DYLAN WHITE - UNFINISHED BUSINESS ALBUM TRACK BY TRACK
So following the success of my three singles the next step was to record an album, to do this I hooked up with multi instrumentalist and producer Steve ‘Smiley’ Barnard (Robbie Williams, Joe Strummer, The Alarm) who has his
own studio in Fleet Hampshire. I initially recorded the songs at home on GarageBand, which I’ve just about got the hang of:) I then sent Smiley the tracks and he skilfully added the drums, bass, guitars and keyboards, I then
went to the studio for three days of mixing.
All these songs (bar one) are from my 78-88 cassette box, it was just a case of going over the songs again which was a time travelling experience back to when I was 20 up until 30!! Some needed re-working others are exactly as
they were at the time. It was just a great feeling to play them again.
‘Out My Window’
The tune is exactly as I wrote it in early 1981 about the feeling of being
attracted to someone, but I felt some of the lines could be better so I’ve
updated these. I was actually writing the new lines as I was recording them.
‘Better Make Tracks’
This song is a co-write with my school friend John Black. In 1978 we went to Paris as we had this idea of forming a band with Parisian punks. We got this tiny bedsit and in that I came up with the tune and John wrote the words.
Listening back to the old cassette knowing I could now bring this song back to life gives me great satisfaction. I’ve added a middle section plus a couple more lines to complete the story as the essence of the song is about us inviting a third friend to come and join us, I’ll let you work out what we’re also asking him to bring with him...... Sadly my friend John passed away some years ago so won’t get to hear it. But whenever I play this live, I put myself back into that bedsit and being 20 years old:)
‘Back On The Streets’
I wrote this tune in 1982 but in 2022 decided I didn’t like the original words so came up with these new words which are about the fact that I’ve moved back to the area that I grew up in, note in the third verse I sing about T.Rex and Slade So the song is a 40 year creation!!
‘Red Sky’
This tune is from 1981 but then it had a different set of words. In April 1986, the Chernobyl disaster happened and it got me thinking, so I came up with these words. There’s only one line I needed to update for the world we now live in, see if you can spot it, I also added the middle section to the tune.
‘Crazy Eyes’
In the early 80’s I became pals with a south London band called The Jailbirds and in 1984 I recorded their demos in a studio I was using in Kingly St. London W1 owned by music producer Ross Anderson who let us young musicians use it for a very cheap rate:) Most of their songs were rock ’n’ roll tunes but this one was more psychedelic so I started playing it live and
recorded a version myself in the same studio. All these years later the song still sounds great so I’ve recorded this new version, the song was written by the bands singer Simon Watts, if you know where he is please let me know.....
‘Lost In Music’
The 1979 smash hit for Sister Sledge written and produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. But in 1993 The Fall covered it and I had the pleasure of promoting it, musically their version is fantastic but lyric wise Mark E. Smith
only sings a few lines so I felt I wanted to do a version with all the words so here it is!!
‘Battersea Park’
This tune originates from 1979 when I was hanging out with another London singer songwriter called Pete Baldwin. Pete had some great songs and in Oct ’79 recorded a demo of some of them which I kept. So in going through all these old cassettes I thought I could do some of his tunes this being one of them. The only problem was, apart from the chorus I couldn’t make the words out, but it just so happened that in Dec 2019 I’d been a volunteer at an OAP’s Christmas dinner held in Battersea Park, so spent a fair bit of time walking round the park which I’d never done before. This gave me the idea to keep Pete’s chorus but write new verses about the park and events that have happened in it so here you go a new Baldwin/White composition:)
‘Disguise’
This song originates from 1981 and was written by Malcolm Thomson a guitarist who was in the first band I actually did gigs with in ’81. It never had a chorus though, so I added one and continued to perform the song in the 80’s, I also recorded a demo of it in the Kingly St. W1 studio. So it was an obvious one for me to bring back to life now as a Thomson/White composition.
‘Berlin (East-West)’
In the spring of 1979 I was drifting around Europe from Paris to Amsterdam and then thought I’d go to Berlin, I decided to hitch-hike as one did in those days. This song is about that final ride into East Germany and West Berlin, which was like no other ride!! Once in Berlin I found people to be very friendly, a guy put me up and I got a job in a large hotel doing the washing up. You were allowed to go into East Berlin for a day but had to get back out by a certain time, this I did and the whole experience had a lasting affect on me.
