The High Kings

It was Joe moving to Montreal from Dublin that was the spark that ignited the coming together of their debut album 'Sun, Moon and Stars as Standard' He'd been writing songs for many years without ever really having a serious stab at recording an album. Just "a few ropey demos here and there" as he put it. The impact of this vibrant city invigorated him with the desire to bring this collection of songs to life. He met Nigel, who also hails from his side of the Atlantic, namely Sussex, England, through the Montreal Music Scene website and they got on immediately. Nigel had already had some success during his time over in Canada being the drummer and co-writer of Montreals Hol'fader, for the best part of the 90's. They released 2 albums independently and were winners of the Montreals Radio Station CHOM FM's L'Esprit Contest in 1996. Nigel's music background came from similar influences as Joe's. Both were inpired by great songwriting and the knack to write catchy but thought provoking tunes. Nigel has also worked on solo projects such as The Dreams that show another slightly darker side. That mix together produced some great chemistry in the studio where Nigel and Joe were the co-producers of their debut CD. Having Monty Python and Premiership soccer also in common got them through any quibbles that arose over the music and a regular good dose of slagging also kept things in check. The first recording session was back in March '07 in the basement of Nigels house and this was the beginning of just over a years work, chipping away at the songs.

When Joe wrote the opening track 'Snowbound' a few years back he told me he had always imagined his good friend Steve Wickham playing fiddle on this song, but until this project started he never had a proper recording of it to present to him. So as soon as he'd got a decent backing track together he sent Steve a copy and luckily enough the 'Wick' liked what he heard and agreed to do an arrangement for the song. He recorded his fiddle parts at his home in Sligo, Ireland and sent the finished files through the post (modern technology, eh!) Knocked out by the wonderful job that he did on Snowbound Joe was cheeky enough to ask him if he would consider adding an arrangement to the closing track 'St.Swithins Day' Now that Wickham's such a busy fellah that although he was asked in August '07 he only managed to squeeze it in during March '08 and then decided to throw in some piano for good measure. The result, another gem from The Waterboys fiddler extraordinaire!
It's been a long year and a bit for The High Kings, but the resulting debut album, to coin a phrase so often used by Nigel, is 'none to shabby' -Patsea