Joe Wanman McGuinnes & Tony Floyd Kenna, founding member’s of Maggies Farm set off on a joint recording project in 2011. Writing songs individually during the week they would get together on Fridays to record and improvise. Light Side Of The Dark (2011) and Dark Side Of The Night (2012) emerged from their creative cauldron. A third album is bubbling under …
The Making Of Light Side Of The Dark – Wanman & Floyd.
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Blah, blah, blah……Joe and Tony have played and recorded together on and off for over 30 years, mainly in their band ‘Maggies Farm’. Having recorded and released the charity song ’Alison’ with Maggies Farm and Heather McLeod, for The Capuchin Day Centre For Homeless People in January 2011, they started getting together again for more regular sessions. Then In July 2011 having written and recorded ‘Roadbike Julia’ for the Musicians Together site they decided they may as well do a whole album. So meeting every Friday morning over a 7 or 8 week period the remaining 9 tracks were written and recorded…
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Love If I Could (Kenna)
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Tony – ‘I read a headline in the Sunday Times magazine ‘Love In A Cold Climate’. It was late in the evening and I was heading for bed. Taking it to refer to an emotionally cold situation I quickly wrote the songs chorus followed by the first verse and half the second. Never actually read the article, so whether it was about emotional coolness, love at the North Pole or Innuit courting customs I still don’t know. The words of the chorus suggested how the tune had to go, bit like Cream I thought. So this meant there would have to be a good riff and some interesting drums, as well as awesome guitar of course. By the time I got up on Monday I pretty much had it all worked out in my head. By noon I had the basic arrangement down, Bass, Rhythm, Riff guitar, drum pattern. As the second verse was only half written I simply recorded it with some lines from the first. Once I played back the basic track the rest of the second verse came to me so I popped that in. I thought it was beginning to sound good but needed a lift in the chorus. Double tracking the vocal did it. This is where the gift of rarely singing the same thing the same way twice paid off. I was able to get close to the lead vocal but not exactly the same. I think this gives it a bigger sound and adds to the dynamic. No lead guitar on it yet but I could hear it in my head. Sent an mp3 off to Joe to have a listen and work up a few ideas. We would meet on Friday and finish it. Fine tuned a few bits during the week and bought the chocolate biscuits for Friday. When Joe arrived we set up and had a quick run thru’. Ready to record, but I was really mean to Joe and wouldn’t let him hear the count in ! I had this vision of the lead guitar sort of swooping in like an eagle and grabbing the song by the neck. The song starts and Joe nails it in one take, time for some backing vocals. Bit of experimenting on these but it quickly came together. All that was needed now was to mix it. This was actually quite easy as I usually try to record things the way I want them to sound and basically mix as I go. The ending was the only tricky bit, bit of unwanted sustain here and there.
Joe – ‘ Yes , Tony had everything worked out on this one, more or less. I just added some mad guitar and backing vocals but, we were both happy enough with it. Then more work for Tony as he enginerred it as only he can!
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Roadbike Julia (Kenna-Mc Guinness)
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Tony – ‘Joe and I had got together on a Thursday morning to work on some material for a forthcoming Maggies Farm gig. So coffee, biscuits and acoustics in hand we got talking about the Musicians Together music video site. One of our fellow members was Roadbike Julia. An awesome name we thought, a great title for a song. Plan A quickly dropped, we started jamming on ideas for Roadbike. It would have to be uptempo rock and roll. I dug up a set of unused lyrics called Blonde, Red, Brunette. Originally written for another guitarist friend, they had totally failed to inspire him. But now the muse was ours. We took some lines from these, threw out new ones and quite quickly had the outline of the song. So as not to loose the energy and immediacy we did a live video there and then. Roadbike Julia the song was born. Over the weekend I recorded the backing track, vocal, bass, rhythm, basic lead, drums. A few days later Joe arrived ready to add lead guitar and backing vocals. It all came together very easily. Overall it’s a little rough and ready but we felt it had a great live energy and best not to reign it in too perfectly. What will surprise is that although Joe and I have played, recorded, arranged, gigged together for over thirty years this is the first time we had written a song together! Bit unbelieveable really, guess we were waiting for the right muse.
Joe – ‘Now, Roadbike Julia, what can I say about that. I couldn’t believe Tony actually put the accoustic version up on MT (it was more or less a recording of us as we were writing the song). The embarrassment though was enough to focus us on getting the electric version finished quick. Once again,Tony had everything laid down and I just had to add guitar. It’s a fun song / tribute to one of our favourite MT friends and I too was quite pleased with how it turned out.
I think Julia liked it also.’
