Perfection Is Overrated

Description

The debut album, Perfection Is Overrated, is now exclusively available from Skruffy Records.

Chris Bashford and Caralinda Booth have collaborated to make this intriguing mix of post-punk and alternative rock with a sprinkle of world music sounds, Chris with his powerful drums and memorable guitar riffs blend beautifully with Caralinda’s melodic, subtle but wonderfully interesting keys. All topped off with Chris’s lyrical dexterity. 14 original tracks take you on quite a journey.

We kick off with Hate Wait Love, a powerful message with a mesmerising guitar hook. Melancholic Girl’s intro gives space for Caralinda to weave some lovely melodies before Chris delivers this catchy love song. Democracy another strong message delivered at pace, My Old Town a heartfelt postcard to North West London. Mukhtar ‘the chosen one’ blends eastern promise with a full-on thrash chorus. What Could Have Been marks a change of pace, lush melodies and some complex guitar tuning make this quite haunting. And that’s just the first six songs!

HATE WAIT LOVE

This started off as a simple riff in the style of The Cramps, a bit like Garbageman and I wanted it to be a hypnotic psychobilly type of song. The middle sections is pure’ psychedelia from the Sid Barret era and the solo is influenced by Robbie Kruger of the Doors. It is all made magical by Caralinda’s keyboard effects and production skills. Chris used his Gretch G54222 as the background rhythm to give it a purer sound.

MELANCHOLIC GIRL

Melancholic Girl was actually written and recorded way back in 1994, possibly intended for the last Chelsea album, CFBL. It was not considered suitable for the band at the time and it was shelved. Chris re-introduced it to Caralinda, who has a great ear and thought it was a hit single in the making. Caralinda completely rearranged the track and wrote and added the brilliant string parts. In the view of the band and Skruffy Records, it is a sleeping beauty and a hit waiting to be discovered. Then again, we would say that wouldn’t we!

MUKHTAR

When asked about this song and it’s interesting departure from other on the album, Caralinda explained: ‘we were experimenting with samples on Logic, exploring ideas for rhythm tracks, and came across this mad Afghanistan folk thing. We built the verse groove around the loop with my keyboard bass line’. The Gretch featured again for the guitar pattern. Chris then wrote a high energy punky chorus which creates a great dynamic contrast between the two sections. I really like the strange discordant keyboard sound (from an old Proteus rack mount box) trailing out of the chorus. The song is about the struggles in the Middle East, written while Chris was reading “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom” by T.E. Lawrence.

CABBAGE PATCH DOLL

Chris describes Cabbage Patch Doll as James Brown meeting Nirvana! It is driven by guitar, bass and drum drive, but has the wonderful keyboard solo. It is another song arranged by Caralinda, who suggested the opening guitar part, to which Chris added the chorus. Chris says the song is ‘basically about entitled spoilt brats and the arrogance and ignorance of the human race. Another rant I suppose!’

MY OLD TOWN

This song is written about Chris’ past and his feelings when he goes back to where he was born. Chris says this is probably obvious from the lyrics and whilst some people think the song is a sad one, he sees it as observational. It starts with a fantastic keyboard introduction and a magical, dreamlike middle section, with Chris playing the drums and bass as well.

MOVE ON

Some songs just happen organically and this is what happened with Move On. This is an MC5 influenced rocker, written at home before a rehearsal at Century Sound. Chris and Caralinda played it with the band at rehearsal, performed it and then recorded it live (with no click track) at Century the following day. Chris likes the ‘rough and live’ feel of the recording, which managed to capture the energy of the band.

A NEW YEAR’S DAY

This song was created on New Year’s Day and Chris was playing a new Hagstrom guitar he had just acquired, through his practice amp with the echo on full. Caralinda joined in on piano, added a few new chords, and they recorded it instantly on the phone. To make it even special, snow was falling and Chris and Caralinda has  this lovely wistful piece of music which they thought would make a good interlude. A few months later, it was re-recorded in the studio and Chris suggested that Caralinda read a poem over it in a posh “poetry voice” (Carlinda’s words!). Caralinda wasn’t too enthusiastic to say the least, but Chris is a very good persuader… so they found an extract by Shelly and felt that the evocation of a harsh sea storm worked really well with the musical ebb and flow of the track.

