Q – I have been enjoying reading the studio journals about work being done on demos for the upcoming Cd. You have produced many Demos in your time before moving onto the released versions of your songs. Have there been many demos that have had a certain something that you have found hard to capture on the released version? and if so why do you think was this the case?
A – I think the Commotions demoed pretty much everything on record aside from b-sides before recording and I don’t think that we ever found ourselves looking for the je ne sais quoi that we’d somehow lost. But there have certainly been times in my solo career when the demo had something which we were unable to recreate in the master recording. Prime examples being Baby, Weeping Wine, Sweetheart, The One You Never Had, Fool You Are, the whole (almost) of Music in a Foreign Language… The trouble is – when one is so closely involved in making a record the thought that a demo might be superior in some way seems preposterous, and it’s not until one acknowledges that this may indeed have happened in the past that one even considers it… after that point, unfortunately, one worries about it all the time.
When my demo box is out you can make your own judgment calls.