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| Image compliments of John Deery |
at Sandinos Main Venue. The album has been in the pipeline for two years. It came about after an
usual approach to forming a band by front man, John Deery. Initially John’s intention was to form a
band for backing his songs for recording, but things went so well “The Heads” became a permanent
fixture.
“We formed at the start if 2010, off the back of myself playing solo for a number of years. I have two
solo albums and an EP out as well, and they did alright for a guy recording it in his bedroom with a
four track. I had a bit of material put together for a new album and David Odlum, of The Frames,
picked it up and he basically said, “I’d be delighted to record with you but would you be doing it solo
or with a band?”
I wanted to form a band specifically to record this album because I had the songs written and that but it was while I was away in New Zealand travelling. The plan was come back, form a band, learn the songs as quick as we can and get out to France to record. It was in Nantes, well, outside of Nantes in the French countryside, in Black Box Studios. It was great, it was a great time of my life.The whole idea behind John Deery and The Heads was just that I got a few heads
together to play. Steve Sheridan, who I played in bands with when I was younger, my brother is the
guitarist, our Matt, and the Steve, the drummer, suggested if I wanted a bass player he couldn’t
recommend anyone higher than Sean Haslett who he’d played with in another band.”
“We had our first practise in January and in April we were flying out to record the album, really
quick turnaround, January to April. I had done about ten years of a solo career and was doing well
in Edinburgh in Scotland and had offers from smaller labels there but something that always came
up was people saying, “You’d be great with a band behind you” and it always played on my mind.
Horizon now, being together for over two and a half years, the band sound comes across more,
we’ve kind of carved out our own sound for this album. It’s been a transition thing because now
over the last two years people always compliment us on the live set because we’re really tight live
and always put a lot of effort of making it exciting and dynamic when we’re playing live.”
A couple of the songs there have been beating around for a couple of years, maybe since Smoking
Mirrors, but with Horizon it’s has a whole lot more time to gestate and people’s ideas coming in are
far greater here. Now it’s very much a band album, everyone’s getting their strengths coming out in
it, it’s really well produced too I mean, tip of the hat too for Liam Craig who produced it for us, he’s
brilliant and it could be the start of a great partnership there. He brought the best out of everybody.
John is the brain behind the lyrics on the album, and generally would start writing with a little of
the tune and lyrics and go from there. “The Raven, that’s done really well for us, is like an acoustic
kind of, lovely, heartbreak song, I almost don’t know how to describe it. It tells a big story and lots of
people seem to relate to it, some people relate to it in friendship terms, others, in love terms. The
way that song came about, I just got a tune and started humming along with it and eventually wee
words started forming and then I got the jist of the song that way.”
The popularity of “The Raven” comes as no surprise after listening to it. A beautiful finger picking
style on the acoustic guitar introduces the song, soon joined by impressive lyrics which no lover of
this acoustic style could resist. The harmonies are perfect, tight and used sparingly adding in a burst
of colour throughout before we’re treated to longer passages of harmonies ending the track. Truly harmony heaven.
The “band” sound that John was so keen to achieve really comes through with all the input from
each of “the heads”. Even the down tempo tracks on this album like “Coming Home” induce spells of
not only toe tapping, but for me, both feet tapping, hands drumming on the table or knees and head
bopping, while hazarding a sing along to the harmony lines. “More often than not the basic skill of
forming the song is there and then we go in and the band does the arrangements, kind of thing, you
know everyone will say, ‘What about a louder bit here, or a quieter bit there, change that bit or cut
that bit out’ and it’s great, the four of us are just mates anyway and it’s a brilliant way of working.”
Other local acts featuring at the launch include Little Bear, Connor Mason and SOAK. Doors open
at 9pm and it’s only £5 for entry. In the meantime the album is available locally for £9 and online
at www.johndeeryandtheheads.com for £10. John Deery and The Heads are putting all their
efforts into the launch but are hoping to have gigs confirmed in the coming 2013 City of Culture
celebrations.
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