I wrote Alive in Berlin with Robbo (bass) and Jay (guitarist).  As a city Berlin holds a sense of possibility that makes me feel free. 

Later that year when back in London I saw Kilford paint and felt he manifested that same sense of freedom in his work.  So I invited him to be involved.  

 His final piece is so full of movement and emotion, that to me he has wholeheartedly captured the essence of this song.

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I wrote Go Bathe In The Light after seeing Patti Smith at the Union Chapel in London.  I knew instantly it was important to find a female artist with firey passion and creative depth. 

As Go Bathe In The Light is a song that talks about female fragility juxtaposed against the power of being a women who better than Bex to articulate this! And so .. she created a necklace using gun metal and gold thread.  Then working alongside photographer Christian Banfield she manipulated an image of me previously created by Yusuke Miyazaki at Cafe De Paris, weaving the necklace into the shot and uniting us as one.

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Beshlie’s paintings were used for my previous album “Libellus” and were part of the initial inspiration for working with other artists for ALIVE.

I have known Beshlie since 1999; she is a true kindred spirit and someone for whom I have the greatest respect and this album would feel incomplete without her.

Beshlie created thirteen paintings for Underground, a song that I had written for Jo (my beautiful cellist) and Ruban.

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Andrew lives in a world of mirrors where he creates colour and wonderfully cosmic sculptures. 

I adore him and the limitlessness he conveys. 

I wrote Under The Wire when I was on tour with Jo somewhere in New Zealand, Australia or Japan who knows I can’t remember but what I do recall is the feeling of writing the song.. 

Of rising harmonies and euphoria.  This is turn reminded me of Andrew..  

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Gray is a cartoonist and painter but he had never done anything like this before. 

However .. after a little encouragement he was willing to delve into the unknown with me, totally pushing his boundaries.. 

He created an image that to me is full of magic and truly embodies the songs narrative.

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I wrote Colourblind after a dream where my love had lost his ability to see my beauty, my true colours so to speak and I his.. 

The song felt so full of characters that it drew me to approaching Johnny. 

I had seen many of his portraits before and was intrigued to see how he would depict the songs narrative. 

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There is an elemental feeling to this track.  A watery-ness to the way it weaves the story. 

It made me think of moonlight and then I thought of Nilu.  Nilu is an alchemist. 

She plays with light and mirror often creating worlds within worlds or building worlds to capture a moment that most people are walking too fast to see.

We have known one another since we were children in fact the first photo-shoot I ever did, aged 14, she made me jump into a pool 35 times…

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I wrote Older Than The Hills for my friend Jim Kroft, who I have known since I was 15,  and who was one of the first people to inspire me to write. 

When he moved to Berlin 5 years ago I wrote Older Than The Hills for him as a farewell gesture and as I was writing it, I imagined a world of black and white pictures. 

 

 

These images reminded me of Charlie, whose photography is steeped in literary themes and narratives and I knew that if I gave him this song he would create something magnificent and he did.

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These boys worked day and night for months creating a whole new world for this song to exist in.  We had met in a the bar at a photography exhibition, after a gig, where they were inspired by the image Dylan Walker had taken of me (on the house boat where I had written Ghost On The Water). 

I feel this video speaks for itself..  What I will say though is its amazing how a song that comes from a point of sadness has ended up with so much spark and life.

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I have tried to live by the idea that we have all the tools within to support ourselves.  So when we are really lost if we look inside we can find the strength to find our way out. 

However.. with this track I was uncertain if I had chosen the right artist.  Joanna and I had never met. As part of the pledge campaign (I funded my album through a crowd support website) I added the option “pledge to be an artist”.

Izabella Kay an artist in her own right chose this incentive and asked me to include Joanna. But I had no idea what to expect and was nervous that it would be weird working with someone so closely that i didn’t know.

But Joanna is amazing, and wonderful to work with. She was passionate about both the song and the project and on our first meeting spoke intensely about her interpretation and led me through the drawings in her sketchbook.

In fact she became so involved in the song that she ended up creating a fully animated music video

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