Arms Across The Water

While some albums are captured in a single burst of time, Arms Across the Water is a bit of a journey through my own songwriting archive. The record bridges decades, pulling together a range of songs that had been waiting for the right moment to be fully realized. "Brighton Run," for instance, is a complete rewrite and rearrangement of a track originally penned - and performed - in 1980, inspired by the often tedious, late-night drives back from my parents’ house in Essex to my student digs in Brighton. Similarly, "Come to Me" and "I Don't Think Things Will Seem the Same" are direct windows into the mid-to-late 1980s, channeling the raw emotional landscapes of relationships from that era.

The album also captures how travel can entirely reshape a piece of music. "Syracusa" originally started its life as a strict instrumental, but it was completely transformed following a visit to Sicily—gaining lyrics and a vocal track after I found myself deeply inspired by the island's extraordinary, ancient history. Tied together with the studio debut of my 2017 Fender Telecaster (which takes center stage on "Julia Says"), Arms Across the Water serves as a musical bridge across both geography and time.