DEMOCRACY

Democracy was the first song Caralinda and Chris together and what a tune. It originated from a blues type riff that that Chris wrote at Penhale Farm. Chis says, ’I knew instinctively that there was an ‘idea’ there and Caralinda suggested speeding it up and making it sound more contemporary without losing its soul’. Recorded at Century studios in Kent with the brilliant Jason Frye’s engineering guidance, the band nailed it on the first take, playing it live with Joe Pullinger on drums, and Jeff Piccinini’s superb bass playing. The guitars are: Vintage Gibson SG through a 1968 Marshall Plexi, and a Les Paul Black Beauty through a vintage Vox AC 50 and you cannot get more authentic than that! As usual the icing on the cake is Caralinda’s Korg Monologue XD and her great phrasing.

FOR THE PEOPLE

This track came from Chris playing a chord sequence on a detuned battered old Eros acoustic. He added keyboard bass line, and ‘got very enthusiastic about percussion!’ (Chris’s words) which does add another dimension to this song.

ALL FALL DOWN

‘For some reason, Chris often starts new song ideas with linear grooves and rhythms, using Logic and sounds from my own keyboard rig’ says Caralinda. Excited by one of these, Chris built chords and melody around the groove and Caralinda really liked his lyrics and vocal performance on this track, which is about arrogance and loss. They wanted to move the rhythm track away from something programmed, so Chris played a brilliant swingy live drum track, recorded with Jason at Century sound, which then inspired John Forester to create the perfect bass line.

WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN

Chris describes this as a Jimmy Page influenced riff, with live drums intro, all recorded at Penhale farm, and mixed by Doc in Plymouth. ‘I was simply mucking about with a riff in the studio and we took it from there.’ The drums were recorded on a ‘Copland Tama’ kit and Caralinda came up with the guitar solo phrasing, insisting that,  ‘four notes are all you need—not some xxxx idiot impersonating Jimmy Page!!!’

FLOWER MOON

Caralinda gave us the story behind this song: ‘Chris was excited to try to record a heavy John Bonham style drum track in our studio, using the special Glynn Johns three-mic recording technique. He had the guitar chords and I busked a keyboard bass line underneath it along to the drums. The bass sound is actually a Nord organ sound which emits a high flutey sounding noise at the same time. We really liked that effect and I think I played it in one take. I do that a lot with our arrangements—I find a sound, jam along and that’s the part. Unusually for us, all the guitar parts on Flower Moon are played on an acoustic guitar—in this case a 1966 Eros, rescued from a junk shop in Arnhem, Holland’

INTERNET STAR

Caralinda started this Internet Star off with a programmed rhythm track and several keyboard sequencers triggered from a Korg Minilogue. They were inspired by the Viagra Boys, and trying to get that mix of a techno type groove with tough hypnotic guitars. Then Talking Heads snuck in somehow and there is nothing wrong with that. The couple wanted to improve the chorus and came up with the slightly ‘souly’ melodies. Internet Star is a different style to the other tracks but with Chris’ distinct vocals and gnarly lyrics, I think it still sounds like The Ides of Sedition.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

This song came about from Chris’s love of Nick Drake and his great sadness of losing such an incredibly talented person at such a young age. He actually found out later that Drake lived virtually next door to him as a child. Chris says that magic of his guitar sound is in the tuning and when I finally discovered it, “What Could Have Been” was written in an hour at 1:30 in the morning with a full moon shining down on him. You can tell that it was a wonderful moment and only made more magical when Caralinda added the piano melody and string arrangements. I was playing my acoustic 1973 Hofner 491 tuned just right and the rest just evolved naturally. It was recorded the very next day.

Tracklist

1	Hate Wait Love	3:39
2	Melancholic Girl	3:05
3	Mukhtar	2:51
4	Cabbage Patch Doll	3:19
5	My Old Town	3:26
6	Move On	2:50
7	A New Year’s Day	2:53
8	Democracy	2:10
9	For The People	4:27
10	All Fall Down	5:04
11	When The Sun Goes Down	3:02
12	The Flower Moon	4:52
13	Internet Star	4:38
14	What Could Have Been	3:53