Press Release May 2012
May 27th 2012
It’s two years since the release of Dead Like Harry’s album Know The Joy of Good Living – a collection of songs written largely on the road, between gigs, over a period when the band was averaging 60 shows a year around the UK.
At the end of 2010 the band decided to take a break from recording and touring and front man Samuel Taylor moved to London to begin a job working at a studio alongside Grammy-nominated producer Andy Chatterley (Kanye West, Pussycat Dolls), and next door to rooms rented by Calvin Harris, Mr. Hudson and Bernard Butler (Suede, Duffy).
Acts to frequent the studio during this time included Kylie Minogue, Melanie C (Samuel played guitar and engineered on some tracks from her latest album ‘The Sea’) and Nerina Pallot.
When not working at the studio Samuel spent time touring in support of We Are Scientists and Nerina Pallot, where he was able to try out a number of tracks he and co-songwriter (and brother) Matt had been writing. The response was overwhelmingly positive and Samuel returned to London to begin using the empty studio each night after the other acts had left for the day. The studio is just round the corner from a small and notorious studio space on the Holloway Road, where 1960s producer Joe Meek (famous for setting up tape machines in London graveyards in an attempt to record the voices of the dead) had recorded the Tornado’s hit Telstar in similar late-night sessions.
At the end of 2011 the decision was made to take the project back up to M1 to Sheffield, reform Dead Like Harry and make a new album.
Back in Sheffield Matt had been filling the hole left by Dead Like Harry’s hiatus by playing roots and acoustic clubs with DLH singer Alice Faraday. A new track called Perfect Disguise that Matt and Samuel had written over a Skype session had been going down well at these shows. When Samuel heard Alice’s vocal on the track he decided this was the song to open the album and also to be the band’s first single since 2009’s When We Were 17 – a song that landed the band at Glastonbury Festival that year, as well as gigs with Scouting For Girls and airplay on BBC Radio 2.
The new album, The Art of Anticipation, was recorded between studios in London and Sheffield, with production from Dave Sanderson and Alan Smyth (Pulp, Arctic Monkeys). It is due for release on June 4th and is available now for pre-order on CD, with 8-page booklet at http://www.deadlikeharry.co.uk/shop and digitally at http://deadlikeharry.bandcamp.com. The album launch night is at The Greystones (Sheffield) on June 4th, doors 7pm.
