SP002 • robshuttz.bandcamp.com/album/a-borrowed-house

Dear Listener,

Here you have it, 'A Borrowed House', the 15th Rob Shuttz album. The others are out there somewhere, unless they're not... I worked on this collection of songs between August 2018 and June 2019 after a long stint of experimenting and wearing a scary mask. This was a period of change and I found myself living in six different houses along the way, each of which is represented in as much detail as I could handle on the cover art. Special thanks to the residents of those borrowed homes who extended their invitations to this wandering soul.

Chronologically: Gal, Yo and Alex for offering their extra room for my second year in Den Haag (1st floor). Penny, who lent me her whole house in Saffron Walden (ground floor, right) while she studied in Mexico for two months. Sabela and co for bridging a two week gap with their giant house in New Cross (3rd floor). My parents Sarah and Guy for freeing up my old room in Salisbury (2nd floor, left) for an extra comfortable wintry month over Christmas. Tim and Lina who, for the millionth time, let me have the spare room in Peckham (2nd floor, right) for a(nother) last week in the UK. And finally Dianeka and Gladys, whose home in Lisbon (ground floor, left) provided an effortless start to a new life. Through all of this, of course, was my companion Di who organised half of it for me. Muchas gracias Di!

As I tried to focus on delivering an album for Same Page Records, this recurrent uprooting was initially a panic inducing interruption, but soon revealed itself to be the source and cement for all the ideas you hear here. I think I started to access the emotions evoked by living spaces and the complicated concept of home for a person who never stopped moving. Dripping, a rendition of the intro I played for my first ever solo gig in 2012, sets a pensive scene. The Last Day tells a true story; the stress of the countdown, generosity and responsibility, the never ending 'ending' of things, the traces you leave. Same Great Taste speaks reservedly about prescribed pride in cultural quirks, misusing overused cliché to numbly observe underwhelming similarities across a global world. Side Step is a question about that world. Is our natural perception able to calibrate information at its current scale? Also, would I just put my phone down for a bit y'know...

Thermo, an effort to switch off. The heating, the sofa, a ready-made lasagne. Yet Again, an almost title track of a track, quite plainly thinks aloud about moving, borrowing, time and stubbornly sticking to the plan ahead... again. Beheaded Arrows, written whilst leaving Oxford in 2007, makes its comeback with stark relevance. The lows of escapist desires but also a triumphant acknowledgement of inevitable change.

Precious is half a thought... the dilemma of aging, social pressure, choice paralysis and ownership are in there somewhere. Leavers' Lament represents the crushing weight of happy memories and Detail, the long lost conclusion to the album opener and written seven years later, is the wide eyed will to connect directly to a present moment, without wider context. After all, I’m an optimist.

I made these recordings using similarly time-spanning techniques and equipment, most of which you can also see in the drawing. The bass and twangy 'lead' sounds are from my customised Aria IGB-40 M 'Frankenbass', which was my first bass, aged 14, before being reincarnated for looped percussion purposes. At the other end of the time line is the Box Harp and Trains, the third travel sized instrument for Haddow, which provides a variety of sounds from glittery wobbly chords to overdriven textural swells. For the rhythms I combined an old favourite, Cubase's super basic 'RnB Kit', with the organic sound of binaurally looped snare, floor tom, frame drum (thanks Dalton) and cymbals. Obviously there are some knives in there too... Add to that a light dusting of synth, delay, reverb and piles of voice and that's pretty much it. My laptop deserves a shout out too, a Dell XPS13 running Windows 10 and Cubase AI5. The power of these machines amazes me every day.

For a fuller, finer finish I handed the final mix over to Mike who brought out all the width, depth and detail to great effect. Speaking of whom, I'd like to say a really real thank you to all those, especially label mates Mike Barrett and Rose Dagul, who've helped me believe that my songwriting is worth anything at all.

Finally, thank you for your support.
See you again soon. All the best,

Rob