From 2006 to 2017 I was the lead singer and songwriter for award-winning UK rock band Albany Down. You can read about the writing, recording and production of our three albums here.
South of the City
Vocals – Paul Muir
Guitars – Paul Turley
Bass – Billy Dedman
Drums – Jonny Bescoby
Keyboards – Nick Nasmyth
Strings – Vulcan String Quartet
Production – Greg Haver, Clint Murphy
Albany Down’s debut album “South of the City” was a long time in the making. We had been writing songs together since 2007 and playing them in front of ever-growing crowds. Because we were all still in full-time jobs, the album was recorded in a pair of two-week sessions at Modern World Studios, just outside the small town of Tetbury in the English Cotswolds. We were fortunate enough to work with an award-winning producer, Greg Haver, who turned out to be the perfect person to squeeze the best performance out of each of us. During this session, we also met an amazing string section and fantastic keyboardist who would all appear on subsequent albums.
We filmed two music videos for the tracks “I Won’t Wait” and the title track “South of the City” in London, although these were never officially released as singles. I always said that “I Wanna Know” should have been the lead single instead.
Not Over Yet
Vocals – Paul Muir
Guitars – Paul Turley
Bass – Billy Dedman
Drums – Damien Campbell / Jonny Bescoby
Keyboards – Nick Nasmyth
Strings – Vulcan String Quartet
Production – Greg Haver, Clint Murphy
Our second album was probably the strangest one of the three to record. The first four tracks were recorded with Johnny, before he decided he wanted to chase a different dream. We found Damien online and he was the only drummer who absolutely crushed his audition. His contribution to the songwriting process moved us into a heavily syncopated style, which I really liked. This particularly pops on the title track, “Not Over Yet”, which let me go a bit crazy with spitting rhymes in a style heading into rap territory. The rest of the production team was the same as South of the City, and we recorded at Modern World Studios again.
The Outer Reach
Vocals – Paul Muir
Guitars – Paul Turley
Bass – Billy Dedman
Drums – Donna Peters
Keyboards – Nick Nasmyth
Strings – Vulcan String Quartet
Production – Greg Haver, Clint Murphy
Our third album (and the last one with most of us) was a bit heavier than the others, which felt like a natural progression at the time. We’d been listening to a lot of Audioslave in the tour van and I think that came through. It was also a time of political conflict in the UK, with Brexit taking over everyone’s lives. Unfortunately, this was also the time when the conflicts within the band became to big to ignore. You can hear this in my lyrics to several of the songs, which indirectly refer to our building troubles. It made a hell of an album though.
LOST SCOT 