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some of the great musicians out here to finish it off. So yes, I do the engineering. It helps to keep
the grey matter engaged and if you've ever done digital recording which I’m sure you're familiar
with, you know, you have issues to work through from time to time [laughs].

BiTS: Tell me was all this album recorded in the studio, or did people add bits later? Were
there some overdubs and that sort of thing?

TM: No, I think, and I have done that. Oh yes, we flew in one trumpet solo from the Middle East,
I think. Our trumpet player was out there doing some things but other than that, I think
everything, yes, everything was done in the studio, and I actually prefer that. I like to be in the
room. It's so much fun doing this type of music and we just have a ball. You get in there and it's

fun to knock ideas around and you always want to, you know, just create space so that each
musician can bring what they do best and you're always looking for those happy accidents that
happen and such. But it's a lot more fun to be all in the same room together and then you really
are speaking the same language then and feeling it.

BiTS: You know the number of times that people have said that to me when I've interviewed
them, that they much prefer standing, looking at each other, so to speak, and feeding off each
other.

TM: Yes, that makes a lot of sense, so you get a sort of a special buzz from a live performance.

BiTS: Now, over the years, I've learned that this is a dangerous question to ask of people that
are songwriters because they always say they're all my babies, but do you have a favourite
song, favourite track on the album?

TM: [Laughs] Well, I guess it's often the last one that you've written. Yes, you know, there's
some that you look back on and you say, yes, that was hitting the heights there. On the new
album, there's some different sub-genres of the blues represented and one of the oddest ones
– we’ve just done a video for it – was ‘Solitaire’, and that's kind of like a Middle Eastern blues,
I guess. One of the advantages that we have in this group is I called it Bluesland after that
documentary, but more in the fact that, okay, it’s a basic starting point, but we can go anywhere
in the blues genres. So soul, jazz, gospel, funk, R&B, you know, straight-up shuffle. Chicago,
Kansas City, New Orleans. We've spent a bit of time in the New Orleans genre and exploring
that and writing in that style. I've played in New Orleans with the group, and I've also played