CARAVAN UNVEIL NEW STUDIO ALBUM
Caravan will release It’s None Of Your Business in October.
Caravan will release a new studio album, and their first in eight years, on October 8 through Madfish. Titled It’s None Of Your Business, this will initially be available on CD, with a vinyl version to follow on November 8.
“As soon as restrictions were lifted on June 21 this year, we went straight into Rimshot Studio near Sittingbourne,” says Caravan mainman Pye Hastings. “We did most of the album in two batches, each of five days, and then added the necessary overdubs remotely at our own home studios. It was such a relief to be able to sit together in a room, rather than having to record alone. This way we could bounce ideas off one another and that improves things no end. I feel it’s helped to make this album really vibrant and colourful.”
On the new album, guitarist/vocalist Hastings is once more joined by Geoffrey Richardson (guitar/viola/mandolin), Jan Schelhaas (keyboards) and Mark Walker (drums), with Jimmy Hastings guesting on flute. The producer is Julian Hastings, he’s worked on all the band’s albums over the last 25 years. Bassist Lee Pomeroy has been brought in as a replacement for the departed Jim Leverton.
“Jim wanted to move on and do something more folky, which suits him better,” says Hastings. “His heart was no longer in being a member of this band. We were lucky to get Lee, who is very much in demand and works with the likes of ELO and Rick Wakeman.”
Many of the lyrics for nine of the 10 tracks on It’s None Of Your Business – one song is instrumental – were inspired by the impact of the pandemic, as Hastings explains.
“Usually I find it difficult to write the words for songs. But the lockdown helped to focus my attention and inevitably I wrote a lot about what was happening. How could you not be influenced by the pandemic?”
This new album follows the band’s recent 37-disc box set Who Do You Think We Are? – see page 58 for more.
“We’re going on a UK tour in October, so Madfish were keen to get this new record out to coincide,” Hastings says. “And we’ll be doing a few of the new songs live.”
Pomeroy will join Caravan for these 13 dates, but so far he’s not committed beyond this.
“I’d love Lee to be a full-time member of the band,” says Hastings. “However he’s in such high demand that I’m not sure he’d be able to do this.”
See www.officialcaravan.co.uk for more information.
“How could you not be influenced by the pandemic?”