In the summer of 2007 I got laid off & recieved a pay off from a telesales job i'd been doing which in hindsight was a great thing.
With the redundancy money, I went round North America for 6 months, basing myself in a hell hole in Manhattans Chinatown.. with fleeting visits to Texas, California, Chicago, Toronto etc. I used to write songs & eat Vietnamese sandwiches in a windowless overpriced prison cell.. then head out at night to open mics & meet musicians and feel confident for probably the first time in my life.
I remember writing the lyrics to 'Manhattan Girl Again' put to a different song about living in a flea ridden hostel.. and 'Chicago Shadows' being written after a fleeting encounter with someone there and whilst listening to Josh Ritters brilliant 'Animal Years' album..
I remember feeling really accomplished with this group of songs, which were recorded back in London with relative ease the following year, as I was getting better as a musician & performer.
'Let Me Love You Back' was a new type of song for me, written with a chugging guitar style, partly derived from the way Springsteen plays solo.
'I'm Not There' was a great track that should've got the 'Mahoney & The Moment' treatment.. and we did try it, but it we couldn't get it as well as this version. I was starting to think of larger arrangements for songs and playing them with a band.
This batch of songs was a lot more eclectic than 'Roadtrip 1' and probably less whiney & downbeat.. I was going to call it 'Roadtrip II: The Sequel' like the movie 'Airplane', I should've done that really.. x