This is the “cool jazz” song of the album, featuring a guest appearance on alto sax. The song’s about what it feels like to be a photographer trying to catch everyday life in the streets without being noticed. Being transparent. I tend to think that you can often get more interesting photos when people are not posing. It’s called 41, because color films are processed in a C41 bath.
In the form, I wanted to use words that you can sum up in one letter. Here are the words (I’m writing them with the letters instead of the correct spelling):
“A T in a park, an A-class driving his W on a sunny day. There was a beautiful light, I had my M1 with me, C41 is always looking magnificient”.
On saturday I’ll play live with my new project, it’s going to be the first time I’ll play most of these songs in concert and the first time I’ll play them with a whole live band. So I’m really excited and nervous as well. (Of course) we did a middle-average-maybe-bad rehearsal on tuesday but we still have one tonight. But as one says: bad last rehearsal means good gig. Well maybe it’s psychological: if you play really bad on the last rehearsal, you’re 200% concentrated during the gig because you know you can f*** up the song real bad, so you’ve got this strength to survive… By playing really bad, I mean you know the songs because you played them a million times but can’t help being bad.
Anyway we’ll be 6 on stage, not necessarily everyone at the same time: electric guitar, drums, bass, acoustic guitar, keyboards, discrete laptop, alto saxophone for one song…
I can’t wait to be on saturday, because I haven’t played live for a long time, recording and recording again in my own intimate little world… We still have a general rehearsal tonight, so that’s nice. Maybe that’s going to make me cool down a little bit.
Here’s a live version of Damien Rice’s Rootless Tree, that he recorded for a tv channel. This song is from his second record, called “9″. It shows Damien Rice’s music at his best: cool songwriting, deep interpretation, for a very emotional result.
Ok, we don’t feel like listening to Damien Rice anytime, because it’s mostly sad songs and of course it’s not suited for any occasion. But listening to his 2 albums, it’s clear that there’s not a lot of stuff to get rid of – if any – because he can write and interpret songs with a real intensity and authenticity that you don’t find a lot anywhere else.
His way to build his career is also quite interesting and honest. He recorded and mixed himself his 2 albums, recording at various places and houses. Once again this “Do It Yourself” road that we’re used to hearing a lot these days but here there’s nothing to do with marketing and the way to sell an artist.
The production and recording work in “9″ is really better than what he did in “0″, but the songs in “0″ have such a quality that you soon forget about this lack of recording and mixing techniques that would have made it a “classic” album, so to speak.