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Mad (Mc Guinness)
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Joe – ‘Mad is a very simple sounding rock song. However Mad is not as straight-forward as say a 12 bar but, we’ll let you figure it out (for fun – no big prizes though).
I was about to head home after our Friday morning session – Tony was getting final cup of coffee for us when, I came up with a bassey riff and chords. I said to Tony, “this might sound good if you were to use same riff on bass – that should really heavy it up”. No problem to Tony.
I wrote lyrics during the week (they needed to be simple and they are), I put the vocals and guitar down the following Fri. Tony took over and polished it up from there (see below ).’
Tony – ‘We had just finished Love If I Could and Joe was playing around with the riff for this. He put down a few minutes of it as a guide to work over during the week. The next Friday we set up and got going quickly on it. Joe put down the rhythm over a drum beat, then I did the bass, then came vocals and lead. Nearly there. Later that evening I finished the drums and re did the bass with a punchier heavier sound and only introduced the riff on the bass after intro. Standard Bassist trick! Did a couple of mixes, sent it to Joe, played it loud on the big speakers, took it for a 50 mile drive in the car in the mountains, gave it the iPod test. Yep, another cool track.’
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Requiem (Kenna)
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Tony – ‘There have been some amazing songs written for people after their death or absence from our lives, ’The Living Years’, Lennon’s ‘Mother’, ‘The Day That Our Fathers Pass’ by Martin Gerschwitz, too many to list here. So I thought what about a song for those to be left behind? If we knew when our time had come it would be nice to pick somewhere special for our final breath, our final words, our final view of this world. The words came quickly and easily and I decided to let them roll over a nice repeating four chord progression. Once I had the basic track down I worked on the bits and bobs over a week and continually ran rough mixes to get a good feel of where it was going. I also posted some ‘work in progress videos’ on MT to let people hear how it developed. When Joe arrived on Friday all my bits were done and the song was ready for some epic moving guitar soloing. The song was a bit different to the other tracks we were working on so Joe did two or three different takes and we then picked what we thought best suited. Unusually, the final mix did not come easily. I actually ran five or six over a few days until the right one was saying ‘pick me !’. A giant wall of sound toward the end would have been an obvious, and great way to finish, but I decided to let it breathe a bit right to it’s final fading note.
Joe – ‘I hadn’t much to do here – Tony put a lot into it and I think it was worthwhile. A very moving song!’
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I Went Down (Mc Guinness)
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Joe – ‘This was just one of those songs where (in terms of lyrics) inspiration eventually arrived, all of a sudden from out of the sky, (if only!). Although Simon Cowell would hardly be happy with vox. – I liked their apparent sincerity. I put down about 4 chords on a loop, added my ‘guitar – synth’ and played my good old RG series Ibanez through my Br 900cd using one of it’s fx. Tony added bass. I mixed it and there it is. I was happy with how this one worked out.’
Tony – ‘By the time I came to this track Joe had pretty much everything ready on it. All I had to do was tune up, plug in and play along. A run thru’ and a take and the song was ready for Joe to work his magic on. I like it a lot.’
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Mad World (Kenna-Mc Guinness)
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Tony – ‘Originally this was going to be a song with words, I only had an outline idea for these but decided to arrange and put down the backing track while I was thinking. The great thing about this is that is has a ‘song’ structure which adds more colour and opportunity than just an instrumental jam might have. Having laid down the backing track complete with bass and guitar riffing in unison at certain points, I still wasn’t inspired on the vocal front, but threw down a few ad libs anyway to fill the spaces. Once Joe arrived and played furiously throughout it became obvious that no words were necessary, it would indeed be an instrumental. So we worked on that a bit and two mixes later were playing it back thru’ the 100 watt speakers in my living room with knowing smiles. Controlled energy I believe! ‘
Joe – ‘That’s it really – the best laid schemes of mice and men …..blah blah blah.’
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My Woman Blues (Kenna)
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Tony – ‘A feel good Blues Song ! I’d been playing around with this for a while, singing at parties and rehearsals, but it never had set words or arrangement. So, time to tidy it up and produce a definitive version! First thing I wrote the final version of the words, leaving out some of the ‘party’ ones such as ‘My girl is foreign, my girl she’s Japanese, she loves me best when she gets down on her…’ yep, maybe in a live version! Next up I put down the lead vocal and a sort of acoustic-harpsichord sounding guitar over a simple drum. At this stage it looked like it might have an ‘unplugged’ feel. When Joe came over he put down a couple of different guitar ideas, all great but overall we knew the track wasn’t quite there yet. So, while Joe went out to the car for some gear I added an extra slightly distorted rhythm guitar and reset the rough mix entirely. When I played it back we just knew it was right, smiles of satisfaction all round! A cool twelve bar groove in Am. Chocolate biscuits and coffee to celebrate!
