In Another Life (1993-1996)

Losing My Religion

“So we’re going to the studio again today?” Lizzie asked me, stirring her coffee in an attempt to cool it down. I sighed and nodded. I had been in the studio nearly everyday of the six weeks holidays, and I was getting sick of it. There wasn’t even other bands there, Oasis were recording someplace else, but according to Noel that wasn’t going well, in fact they way he was telling me on the phone last night, it would be a miracle if they ever got the album right. He had said that the producer had made a balls up of it the first time, and when Noel himself had tried, the rest of the team weren’t happy with what he produced. One last chance was all he had; otherwise he was scrapping the album. Our album, called Shifting Sights, was going along reasonably smoothly compared to their mayhem.

Part of my brain was worried for Noel; this was their big break and if they didn’t get it the band might never be heard. But the minority of my brain was just telling me to remember how famous Oasis would be. But I couldn’t remember. They had released 5 albums? Or was it 4? And their biggest hit was Wonderland? No, that wasn’t right. My memories had been slipping and it was beginning to worry me, making me feel incomplete. The mysterious notes from my ‘uncle’ were just getting annoying now and the enigmatic comments were just getting me more and more frustrated with myself. Why did everything have to be a fight? Why couldn’t he just tell me what I had to do to get my memory back? Why did he want me to be stuck in limbo between my two lives? If I had it my way I would stay here, everything seemed more open and my opportunities where a lot better, but I wanted to keep my memories of my past, or future, safe, because they contained the directions for what I wanted to be.

The recording studio was the nicest room in the building and the selection of instruments was immense. We wanted the photo shoot for our album cover to take place here as it was the heart of the band. Zack and Jason didn’t really hang out with us when we weren’t rehearsing or recording, but we got along with them really well and they had amazing skills on their instruments.

The album had 11 songs on it and there wasn’t really a set theme to what the album was about, as we had all helped in the writing.  Noels songs were the strongest on the album, apart from the one cover which was ‘She Loves You’, a song we performed so well that we agreed was on the album. Liz and I had great fun writing a song called ‘Freaking Out’ which was probably the rockiest song on the whole thing. Zack had written a song for his ex-girlfriend called ‘Partners In Crime’ which was really sweet.

Today, we were working on the backing of ‘In A Week’ and the vocals of ‘Just Another On The Doll’ which were both written by Noel. I picked up my guitar and counted everyone in, before playing the bouncy, upbeat chords of ‘In A Week’, Noels idea of a wind up as it was supposedly written from my point of view on how we met. Lizzie had laughed when she first read them

“Oh, he is good. When Ben hears these, he will not be happy.”

The song was amazing and had a real ‘touch stone’ quality that could relate to anybody in any scenario so Lizzie insisted on keeping it in the album.  

I took a breath, ready to start singing,

“I have seen your face

When I was away

I remember your smile

You make me my way

You hand me a card

You sent me a look

It came out of the dictionary

Its love by the books

I’m running from a man

I am yet to meet

You’re a cannonball