Upon Ayr, the debut
album by Fletcher, is a compelling, storytelling record that opens with
an ode to the sadness of Jack Kerouac's legacy, closes with the creak of the
foot driven mechanical pump of an 1840s western Harmonium and paints scenes of
Polynesian whale myths, a 1920s synchronised swimming mermaid's dream and the
death throes of a love affair.
Written and produced by Fletcher, Upon Ayr was recorded in Sydney (‘stolen’ studio time in a
university), London (his bathroom and Urchin Studios) and Stockholm (Decibel
Studios), with the record mastered in Berlin. Written over two years, while
Fletcher was on tour playing bass, guitar and keyboards with friend and fellow
Australian artist Sarah Blasko (who features on backing vocals), this is
the multi-instrumentalist’s first album.
Signed direct to UK label Dramatico,
Fletcher’s debut album will be released in Australia in March ahead of the UK
release in April 2013.
First single, Don't Breathe A Word is a meditation on the death of a relationship. “Near the
end when all love is lost and you start to become someone you aren't and say
things you don't mean to survive the fall out… The end of a love affair is a
cold dark place,” says Fletcher of the track. Don’t Breathe A Word
will be serviced to Australian radio on Tuesday 19 February.
Currently performing with Sarah Blasko on her national tour, Fletcher
will perform two intimate shows at the Workers Club in Melbourne on Sunday
17th March and the Vanguard in Sydney on Wednesday 27th
March.
A founding member of Bluebottle Kiss and, later, The Devoted Few, Fletcher joined Blasko’s band in
2005, moving to London in 2010 to continue
touring Europe and the US with her. This time on the road proved to be the
perfect environment for Fletcher to write this collection of pictorial tales in
what has been, as he explains, a natural and surprisingly simple process:
What you're
listening to is demos; fleshed out demos. Throughout 2010 I was on a world tour
with the beautiful, Australian singer Sarah Blasko. We played almost 200 shows
that year and most of the songs on this record were written during that period.
They developed in sound checks, in band rooms, in hotels, on trains, in vans,
or humming into iPhones. In early 2011, while still on tour with Sarah in
Australia, I got together with two of my mates to sneak into a university
studio where a friend of ours had been studying musicology. Our friend's course
had finished months ago but he still had the keycard and security code that
opened the doors to the studio. We snuck in around 11pm and would record all
night till 4am or 5am, turning off the lights and hiding every 2 hours while
the security guard cruised by. We did this for three nights and I recorded the
guitar and vocals for around 14 songs.
2011 saw more
touring and a little more writing. I recorded more songs in London, this time
in my bathroom, two of which (Here Stands The Broken & Swim Through The
Mouth Of The Whale) ended up on this album. I thought these and my Uni studio
sessions would just be demos, but they sounded pretty good and everyone I
played them to said, you should use them as your album. So I did.
Not to say I
recorded this whole album in the shower. These songs needed a little more
rhythm and pulse, so when I finally got off tour in early 2012 I went into
Decibel Studios in a snowy Stockholm to record some extra bits, including bass,
drums and the amazing voice of one of my best friends: Sarah Blasko.
I brought my album
back to London to mix at Urchin Studios in May 2012, and there you have it.
Simple and easy, like I've always wanted but never fully achieved in my past
recordings. Most of what you hear is first take, all the vocals were done
either in a bathroom on a borrowed mic that would sometimes electrocute my
lips, or in a little wooden room I had to hunch to fit into. I've always felt
like I've been guilty of over thinking my recordings but this all happened
without me even realising it.
You're hearing the
first album from me as Fletcher. Upon Ayr is the album title - a nod to one of
first recorded uses in the UK of the name Fletcher, in a little southeastern
town of Scotland, Ayr.
Enjoy,
Fletcher
FLETCHER – TOUR DATES
Sunday 17th March 2013- The Workers Club, Melbourne VIC
Tickets: $8.00 (GST inc) + BF on presales & $12.00 (GST inc) on the
door
Tickets available through The Workers Club / Corner Hotel Box Office -
(03) 9427 9198 / www.theworkersclub.com.au
Wednesday 27th March 2013 - The Vanguard, Sydney NSW
Tickets: $8.00 (GST inc) + BF on presales & $12.00 (GST inc) on the
door
Tickets available through The Vanguard - (02) 9020 6959 / www.thevanguard.com.au
