Ade and I have had a musical partnership for the best part of two decades, we have shared many good times together and also some not so good, as friends we have a lot in common, but mainly we share an addiction to music in all its forms, in both the listening and creative process.
What Happened Was …
It’s an early Saturday morning in the unlikely setting of Port Zelande Holiday Park in the Netherlands. I am attending a fan convention for the band Marillion. It’s my first time at such an event, and although I loved the band for many years and still do, I feel a bit alienated by the levels of fanaticism I’d witnessed, and I’m wandering about the site exploring after a heavy first gig on the Friday night. I decide to walk into one of the bars and get a coffee or maybe something stronger (hair of the dog).
It’s still very early and I’m in there with only a few others who are also suffering from the previous nights excesses, when I notice someone at the end of the bar stood with a stash of CDs. It’s Ade and he`s selling/pay what you want, copies of his first NSC album St Lo.
I walk over and take one, we introduce ourselves and he tells me how he got permission to sell/promote his album off his friend Rod (who was close to the Marillion hierarchy), and although English, he lives and works in Leiden
(Netherlands)
I was impressed immediately by his courage and drive to do this, we talk more and find a lot in common in our musical tastes, I am also in the early throes of recording the first Riversea album, we agree to keep in touch and swap emails.
So it began, emails turned into ideas, WAVs were exchanged, Ade contributed some amazing guitar to Out Of An Ancient World (the first Riversea album) and myself and Marc Atkinson both agreed to collaborate on the second NSC album “Traces”. Myself and my family would holiday over at Adrian’s home in Leiden, a beautiful city where we would explore, eat great food, and stay up till the early hours drinking gin and listening to Ade’s extensive vinyl collection.
When it came to the next NSC album, One Eye On The Sunrise, this was more of a partnership, and as such we co wrote a lot of the material and expanded the line up with some great players, and also the great ears of Paul Van Zeeland, who really helped take this album to the next level. I was and still am immensely proud of that record. The next album “Leaves” I had no involvement in, although we were still collabing on material elsewhere, this album took NSC to a heavier, darker setting which is
maybe not where my strengths lie musically, however still a great album.
Fast forward a few years and Ade has moved from the Netherlands to Germany and now to Switzerland, we are doing another (still to be released) musical project called “Deforestation”, a varied instrumental album featuring a more electronic/ambient direction, Ade asks if I would take part in a new NSC album?, absolutely!
Writing starts and really doesn’t stop for months, ideas flying out from both sides, really enjoying working for the first time with Aio (what pipes!), Christiaan, Lars and Joachim (great musicians), Paul again at the mixing desk (what ears!). So, we have 2 albums coming out in quick succession, “Diurnal” followed by “Adventures in Anhedonia”, I love what’s been created.
Working with Adrian takes my compositions to different, sometimes opposing areas, he’s brilliant at thinking outside the box, where I’m more of a chords man, I love shapes, atmospheres and textures, but I believe we complement each others’ styles greatly and I love adding keys and arrangements to his music, it’s always a great ride.
If you’re a fan of any of the previous albums, I hope you enjoy this music.
/Brendan xx