Steve McCormick
talks about
"Lowlights and Footnotes"
by Johanna J. Bodde
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STEVE MCCORMICK
talks about "Lowlights and Footnotes" (Independent)  Writing and recording an album at home with no assistance, other than
from my tolerant girlfriend suffering repeated playbacks of it, isn't an easy
task. Getting to grips with new technology, remedying acoustic problems, moving
house and reassembling the studio (the album was recorded entirely at home),
topped off by working full time, meant that the recording of 'Lowlights and
Footnotes' took around 2 years from inception to completion. That's not to
mention finances and personal circumstances that led to a total stand-still of
over six months during this period. Finally, though, the album was completed
and mastered in September 2008.
As a solo artist without management or record company support, I soon realised that, to take this business seriously, I had a lot of work to do: write the songs; record them; mix them; design and maintain a website; design layouts for the album artwork; promotional work, etc. I also sang, played acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, mandolin, lap steel and bass guitar. The drums were programmed in EZ Drummer and are, I feel, indistinguishable from a real drummer. The only things I didn't do during the recording of 'Lowlights and Footnotes' were play pedal steel and mastering. The former was taken care of by a friend, Dave Midgley, a former semi-pro with a wealth of experience touring Europe, etc.; for the latter, I turned to Simon Heyworth, of Super Audio Mastering, a man with the experience of co-producing Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' and handling the mastering for a diverse range of artists including George Harrison and Nick Drake. ANOTHER ENGLISH COWBOY
This song was mostly inspired by a night spent in a country and western
club in Glasgow, where I first experienced the peculiar phenomenon of grown men
dressing up as cowboys and having cap gun quick draws. Each to their own, I
guess, but the ‘closing ceremony’ of the American Trilogy was just too much for
me to take! Having been pelted with beer mats and ice cubes on stage (back in
my heavy metal days), there’s a little of that experience in there too. It’s
also about the desire to distance myself from Brits that insist on wearing
Stetsons and singing in awful fake American accents. Although it’s difficult to
completely avoid Americanisms, I can’t comprehend doing it
deliberately.
IF ONLY SHE WERE LYING
I’d been listening to stuff like Vieux Farka Touré, Justin Adams and
Tinariwen quite a lot when I wrote the guitar part for this, and. although I’m
not suggesting it sounds like any of them, it set me down a different track to
anything else I'd recorded. It was actually the last song written for the album
and it’s a sound I’d like to explore more. It's really about denial, even when
you know the truth is too obvious to be ignored, but it’s certainly not
autobiographical, however tempted I might have been to dress in my girlfriend’s
clothes!
MAKING LIGHT (OF BEING KEPT IN THE DARK)
It’s a simple story of a guy doing his best to dismiss the cold hard
evidence that his wife is out doing lord knows what and not even coming home
while he sits at home alone. The title came first for this song and the words
grew out of it. I sent a rough early version to the Nashville Songwriters
Association International for critique and was disappointed to hear that the
reviewer didn’t understand the title, so maybe it's a British thing. Although
they’re not a band I’ve listened to a great deal, it has had a number of
comparisons to The Eagles.
I'M ALRIGHT, JACK
A friend was mocking the stereotypical country lyric where the singers
wife has left him, etc. so I decided to turn the viewpoint around so I was
singing about the misfortunes of other people while everything is going
swimmingly for me. My mother always used to use the phrase ‘I’m Alright, Jack’
and it was a natural fit.
THAT GIRL WAS GONNA MAKE ME RICH
This song came out of the idea that some people will do or tolerate
anything for money, although I couldn’t possibly allow the protagonist to
achieve his desires – he had to have his comeuppance! I like the fact that the
chord progressions, while very simple in the verses, go off on a bit of an
unpredictable wander for the chorus and the middle eight. The original draft of
this song had a completely different backing track, very minor key, downbeat and
moody. After being unequivocally informed by my girlfriend that it was rubbish,
I reluctantly, but wisely, went back to the drawing board and came up with a
much more appropriate backing for the tongue-in-cheek lyric.
