​THE DACHA BAND
Authentic Music and Artistry
​
The Beginning The first Dacha session took place in the early Autumn of 2006. The studio was still half finished and we were short of equipment. Steve played brushes throughout and Lee Rhodes piano. I accompanied on acoustic guitar. Most of the vocals (except where I forgot the words) were live. A rudimentary bass was added later. I chose the set that became known as "Turn to Gold" as an opener because of its laid back, sparse feel. It seemed an easy way to introduce ourselves to each other. I had loved J G Ballard’s short story collection "Vermillion Sands" for a long time and had started by writing songs directly linked to each story. Therefore there are outtake demos such as "Cry Hope" and "Venus Smiles". I began to incorporate songs based upon impressions of the bay side around San Diego. I had gathered these impressions during a stay there some years before. To me, the bay itself resonated with a similar louche, dissolute and faded atmosphere to that which Ballard created in his fantastical stories.
Developing the Dacha Music and Lyrics As I continued to write, I began to edit out more and more direct references to "Vermillion Sands" so that, in the end, the set merely refers to it obliquely. The drugged, stifling atmosphere remains, however, no more so than in the first song we played called "Blue Memory" Recorded in one take and only after a brief preparatory run-through, the sound meshed at once. Lee’s improvised piano line is inspired, turning what had begun as a very basic guitar track with a practically non-existent lyric into a stoned little epic.
There were two more main sessions for the album during the winter of 2006. Then Lee returned in early 2007 to overdub a few organ lines where needed. Considering we were still learning how to use the equipment in the studio and had only three working mics the whole time, we were pleased with the outcome and the set still works well, perhaps late at night with the lights down and a drink to hand. For the cover art, Ken morphed together a series of ham-fisted collages of mine and incorporated a photo from the San Diego bay side of the same "Fractured Glass" house that features in the song of that name on side one of the album. He also set down a benchmark for the remaining albums, employing abstract covers and a simpler more classical reverse, giving the subsequent albums a themed look.
Favourite tracks include ‘Blue Memory,’ because of the rush of knowing that we had recorded our first track after less than ten minutes together as a group, ‘Motel Architecture,’ which is so fabulously laid back and, ‘The Last One to Know,’ chiefly because of Lee’s great organ track.