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I think in two days, it might have been three or two and a half, but I went in and I had all the
tracks and we just laid all the vocals and the backing vocals, yes.
BiTS: Your first album was ‘Bourbon Street’. Is this one very different?
MB: Yes, I like to think so. Yes, absolutely. ‘Bourbon Street’ was album number one and since
then we’ve had ‘Heartsick’ and with each album, you learn a bit more or your life changes and
develops. You grow and your songs I hope, mature. My voice I hope, matures and I’ve taken a lot
of feedback from not only ‘Bourbon Street’ but from ‘Heartsick’ as well and just tried to produce
something that is just that little bit more sophisticated, more mature, more tuned into who I am
because it all goes so fast. ‘Bourbon Street’ is five years old.
BiTS: Is it as long as that?
MB: Yes, it’s been a long time, already and
‘Heartsick’ has got to be three years old now. It
was time to crack on with something new.
BiTS: Tell me something about the songs that are
on the album. Is there anything that you’ve got as a
favourite track on it?
MB: Oh, gosh, that’s a good question. Yes, there
are but the title track, ‘Still’, was a really really big
favourite for me, very much from the beginning,
from the first time that I heard it but I’d have to
say actually the one that resonates with me the
most is ‘Why is Peace so Hard’ and that is a
fantastic ballad that was composed by my husband, Graham, and written by Dennis and the story
behind the lyrics, there is another story which is personal to Dennis Walker and it was really
important that I got that song right. The very first time I recorded the vocal in the studio, I just
burst into tears. Although we got a great emotional, vulnerable take, it wasn’t going to sit well
with the other tracks, so we kind of stole bits from the first take and I did a more powerful
second take, but yes, absolutely, the idea of this woman going to the airport to pick up her son
and until you get two-thirds of the way into the song, when I sing the word ‘coffin’, that you
realise that he’s actually died at war and she’s gone to receive his body. Dennis was a bugle
player that used to stand at ceremony when the boys used to come back from war in their coffins,
so it was a really really personal and pertinent story there, especially with everything that’s
going on across the world with all of the challenges that we face as the human race and our bad
behaviour at times, so I felt that that was a really important track. For that reason, I think that’s
the one that really hits home with me, definitely.
BiTS: You reminded me of a country music song called ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’, by
George Jones, in which it turns out that the person who stopped loving her has actually died.
MB: Oh, God, yes.
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