New album release, ‘There and Back’ by Lou Duffy-Howard
“FROM LOU DUFFY-HOWARD, bassist with visionary UK indie outfit Red Guitars, one of the more beguiling concept albums of recent times, ‘There and Back,’ released via DHM.” MusicLoveMusic November 2024
‘There and Back,’ is a magnificent, first-class journey, a journey which along the way will bring to you a new colour, new dimension, new value, and some great stories.
‘There and Back’ is my first solo video album of eleven experimental railway journey inspired songs, soundscapes and visuals. All the tracks have back stories, here are some of them …
The album is a combination of songs, spoken word, instrumentals and soundscapes illuminating a series of railway journeys mostly in my home county of East Yorkshire, UK. Each track is the same length, under 3 minutes long, yet each track is experimental in a different way, both music and visually.
“The idea to produce ‘There and Back’ came about because I started travelling on the train more than usual – often up to Bridlington where Red Guitars were meeting to record the new album. I’d already recorded the last track on the album, Belle of the North. That was originally an idea for an Agent Starling track. Quentin and I had finished the last album and he had moved up to Skye and was still unpacking his studio at the time, so I decided to work on the next tracks solo. I’d finished Belle of the North which was inspired by what life is like above the arctic circle, surrounded by ice and diamond mines. It happened to be 2 minutes 59 seconds long. As I continued to record the album I decided it would be fun to make every track experimental in some way, but to start with a fixed time for each one – 2:59. I made the first video, originally for Belle of the North, but decided to add the instrumental version as the video didn’t fit the icy story.
That was the start. I carried on until I had eleven tracks. I used audio recordings of the train journey to create samples to produce or augment the rhythm parts.
All the tracks have back stories. For example, I wrote ‘Time is an Astronaut’ as a demo for the psychedelic guitar band I head up, Loudhailer Electric Company. But we were working on other new songs, so I decided to include it in ‘There and Back’. The story behind it is that for years and years I had a line from a song in my head – ‘Time is an Astronaut’ – but I couldn’t for the life of me work out what the song was. It bugged me for soooo long. Then, out of the blue one day earlier this year I was listening to the radio, and eureka, there it was! It was a line from one of my favourite Talking Heads songs, Once in a Lifetime. But the words were really, “Time isn’t after us’. (Time isn’t holding up, time isn’t after us). That was the start of it becoming a song in its own right. It may well become a Loudhailer Electric Company track in the future.
There are two videos which pass the legendary ‘Salt and Pepper Pot’ water towers in Goole. My husband and fellow Loudhailer Electric Company band partner Rich and I have a heritage and art project called ‘Open Bridges’. As part of that we were invited to produce some art content for the renovation of the Goole railway swing bridge over the Ouse. With this in mind we travelled both to and from Saltmarshe to Thorne, either side of Goole. The videos are both of the same stretch of track, so I decided to edit the footage so it was as different as possible. One (Another Train comes Anyway) is virtually black and white, and the other (Colourway 78) has very highly saturated colour. Similarly I wanted to make the music as different as possible, so the former is a relatively accessible song in 4/4 time. I wanted to tell the story of the journey using words that sound familiar and tell the tale, but aren’t real words or sentences in the English language. The latter ‘Colourway 78’ is a more off the wall instrumental in 7/8 time.
For ‘Night Train out of Paragon’ I was on the train departing Hull’s Paragon station at twilight a woman was leaving her relationship, hoping to start a new life away from trouble. That’s when the spoken word story came to life.
For ‘Sundown Sundance’ I was travelling back from recording the new Red Guitars album, looking forward to getting home and feeling happy with the way the weekend had gone. I am primarily a bassist, so all the tracks have live bass. This track showcases my favourite bass, my 1979 fretless Music Man Stingray. I’ve had it since 1982, played it since before I was in Red Guitars. It has the loudest, most distinctive sound, and I love it – even though it seems to have got heavier over the years. It weighs a ton!
When I’d completed ten tracks I decided to include the original Belle of the North, with the spoken word lyrics as a bonus track.
The artwork was fun to do. The cover art is a still from the second track Lemon Bells. The idea behind Lemon Bells was to make a soundtrack for an imaginary old fashioned platform video game, called ‘Lemon Bells’ with a slightly nursery rhyme feel. That’s why I created the video to be cartoon-like – very colourful and with a swirly artificial sky. I just need to make the video game to go with it now!
Until then, if you listen or watch, I hope you enjoy it.
Lou Duffy-Howard
Words and music, live bass, vocals, programming, videos and artwork by Lou Duffy-Howard.
The videos are an integral part of each track, and can be seen at the full playlist link: https://bit.ly/3UqfCiy, or start watching here:
‘There and Back’ is released on the DHM record label catalogue number DHM036 on all the usual digital platforms and on Bandcamp now at the link: https://loudhaileruk.bandcamp.com/album/there-and-back-by-lou-duffy-howard
Links – LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/loudhailer_uk
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Rich and Lou Duffy-Howard