Effra Road

Effra Road is funny one. The tune/lyrics itself were started about 2015 after a stroll around Effra Road and finished a few weeks later during a slow day at work in a Martello Tower out in Seapoint, County Dublin. Sounds a bit wanky but thats how it happened. I put it aside for years , including it as a quieter song in my live set. The recording of it though, started with a beat and it was now 2020. That beat was from a Yamaha PS -55 - a vintage home keyboard which doesn’t seem to get a lot of love even though its packed with great features and has a superlative build quality. In the years between I had enough of America and Americana and traveled back to the 90's where I had treasured tapes of One Dove, Slowdive, St Etienne and those amazing compilations of Volume/Trance Europe Express (these pre-date full blown Britpop and were described in various terms at the time but the one that stands out in my memory was NWON- New Wave Of New Wave). I made steps to record something outside my comfort zone and wondered what would come of marrying a quiet ballad like Effra Road to a beat and wrapping it in growing collection of cheap synth-y keyboards.