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In the absence of any meaty ‘House of Cards’ progress reports of late, I thought I’d bring you bang up to date with an overview of the project so far (including a detailed history) and reveal the concept, rationale and thoughts behind the various elements that will combine to form the ‘House of Cards’ album. This news item also reveals details of a free download release early in the new year, and is fuelled by my recently acquired caffeine addiction!

As you will no doubt remember, the ‘House of Cards’ project kicked off at the beginning of the year, when I sat down to collate the bits of songs that I’d been working on at that time. Using these snippets as a springboard, the songwriting process for the album started in earnest shortly afterwards and some of those early ideas subsequently developed into full songs. Getting into the swing of things, more new songs came (and went) and eventually I was left with around thirty contenders for what would become the ‘House of Cards’ album.

My original intention was to create an EP of around five songs. As the writing continued, however, it soon became clear that an EP wasn’t going to be a suitable vehicle for the project that was unfolding before me, and that the classic album format was going to have to be the medium of choice.

‘House of Cards’ soon became a project that, in my head at least, would end up as more than just a bunch of my latest songs. It would be the accumulation of a number of ideas held together by a running theme, and although I’m resisting calling it a ‘concept album’, there is preconceived concept that holds all of the component pieces together.

At the core of the ‘House of Cards’ project lie the themes and symbolism associated with a deck of playing cards, or more specifically, the suits that a deck of playing cards is divided into. For the benefit of those who don’t already know, each of the four suits sits within an accepted hierarchy (listed below in order of importance), and each has its own particular relevance or theme:

• 1. SPADES ♠
  The suit of spades represents an intense range of emotions, where one has ‘more than expected’ or particular feelings are ‘in abundance’. Spades can also be associated with death and misfortune.
• 2. HEARTS ♥
  Matters of the heart and true love, as well as joy and happiness, are predictably represented by the suit of hearts.
• 3. DIAMONDS ♦
  The suit of diamonds represents wealth and riches, the belonging of material possessions, but also corresponds to physical well-being.
• 4. CLUBS ♣
  At the bottom of the pack we have the suit of clubs, flying the flag for inner wisdom, creative enthusiasm and industriousness. It’s worth noting, however, that this particular suit is also associated with conflict, war and fighting.

Looking at these familiar suits, and what each represents, it’s easy to see how the lyrical content of a song can fit into one or more of these ‘categories’. The ‘House of Cards’ album, which will comprise twelve tracks, attempts to split its component songs into each of these suits (each suit comprising four songs).

^{Dan during an Audio Justice 'House of Cards' photoshoot. Nike Air Max 95 mandatory.}

I should point out that I haven’t been sitting down thinking, ‘right, I must come up with a song that somehow fits in with the themes associated with spades’ or writing songs in that frame of mind; I think that would result in a very contrived collection of lyrics. In reality it has been a case of writing a song and THEN seeing where it sits best in the overall concept. If it doesn’t really fit, as is the case of the song ‘Climbing Rose’, then it doesn’t make it to the final album (despite this particular song being one of my favourites so far! Watch out for it as it appears on another release in the not-too-distant!).

In addition to the themes carried by each suit, there is also a light scattering of card and game references buried within the lyrics to the songs. The song 'Queen of Hearts’ is one of the more obvious examples, but be sure to listen out when the album is finally released and you might just spot the odd disguised reference or card themed metaphor thrown in!

The ‘House of Cards’ concept extends beyond the lyrical content and structure of the album. The final artwork, as well as promotional items and themed photoshoots (see above), has been heavily influenced by the iconography and design found on a typical pack of playing cards. Antique television personality Bruce Forsyth has very kindly offered to show you the kind of thing I mean:

^{"This is the kind of thing he means". Bruce Forsyth, yesterday.}

Back to the timeline. A few months of refining and re-writing the songs had passed, and having decided on the final twelve tracks that would make the album, it was time to start the recording process. It was at this stage that long-time Audio Justice collaborator and sound engineer to the stars, Dave Wooster, got in touch to register his interest in the project. Dave had been on the road for months working with Leona Lewis and Gary Moore, and having been suitably impressed by the demos and ideas that I’d prepared for ‘House of Cards’ he took the embryonic songs over to the head honchos at Monitor Audio, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of award winning audio equipment.

