and the governments to deliver on promises made to the people. To be hopeless is to be powerless!

You need to surround yourself with the people that can help you to fly. Make your ideas and ideals a reality while standing up for what you believe in. Support worthy causes and while helping others you will no longer be alone. There is so much work to be done and inside yourself is the strength to be part of this. I have always felt that no matter how bad we feel, we can still lift ourselves up and do something,anything to let us know that we are part of an amazing world of like-minded people. Music can educate, inform and entertain all in the one instance. It is inspiring to look around and see bands like John Butler Trio and Blue King Brown proving that every day.
This song has a funky feel to it. I have always felt a connection to funk music, and from my late teens to this day it is probably my favorite music to dance to. It is this uplifting vibe that helps keep the song positive despite the heavy subject matter. I try to remember when i am low to keep grooving along and look for the beauty in this world. My cousin eldest Sam Bennett has always been in a funk band of some description and some of the dance sessions with my cousins and siblings over the years have definitely influenced my musical tastes. That along with seeing James Brown at Byron Bay Blues Festival not long before his passing. And a long list of funky blues from my parents collection like Steelly Dan and Robert Cray.
Cameron Spike-Porter has been a close family friend since he was a young tacker. He is probably the most versatile guitarist i know. I was so happy with the contribution with Cam brought to this song and the entire album over all. His electric tracks were written and recorded in Lismore N.S.W, where Cam is studying Jazz. The layering of guitar tracks with, slide, jazz influenced chops and funky stabs adds great effect. Cam is gonna want me to hold this info back, but was once known as ‘Jazz Cat’prefering now to be calle d’The Panther’. Playing in a few bands such as motown specialists Lisa Hunt Band and fusion funk band Suji Toko cam is probably gonna end up as a New York local on the circuit one of these days. He was the shredder lead guitarist in a Sydney band called Porcelain Grace, and before that as a youngster got to jam with Phil Emmanuel.It is a strange coincidence that my first concert after turning eighteen year old was with a buddy and my Dad out t see Phil and Tommy Emmanuel. Phil’s music used to echo down the small valley in Sawtell N.S.W and i would crank my electric in the bath room, responding to the chunky rock riffs and hope that he could hear my twenty five watt amp. So it’s cool to think that Cam and i had similar influences, especially with our parents musical tastes and our own choices. We actually worked out that i may have shown Cameron some of his first chords and even though his playing has surpassed mine by eons, i can still ask him to play on my album. He did it all for free! Spending many hours arranging, recording and sitting by the computer waiting for big files to send.
We spent some good times busking ‘Alone again’ while busking around the place and doing a few gigs as well.
Cameron really shows his tasty production smarts in the middle of the song when he backs everything off in the most powerful thematic peak. He lets the words stand alone and in my opinion shows the great second sense that Cam has for adding in the right places and holding back for dramatic effect. The backwards guitar swells still blow me away every time that i hear them. Cam uses the technique in three songs on the album. In the other tracks he gets a nice violin riff and then a synthesizer sustained sound. His experimentation with backwards riffs over the years have been along side home recordings of surf soundtracks, blues bend ups, ambient sound collage and the list goes on. Without raving too much about Cameron spike-Porter, i will just say that his name is one that people will be hearing about in the next few years.
I am really happy with how ‘Alone Again’ turned out. I got a blast out of singing the outro with my vocal overdubs. Steve Vella and i were digging in and busting out the falsetto in the control room and really enjoying the process of putting the song together. I was ever so slightly aiming for a popsters Hall and Oates feel while referencing Blind Boys of Alabama for the deeper register.

It’s strange the way that that your influences start coming out in every song without your knowledge at first. For example the verses riff had a slight Red Hot Chilli Peppers feel to it while in the studio. The outro was also going into Stevie Wonder for a while there and Steve Vella even decided to pop in and try to lay down some snare and hats to capture the bounce. despite the beats not making the final edit, it was heaps of fun jamming out the song with Steve on
percussion during recording or mixing sessions.Influence territory is something you have to deal with when you add a recording to the public domain.I guess you never know what is going to come out until you hear it back maybe hearing the hints at styles riffs from our formative years. It will be interesting to see if the public hears the same ones that i do. ‘Alone Again’ perplexes me with all its interwoven elements alongside it’s basic simplicity and that makes it my favorite track on the album.
Adz