'New Worlds & Avenues'

This is the exciting new album from 'Traces Of Red' consisting of eleven classic tracks.

It has taken a little over a year to record....... touring abroad and constant gigging meant recording sessions had to be squeezed in whenever possible. We recorded it in stages at The Attic.

The songs were all written over a period of x years....... Beginning around April '03 the first thing to be done was the keyboard & drum programming which took a couple of months. The drums especially took a good deal of time.... not having the facilities to record a 'real' drum kit we wanted the programming to sound as 'live' as possible, so plenty of detail went into the programming.... we've fooled a few drummers into thinking it was a 'live' drummer. Then along came James to add his magic.....

All the guitar parts were recorded in about 3 days spread over a couple of months. At this stage we didn't have anything commited to tape so had the flexibility to change things as the guitar parts began to shape the arrangements. James played all the guitar parts except 'New Worlds' which was recorded by Alex Earle a few years back.

Session player Phil Berry came in to record all the bass parts. We've known Phil for years so although all the songs were charted we still gave him freedom to develop his own ideas. It wasn't until Jan '04 that we managed to get Martin Bunce over to do the trumpet parts. We were just about to go on a 2 month tour of South America so were desperate to get as much as possible done before we left. With only one day available in our diaries, Martin came over and recorded all the parts in one afternoon...... what a star. Andy Boyd had previously recorded trumpet for 'Growing Up' & ' Find A Reason'.

After the South American trip Trace added saxes, flute, percussion & backing vocals. Swiftly followed by Martins lead vocals.
June '04 - all the recording finished.... hooray......

An intense few weeks mixing resulted in a trip to Sounds Good for a mastering session with Henry Smithson. Recording and artwork all satisfactory , it was off to the pressing plant.........

The artwork ideas, & the album title come to think of it, were sparked off during a trip to Venice in June '04. Trace said the above avenue in Venice would make a great picture for the cover, so we decided then to call the album 'New Worlds & Aves'...... took a few pics of the avenue, then got absolutely drenched in a fierce thunder storm. ("Thanks Ian for the pic above", we used Traces one on the cover though) Anyway....... A visit to NASA's website uncovered some great public domain pics to use for the front cover.... idea being 'New Worlds', hence a photo of 'Stingray Nebula', which is the youngest known planetary nebula. In other words, 'a brand new world'.

So, a great new album, from a great new band, with some great new songs. The overall feel for the album is fun...... stemming back to the heyday of Madness, Squeeze, & further to the Kinks & Small Faces. There's ska influenced 'Just One Of Those Days', jazz influenced brass feature 'People Just Don't Care', rockier 'New Worlds', 'Watching The World', 'Proud' & 'Don't Wait'. Poppy 'Lucky Day', 'Young & In Love', 'Growing Up', 'Find A Reason' & 'Secrets'.

Hopefully there is something for everyone............

Enjoy.............

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