We started work on what would become ‘Hard Times’ in mid 2024, initially just throwing some ideas together. Our focus was on letting the songs settle in to their own groove, then build on from there. Early on I decided to record at 24bits/48k which affected the file sizes dramatically, but resulted in a cleaner mix overall.

The first song we worked on was ‘By My Side’, recording a long 9 minute jam of all the elements then copy/pasting them in to position for a demo. We decided for ease of recording to have Jackwan work on the drums in his own time, mix them as a stereo file, then forward them on to Rikki to work on. Mixing around a ‘finished’ stereo drum file was extremely liberating as it provided at least element one that was locked down and needed to be accommodated, this resulted in mixes coming together fairly quickly when all the elements were there. We debuted ‘By My Side’ at our show at ‘Upstairs’ in Inverness, where we also re-debuted as a three piece plus Jo guesting on vocals and percussion (she'd later join us full time).

So many of the other songs were crafted in the same way. ‘Lilith’, ‘Dollhouse’ and ‘Strawberry Wine’ were all whittled down from long jams in to what they are today, and recorded over a series of months as things settled in to the groove. We begun to release some of the finished songs on streaming platforms to best appease the streaming Gods which got us a little attention across the UK and further afield.

The halfway point of the album was arguably ‘Falling For You’, which had a lot of start and stop changes to its arrangement. I remember sitting down at the computer one day, guitar in hand, full page of notes on the desk, and decided I needed to take a break. I didn't even look at a music session for two weeks after this, I felt the song had absolutely defeated me and I just couldn't get it sounded how I wanted to. I eventually came back to it after working on some of the other songs, the title track was finalised around this time, and felt fresher trying to finish it. Eventually it ended up where it needed to be.

The artwork on the album was a collaboration between all the band members to best highlight the more introspective approach to the album as well as showcase a return to our black and red colour scheme.

The album was mastered for CD and high quality streaming by Iain McLaughlin at IMOUT Studios.

Listen here now