1) The Birds Will Still Be Singing

‘Birds’ was a great song to write, and is probably my best work to date. I wrote it in the summer of 2008, after playing at The Summer Pops Festival at Liverpool Echo Arena. I became fascinated with.the urban desolation of the Kensington area of Liverpool and its boarded-up, fly-blown splendour, and spent an afternoon wandering around the area making notes about what I saw, which became the song, via a few poetic diversions. I finished the song the next morning at 5am, locked in my hotel room in a frenzy of creative momentum and inexpensive cider.

2) To Feel Your Love

This song took longer to write than any other song I’ve written. I wrote the original version as ‘Broken Arms’ in 2001 for my then-band Candlefire, following the breakup of my first serious relationship, but whilst I was enamoured of the piece musically, I could never get the lyrics to work properly. The other guys in Candlefire knew it too, and the song lay dormant until I started to write for the Mercurymen album in 2007. I took the song to the great Stephen Darrell Smith (producer of ‘I’m Alive’, ‘Postcards From Valonia’, various tracks fom ‘Crumbs Of Comfort’ and much of my work with Candlefire) with whom I rewrote the song as ‘Open Arms’.

This iteration nearly made it to the Mercurymen album, but still wasn’t quite right. So, we retooled it again as ‘To Feel Your Love’, which finally felt finished.

This recording was originally a synth-drenched Killers-esque production, and the first thing we recorded for ‘Crumbs…’. As the album took a more pastoral shape, the synths were replaced with piano and tasteful electric guitar from the brilliant Simon Johnson.

3) You Don’t Have To Be Alone

I wrote this song with Simon Johnson and Gavin Wyatt. The seeds of the song were sown by an unusual guitar tuning and the desire to write a song of comfort and consolation. All three of us had close friends or loved ones who, at the time, were going through diffiflcult times-the kind of trying episodes that really justify and require help and consolation from a trusted friend-and this was our song to offer just that.

I’ve loved this song for a long time. It feels fragile, tender and shyly eloquent, like an awkward teenage introduction or the long, knowing look that an old family pet gives you before being taken away to be put to sleep.

I’ve opened my live shows with ‘…Alone’ for a long time. I wrote the harmony arrangement for this version shortly after the song was written, but for version of the song that appeared on the Mercurymen album we used a more subtle an understated arrangement. I kept thinking about my Wilson-informed arrangement, and it was great to be able to bring it to life on this recording. I’ve never worked so hard on recording vocals, and I’ve lost track of how many vocal tracks are at work on this song. It’s certainly upwards of twelve, including doubletracking. Indulgent? Probably. Sounds nice though, don’t you think?

4) Let My Love Be Your Shelter

This is another song which featured on the aborted Mercurymen album. It felt too good to let it die on the vine, so ‘Let My Love…’ gets its second chance here. I wrote this song with Si Johnson and Gav Wyatt in Hampshire in 2008 on a crisp spring morning, and both guys justifiably feature heavily on this recording. Just listen to their explosive harmonies on the chorus entry…BVs don’t get any better than that.

5) The Day That Peace Broke Out

This loose-limbed, Cajun-inspired piece was written by myself in collaboration with Messrs. Johnson and Wyatt alongside London-based songstress Anna Krantz. The.chorus occurred to Simon and I in a car in Guildford, and the theme of the story of a broken home-as told by a child therein-developed on the rest of the journey. Anna and Gavin filled in the blanks, and we had an unusual and oddly powerful song on our hands.

We used the old Carter Family trick of enveloping a massively sad narrative in a bouncy melodic motif and jaunty arrangement. If you squint, you can almost make out Ray Dorset’s lawyers grumbling in the distance…

6) Wedding Song

I wrote this song at the start of the recording sessions for ‘Crumbs…’. My wife’s cousin was getting married, and asked me to play at their wedding. I asked what their preference for First Dance was, and was told I could choose what song to play!

Of course, all sorts of mischevious thoughts came to mind, but thoughts of playing the likes of Maiden’s ‘Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter’ or Nelly Furtado’s ‘Promiscuous Girl’ were soon banished by the idea of making it really personal and actually writing a song for the occasion. The song came quickly and, thankfully, the wedding party loved it. An added bonus was that it made for a nice wedding present, handy as I was cripplingly skint at the time, and otherwise would have had to gift the bride and groom with something modest, such as a Kinder Egg or a pair of secondhand underpants.