Along a journey of development (from one landmark speaker design to the next) Monitor Audio has enjoyed close contact with the people who make the music that is played through their creations, and they have gained an appreciation of the extraordinary care involved in crafting the layers of sound that make up a musical composition: it helps them to design better, more accurate speakers for you! Monitor Audio had contacted Dave and suggested that they wanted to promote an artist by getting involved in their workflow at an album’s early stage and then documenting the creation of that album which they could then ship with purchases of their high-end speakers. After hearing my demos, all were in agreement that ‘House of Cards’ was the ideal project. The collaboration between myself, Monitor Audio, Dave and the team at Koolworld recording studios is a very exciting development in the Audio Justice story so far.

^{Dan with long time Audio Justice collaborator and sound engineer extraordinaire Dave Wooster.}

It was now the middle of summer, the World Cup was over and recording was beginning to get underway. The enthusiasm from Dave and Monitor Audio was very encouraging and by now the project had become even more ambitious with my desire to incorporate some of the more unusual instruments that I’d been so fond of hearing on albums in my own collection. A mellotron and an accordion, as well as legendary guitar equipment like the talkbox and the ebow, were making their way into the songs. I’d played almost all the instruments on the debut Audio Justice album ‘Overdrawn At The Memory Bank’ myself and had decided to do the same for ‘House of Cards’, but I couldn’t escape the fact that for the quality of end product I wanted to achieve I was really in need of a world class drummer.

I’m a firm believer that any band is only as good as its drummer. It doesn’t matter how good the other elements of the group are; if the drummer is naff then everything else falls apart. I’ve been very lucky to have played with some great drummers in the past, but looking across from me in the recording studio and seeing Carlos Hercules behind the kit is something I’m very proud to have on the Audio Justice CV. Dave Wooster and I had discussed the possibility of using various drummers, but I suggested very early on that I’d love Carlos to work on the album with us. Carlos is one of the industry’s top drummers, filling in behind the kit for artists such as George Michael, Eurythmics and Beverley Knight. Despite being in constant demand, and as well as trying to find the time to set up his own drum school, Carlos had listened to the very same ‘House of Cards’ demos that had been doing the rounds and was impressed enough to find time in his schedule to come down and lay down the drums for us. The end results are fantastic and I’m really looking forward to playing you the results of the time we spent at Koolworld Studios recording.

^{Dan and Carlos Hercules at Koolworld Studios working on the ‘House of Cards’ album.}

^{Audio Justice drummer Carlos Hercules, seen here playing at Cardiff International Arena}

Once the drums were down it was full steam ahead and over the recent weeks and months recording has been fairly constant, with great progress being made. Updates on the development of the album have been fairly sparse as "still recording" isn’t a particularly exciting news item, so this entry on the website goes some way to filling you in with the story so far! As I write to you, the recording of most of the songs is complete, and the others are very nearly there. It’s true to say that adding more ambitious elements to the project has added to the workload and lengthened the overall process, however, I think it’s important to get things right without compromise than it is to cut corners and leave elements out that I would like to include. Obviously I have to draw a line somewhere, but I think I’ve found a decent balance so far.

The notion of ‘getting it right’ is especially true when trying to balance/manage the various components that are to combine to form the end ‘House of Cards’ product. With promotional items, songs and artwork all designed to compliment one another, it can be very easy to give too much attention to one element and not enough to the others. With all this extra work, and the required attention to detail, I’ve found myself developing a rather prolific caffeine dependency of late!

As ever, I thank you for your patience and look forward to showing my gratitude in the coming weeks… In respect of this, I can reveal that the release of the first single from the album will be early in the new year. This single will be a FREE download that goes some way to expressing my appreciation for your patience and support during the project. I’m really excited about this as it will be the first time that any of the ‘House of Cards’ material will be made available outside the confines of the recording studio. I’m looking forward to your feedback!

There is, however, still work to be done. A designer by trade, I’ll be doing the album art myself and of course there are only so many hours in the day (which are spent recording!)… but we’re near the finishing line now so this final push should see the hard work come to fruition within the next few weeks (upon which I will sigh a very deep breath of relief and then gear myself up to start the next phase of the project’s history… promotion!).

So to all those who thought that ‘House of Cards’ was going to be my musical interpretation of the political thriller of the same name then I’m sorry to disappoint! Or to quote the protagonist of that story, Prime Minister Francis Urquhart, “Now you might very well think that; but I couldn't possibly comment…”

Dan

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Tags: album, album news, audio justice, audiojustice, carlos hercules, dan furr, dave wooster, ebow, house of cards, koolworld, mellotron, monitor audio, music, new songs

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Audio Justice News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.