Just over a year ago now we featured a great short film on the making of Stornoway’s album Tales from Terra Firma. One of the most memorable moments was watching lead singer Brian Briggs heading out of his house to his campervan parked on the road. Inside he kept a notebook and a cheap £15 guitar, the van had no electricity which meant using a headtorch when it got dark. On one particular night his then pregnant wife knocked on the door to tell him her waters had broken.
Well by all accounts at the end of that album the notebook was empty and Dr. Brian Briggs (as he is now) has a young family that he has shifted to one of the most beautiful parts of the British Isles…the Giower Peninsula in Wales. I’ve stayed on the Gower a number of times so can understand the attraction. I even met Rachael Dadd walking along a derserted beach with Ichi one year…they were on their honeymoon so Dr. Briggs is not alone in being drawn to the area.
Well the Welsh coastline has worked it’s magic and given Brian a new perspective to his music as you will hear on The Road You Didn’t Take below. It also encouraged hime to use the three part harmonies that open the song which came to him in a dream and also pushed him to experiment with Celtic tuning for the guitar riff. The beautiful Gower also reminded him of the 1916 poem by Robert Frost The Road Not Taken, which had a huge influence on this song. In short, it is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard and when I listen to it I’m back on the Gower again.
Stornoway’s third album will be released in the UK on Monday 13th April. It promises to be loaded with the band’s keenest pop sensibilities yet and for the first time the band worked with a producer, rock recording legend Gil Norton to help add muscle and focus to their sound.
http://www.stornoway.eu/