Things are really starting to come together and take shape now. An album can only really ever be as good as the people involved, I know well how good the lads are. Pete has released a solo album of his own and is currently working on his second one, I've heard some of the songs and even though I'm not that into folk music I really love some of his tunes. Dave is a brilliant drummer, he lives and breathes music, his attention to detail and dedication are incredible. Rob is coming up with some brilliant bass lines and when he emails me his ideas I just smile, he just gets it. We first met Rob 15 years ago, we needed a bass player and put a poster up in a local music shop, Rob was the only one who replied, thank God. Rob thinks like us, he's totally and absolutely dedicated to writing and coming up with original music, a perfect fit. Neil is one of my favorite musicians, I might be biased because we've been best friends for so long but he knows what I'm all about and adds so many subtle but brilliant touches to the songs. Neil wrote one of my favorite ever songs "So far away", to be honest I can think of songs we wrote when we were teenagers that I still sing to myself!! Of course, me being me I never actually tell the lads I think they're decent, not a hope, we just constantly insult each other instead, that's a lot more fun!!

Now since everything seems to be in place I suppose I should talk about why I write songs or why I wanted to write these songs. Genuinely I don't know, everything would be so much easier if I didn't feel the need. I find myself in a bit of a weird situation, in the mornings I get up and go to work, I make windows for a living, I've been doing that for 16 years now. In my head i'm thinking about the songs, the stories, the melodies, constantly trying to make them perfect. I think about my life a lot, mainly the things I could have done, deep down I'm just trying to summon up the courage to definitely go through with this because the truth is at the moment it's all just a dream that's way out of my reach. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I want to be famous or anything, I really like my job, I like the lads I work with and I'm good at what I do. I don't understand people who just want to be famous, you see them on these TV shows saying they want to sell millions of albums and sell out concerts across the world. They say things like, they've dreamed about it their whole lives, even though they're usually around 19 years old, none of them get it, none of them even slightly get it. No one should ever be famous just because they want to be, you should only be famous because you have to be, you should only gain honour and recognition because you've done something extraordinary. People get labelled as artists and musicians these days when they can't play an instrument, create a melody or even write a meaningful lyric.

My passion for writing songs comes from somewhere different and my reasons are the total opposite. I'll never forget where I was and how I felt when I first heard certain albums, the reason is simple, they spoke to me. You can imagine if you were sitting at home and all of a sudden a voice out of nowhere whispered something incredibly profound in your ear, believe me you'd never forget that moment. I don't believe in wise old ghosts but the affect is similar, the shivers down the spine, the hairs standing up on the back of your neck etc That's what I feel driven to write, something that makes me feel that way. There's no amount of album sales, no amount of sell out concerts that could ever replicate that feeling and all I know is I won't stop until I get it right.