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 BACK ON THE BOOZE I’d been listening to a lot of ‘50’s rock ‘n’ roll when I wrote this song
and wanted to capture the spirit of some of that music. The fact that it takes
a detour down a totally different road for the middle section and has a solo
that I like to think would fit nicely on an early AC/DC album is beside the
point! When I write, I don’t slavishly stick to tried-and-tested formulas. I
like to feel free to have little bit of fun with the songs and do something a
little unexpected.
THE OTHER MAN I liked the idea of a song about cheating but with a bit of a twist, and
it also works as a companion to 'Making Light'. The one thing I wanted to
portray was the sordid reality of an affair, rather than dancing around the
subject or dressing it up as glamorous. Having played in a variety of bands,
playing a number of styles, it’s only in the last few years that I’ve embraced
the story song. Often in the past, I lazily hid behind obscure lyrics that I
could explain away as complex metaphors but, and this isn’t to say that I want
to spoon-feed the audience, I want people to be able to know exactly where I’m
coming from, to take meaning from my songs without requiring a degree in English
literature.
BREAKING HEARTS Although the first draft of this song was inspired by a friend's caddish
behavior, it was never about him. It is, though, a very simple story about the
kind of guy who thinks he's God's gift to women and that the whole world
revolves around him. They say you reap what you sow in this life and that so
often that turns out to be true.
MY WOMAN DOESN'T GIVE A DAMN
Although there might subconsciously be elements of people I've known, it
strikes me as callous to try to get back at somebody in a song, it would be
unfair, and totally untrue, to attribute the inspiration for this song to an ex,
however amusing or tempting that might be! The essence of the lyric comes from
the times I've sat in a restaurant or pub and watched the sad scene of a couple
sat in silence, with nothing to say to each other, even though you know there
must have been something between them once upon a time.
BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS This was pretty much the song that set me off on the path of story
songs. It was, as much as anything, an experiment in trying to capture imagery
and atmosphere, and I like to think it was successful. While I feel this song
helped to form a blueprint of sorts, that’s not to say that I want to fall into
the trap of writing the same song over and over again. When I first wrote this
and played it to a friend, he told me it was the best song I’d written and that
it sent shivers up his spine. When he heard the original recorded arrangement,
with its rather cheesy sound of upbeat drums and slide guitar, he was gutted.
After some time being attached to that early version, I relented and stripped
away the cr*p to how it was written – acoustic guitar and vocals.
INNOCENT PLACE
I’ll often argue that my songs aren’t autobiographical, and they’re never
intended to be, but sometimes my subconscious pokes its head above the parapet
without me noticing, and I guess this is one of those times. The first couple
of verses ring true with my younger days, however, it should be pointed out, I
have no children and haven’t murdered anybody in desperation! This is
definitely the darkest song on the album, both lyrically and musically, and one
of only two on the album based around minor chords. For me, this is the
highlight of Dave’s pedal steel playing.
LIVING IN LOSERVILLE
Lyrically, this is definitely the most throw-away song on the album,
although that’s not to say I don’t like it. It’s literally three chords, which
is something I often struggle to do - adding at least a fourth chord is usually
too tempting! This time I let the melody do the work. At the time of writing
the song, the under-rated Moot Davis’ debut album had been on regular rotation
and definitely inspired the more upbeat feel. I just imagined a guy living in a
little shack on his own, with no friends or loved ones, but totally accepting of
his fate.
I've no idea what will happen now that the album is released as, in many
ways, it's now that the real work starts. I've proven to myself with this album
that I already have the appetite for hard work and I'm already working on ideas
and songs for a second album, as I have no intention of just sitting on the fact
that I've finished this one.
Whatever happens from here, I'm proud to have actually finished a
professional album. If I were planning a family (which I'm not), I'd say that
it's one for the grandkids if nothing else!
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