Solo Projects
Revision
Available now
Tracks 1 & 4 : Words by Richard Anderson, music by Richard Anderson and David Austin
Track 2 & 7: Words by Richard Anderson, music by David Austin
Track 7: Words by Richard Anderson & Leon Schouten, music by David Austin
Track 11: Words by Richard Anderson & David Austin, music by David Austin
Tracks 3, 5, 6 & 8-10: Words and music by David Austin
Recorded at Spontaneous Studios 2000-2004. Additional tracks recorded March-June 2010.
All songs performed and produced by David Austin. Additional vocals on Recover by Richard Anderson.
© 2010 David Austin
"A quirky mix of Rock, Pop, Ballards, Beats and Reggae with an 80s Post Punk edge"
Revision could be best described as an album that ties up a lot of the loose ends from the years 2000 - 2004. Five of the songs are collaborations with songwriter Richard Anderson. These songs were meant to be part of a larger collaboration that has remained unreleased until now. The rest are songs recorded during the sessions for my first two albums (which will be re-released shortly). This is perhaps my most diverse work so far with several songs ("Corruption" and "29 Seconds Earlier") being in styles I've never really tried before. Earlier this year I found myself revisiting all these songs again and realised there was a potential album there. Much work still needed to be done, "Forever Yours" had an elaborate mix of piano, strings and choir added while "Over The Edge" was a complete re-write. "29 Seconds Earlier" is based around my original demo for "29 Seconds". As much as I love the re-written version you hear on "The Face Wall" I realised there were some parts of the original demo I still liked, so I decided to develop the idea in its original (and very different) direction. This also explains the reasoning behind the title. The end result is an album that has gelled surprisingly well, given that the songs were intended for two very different albums.
12th June 2009
I've finally broken my 5 year(!) case of writer's block. Six new songs have been written so far this year along with the other two I've been tinkering with over the last 18 months or so. Work on the Stark Raven tribute continues but there's still much to be done.
Coming Soon
For All There Exists
A tribute to Stark Raven
Previous albums
A Changing Sky (2001)
As this was my first real recording project since Stark Raven I decided that it should cover as many styles as possible. From the heavy rock of "Unfamiliar Town" to the experimental (and somewhat perverse) dance remix of my old Stark Raven song "Mr X" and the gentle acoustic ballad of "Snapshot". "The Chamber" also marks a departure from my usual approach, apart from the lead guitar all the song is made up from various samples, I think artists like Moby were an influence on this particular song.
"More Than Anything" is dedicated to Freddie Mercury. It was to be part of a Queen tribute album involving other fans/musicians from around the world but unfortunately this project has fallen through. Most of the songs on this album are brand new, except "Snapshot" which I wrote in 1994 and "Mr X" in 1988 which is one of my earliest songs.
I have a framed set of prints by various Surrealist artists, one of them is by Dali (the one with the naked woman and the tiger) and was the inspiration for "Snapshot". Try as I might the ebb and flow of the song meant it didn't really work well with a full backing, so I decided to leave it as an acoustic number and make the vocals as lush as possible.
"Ghostsong" started out very differently to what it is now. The lyrics were more in a narrative style (think "White Valiant" by The Muttonbirds) but I couldn't come up with music to fit so I altered the lyrics to something more symmetrical and poetic. It centres around the Hunua gorge south of Auckland. There used to be a quarry there and an old stone building that some graffiti artist had christened "The Mars Hotel". A very apt description, the guy was a genius. Down the road from there was a camp I went to as a kid. The camp leaders used to tell ghost stories, one such story relates to hearing the sound of a Zip water heater being boiled and crumbs being scraped off a piece of toast from what should be an unoccupied kitchen. Hence the line "They hear him at night making tea and toast". A rhyme so obvious it's corny, but true to the story. During the recording of the song I also discovered how with digital recording you can take a piece of music, use it somewhere else in a different context and change its meaning completely. In this case it was the slide guitar that opens the song.
During the latter stages of recording I started writing with Richard Anderson, a fellow Kiwi and Queen fan from New Plymouth. The result was "Forever Yours" which closes the album. So pleased were we with the results that this marked the beginning of ASA along with Australia based Queen fan Chris Szkup.
The cover artwork is taken from a photo I took near the old Meremere power station. This is what was left of the cablecar that used to feed coal to the power station. The drawing of me is taken from the cover of Stark Raven's 1990 single "Take me too". The cover was decided upon long before the song "A Changing Sky" was written. I then realised that due to the altered nature of the picture that it tied in somewhat with the song, so it seemed appropriate that the album should be named as such.
The Face Wall (2004)
After going in all musical directions with the last album I decided to get back to basics, no synths or dance remixes here. I wont go as far as to say this album is all about skateboarding as there are only 2 songs about it ("The Underground Dream" and "Old Wheels"). "The Underground Dream" is about Skatopia, a skateboard park built near my home in the late 1970s and where I spent my happiest days as a skater. It's demolition in 1982 was something I've never really got over and I frequently dream about the place. This song is based on those dreams. "Old Wheels" is about my skating in the present day and very influenced by the punk bands I used to listen to back then. I recently dug out my old recordings of these bands (such as The Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks and Black Flag) and was surprised to find I still enjoyed listening to a lot of it. It also notes the irony of a new skatepark being built in Manukau City just a stones throw away from where Skatopia was ("A new turn down an old road to a place that looked familiar").
5 of the songs are brand new, the others were written at various times over the years. "Don't You Love It Here" (1989), "Nothing Planned" (1990), "Freedom Of Speech" (1991) and "Make a Wave" (1993).
"Don't You Love It Here?" is another song I did with Stark Raven. Frequently introduced by the band as a "noisy little bastard" it lives up to that reputation here with probably the most guitar overdubs I've ever recorded. Total self indulgence and more than a hint of Queen influence. The song itself was about the joys of working in a dead-end job.
"29 Seconds" is about as close as I get to doing anything political. It's largely about Auckland, its straining infrastructure ("The city folds under its own weight"), the lack of foresight by town planners who demolish buildings of historical value ("The life and soul has been choked out") and the endless political correctness by those in government, led by our PM ("The wicked witch of the left"). The title came one night while waiting for my computer to finish a download, I glanced at the screen and noticed there was 29 seconds left.
I wrote "Empty Wishlist" after receiving an email from my former Stark Raven colleague and old friend Mark Bourke who now resides in Switzerland. After many years he had decided to get back into music and write songs together like we used to when we first started out. Needless to say I was ecstatic and had a fleeting feeling of fulfillment which became the opening verse. I realised that I would have to temper it with a dose of reality and came up with the closing lines some months later ("Tomorrow I might wish for........."). I'm very proud of that last verse, the wishes contrast from self-centered ("The world on a string") to wanting to do something for the greater good of humanity ("A chance to make a difference"). Probably my all time favourite lyrics. While nothing ever came of this collaboration between Mark and I it was still a wonderful moment.
The cover shot was taken in a backyard swimming pool in Whangamata during October 2003. Skating in backyard pools is the stuff of skateboarding folklore to older skaters like me and places like this are very rare in New Zealand. "The Face Wall" refers to the part of the pool where Shane is riding i.e. the wall directly opposite the entrance. More often than not that is where most of the action takes place.
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