‘Joe – ‘This is one of my own favourites, I’m not sure why but,for me it just works.A simple little song , nicely recorded and sung by Tony.
I added a few backing vocals and some easy going lead. Yep – I like that one’
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Tick-Tock Tick-Tock (Mc Guinness)
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Joe – ‘This is nearly a straight-forward 12 bar but, I used sorta jazzy chords , here and there around each bar change. I wasn’t consciously sure of where I was going with this at first (nothing new there) . I told Tony though, that I was after something slightly sinister/slightly daft so,there was something going on in the back of my head.Throw in some random walking bass but, not everywhere I thought. In my mind this bass would be an important feature. Tony obliged – perfect (one take).Oh! and I forgot to mention that the guitar I used initially to lay down the chords , was about half a semitone flat,which meant turning that track off and Tony had to remember the (not so straight-forward 12 bar) , I went home then – good mornings work!
I wrote the words and recorded vocals -changing lyrics as I went along. Sang an octave lower than I would normally sing( this had as much to do with trying to not annoy the neighbours as it had to do with my artistic vision ) . I resisted the urge to use one of the many FX on the BR 900.
I went for an accoustic effect to keep it jazzy sounding and played in (dare I say ) a less brash than usual manner.
The lyrics: A snap – shot of these Hollywood , American / Italian gangster films where , the people of the neighbourhood , look to the top-dog criminal to “fixes things ” for them. However, the day always comes when he is no longer ‘The Man’.This guy knows that that day has now come.
Back to the music – I had been messing about with my new guitar-synth earlier, I had intended to remove the ‘mess’ but, was then inspired to leave bits and pieces of what I had recorded very low in the mix, it seemed to work ,seemed to add to the underlying tension that’s in the song. (sort of organ-grinder sounding ice-cream van outside) I felt this was working .
Mixed it and that’s that.
Tony – ‘Joe had a good idea of where this song was going to go, he played me a little snippet and revealed his vision! When I put down the bass there was nothing, just a drum beat for timing. So I just played along for five minutes, prayed to God, and passed it over to Joe, it worked !’
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Smile (Kenna)
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Tony – ‘I don’t write love songs in the traditional sense of all that ‘I love you’ stuff. So I was thinking about how people would say ‘I’d die for you, I’ll cry for you’ and other such sentimental, but sincere, things. Taking a positive proactive outlook I thought it would be good to smile for and live for those you care about. And, at a deeper level tell them that the future will be ok and you’ll be here when they need you. The World needs a little hope! With this vista in mind the lyrics came very quickly. The music just had to be on a soundscape and be felt as much as heard. Kept it fairly simple with the verses in the minor and a lift into the major for the ‘chorus’. An old trick, but no need to reinvent the wheel on this one. I put down bass, three guitars, drums and a couple of vocals and it sounded fairly complete, ready for a little extra guitar from Joe, the icing on the cake. Although I’m not really a ‘singer’, and indeed only end up trying to sing when there’s no one else around, I was quite pleased with this having stretched a bit out of the normal talk-sing comfort zone. It may not win any prizes but I think it will bring a smile to your face. ‘
Joe- ‘This one to me is all about the sound. Tony did nearly all of this himself . I added a little guitar (believe me – it’s in that wall of sound somewhere). I think this song contrasts nicely with the many other mad noisy tracks on the album’
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The World goes on (Mc Guinness)
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Joe – ”The seasons change on everyone and when we’re gone the world goes on”
I started out with the idea of a man (possibly thinking of his own mortality) wondering ,was it time to talk about how we are here and then are gone to god but, the world goes on without us. Lullabies may be coming to an end but the dreams live on.
The song has a few notions / ideas going through it , coming from different peoples perspective The “Magic Ship ” idea can be escapism or, the aforementioned man , promising a magical trip to his kid or, someones idea of being heaven-bound , it can be many things. So I decided to let the listener take what they want from it. I would like to say though “Magic trip” has nothing to do with drugs – I am totally anti-drugs !
The music is a little rough and ready. I was more concerned with getting magic ship sounds from the axe.than musical perfection but , all in all I’m happy with it .Tony of course provided the flawless bass – have to say that or he won’t play again (only joking).
I think it has a beatlish flavour to it ?-not sure how that happened !
