TONY PATTERSON & DOUG MELBOURNE
Genesis-inspired British duo create an emotional tribute on their second album.
“WE DO SEEM to appeal to audiophiles,” muses keyboardist Doug Melbourne, one half of Brit-prog duo Tony Patterson & Doug Melbourne. “Our first album, The Divide, was actually used as a reference recording for a very posh hi-fi brand, and for the new one we’ve had quite a few people saying: ‘Yeah, I’m going to wait for the vinyl!’”
One listen to that well-reviewed 2019 debut LP and its even better successor, Dark Before Dawn, and the audiophile thing makes perfect sense. Articulating the writers’ refined, thoughtful songcraft, the Patterson/ Melbourne sound is tailored from polished synths, state-of-the-art string and drum programming, live guest musicians and – often stacked in big, bright harmonies – Tony Patterson’s versatile, emotive voice.
The pair met as bandmates in top-end tribute act, ReGenesis. Before writing together they collaborated on 2007 Peter Gabriel tribute album, Excellent Words, and on Patterson’s 2016 record Equations Of Meaning. The singer’s tone falls on Gabriel-esque ground at times, but the new record is no Foxtrot rehash. The duo’s rich, melodic and lushly produced music is closer to the song-centric sound of, say, Downes Braide Association, with many influences – from Steely Dan to Incognito – funnelling in. It’s all buffed to a shine.
“I used to make a lot of TV adverts and library music,” says Patterson, who’s a fan of classic songwriters Jimmy Webb and Burt Bacharach. “Those demos have to sound polished and professional, so I think our sound comes from that. Even if you’re just recording from home like us, you can get very well-produced music. There’s no excuses these days.”
Adding Chapman Stick to Dark Before Dawn is Doug’s bassist wife Carrie Melbourne, who has toured with Mike Oldfield. Sphere 3 guitarist Steve Anderson appears on opener Maybe, and Reach Out’s groove comes from ReGenesis’ highly talented drummer Nigel Appleton.
“We’ve been more ambitious with this one,” Melbourne says. “We were more confident about what we were doing. So there’s less programming and more live playing, a few more acoustic instruments. It’s a little broader in scope.”
My Happy Place, Flags and Old School Tie make some astute observations about the world, while throat-tightening ballad Stopping Time is more personal. Patterson had been caring for his wife, Angela, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. One day he sat at the piano for a full 20 minutes and what poured out of him became, with Melbourne’s help, the incredibly moving Come Home (For Angela). “That was for her,” says the singer, “just to say goodbye, really. I wanted to sit at the piano and get lost in everything.”
Sadly, Angela died in August, aged only 57, but Patterson says that finishing the album helped with the grieving process: “It’s very special for that reason. It wasn’t ‘the difficult second album’, either – it was an easy album to write, despite the personal circumstances. Doug and I work quickly together, we’re on the same wavelength. We’ve already got 20 minutes’ worth of the next record.”
Which is something to look forward to, on vinyl, or not.
“EVEN IF YOU’RE JUST RECORDING FROM HOME, YOU CAN GET VERY WELLPRODUCED MUSIC. THERE’S NO EXCUSES THESE DAYS.”