It was written, recorded, produced, and mixed entirely on his own…John J Presley digs deep into himself each time he performs.
A songwriter with a guttural voice, and a deep-rooted sense of emotion, each set – each song, even – finds Presley pouring himself out into the audience.
It’s this tendency that he wanted to capture on his new record. ‘Albany Sessions’ is something special, a vinyl-only release that captures his stunning performance sensibility and his devout independence.
It was written, recorded, produced, and mixed entirely by John J Presely, 13 tracks that features the south coast artist in communion with his demons.
Out now – order it HERE – Clash has obtained some behind the scenes information from the songwriter, alongside two truly outstanding performance clips.
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Albany Sessions was born out of the first lockdown – where suddenly everyone was jumping online to stream gigs and perform live. I’ve always been a bit obsessed with sound – from every aspect – and found it frustrating to be at the mercy of a Wi-Fi connection.
So I took to my recording setup home to perform and record a collection of works on my terms. A few new cuts, new performances and a cover make up the LP and I totally immersed myself in the whole project – from recording, playing every instrument, and mixing.. one thing I didn’t do was the mastering but aside from that it felt like a full experience.
I’ve also been working on my next full studio album with band and Ian Davenport, and this Albany Sessions bridges the gap sonically pretty well actually; drum machines, clarinet, keys and all that jazz.
We’ve put it out as a limited edition pressing on translucent red vinyl for now. It’s my hope that it’ll feel like a special release and a snapshot into what has been quite the year.
I’m so looking forward to hitting the road when we can. Missed it.
Exhale & Go
There’s a few layers in this one. I used a looper pedal to lay down the theme which returns throughout the song. On top of that is quite a muted vocal but a focus on the detail. It was my trusty Hofner President through a Fender Champ on this one too – that amp is such a joy. Best purchase – thanks to Steve Gullick.
Quite intense to perform this one… you can probably see in the video. It was taken from the debut album and was always pretty gnarly in places.
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True Love Waits
This was the lead single from the debut, and on that album I ended up using the demo I laid down in London with quite a similar set up. There’s something about this song that lends itself to a considered simplicity. I think if I layered too many things on top I’d ruin it.
Again for this one it was the combo of the Hofner President and the Champ.
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‘Albany Sessions’ is out now – buy it HERE.
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