Anyway I mixed it up and there it is -warts and all
Tony – ‘When Joe played me this I definitely thought ‘Beatles’ ! Once I put down a simple bass it was ready to go. It is a great closing track on the album, wraps things up very nicely,’The World goes on’. Also I love the way it jumps out and wakes you up after the soothing ‘Smile’. ‘No more time for lullabies…’ sooo cool! ‘
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Wanman & Floyd will be back with ‘Dark Side Of The Night’………….Actually, they are already back!
1. Wheels Of Steel (Kenna-Mc Guinness). Tony – Bass, rhythm & lead guitars, Boss drums, production, recording & mixing. Joe – Lead guitar.
Tony – This was the first track recorded following the completion of Light Side Of The Dark. Initially I had some lyrics for it and put down a rough vocal over the backing of bass, guitar and drums. Having a ‘Lizzy’ moment I thought that a twin guitar riff might suit the chorus sections. I worked this out and recorded it throughout the song. At this stage I was thinking that maybe the song would become an instrumental and wasn’t too exited by the vocal idea anyway. Edited the overall track to shorten it and send it off to Joe to see what ideas he might have to augment and complete it. Joe created a nice guitar solo which at times shadowed the riffs and at other times played a counter piece. This worked really well. Mixing was very easy and the result energised us to get stuck straight into the rest of the album, despite our original idea of backing off a little to make time to promote Light Side !
Joe – That’s about the way it happened all right. I had it handy but, I’m happy with it .
2. Mr. Nobody (Mc Guinness). Joe – Lead & rhythm guitars, Boss drums, guitar synth, production, recording & mixing. Tony – Bass.
Joe – Easy going Straight forward 12 bar blues. I don’t think Tony was stretched with this one – he can do that kind of bass with one hand tied behind his back (actually – must try that sometime. I played guitar , Guitar synth ( to sound like church organ). I used the on- board drums. Recorded and mixed on my trusty old br 900CD.
Tony – This was pretty much finished when I got to it, a great big bluesy sound. Put down a little simple bass to help keep the wheels rolling. Once this was mixed we just knew that Mr. Nobody had to open the album along with Wheels. Two instrumentals, but people either like our stuff or not, for those who like, we felt this would be a great shot of energy.
3. Steel Blues (Kenna). Tony – Bass, rhythm n riff guitars, Boss drums, vocals, production, recording & mixing. Joe – Lead guitar.
Tony – Track 3 and first ‘song’. I wanted another one with a riff, I like riffs, probably a bass player thing! It started to sound a little Metal and Punk so I rolled with that for the vocals. It says ‘hey, I’m livin’ my life with rock n roll, I’m busy so talk to me later’. The actual lyrics flowed straight out of the first line, a comment I had posted and Joe said he supposed a song would come of it…
Joe – I love this song (even before I made it lovelier with my guitar). I love the punky lyrics and raw agression. That’s what I hope was intended.
4. Astral Funk (Mc Guinness). Joe – Lead & rhythm guitars, guitar synth, Boss drums, production, recording & mixing. Tony – Bass.
Joe – Heavy Rock guitar tune. I put down an oscillator loop and some funk chords , around which axe (guitar) revolves. Top class bass (as always) provided by Tony Floyd Kenna. I used the on- board drums. Recorded and mixed on my trusty old br 900CD. I think it worked out well .
Tony – Loved this from the first demo of it I heard. As well as Joe’s gripping guitar there is a lot going on, all adding to the groove. I would have loved to put a very busy bass on it but what it called for was a solid groove supporting the fast moving roller coaster.
5. Bought And Sold (Kenna). Tony – Bass, guitars, Boss drums, vocals, production, recording & mixing. Joe – Guitar.
Tony – This is the story of a Mother, a Daughter, a Sister, a Girl, who finds herself in a downward spiral working the streets. She wants to break free of the circle but ultimately it consumes her, a child is left at home watching out the window for his Mother who will never come home again… The song is the story, in the music I tried to capture the feel both of the tragedy and the all consuming world she found herself in. The vocals are meant to draw you in. I hope you can hear it and feel it. On a wider canvas the story can relate to any human condition from which there seems to be no escape, poverty, despair, addiction. Hopefully by identifying where we find ourselves we can do something to bring about change, but not always easy by any means.
Joe – I love Tony’s sinister sounding riff in this. The lyrics tell a good but, I suppose , common tale.
6. Midnight Dream (Kenna- Mc Guinness) Tony – Bass, guitars, Boss drums, production, recording & mixing. Joe – Lead guitar.
Tony – A sort of ‘wide awake’ journey thru’ a dream. With alternating Bass and Guitar punching thru’. Dreams often take on their own life and direction. I had considered some lyrics for this but it felt it worked well without. Each listener can jump into the music and imagine their own dream…… The ‘middle eight’ represents a dream within a dream, sometimes the lines between reality and imagination can be blurred. Sometimes a dream can be a comfort.
