Diagram by Andrew Howie

In the autumn of 2023, I rented a lodge in the Scottish Borders for four days. With my dog Lucy as my only companion, I went for walks in the surrounding forest, read a crime novel, drank coffee, listened to Bob Dylan, washed microwave dinners down with cans of Doom Bar, and binge-watched DVDs bought from a charity shop en-route to the caravan park.

In-between this relentless series of demanding activites, I set up a makeshift recording studio in one of the spare bedrooms, where I recorded acoustic guitar and vocal parts for eight new songs.

I'd spent the preceding two months finishing ideas conceived years before; some as part of an all-day writing marathon, some as sketches recorded on my phone. Booking the lodge gave me a deadline to work towards, without which I might never have finished the songs (in some cases, the lyrics were completed just seconds before I hit the 'record' button). It also provided me with a means of getting back to basics – recording and playing everything myself, much like when I began making music with a four-track back in the mid-1990s.

As a result, this collection has much more in common with my early acoustic work as Calamateur than it does with 2021's Pale White Branches (my most recent, most polished and most collaborative album to date).

Once back home, I added bass, electric guitar, keyboard and ukulele. The songs were mixed in fits and starts over the next two years, then mastered by Iain Hutchison in June 2025.

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Andrew Howie is a Scottish musician, songwriter & teacher who has been writing, recording and releasing his own music since 2000. He has appeared on over 100 records. Some of them are here.

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