I wrote the title track of this record Alive, in Berlin, a city that for me holds a sense of possibility.

Later that year when back in London I saw Kilford paint and felt he manifested that same sense of freedom in his work.

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 both firey passion and creative depth, as Go Bathe In The Light is a song that talks about female fragility juxtaposed against female strength.

Who better then than Bex to articulate this!

And she did.  First by creating 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 Debut album “Libellus” and were part of my initial inspiration for working with other artists for ALIVE.  

In response to ‘Underground’, a song I had written for Jo (my cellist) Beshlie created thirteen beautiful paintings, that depict the passion, love and sadness this story tells.

This album’s artwork would be incomplete without her.

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I wrote Under The Wire when I was on tour with Jo somewhere in New Zealand, Australia or Japan I can’t remember where exactly but what I do recall is the feeling of writing the song: of the rising harmonies I heard in my head and the euphoria I felt as the lyrics and melody tumbled out.  

This is turn reminded me of Andrew..  

An artist who lives in a world of mirrors and bright colour who exudes both creativity and the essence that all is possible.

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Gray is a cartoonist and painter who had never collaborated with a musician before.

So so rather than working in his usual medium he decided to explore the realm of graphic design.  

The result is the telling of the story’s medieval narrative through the exploration of lines and colour.  

Beginning as an isolated black and white depiction of a woman and ending with the subject finding her lover as her mirror image.

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

The lyrics are so full of imagery and characters that I was curious to see how Johnny would depict these using his Chi Men Characters.  However, Johnny decided that rather than limiting himself to the song he wanted to depict my whole life on canvas.  

So the characters you see here are the response to questions Johnny asked me about my life.

Such as:

My favourite food – Sushi!

What makes me happy: lying naked by a river in the countryside.

My favourite memories: dancing at a festival, riding on horse back across Spain, playing boules with my family on a beach in Sydney, playing music with my amazing band, my dad and his lion…

My favourite stage outfit: A dress we made out of lace and white bin bags

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There is an elemental feeling to the production of track and a watery-ness to the way the story weaves.  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.  

I felt this concept was ideal for a song written about the idea that everything comes Back To You.  That our reaction and perceptions of life determined our reality.

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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 and as I was writing it, I imagined a world of black and white pictures.  A flickering narrative that tells the tale of love, hedonism and the obsession with getting older.  

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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This track symbolises so much for me.

I really had to fight to get it on the record as everyone else felt it had no place.  

But lyrically it was a song I had to write.  It is a really dark and sad story about addiction that is written and sung with hope. You would never know I think unless I told you because I refuse to let this story be negative, because if I do I would loose all hope in the subject finding their way.  

This is why I love the animation video that Federico, Stefano and Jack created because it embodies all that hope, all the playfulness that I still bring to the subject I am writing about.

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I try to live by the knowledge that I have all I need within me to find my way out of  the darkness when it come.  

It’s a believe I have known for many years but one I have only really felt wholly in the last few years, and when I wrote this song for a friend I was also really writing it for myself.  

Joanna really understood this and was truly passionate about both the melody and the lyrics of this song, so much so that after finishing her painting she decided to carry on and create a fully animated music video.  

I love it; its completely psychedelic and wonderful! 

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