Joe – Tony has explained all for you up there – wish he’d told me.. Yes I think it all worked out very well thanks to TFK’s magic sound engineering.
7. Good Times Comin’ (Kenna). Tony – Bass, Vocal, Boss drums, production, recording and mixing. Joe – Lead guitar.
Tony – A little ray of light in the dark of night. Hope keeps us going, gives us focus. After 6 big noisy songs we decided to keep this fairly sparse, just Bass, Guitar, Voice and Drum. A pause for thought before heading for the Dawn…………
Joe – Life is good. I didn’t have much to do on this either – just played the guitar sweetly.
8. Flat Cat Moan (Mc Guinness). Joe – Lead and rhythm guitars, Vocals, Boss drums, production, recording and mixing. Tony – Bass.
Joe – This was damage limitation. My cat really did have a heart-attack and , when I told Tony he smirked insensitively and said “great – I’ll write a song about it”. If this sad tail had been recorded – I would have been made homeless. ” No ! it’s o.k. I’ll do it” I said bravely. I wrote Flat Cat Moan and that’s a different story. Guitars by Joe , Vox by Joe, Top drawer bass as always by Tony. I used the on- board drums. Recorded and mixed on my trusty old br 900CD. I like it and maybe it will be used in some road – safety thing for T.V.
Tony – Yep, the cat run over by the cyclist..just a fantasy of course. I think this has a good classic RnB Blues feel. It fairly motors along, sort of reminds me of Joe taking off at a hundred miles an hour to write and record this before I got a chance to bury the real cat, which still lives !
9. Midnight Dream #9 (Kenna). Tony – Bass, Guitars, Vocal, Boss Drums, production, recording & mixing. Joe – Lead guitar.
Tony – The initial backing for this very nearly got used for the ‘cat’ song ! But once Joe’s idea for Flat Cat Moan started to form it got parked. Only the lead guitar survives the original idea. The words of Midnight Dream #9 suggested a very definite bass and a deliberate driving rhythm guitar. I had written the words the previous week and had a fair idea of how they might go, they just had to wait for their turn, as we had so much going on. There are three dreamscapes here, one is ‘the girl’, two is ‘rejection’ and three is facing ‘the self’. There is no happy ending, just continuing survival…and a little hope…
Joe – I can’t argue with that – I just played along (on the guitar)
10. Street Scenes (Mc Guinness). Joe – Guitars, Boss Drums, Guitar synth, production, recording and mixing. Tony – Bass.
Joe – I put down an oscillator loop and a little groove of maj 7th chords , around which axe (guitar) revolves. The racing car or thunder ( whatever you want it to be ) sounds were got simply using my Floyd Rose whammy bar and messing with volume control br 900CD. Top class bass (as always) provided by Tony. I used the on- board drums. Recorded and mixed on my trusty old br 900CD. It took a while to get this one right but , I’m happy with it now.
Tony – A nice fairly free form piece, sounds simple but we had to dig a bit to decide on a sort of ‘structure’ that the bass would follow. Of course having imposed this the final overdubs had to conform a little, a little extra work for Joe I know !
11. Mother (Kenna). Tony – Bass, Lead & rhythm guitars, Vocals, Boss drums, production, recording & mixing. Joe- Lead guitar.
Tony – The idea of Mother, the person of Mother has been addressed in so many great and evocative songs, just think of John Lennon, Pink Floyd…. Many of us just grow up and take our mothers for granted and perhaps only realise how important and loving they are…when they’re gone. There are so many thoughts of what we could, should have, done and said. The words of this song are simple, it’s hard to know just what to say. The emotion is calling out, in simple terms you just want to be able to say something, even though you may not be quite sure what that something is. So I pretty much took the first words that came into my head as I felt these would surely reflect the deeper emotions and memories. For me the song needed to be strong and full of that emotion and passion, the ‘chorus’ would just be a moment of focus and energy, a moment to imagine your Mother and all that she meant to you. A simple strong riff structure served, and seeing as this is the album closer I based it on the riff from the opening track, Wheels Of Steel. Sort of circle of life. Most of it is first take, purposely not too polished or refined, I wanted to capture a rawness, the cry to the Heavens. Unusually for me I didn’t work it all out beforehand, I just turned on the recorder and played and sang it as it came to me. Of course this meant that I then had to go back and map out what I’d done for the overdubs ! Joe said the song sounds ‘personal’, I think this means that it worked.
Joe – What can I say? – I’m sure he’s right .
‘Dark Side Of The Night’ by Wanman & Floyd. February 2012.
tony floyd kenna music 