7) Keep Me In Your Heart

This is another song that dates back to the Mercurymen era, reincarnated here courtesy of a brilliant, swooning production from Simon Johnson. I wrote the original version of this song in 2006 for ‘Black Light Phase’, the stillborn followup to ‘I’m Alive’. That album was set to be a double, 24 tracks of wildly diverse stuff, but the project got too big for itself and, once I’d been diverted by making the Mercurymen album, the focus on ‘Black Light Phase’ had gone. Another refugee from that lost album is ‘Silver Wings Of Morning’ from 2009′s ‘Nine Cents From Benelux’.

Anyway, I later refined ‘Keep Me…’ with Stephen Darrell Smith and cut it for the Mercurymen album. It seemed well worth re-cutting for this album and giving it a second chance, so I turned it over to Si Johnson, who produced it in an evocative and innovative way, which you hear here.

8) Paper Planes

This is the last song written for ‘Crumbs…’. I wrote this with my friend Tom Gilbert (my collaborator on ‘Silver Wings Of Morning’, ‘A Song To Myself’ and many more), and had a lot of fun doing so.

We set out to write a simple four-chord song with some sunshine in the grooves, as an antidote to the more weighty, poetic numbers on the album. The lyrics muse simply on the give’n'take nature of everyday human existence, and you can sing ‘La Bamba’ AND ‘Twist And Shout’ over the chord progression. I also get to take my one electric solo on the album on this song. Positively Satriani-esque, of course…

9) I Wish I Could Have Known You Better

I wrote this song in 2010, after my wife and I both lost grandparents on the same day. Our contrasting relationships with our respective Grandmothers (I had a very close relationship with mine-who, as a keen pianist and successful singer, introduced me to music and performance, and allowed me to record with her stunning piano, which now sits in my dining room, many times-whereas internal family tensions prevented my wife from getting to know hers properly until the last few years of her life) and the unusual sense of mutual-yet-separate grief that my wife and I shared provided plenty of inspiration for the song.

It’s short and deeply heartfelt. The kind of song one can only write alone. I produced this track, and played everything, with the exception of some gorgeous and supremely featherlight drumming courtesy of Liam Bradley.

10) Westcountry Love Song

This song joins ‘Shake Me’ from ‘I’m Alive’ in the rarefied club of album-closing songs that are upbeat…I don’t do this very often!

I wrote this song with the versatile and perma-inspired Tom Gilbert. It is intended as an affectionate tribute to the beautiful Westcountry that I’m lucky enough to call home.

Next time you happen to be driving along the A35 between Winterborne Abbas and Bridport (maybe on your way to Cornwall or.Devon, who knows?), you will come upon the place where the first verse was written. As you crest the rise of the first hill you come to, pull in and park your car to the left, step outside, and see if you can’t.touch heaven, see the plougmen tasting the salt wind and the still sea down in the valley…it’s all there…

Jx

I’m proud to announce that my new album, Crumbs Of Comfort, is to be released on 2nd April. It’s taken three years to make and I strongly feel that it represents a real artistic peak in my life and work so far.

I hope you like it. You can preorder it now from the “Discography/Buy Music” page at My Website with free international shipping.

If you decide to buy a copy, please let me know what you think. I make my music for you, the listener, and nobody else. Your opinion an enjoyment is of paramount importance to me, and any feedback is very much appreciated.

Big love,
Jinder

My relationship with JJB came about during my neverending search for a decent plugged-in acoustic guitar sound. As you know, I spend most of the year on the road, and I have long been tired of plugging in my beautiful Gibson acoustics and hearing nothing but the sound of a hollow, quacky pickup.

It’s no exaggeration to say that I’ve auditioned/bought/borrowed several dozen acoustic guitar pickups over the years, most models from all the major manufacturers and plenty from less well known makers. None have lived up to my hopes or expectations, be they soundhole pickups, UST (or ‘undersaddle’) pickups, mic-blend pickups, the lot-they all either sounded synthetic and harsh, or had horrendous issues with feedback (and I never leave home without one of my several trusty Feedback Buster soundhole plugs).

JJB Electronics’ products came to my attention recently after I acquired a beautiful Gibson Advanced Jumbo from my friend Glenn Sinnock at www.glennsguitars.com which featured a bridge design which procludes the fitting of a traditional piezo undersaddle pickup. I had to think outside the box with this puppy, so started to look at soundhole pickups. I tried two soundhole pickups (I’ll name no names, but the two biggest selling models from the two best known brands) and both sounded horrible, devoid of clarity, punch or anything vaguely “acoustic”.

