Wednesday 19 February 2014

Serenade The Damned by One Cure For Man - Track By Track by James Parkinson

Serenade The Damned by One Cure For Man is an 11 track, rock album by guitarist, songwriter James Parkinson from Lancashire, England: www.onecureforman.com. The album was started in January 2013 and took about 10 months to make at his homemade studio in Leicestershire.  Here is the story behind each track:
1.No Need – This song was written around 2004, it always started with the melodic, nursery rhyme like riff and I felt it sounded more impressive on the piano when it came to the recording.  The song has always danced but it had far too many verses and so I condensed it down into what I hoped would be the album opener, lyrically it is about Vincent van Gogh’s paintings and focuses on the later part of his life and how his mental state affected his art. http://onecureforman.bandcamp.com/track/no-need
2. Passers By – I had this idea of doing something like ‘Sweet & Tender Hooligan’ by the Smiths which I played all the time at university and I liked the spacey chorus in ‘Moving’ by Suede and went for a similar feel.  Because of my nature as a person and musician the song became more intense and rock but still very intricate and melodic.  The song was originally called ‘One Cure For Man’ (which eventually became the name of the band), a satirical overlook of man's flaws, stripping back mankind to its barest form. I was obsessed with the artist George Grosz and tried to capture the essence of his paintings in a lyric. http://onecureforman.bandcamp.com/track/passers-by
3. Never Alone – this is a fairly new song which seemed to have come out of nowhere but fully formed, I've always had this thing for dark and exotic sounding music scales and I wanted the guitar sound to be very Mick Ronson, Ziggy Stardust era.  When it came to writing the words I’d recently been re-reading some Greek mythology and I’ve always found the story of Medusa very sad but interesting, the fact that she was punished for her beauty and turned into a hideous creature after she was raped by another God.  I then started to write a lyric about human perception, jealousy and observation on victims.  The line ‘loathed but a victim’ is essentially the story of Medusa.  http://onecureforman.bandcamp.com/track/never-alone


4. Love’s Wasteland – I remember wanting to write something a bit like ‘Sally Cinnamon’ by The Stone Roses and I’d been listening to a lot of The Jam and R.E.M too.  The guitar riff has been likened to ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love’ by Van Halen and again I always seem to rock up the jangly, indie factor in me.  Lyrically it’s just very melancholic, it’s about loss and thinking about what happens to those unformed plans and ideas once they disappear into the wasteland of your heart and mind, the words have a real poetic rhythm to them, bouncing and flowing like a fast flowing river. http://soundcloud.com/one-cure-for-man/one-cure-for-man-loves
5. Serenade The Damned – As an honest writer of any subject matter I find the dichotomy of the big artist who desires mass acceptance a real insight into the human condition. The rational part of me feels it’s far better to make your art and let it naturally take it's course then to force it, or be disingenuous and sacrifice any tiny amount in the desperate hope of being liked.  It feels like everyone is now doing this since the huge change in the music industry, this behaviour has always existed but there doesn't appear to be very much rebellion in folk and it all sadly leads to a lot of depression.  When I came up with the music I couldn’t stop thinking of Knight Rider.  It’s funny how the mind works. http://onecureforman.bandcamp.com/track/serenade-the-damned

6. Reunion – This instrumental had to be on the album, I’ve had it for many years and use to play it a lot at rehearsals.  I think it’s a very emotive piece of music but quite uplifting at the same time.  During the recording the birds were tweeting very loud and you can just about hear them on the second part. http://onecureforman.bandcamp.com/track/reunion
7. Soul Of Man – The song is about the absurdity of organised religion and how greedy, selfish and superior it can make people.  I was given a flyer one day that became the catalyst for the song.  It claimed there were only so many places in heaven and there’s a good chance they are all gone so you’ll have to be one devoted, servile person to tick all those boxes and get in.  Any belief in such capricious, mercurial superstition really disturbs me.  The song was originally more punk and very fast but then I became obsessed with the feel of ‘Black Magic Woman’ by Fleetwood Mac and changed the arrangement, it helped flesh out the lyrics and the songs meaning a lot better.  I’m very proud of the guitar solo, so much so that it’s barely changed in ten years. http://onecureforman.bandcamp.com/track/soul-of-man

8. War Of Dreams – this was started musically in about 2007 but I finished the lyrics very recently so it became the newest song on the album.  I always thought it had a great pop sensibility but it didn't make sense at the time to use it.  I started writing more words for it on holiday in Scotland and recorded it straight after so it ended up sounding very fresh and exciting.  The original sentiment was about loss and the fragility of relationships in a creative capacity. http://soundcloud.com/one-cure-for-man/war-of-dreams 

9. Wait For Me – One of my proudest and best lyrics about the artist Michelangelo, again this is a very old song, written about 2004.  With a powerful motown style bass line that propels the song and majestic guitars it’s a real strange and interesting mix.  I was really into the Alien 3 soundtrack at the time too and it helped add the drama to the chorus.  I wasn’t too sure if the song was too big for me vocally but I gave it my best shot.  http://onecureforman.bandcamp.com/track/wait-for-me
10. We Sleep Alone – One of the newest and one of my favourite songs on the album, it’s about the fragility of love and how I see human beings (including myself) as such sad creatures.  We spend our lives looking for one person and when they die, all we want to do is join them; the struggle then becomes about having to live.  The actor Peter Cushing was very candid in interviews about the death of his wife who died 23 years before him.  He always said he was killing time and he lived in hope that one day they would see one another again.  Brilliant strings by Ros Pilgrim that were recorded in my hallway, this was quite a breakthrough for me musically as it was the first time a guitar didn’t take the main hook in the chorus.  Love the climatic solo at the end, took a while to get the right feel. http://soundcloud.com/one-cure-for-man/we-sleep-alone
11. The Sheltering Sleep – The song started as a very powerful instrumental in about 2008, my good friend and drummer James Buckley had written some words and we fitted them to the song with the current singer at the time (yes we had four singers before me).  The lyrics are truly brilliant and haunting but I feel the music has lost a degree of impact now, perhaps I’ll release it as an instrumental one day.  It does have a lovely end with the cascading viola by Neil.  My voice is very fragile on this and I thought I sang it a lot better on the demo; it was the only song to be recorded in a studio (except for the viola which was added back at my house). http://onecureforman.bandcamp.com/track/the-sheltering-sleep   
Serenade The Damned is now available on download from itunes, amazon, cdbaby and Bandcamp.  It is also available on CD from Bandcamp and through the official website: www.onecureforman.com

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