The Isis Project started with a backing track which was written in January 1999 at Blah Street Studios in Hampshire. It was the first piece of music written after getting engaged to my wife Emma and its mood and tone suggested a new direction for me which took a while to develop. The second song, Song For Isis was written when our first child was born, May 21st 2000 and at that point I didn’t realise that the two songs were connected, but I did know that this piece of music was a musical turning point for me. Initially it was recorded at my old house in Randolph Avenue on my Bosendorfer piano and was purely instrumental.
About two years later after I suddenly found I had some time on my hands (October 2002) I decided to send Song For Isis to Fabrice Nataf at EMI Publishing in France to see if someone would want to put French lyrics to it. About a couple of weeks later recording artist Keren-Ann Zeidel sent over a version with French lyrics - Cher Isis - that were so perfect that it inspired me to meet her and consider a whole album. Some time later Keren-Ann came over to London to Primrose Hill and we actually wrote together for the first time which has always been a very relaxed and illuminating experience. She is without doubt one of the coolest collaborators I have had the pleasure of working with; her outlook on life is never less than liberated. Anyway, various visits ensued and slowly but surely we completed the writing for the album with La Muscade a little over a year later.
I met the actress Sophie Hunter through a mutual friend (film producer Andrew Holmes) in September 2003 who turned out to have the perfect voice for the Isis Project. I knew from the moment that she walked into the studio that she was the right person with the right attitude and enthusiasm and who also exuded the natural charm and cool of Keren-Ann’s lyrics. The Isis Project became a song cycle, an exploration of an imaginary woman’s life from the innocence of childhood, the temptations of adolescence, young love and the complexities of middle age to the confusion and decline of old age. Having a concept for the album allowed Keren-Ann to open her mind to a different kind of lyric that isn’t overtly pop and is much more poetic and mysterious, which hopefully is a perfect marriage with the music. First and foremost the album is an eighteenth birthday present for my four year old daughter Isis and is a snapshot of where I was musically in the very early years of her life. I now plan to do an album for my two year old son Marley called Songs For A Boy and then eventually to write a ballet for my youngest daughter Gala.
Tweet