Amplifier

Warm Hand

'Warm Hand' was mostly tracked in the isolated environment of "The Barn" at Te Papatipu ~ on the West Coast at Bethells Beach, Auckland ~ promoting an imagined world akin to the hazy shack photograph inside the Neil Young album 'Harvest'.

The isolated environment clearly had an impact on the recording, as the tunes stretch out into lush, melancholy epics, with tasteful, rich instrumental touches providing the ideal bed for Don's emotive voice & engaging lyrical flourishes to be laid bare.

The songs are gorgeously rendered by some of our finest & most talented musicians, artists, engineers & production brains.

Talented perfectionist Ed McWilliams [Anika Moa, Ed Cake] did most of the album tracking, using some idiosyncratic & unconventional ways to capture the barn's natural atmosphere; as has been his way since his early days with Bressa Creeting Cake.

Engineer Tom Miskin provided the perfect organizational & technical balance to Ed's innovative style.

The band, for most of the recordings, consisted of Ross Burge on drums [the Mutton Birds], Sean James Donnelly on bass [SJD], John Segovia on slide/pedal steel [Boxcar Guitars] & Tatiana Lanchtchikova on accordion. Willy Scott [Anika Moa, Dimmer] also played drums on one song & Chris O'Connor [Trinity Roots, Cloudboy] another two; Graeme Humphreys [Humphreys Keen, Able Tasmans] added some beautiful piano, while Victoria Kelly wrote the string arrangements.

The actual production of the album was a joint effort between Don, SJD and Ed.

While Ed mostly produced the tracking sessions, SJD contributed his many talents to the textures & detail of the album. SJD, who understands the difficulties of working as a solo artist, was instrumental in encouraging Don to continue his recording career & undertake recording 'Warm Hand'. Final mixing of the album was done by Luke Tomes at Echo Studios.

The original concept for 'Warm Hand' was amore minimalist stripped back project, but the album's several years of gestation has meant it has grown into something fuller, richer, more ambitious ~ something quite unique & definitely very good.

Along with this development, Don has established an excellent live band; they've already sold out their show at the Wellington Arts Festival & played to several thousand at the Auckland Zoo. The band features SJD, Segovia & O'Connor alongside Don.