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Steve Cradock needs little introduction. He is the long standing guitarist and founding member of the 90s legendary British band Ocean Colour Scene. He penned some of the 90's most definitive hits such as The Riverboat Song, The Day We Caught The Train and Hundred Mile High City which quickly became engrained into British Culture as the theme tune to the Chris Evans fronted TFI Friday and signature intro song in Guy Ritches cult movie 'Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels'. Steve is also the long standing live guitarist for Paul Weller and to this day travels the world with him being his right hand man. Few British guitarists can boast that on their resume so as you can imagine it was a huge pleasure of ours to get the chance to talk with Steve about his new and debut solo album "The Kundalini Target" which was actually recorded at Paul Wellers own studio. With "The Kundalini Target", Steve has grafted 10 beautiful tracks about love, life, loss and the union of marriage. Tracks such as 'Running Away', 'Beware of Falling rocks' and 'Ask the sound' showcase what a talent Steve Cradock is, whilst exposing the vulnerability and innocence of young love.
During the writing phase of "The Kundalini Target" Steve Cradock was quoted as saying "To be honest, solo albums make me feel ill at ease. I think they always disappoint so I was wary of making one." In the light of this statement, it may seem a wonder that Steve Cradock decided to make one. "It evolved into itself" states Steve, "To be honest it kind of led me. I really enjoyed the making of the album". During the writing of "The Kundalini Target" Steve's biggest test was to write a song for his children that didn't sound too sweet or saccharine and after that song was penned the album grew naturally from there. "I had 80% of the the album written before I decided to do a solo album." states Steve, "writing 'The Apple' made me decide to actually nail a solo album".
"The Kundalini Target" was recorded in just a week, which by anyone's standards is quite a feat. This was mainly down to Steve's careful planning prior to the recording phase allowing him to enter the studio and know exactly what needed to be done. "I had spent months dreaming up how the album should sound. I worked hard at the words and melodies so, by the time of recording, the songs went down quickly and easily" explained Steve. As with any person, Steve was quite nervous about stepping beneath the revealing light of a solo project with his most nervous moments being when he played the finished product to friends and loved ones. He wasn't 100% confident in his singing voice but at the same time that same fear didn't matter. "If you sing like you mean it then no one will question the voice. There are loads of average singers that have made great sounding records" states Steve, "I wanted "The Kundalini Target"to sound humble with no musical historyonics".
"The Kundalini Target" contains no show off or virtuoso playing on it allowing Steve to stick to his ideal of the record possessing a simple mood to it, something that was easily accessible by many. As initially mentioned, Paul Weller is a significant presence in Steve Cradock's musical life and "The Kundalini Target" was recorded in Mr.Weller's own recording studio, Black Barn Studios. When asked the depth of Paul Wellers involvement on "The Kundalini Target" Steve replied "Paul encouraged me. He let me record it in his studio with his engineer Charles who was wonderful. Paul played acoustic 12 string and sang backing vocals on 'You Paint Your Picture'". "The Kundalini Target" has been catching the ears of other important musicans and Liam Gallagher was quoted as hailing "The Kundalini Target" as "a modern day 'All Things Must Come To Pass' by George Harrison". When quizzed on possible similarities Steve laughed "That's typical Liam isn't it! It might be similar in the fact that they both contain 12 string guitars! Maybe that's what he meant?".
With "The Kundalini Target" being released this month, Steve has just announced a small Hard Rock Cafe tour four March 2009 which wil stop at the following dates:
March 4th - Manchester, Hard Rock Cafe
March 11th - London, Hard Rock Cafe
March 26th - Cardiff, Hard Rock Cafe
Accompanying him on this mini acoustic tour will be Simon from Ocean Colour Scene and the guys will be playing old Ocean Colour Scene classics at the same time Steve will be playing numbers from "The Kundalini Target". We quizzed Steve as to why he chose to initially tour his album acoustically to which he replied "I'd love to tour with a full band. I'm actually in the process of trying to sort something out" so fingers crossed that some time soon we will be able to catch a full band, large, UK tour in full support of the release of Steve's debut solo album "The Kundalini Target".
So what does the future have in store for Steve Cradock? Will he continue developing his songwriting in an effort to release further solo records? What are his other plans and ideas for the future? "Not Really. But then Yes. Kinda. No. Yes. No. Yes. Fuck Knows!" which as you can imagine was exciting to hear! Whilst wrapping up we offered Steve the opportunity to promote anything he wanted. He simply replied "I'm 39"!