So, back to the drawing board I went, until I stumbled across a review of the JJB Electronics Artist Series Prestige 330. This sounded too good to be true, a triple-sensor passive soundboard transducer pickup, USA made, customisable to my specs, shipped for free, all for under $50 (£32!!!).

I couldn’t resist, and e-mailed Jessie, the man behind JJB, with a couple of questions regarding sensor size and my bridgeplate etc. I received a detailed reply less than three minutes after sending my e-mail…the customer service that JJB offer is DYNAMITE, I have never been more impressed. I placed my order there and then, and my pickup was with me less than ten days later, shipped, as promised, for free despite the transatlantic postage costs.

I’m no stranger to guitar fettling, and this pickup is a very non-invasive install, so I was able to install the pickup and have the guitar gig-ready in under 15 mins. It should be noted that my Advanced Jumbo already had a drilled endpin to receive the strapjack of the pickup-drilling out the endpin hole would add another 15 mins to the installation process…either way, it’s quick.

I’ve gigged the guitar extensively since then, and I’m just thrilled to bits with this pickup. It is by far the most natural sounding acoustic guitar pickup I’ve ever heard, and its dynamic response is incredible-it sounds just like my big, bold, lush Gibson AJ…but louder!

I was so impressed with the product, price point and customer service, that I just had to get involved and try to spread the word about JJB Electronics in the UK, which is why I’m proud to say I’ll be endorsing JJB for the forseeable future, and installing their pickups in all of my acoustic guitars, ukuleles and mandolins.

If you’re an acoustic guitarist, you’ll know what a drag it is trying to find a decent amplified sound. You really do owe it to yourself (and your guitar) to audition a pickup from JJB Electronics.

JJB Electronics

I can’t wait to see you all on the road when I tour in April-May and September-October this year. I know my guitar sound won’t let me down…

Much love to all,
Jinder x

That’s right, the last buttons have been pressed and the last faders have been fondled, and the dear old thing is off to be mastered this week.

Having spent so long making it, it’s hard to describe it in objective terms. I have fiddled with it obsessively for a very long time, and, without a deadline or a label breathing down my neck, I was able to continue to do so until I felt it was truly finished.

I recorded it in total isolation in various locations (often in houses and flats I was living in at the time, and, in the case of one track, in a hotel room on a four-track cassette recorder), and the only other human being who contributed to the recording was the wonderful Liam Bradley who recorded some tender and deeply inconspicuous drums and percussion on a few tracks.

Sonically, it’s not far from my first record, ‘Willow Park’, from way back in the mists of time, except a bit more weathered and a lot more grown-up. If ‘Willow Park’ was a freshly launched boat devoid of rigging and sea trials, my new record is the same ship, that has now spent seven years crossing back and forth across the Atlantic without a refit.

I’m still trying, in places, to arrange harmonies in the style of Brian Wilson…the difference is that now I’m old and wise enough to realise however hard I reach for Mr Wilson, I’m only ever going to fall somewhere between a community choir and The Swingle Singers.

Don’t let that preamble fool you into thinking I’m not proud of the new album, though-it’s unquestionably the best record I’ve made to date and is unswervingly honest…the songs were recorded without ‘drop-ins’ or any form of autotuning (I have NEVER used any, I should point out!), and the performances are largely ‘live in the studio’, warts and all.

I’ll have a title for you soon (I don’t want to announce it yet as the artwork isn’t finished, and although the title I’ve chosen is definite, there’s always the outside chance of change at this stage) and a tracklist, too.

Thanks for reading, and keep checking back-I’ll be blogging here every few days so don’t be a stranger!

Much love,
Jinder x

My wife, daughter and I did normal, everydau family stuff, picking up the week’s shopping, planting out potatoes in the garden and so forth, and in my case answering the incessant, nagging call of internal creative momentum…I’m always writing in one way or another. It’s the kindest drug, and, now I’m a thirtysomething and trying to be a responsible sort, the only one that fits the bill.

So, just another lovely but ordinary day in my life.

The day, however, found its fulcrum at around 1:30pm, when an overworked and heavily laden postman (struggling with the postal funnel in-between the oddly positioned dual bank holiday weekends) dropped a small brown parcel through my letterbox.

Inside this parcel was an album called ‘The Mad Straight Road’, the latest record by a seasoned singer/songwriter by the name of Patrick Duff. Patrick is a superb, deeply singular artist, who is one of the greatest cult figures to emerge from the UK music scene in the last twenty years…if you don’t know of him and his music, you really need to make it your business to seek out his output-he is a man with a deeply intelligent and richly rewarding back catalogue.

