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Released 1999
'Second Nature' is not like 'First Touch'. I didn't want to make it
the same, because that's just not what I do. Obviously a lot of people
wanted me to do the same kind of record, instrumentalists. 'First
Touch' was what it said it was; it was a first instalment and formed
the prelude to 'Second Nature' in a way. I wanted to use more sounds
and textures - I used Manu Katché on drums and he contributed a lot to
to the record: not just his drumming but his musicianship. I used Pino
Palladino on bass, Adam Glasser on harmonica and I used flute on one
track - just different textures. The music is coming from the same
place; same writer, same guitarist, but it's probably a bit deeper. I
certainly did a bit more with Brazilian styles. I started making the
album during the world cup and do obviously I was quite influenced by
football, the weather and Brazil! The winter came and the influences
changed again...
The
melodies to all the tunes that I write are always vocal. As you can
hear on 'First Touch' and again on 'Second Nature', I'll play two
guitar parts; I'll do something like the melody on the left and the
harmony on the right. At solo gigs I try to do a combination of the
two. There are some solo tracks, but not many. But the melodies are
usually in my head - they are 'sung' and so they have 'breath'. Every
so often I toy with the idea of singing, but I think that would be the
end of my career!
'Truco' is
the name of a card game in Argentina. It's quite aggressive card game
- there's plenty of screaming and shouting. It's a cross between poker
and bridge. I was in Buenos Aires and I had my Walkman and was sitting
in this bar. People are so noisy in Buenos Aires, there's a lot of
screaming, shouting and yelling. Some people were sitting next to me
playing this card game and I remember recording the ambient noise of
waiters and clanging and general noise for a whole cassette's worth.
It inspired me to write this tune which is frenetic - a fast riff with
Pino playing some awesome be-bop. I asked him if he could play the
bass part again an octave higher and he had absolutely no problem with
it! So when you hear the track, it's not an octivider, it's two
basses. I also detuned the guitar; the bass E string went down to D
and D string went down to C and I use that sort of harmonic tapping
thing. Then the drum machine comes in with a sort of drum'n'bass riff.
That was fun to do.
'Quiero
Decirte' means 'I want to tell you' and it's totally Brazilian. It was
written during the World Cup and it's a typical bossa nova sort of
thing. I had the idea of there being narrative in it because I've
always liked the way Barry White used to do all those things that went
'Hey baby, I want to...' and so I got this friend of mine [Diego
Kovadloff] to write me this dodgy Spanish poetry and put that over the
top. I'll probably regret it for the rest of my life! I just wanted to
do a Barry White in Spanish.
'In A
Whisper' was recorded live with Manu and Pino. I used a steel string
guitar for that one. It's the last track on the album, officially; but
the 'real' last track is an Elton John song called 'The Last Song'
taken from his 'The One' album. I always liked that song. I'm not a
huge Elton John fan, but I thought it would be wacky first of all to
do a cover. I've always wanted to do a cover and it just happens to be
an Elton John song which I really, really, like and so I've put that
on the end. I pretty much copied the melody note for note and it
really works well on guitar. |
