Violet Row by Ike Goldman

Violet Row was
Written and recorded on Cwmdare Street, September 2021 to May 2022
Completed on Niddrie Road, September to November 2023

On Violet Row in Westcot. This is an album that I made while living in Cardiff. It was a funny life, I didn't really have friends and I didn't really know the town or have anything to do there except for just be around. I liked living in Cardiff. It's hard to say how happy I was but I certainly liked it. I loved living with Alice and Emma and I loved walking round the velodrome near my house to watch the cyclists go by and I loved to go on down past the weir and along the Taff and back again. That was about all I did. And occasionally I would make it out of bed and record a song. But usually I just knocked on Emma's door or ate some potatoes or went to the velodrome. It was a big open air track and in the centre of it was a sort of fake road system with a crossing and a set of traffic lights. It was there to teach kids about road safety I think. I loved it at the velodrome, the crossing felt like a theme park, this little false reality just sitting in Cathays. And I liked to see the cyclists go by, especially the fast group because I liked the feeling as they whizzed past me. But I usually missed them. Anyway my ten months of Cathaysian living was odd but I enjoyed it so much, and I think the songs on this album captured my environment and mood better than any other album I have made. That was really the aim of all my records up to Violet Row, to print myself off. I can hear myself wandering around, a little lost for where to go or what to do. Either in bed or chatting with Emma or watching the Maindy Flyers. It's a somewhat bittersweet sound but I love it, and I dearly hope that you do too. Ike xxx

Endless thanks to my two beautiful Cardiff friends, Alice and Emma. I would have been a very unhappy person without the both of you there.

totes just toted