The VERVE--> Storm In Heaven.

[Wiggy Neve Slut]

Hi John,

Massive fan of your work and a warm welcome to GS. ( Radiohead, Ride, Muse etc.. which I am sure will be covered in threads of their own)

Im of the opinion that 'Storm' is the quintestential 'Verve' album from a band perspective.

Its so slow, murky, euphoric, ethereal, challenging and sounds like a new band just playing their music with a real 'Fark you' sort of attitude, purely as a function that they sounded so different to many other bands at the time. I like to think its the closest the 90's got the Neo-Psychedelia.

Whilst i know 'Sawmills' plays a big part in the tone.. as I feel a lot of other albums from there share that tone i guess I'm more interested in the production aspect.

What got you interested in them and how did you approach the production?

Was there much input from the band? As from what i have gathered speaking to people and from interviews the focus changed somewhat after that album with all the strife inside and out of the band.

Keen as Mustard Verve fan
Wiggy

[johnleckie]

Hi Wiggy
Thanks for good question. I first saw Verve after getting to a gig early and seeing them as a support band and they just blew me away. I couldn't stop thinking about them and went to about five gigs before I even spoke to them or record company. We booked into Sawmills for 5 weeks and stayed 7 and mixed whole record there. From the start the songs were constantly evolving... most tracks in rehearsal were going on 10-12 minutes. Sometimes they would play for hours nonstop. So we had to 'trim' the songs and just bring things into focus and still keep the vibe and power of the band from live performance. I dont know if I fully achieved capturing the live Verve experience from those early days. Maybe the record didnt sound 'loud' enough or dynamic enough and we did get bit carried away with reverbs. One of the tracks Blue was written in studio and started of as another song backwards. It was a single in USA. The early singles before album were good songs and not on LP. Check out Man Called Sun produced by old mate Paul Schroeder.
Of course band had a lot of input. They were all there thru to the end with comments etc
Cheers
JL