You may remember Patrick’s former band who were around in the mid-1990s, the Bristol-based group Strangelove-they released three superb albums of visceral-yet-melody-heavy indie rock with an intellectual lyrical inclination and a firm grasp on the rungs of the “dark ladder” that Joni Mitchell spoke of.

Strangelove’s records, particularly their final two (1995′s ‘Love And Other Demons’ and 1997′s eponymous album) were key records in the soundtrack to my turbulent late-teens/early 20s-they resonated with me in a peculiar and particular manner, and have stuck in my memory ever since, still visiting the stereo from time to time and bringing back memories of youthful terror, darkness and unrequited just-about-everything.

After 1997, Duff dropped off the map (well, MY map at least-a read through his expansive and interesting website

reveals that he was a busy man, initially with abortive New-Wave-Of-New-Wave band Moon and then with an ambitious collaborative project with African musician Madosini, which took him on a lengthy creative jag to her native country), before returning with 2005′s eclectic, demanding yet extremely rewarding solo set ‘Luxury Problems’ on EMI’s relaunched Harvest label, once home to Psychedelic Folk avatar Syd Barrett (the man whose second solo album galvanised my desire to become a songwriter) and his contemporaries such as Kevin Ayers.

As most intense, personal records do, ‘Luxury Problems’ seemed to fly in and out of the press and industry radar sweep in a breath…too complex for Radio Two, too mature for Radio One, too intense for the casual listener and packed with too much dark beauty for the music industry to take to its hearts.

The upshot of this is that Patrick once again was obscured to the public eye, and spent the last six years working on interesting projects involving Tibetan singing bowls, music composed through mathematical and physical equations and other such cerebral and, I’m sure, personally satisfying quests.

The album I received yesterday, ‘The Mad Straight Road’ was a bit of a bolt from the blue for me, I wasn’t aware of Patrick’s new music until I located him on social networking site Twitter and started reading what he’d been upto. I sent him a Tweet requesting he play a show in Bridport, the town I live in, and he sent me a charming and personal e-mail in return, telling me he’d listened to and enjoyed my music, and discussing the gig further.

Duff’s website,

, is a riveting read, and after listening to the brilliant ‘Dead Man Singing’ and ‘Three Little Monkeys’ on his Myspace page, I knew I had to get my mitts on the new record. It arrived yesterday, signed and with a handwritten note from Patrick promising to arrange the Bridport gig we discussed as soon as possible.

I had an expansive web of crisscrossing car journeys to make over the bank holiday weekend, so set off with ‘The Mad Straight Road’ on the best stereo I own-the one in my car. Unlike its predecessor ‘Luxury Problems’, this album is extremely immediate and a very approachable record, beautifully produced, arranged and performed, and positively littered with gem-like melody lines, imaginative and unusual chord progressions and arcane yet texturally perfect instrumental shading. I warmed to it immediately and have listened to it at least ten times in the last two days, it’s an album you can really lose yourself in, filled with story songs, character narratives and intense, dark and often humorous imagery.

The songs that touched me most deeply were, oddly enough, the simplest songs on the record…’Don’t Worry Now’ is a perfect, Beatle-esque slice of shimmering folky pop, ‘Wake Up Richard’ is a glorious plea to a friend to see the beauty innate in life and the jazzy, melodically limber ‘The Tourist’ appears to be an address to a former lover who has gone on to lose themselves in their own success.

There are too many moments of greatness here to recount them all-in fact, there’s not a single mis-step all album long-and the mind boggles as to why this fabulous record hasn’t been licensed by a major label and turned into a hit album.

Patrick Duff and ‘The Mad Straight Road’ are in the ballpark of being the Leonard Cohen and the ‘Songs Of Love And Hate’ for the 21st Century…the 21st Century just doesn’t realise it yet.

Jinder x

I’ll keep this updated at least weekly, often more. I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts, experiences and feelings with you all, both about my working life as a travelling songwriter and musician, and my personal life as a proud father, loving husband and motor racing enthusiast (although I’ll keep geek-outs about the latter to a minimum!).

As a musical artist and performer, it’s rare for me to get the opportunity to share any insight into my life offstage, other than in song and the short stories/novellas/encyclopaedii I am prone to recount in between said songs. I’m looking forward to doing just that here-sharing more of who I am, what I do and what drives me to do it.

Thanks again for reading this, and I hope you’ll join me in what promises to be an exciting adventure-for me, at least-sallying forth into the Blogosphere.

Much love,
Jinder x