I
came upon the vocalist for 'Cries of Freedom' whilst touring whilst
touring with
the act Zino & Caroline and we had just come from playing in Perth,
where we'd partied for the three day straight with the band Direct
Influence who was doing that leg of the tour with us, the intense
partying was caused by one of the band members finding a bag of pills
that they'd forgotten on the flight, whilst searching for headphones and
us being worried about airport sniffer dogs tried to eat as many as
possible. We'd made it to Lismore, which was the next leg of the tour,
which we were playing a festival. I ran into my friend Shirley Davis at
the festival who was singing in a another band, with Jornick (Mista
Savona), Lamine Sonko (Public Opinion Afro Orchestra) and Saritah. We
hung around the festival for a while to have a look, but being so tired
decided after our flight we decided to crash for the night, before the
show the next day. We arose the next day to head to the festival from
our motel room, to head to the festival, so the guys could play the
show. After the show we retire to our motel for a minute, to see the
rest of the band away, Matt Bray drummer from K-Oscillate and 28 days,
had a flight the next day, decided to get a bottle of alcohol, which I
dropped shortly whilst walking to the to the festival, we ran back to
the bottle shop, 5 minutes before closing time, but the guys had decided
to close. We walked to the festival unfulfilled but thought that would
be an omen
to not drink anymore and continued to the festival. ' We came across
most for twenty dollars seeing that way as much cash we had as they were
not
accepting card, we grabbed a bottle of something to put it into then
proceeded to mix it with a bottle of water backstage. Shirley and
crew were on stage and had just finished up, then waited to meet and
greet them on their arrival then proceed back to motel, Matt and I had
invited the 12 or so people in to our motel room and began a jam
consisting of Lamine, Jornick, Shirley, Saritah, Matt and numerous
people. we all started singing and jamming with an acoustic guitar and
would have to be one of most beautiful moments of my life. We
arose early the next moment to catch a bus supplied by the festival to
catch a flight, but the us ran incredibly late and so we missed the bus
and spent the next 5 hours waiting for the festival to organise the next
flights for us, which we had a fantastic time mucking around and
drinking we in the end we got back to Melbourne and in the end no act
was paid even with contracts as hardly anyone showed up to the festival,
the organiser went bankrupt shortly after, telling us to hold tight you
will be paid as soon as he was going to sell a house, a year of had
passed and that never happened.
Having the experience in Lismore made me realise what beautiful
lyricists and people Jornick and Lamine are and asked them both to be
on the track, Lamine came into the studio first with long time friend
and band member 'Lady Lash', I asked lash as I knew the 3 voices would
work well together, I love the fact Lash can sing like an angel and rap,
I find great amusement in recording Lash's vocals, as she will be
singing something than go out of tune or sing a wrong word, then curses
like no one I have ever heard. We spent the first few hours of the
session listening to the music and writing lyrics, the thought I had for
vocals was about freedom and experiences each person had been through,
which the guys did, but when it came for Lamine to sing it he sang for
about ten minutes nonstop, unfortunately it wasn't what I was looking
for and didn't keep it, I did ask Lamine to come in again but he was
about to go on four month tour. Jornick was the next to come in, I have
the deepest respect for Jornick, through working with him in 'Mista
Savona' the only way he can describe him he is such a beautiful person.
We got into the studio and Jornick put on a spiritually uplifting
cologne, that is the best way I can describe it, he asked me what the
subject of the track was I told him and without listening to the beat
and before it began he started singing, the first bit was out of tune,
which was a shame as it was so good and not even the plugin 'Pitch
Correct' could fix it. Jornick had the same approach as Lamine and put
down 10 minutes of singing in one go and both of us were amazed he was
able to put down back ups to it and that the session took twenty
minutes, I found out later he has a lot of similar lyrics. Choi and I spent a lot
of time listening and editing Jornick's lyrics after he had left and we
had something that resembles a track. I gave Jornick's lyrics to Lash,
as Lash was to come in again and I spent some time going over to Lash's
and her partner 'Skitzo Beats' house to write new lyrics to match up
closer with Jornicks and at the next session Lash got two
verses down in no time and not too much cursing either. In the same
session Lash and I put down backups for the track 'Wart's and All' as I
wanted to put a choir feel at the end of the song, I then realised how
badder singer I am, as Choi and Lash both couldn't stop laughing
throughout my session and I'm quite lucky to have been able to delete
the video footage that was taken, with a little of help from 'Pitch
Correct' that was the beginning and end of my singing career.
After not being able to get Lamine back into the studio I thought long
and hard about who to get in to finish the track, I contacted Simon
Wright who I was a fan of, had done many shows with, and had talked
about doing bookings for and managing for him for a little while. I sent
Simon the music and without much effort at all Simon had written his lyrics, we armed
ourselves with a bottle of Scotch and headed out to the studio, Simon
was a bit worried at the time about being the only white guy on
the track and sculled quite a few drinks not even I could keep up with
him, but was ready to go, Simon was awesome on the day and even helped
arrange vocals and music for the track, I had been quite worried about
how the track would turn out, but was very happy after that session.
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