Music never sleeps - September 2014

Steve playing the oud

Moroccan inspiration...

I'm working day and night on the new album, dreaming the whole thing whilst it often feels like it's dreaming me! I wake up early and immediately with the guitar. Roger and I are working all around the clock at the studio to guide this mammoth mothership into port.

The project involves a number of instruments I've never worked with before, including an oud (fretless lute) from Iraq and a tar from Azerbaijan, amongst several more to be revealed soon... The whole album has an exotic feel with many sounds from around the world, but it's still rock in style.

I'm at the stage with this where I'm hopelessly head over heals, madly in love with it. It's exciting and refreshing to open up to so many new ideas, like total immersion in several cultures, both new and ancient, which collide yet compliment each other. The moment you think you know all there is, yet another new horizon appears. It feels like juggling different planets. A heady concoction of opposites!

Just over a month to go now before I pass this on to the record company, fully fledged, mixed and mastered. If all goes to plan, it'll be out in Feb 2015...

Preparing at home

Malik Mansurov playing the tar