If the response thus far to "The Kundalini Target" is anything to go by then Steve Cradock is likely to revel in further successes in his life as a solo artist. He truly is a phenomenal guitarist and songwriter and deserves everything he has coming his way. Hopefully, when visiting Cardiff the Ocean Colour Scene boys will stop by the Altsounds studio to give us an exclusive Altsounds.com Acoustic session featuring some old Ocean Colour Scene classics and some tracks from Steve Cradock's debut solo album "The Kundalini Target". Keep your eyes and ears peeled here for more news on this over the coming days.
Questions by http://hangout.altsounds.com/members/macca.html
During the writing phase of "The Kundalini Target" Steve Cradock was quoted as saying "To be honest, solo albums make me feel ill at ease. I think they always disappoint so I was wary of making one." In the light of this statement, it may seem a wonder that Steve Cradock decided to make one. "It evolved into itself" states Steve, "To be honest it kind of led me. I really enjoyed the making of the album". During the writing of "The Kundalini Target" Steve's biggest test was to write a song for his children that didn't sound too sweet or saccharine and after that song was penned the album grew naturally from there. "I had 80% of the the album written before I decided to do a solo album." states Steve, "writing 'The Apple' made me decide to actually nail a solo album".
"The Kundalini Target" was recorded in just a week, which by anyone's standards is quite a feat. This was mainly down to Steve's careful planning prior to the recording phase allowing him to enter the studio and know exactly what needed to be done. "I had spent months dreaming up how the album should sound. I worked hard at the words and melodies so, by the time of recording, the songs went down quickly and easily" explained Steve. As with any person, Steve was quite nervous about stepping beneath the revealing light of a solo project with his most nervous moments being when he played the finished product to friends and loved ones. He wasn't 100% confident in his singing voice but at the same time that same fear didn't matter. "If you sing like you mean it then no one will question the voice. There are loads of average singers that have made great sounding records" states Steve, "I wanted "The Kundalini Target"to sound humble with no musical historyonics".
"The Kundalini Target" contains no show off or virtuoso playing on it allowing Steve to stick to his ideal of the record possessing a simple mood to it, something that was easily accessible by many. As initially mentioned, Paul Weller is a significant presence in Steve Cradock's musical life and "The Kundalini Target" was recorded in Mr.Weller's own recording studio, Black Barn Studios. When asked the depth of Paul Wellers involvement on "The Kundalini Target" Steve replied "Paul encouraged me. He let me record it in his studio with his engineer Charles who was wonderful. Paul played acoustic 12 string and sang backing vocals on 'You Paint Your Picture'". "The Kundalini Target" has been catching the ears of other important musicans and Liam Gallagher was quoted as hailing "The Kundalini Target" as "a modern day 'All Things Must Come To Pass' by George Harrison". When quizzed on possible similarities Steve laughed "That's typical Liam isn't it! It might be similar in the fact that they both contain 12 string guitars! Maybe that's what he meant?".
With "The Kundalini Target" being released this month, Steve has just announced a small Hard Rock Cafe tour four March 2009 which wil stop at the following dates:
March 4th - Manchester, Hard Rock Cafe
March 11th - London, Hard Rock Cafe
March 26th - Cardiff, Hard Rock Cafe
Accompanying him on this mini acoustic tour will be Simon from Ocean Colour Scene and the guys will be playing old Ocean Colour Scene classics at the same time Steve will be playing numbers from "The Kundalini Target". We quizzed Steve as to why he chose to initially tour his album acoustically to which he replied "I'd love to tour with a full band. I'm actually in the process of trying to sort something out" so fingers crossed that some time soon we will be able to catch a full band, large, UK tour in full support of the release of Steve's debut solo album "The Kundalini Target".
So what does the future have in store for Steve Cradock? Will he continue developing his songwriting in an effort to release further solo records? What are his other plans and ideas for the future? "Not Really. But then Yes. Kinda. No. Yes. No. Yes. Fuck Knows!" which as you can imagine was exciting to hear! Whilst wrapping up we offered Steve the opportunity to promote anything he wanted. He simply replied "I'm 39"!
If the response thus far to "The Kundalini Target" is anything to go by then Steve Cradock is likely to revel in further successes in his life as a solo artist. He truly is a phenomenal guitarist and songwriter and deserves everything he has coming his way. Hopefully, when visiting Cardiff the Ocean Colour Scene boys will stop by the Altsounds studio to give us an exclusive Altsounds.com Acoustic session featuring some old Ocean Colour Scene classics and some tracks from Steve Cradock's debut solo album "The Kundalini Target". Keep your eyes and ears peeled here for more news on this over the coming days.
Questions by http://hangout.altsounds.com/members/macca.html
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