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Tell Me, What can I Do? started life as an indie type track, i struggled with the lyrics, but i thought it had a nice feel to it, the Karina Wilgeroth Vaile supplied me with some lyrics and would you believe it? they worked with this song. I had wanted to collaborate with Rob Genco from CoCo Le Funk for a long time, it was just that the right song hadn’t come up, until now. It was no longer an indie tune , but a full on post apoplectic Funk Phenomenon! A little Death Metal on the outro vocals and we were done. Im really happy with this tune, the lyrics have real meaning and the music has real funk, hope you like it.

I have been very lucky with this song, it started life as a synth waltz, with a touch of techno, when i wrote it i had Waltz in Black  by The Stranglers in mind,(i love that song, weird but really good) but someone commented that it sounded a bit like Paul Mcartney’s “Simply having a Wonderful Christmas Time” ( I hate that song, nuff said), so when the chance came up to re-record it, i grabbed the bull by the horns and gave it as much as i could, i asked a few local musician type friends of mine if they would like to play on it, they agreed.

Lisa Von H added the backing vocals, she has a beautiful singing voice , i got to know her on the local music scene, through the Phoenix Centre, i reckon she writes 3 songs a week, i don’t know how you can be that prolific, it takes me months, you can hear her stuff here i was only expecting a couple of harmonies here and there, what i got back was this amazing Phil Spector wall of sound, i don’t know if thats a good description, its just what I’m thinking of right now, it blew me away, I’ve never heard anything like that before on one of my songs.

The solo in the middle was originally a synth sound, maybe a bit like a commodore 64 game sound, this version needed something more, what better than a saxophone, i tried a sampled sax, it didn’t do the song justice, there is in fact a version of this song in existence with the original solo on it, called Breaking the Line (Casio Remix) don’t know why its called that, i don’t even own a casio, but i digress, who did i know who could create a real saxophone solo that would warrant being on this song? none other than Bruce Hazelton of Charley Farley Sunday Four, i was a little worried that he might turn me down, as i don’t know him that well, but he instantly agreed, to say i was was over the moon is somewhat of an understatement, and when the song came back with the real sax on it i was struck dumb for a little bit, shoving my phone at anyone nearby saying “Listen to that sax, go on Listen!”.

The final piece in the jigsaw was the piano, i can knock out a tune on the keys, but i don’t have the technique required to take a song up a level, I’m a little bit bland maybe, so this was a no brainer for me to ask my friend Mark Hatter to play on it, and as expected he came back with this wonderful piano part for the song, he really is an amazing keyboard player.

So what is the song about, as i always say, listen to the lyrics and make your own mind up, if it means something to you then my work is done.

I don’t know whats happened this year, i seem to have got my musical mojo back, i haven’t felt this good about my music for a long time, and i can’t wait to present you with an album.

Im already working on the next song, so lets see what happens with that.