As well as the two “new” Zeptepi albums released recently (as detailed in the previous post), three of our five studio albums have been reissued and are now available on most major platforms.
What about the other two albums, I hear you ask? Both Travelling Through Time (2005) and Stormclouds (2010) are still available in their original form on Bandcamp but I’ve chosen not to reissue them to other digital platforms for now. I’ve never been overly happy with the mixes of these two albums, and I’ve been playing around with them with a view to possibly remixing them from scratch. They may well appear at some point in the probably distant future!
Coming Up For Air
Originally released in 2013, the band’s final studio album was for my money our strongest offering – as well as being our best seller. Patrick Lyons (bass) and Claire Johnstone (fiddle) had come onboard, and for the first time we recorded CC Thornley’s blistering electric banjo. As a result my electric guitar remained in its case for the entire album.
Only 4 of the 11 songs are entirely original compositions – Coming up for Air, After the Rain, Song About You (this one written way back in 2001) and Claire’s Patricia Anne’s Waltz. The majority of the tracks are based on, or are, traditional songs, and the seafaring themes are prevalent throughout. Engineer Phil Threlfall did a great job recording us mostly live in his South Melbourne studio. Still a few CD copies left of this one too, available from the Bandcamp store!
Winter In The Blood
Bit of an odd one, this. Since CC and his banjo had joined the band we’d been playing a lot more acoustically, and in 2011 decided to record an acoustic EP. The 4 planned tracks ended up becoming 15, 12 of which are on this album. The whole thing was recorded and mixed in my home studio.
A mix of originals and traditional folk tunes, this album includes versions of 3 long-standing live favourites – King of the Balladeers, Girls of Old Maui, and Motorhead’s Ace of Spades.
Also on this album is No Respect, a deeply personal original song that I reckon would have to be in my top 5 Zeptepi songs.
Universality
We spent a lot of money recording this in Melbourne’s legendary Birdland Studios, and the production is notably better than the two albums that followed it (Stormclouds and Winter in the Blood). Released early in 2007, it’s the only Zeptepi album recorded with a keyboard player in the band (Alex Arbuthnott).
The 2006 single The End that preceeded the album was hugely popular (by our standards), with the video getting regular TV play. But shortly after the album was released,a family tragedy resulted in me taking a 6-month hiatus from the band. When we got back together, it was without Alex, and I went off in a much folkier direction – signs of which were just beginning to appear on Universality.
I’m still proud of most of the stuff on here – there are some really good songs, although perhaps at times a little polished for my liking.