This is a recent recording from me and is the first track on my new album Old Park Dreams, which is released 18 March 2022. I’ll talk through two areas of this song, the writing of it and the recording.
It was written in a guitar tuning I’ve never used before or since, both top and bottom E strings tuned down to D. I think I ended up with this because I forgot to retune all the strings after playing a different song. The first chord shape is the same one from another of my songs ‘Oh My Days’, and that chord shape in turn is lifted from the instrumental section in ‘Girl from the North Country’ by Bob Dylan. So, it came from a Dylan song (quite a lot of songs do), but is slightly different chord because I forgot to retune.
The sound of that first chord was really open and dreamy, not a sound I had used much previously, and it called to mind an old-fashioned world, or a cinematic image. This was my jumping off point lyrically. The first line [Grey skies and streets] came from the chord changes and just the image that it produced for me.
It’s fairly rare that I sit down and decide to write a song about something, usually I wait to hear a sound or a chord progression and it will bring with it a couple of words. The challenge then is to find the rest of the song.
My memory of the rain and those grey streets, and wet feet made me think about when I was a kid and the journey we would make once a year to [the] fair. This is where I find the connections that your brain makes when creating something really interesting; the fair connection in turn made me think of a short story that had been introduced to me by a friend; Araby by James Joyce in his collection of short stories The Dubliners.
When I had first read the book it was at a time in my life where the story had resonated personally, so it had always stuck with me. What I took from that story was how young love was described at that fair.
But fairs (or faryes) are funny things, and we all have our own images of them whether real or imagined. When I was pulling this song together I had three fairs in mind; the one from James Joyce, Hull Fair where I went as a child and Goose Fair in Nottingham where I now live.
Fun fact: I made up Walton Avenue for the song as Walton Street where Hull’s fair takes place each year didn’t rhyme.
Recording
This was the first song that started to sound right in the studio. I think it was the third or forth one that we tried, the others felt like they were being willed into sounding how I wanted them, this one just landed. Beside the strummed guitar there are two main other instruments in this recording that really give it the character it needed. Firstly is the electric guitar, picking out parts of notes that are in the acoustic guitar chords. Originally I thought this was going to be a much louder part, but Ben Haynes very quickly convinced me of the subtler volume. It’s almost as if it’s not there, it just adds to the acoustic, and when it is heard it’s far away like a memory. The second instrument is the drum kit, which is needed to provide the emotional sway into and out of sections. Ben played the kit for this and it’s perfect! The only difference we had was on the instrumental parts where Ben thought about putting some tasteful fills to give some musical relief. The instrumental section is played through twice and could totally have some tasteful fills punctuating it, but I wanted it to feel more like waiting or floating so asked Ben to play the ride cymbal throughout. It would work either way, but obviously in this democracy I get to make the final decision.
Old Park Dreams is released 18 March 2022
John’s previous album can be found here:
Our Mate John EP – Spotify
Song Writing John Hardy 
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