The other day, guitarist Dee Sharpe and I were sitting in Dee’s Granny’s kitchen in Broughty Ferry pondering the sad state of the world, when, as a way of soothing our frayed souls, he picked up his guitar and started playing the opening chords to our award worthy song, “I’m Here.” I joined in and it was not lost on either of us that such words of encouragement have rarely seemed more appropriate or needed.
So caught up were we in these thoughts that it took a moment to realise that our bassist, Juan Tusrivor had put down his cup of tea and joined in. The sparse arrangement, contrasting with the bigger sound of our original recording, somehow seemed more poignant, and I was glad that our team of Swedish sound engineers, Max and Minnie Mumsetting, with an eye and an ear towards a future documentary about the band, had their recording equipment set up next to the fridge and running 24 hours a day in order not to miss anything.
After the first verse, our agoraphobic Afghan drummer, Kit Bashir, also joined in from the linen closet where he spends most of his time. By the time the chorus came around, even our loathsome keyboard ace, Gene Poole-Skimmings, who had been eating pizza in the front room and dropping crumbs all over Mrs. Sharpe’s good sofa, had moved to her piano and started tickling the ivories, leaving marinara sauce all over them and his unmistakable mark on the song.