After a couple of months I had had enough of washing up so left and hitched to Hamburg where I had some friends and stayed for a few days before returning to England.
I still have the scraps of note paper where I wrote the original words to this song and at some point I came up with the chords. I recorded an acoustic version of the song in 1980 but as time went on I ditched the words and it became an instrumental that I recorded a demo of in 1984.
But on going through all the old cassettes, when I heard the 1980 original song again, I thought that’s it I’ve got to bring this back to life!! So here it is, I’ve changed the arrangement slightly and added some more lines as the story wasn’t complete, but this is a song about a certain time that did thankfully end in November 1989, to mark it as that and to make it stand out
from all the other Berlin songs I’ve added (East-West) to the title.
‘So Humdrum’
This is back to Pete Baldwin and his 1979 band demo that I’d kept. I always liked this tune and the chorus, but I couldn’t make out the verse words on the cassette, so once again I thought I’d write new verses. To keep the sentiment of the original song of life being so humdrum, I decided in 2021 to write about how life was in lockdown which we were now just about out of, so it’s my reflection on those days. I also added a middle section to the song as it never had one, my idea here is a series of chords that capture being driven up the wall by being stuck in-doors all day, so a Baldwin/White composition.
‘Windmill Pub’
This is a straight Pete Baldwin cover, it’s a fun summer song and we used to
hang out at this pub on Clapham Common, I performed it in the 80’s and
recorded a demo of it so an easy one for me to bring back to life again:)
’90 Nights’
In early 1980 I did something I shouldn’t have done and got put into a police cell for the night, in the morning I was put into a convicts van and taken to court, the date for my case was set and I was thankfully allowed out. The court case was in about a month’s time so during this period, whilst I was worrying about it, I wrote this song about being locked up for 3 months. It’s a simple tune influenced by The Police who were big at the time so er.... fitting.
It’s exactly as I wrote it and fun to play all these years later. I’m pleased to say that when the court case came I was let off the hook with a £50 fine and 3 years conditional discharge. The magistrate said “You need to stay out of trouble”
‘I Might Be Lying’ For some reason I went off the original words to the opening song ‘Out My
Window’ so by Oct 81 I’d written these words instead and demoed the song with a band in a small studio in Sidcup, I continued to perform it with these words from then on. So we have here the 2nd version of the opening song to book-end my album which has been 40 years in the making.
The album title ‘Unfinished Business’ was something that was said to me by my drummer from 1981 when I released my first single in 2020 and I thought yes, that’s what this is......unfinished business.
‘I Might Be Lying’
For some reason I went off the original words to the opening song ‘Out My Window’ so by Oct 81 I’d written these words instead and demoed the song with a band in a small studio in Sidcup, I continued to perform it with these words from then on. So we have here the 2nd version of the opening song to book-end my album which has been 40 years in the making.
The album title ‘Unfinished Business’ was something that was said to me by my drummer from 1981 when I released my first single in 2020 and I thought yes, that’s what this is……unfinished business.
1. OUT MY WINDOW (Dylan White)
2. BETTER MAKE TRACKS (John Black/Dylan White)
3. BACK ON THE STREETS (Dylan White)
4. RED SKY (Dylan White)
5. CRAZY EYES (Simon Watts)
6. LOST IN MUSIC (Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards)
7. BATTERSEA PARK (Pete Baldwin/Dylan White)
8. DISGUISE (Malcolm Thomson/Dylan White)
9. BERLIN (EAST-WEST) (Dylan White)
10. SO HUMDRUM (Pete Baldwin/Dylan White)
11. WINDMILL PUB (Pete Baldwin)
12. 90 NIGHTS (Dylan White)
13. I MIGHT BE LYING (Dylan White)
All songs originate from the late 70s early 80s
All songs copyright control except ‘Lost In Music’
Warner Chappell North America Ltd Sony Atv Songs Llc
Vocals and rhythm guitar by Dylan White recorded in his home on GarageBand
Drums, bass, lead guitar, keyboards, production and mixing by Steve ’Smiley’
Barnard Recorded at
https://sunshinecornerstudios.co.uk/ Fleet Hampshire
Mastering by
Art by Karl ‘Dr. K’ Parsons
Front cover photo by Trevor Adams of Dylan on his parents memorial bench on
New Malden High Street
ALL THE CATS RECORDINGS
Cat No. ATCR20 P&C 2023
Enjoy the music:)
Dylan White
