Is this where panic suddenly hits and you need to restrain yourself from going back into the studio and change all the different bits of the recording?
I honestly don’t think my producer, Lee Russel, would let me within a mile of the studio. We recorded the album over a period of three years, and when you spend that long on a record there comes a time when you just kind of resign yourself to fact that you’ve spent so long it already that there’s no point in rushing it and ending up with something your not happy with. So for probably the first time in my career I am totally happy with the way the record turned out .
Three years is a long time by any standard. How come it took you so long? I don't suppose you booked three years worth of studio time?
I have no idea of how it took us that long, I’m the first to admit that it‘s an absurd amount of time to spend on one album. Every other record I have made before was recorded in a matter of weeks If not days. I suppose one reason would be that absolutely everything on the album was played by Lee and myself and that brought with it a whole load of problems - we had a break for a few weeks so Lee could learn to play the double bass! Also another reason would that when we started the record I literally had no songs. After the Havenots split up I wasn’t so sure I’d carry on making music, but then I met Lee and we kind of agreed to make a record together. I wrote the first song for the album about an hour before I was due at the studio. I think one trap I’ve always fallen into before was to think that if I had written 10 songs I was ready to make a record. I’ve come to the conclusion now that to write one great song i have to write ten terrible songs. I wrote 150 songs for this album, and only 12 made the record. And you know we both had to make a living so there was quite a few periods where we both had to go off and do some real work. I suppose those periods were quite frustrating but I never lost faith in the project, I just used that time to write, it was a really great experience throughout .
I suppose an album with 11 good songs count for 110 bad songs? There's grounds for a "Liam Dullaghan - the complete demos, outtakes and rarities box set" here.
Well i'm giving away a free CD with the album that has the best 30 of the songs that didn't make it and then the rest are up on my website for people to download if they wish. A lot of the home recordings are way beyond lo-fi though!
After The Havenots split up, did that uncertainness of whether or not you'd ever make music again, scare you? .
The Havenots splitting up was a real set back but it didn't really come as a surprise. It was a shame though, because we'd just finished recording our third album a couple of months before and i really think it was the best one we had made. We recorded it in Chicago with Chris Mills live to tape. We have talked about putting it out ourselves later this year and getting back together for a tour to promote it.
But yeah i suppose at the time we split i couldn't really face starting from scratch again and also i didn't know if i could do it on my own or if i even wanted to try. To be honest i was pretty heartbroken. .
What happened?
I think we just grew apart. We'd spent the best part of 5 years living in each others pockets and towards the end we just couldn't find a way get along, even the simplest things became really difficult. I think looking back i was probably a nightmare to work with. Looking back i'd say we both have regrets about what happened and if we could have found a way to save it we would have done. I don't know if things would have worked out differently if our label (cooking vinyl) had taken on our last record. I think they were expecting Never say goodnight mark 2 - bigger, better, more commercial. And we delivered them instead this tragic sounding, string laden folk album, but thats where our heads were at the time. Its definitely a record that reflects the mood between us at the time. So being dropped was also a factor in it but mainly it was just down to us not being able to communicate anymore. .
Does being a solo artist and not just Liam Havenot allow you to approach songwriting from new angles? Does it give you the freedom to write songs you couldn't otherwise have had ten years ago when you were in the Havenots?
I think what it has given me more than anything is time to develop my writing and also my singing over these last few years. We started making records before we were really ready, especially the first album. We had no idea what we were doing, we were really naive. But it's difficult when someone comes to you and says "here is some money, go make a record" to say you know what I'm not ready yet. The first Havenots record makes me physically ill when i listen to it now but i guess everyone has to start somewhere.
Also with "Making History" we had so much time in the studio to really work on the arrangements which are a lot more developed and complete than anything the Havenots did. And i suppose not having to work in a female vocal into the songs allowed me to sing in much lower register .
So what is this album fundamentally about? A break-up album or a break-free album? And would the, in lack of a better word, gloominess flow through both of them?
It's kind of break up album for a relationship that never even started, bad timing i guess you'd call it. I moved to Northampton after the Havenots split, not really knowing anyone there and went through some sort of weird 2nd adolescence. I didn't really know who i was anymore or what i was supposed to be doing. I met some wonderful people there, including some really talented musicians, i drank an awful lot, and got my heart broken pretty bad. So i guess the album covers that period of my life - one summer in particular. It's about getting completely lost and putting all the pieces back together. What is strange looking back now is that it was very happy time in my life for the most part, but there was an underlying sadness in me that i couldn't shake and that found it's way out through the music .
That there, that's the stuff all great art is made of. The break between this record and the years you spent in The Havenots has been long. Did you notice how the UK americana scene was changing all around you, becoming more recognized?
I think the big difference now is that if you tell someone you listen to alt.country or americana or whatever they generally know what your talking about whereas maybe ten years ago you'd be met with blank looks. I cant really comment on the live scene as i'm kind of detached from it now, and the americana scene in general.
Liam Dullaghan's Making History is out now on Signal/Noise.
