Album Out Now on iTunes

Yes, it's finally here! Get your hands on the full album 'Everyone Looks Good In Black' on iTunes, and don't forget to sign up to the mailing list to get your exclusive free track 'Let The Rain Come Down'.

Grab the album from iTunes here: http://bit.ly/9rvpkH
And sign up for your free track here: http://www.peterglennie.com/signup/

Election Week Special! A to Z of Democracy

I've always wanted to do a list song, and I've always wanted to attempt a protest song, so I thought I'd take advantage of the feverish election run-up happening in the UK to have a stab at both.

It's an A to Z of the good and the bad about Democracy, global politics and all of the things that got us to where we are today. It's not really a call to action or an attempt to inspire people to get involved, but it's been a fun experiment, and I might even explore this protest-song idea more in the future. It's a complete departure from what I normally do, but maybe some sort of Protest EP might be in the offing - we'll see...

Hope you enjoy it, get over to You Tube to see the video in full, and you can download the lyrics here and the full track for free here.

Sign Up And Get An Exclusive Free Track

Yes indeed, I'm giving away an exclusive version of the brand new song 'Let The Rain Come Down' for anyone who signs up to the mailing list.

In addition to the track itself you'll get occasional emails with details of releases, gig dates and other freebies just for you.

Go on. You know you want to.

ELGIB Track By Track - The Making of Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Sakharov was a phenomenal scientist and activist. Initially working on the Soviet Atomic Bomb project in the late 40s, he came to the realisation that his actions could untimately lead to the destruction of all mankind, and became one of Russia's leading anti-proliferation campaigners, much to his personal and political chagrin. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 (collected by his wife as he was unable to leave the Soviet Union), and remained essentially under house arrest until December 1986 when Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost freed him.

This song fell out of reading Sakharov's biography (The Making of Andrei Sakharov by George Bailey) alongside Brett Easton-Ellis's American Psycho. A chance sighting of the Russian Pacific Fleet singing on Michael Palin's Pole to Pole, gave me a fascination with the low, eerie humming that they used, and a Soviet-sounding Accordion melody soon followed.

In a nutshell the song is about those of us who make things that (intentinally or not) go on to destroy people. From guns and knives to DIY equipment and quicklime, I became fascinated with the thought that you could unwittingly create or supply something that someone else uses to kill.

So, all in all, a dark little number. The only lift being the chorus where the protagonist attempts to shake off their guilt. Unsuccessfully, of course.

ELGIB Track By Track - The Bridge

A song about people for whom life is a continuous string of traumas. Those who revel in misery, who believe that to be "sorted" or "stable" is to be bland and lifeless. Those who belive that happiness writes white. We all know them, and at some point most of us have been them.

A storm, a bridge, a jumper, a kindred spirit (an angel?) A nod to It's A Wonderful Life. I tried to keep The Bridge simple yet powerful - the acoustic guitar holds the whole thing together while the Tom Waits style chuntering electric keeps it driving and immediate.

God alone knows if it actually works, but it's one of the tracks that people keep mentioning to me. One that they keep coming back to. And to be honest, so do I. I think it's one of the first songs I've written where I've listened back to it with a feeling that I didn't write it, it just arrived.

ELGIB Track By Track - Dark Skies

A mixture of many things I've always wanted to try but never had the excuse - from a solid, repetitive single bassline akin to Talking Heads' Once In A Lifetime, to a swimming Arabic feel, to a ton of counter-rhythmic clapping. It's a slow-burn of an introduction before all Hell breaks loose.

Dark Skies was originally written as a Bond Theme, attempting to echo the beautiful dark-cool and arrogant swagger of John Barry's immense work. However, it didn't quite get there in the way I expected, but took on something altogether more rough and confused. Which is always a great combination as far as I'm concerned.

This was the first track that I dusted-off the clarinet for. I hadn't played it for about 16 years and consequently ended up with a very rough, reedy, amateurish texture which I instantly fell in love with. Suffice to say I haven't attempted to improve my playing since.

I couldn't for the life of me tell you what it's all about, so I'll console myself with David Byrne's statement that lyrics are just there to make you listen to the music longer. Or words to that effect.

ELGIB Track By Track - Intro

I thought you'd all be interested in how the album was put together, and might appreciate a track-by track introduction, mostly to give you something to read whilst listening to the tracks on this site. So the next dozen posts will give you a mix of geeky and arty insights into Everyone Looks Good In Black (that's ELGIB for short you know). Here goes...

After many years of writing for and playing guitar in bands, I finally decided to go it alone. I was done with the constant rolling-rehearsal feel of working in a four piece, and the temptation to become lazy with what you do and how you arrange often led to producing what sounded like the same song over and over again.

So I took a long break and started to mess around more. I learned how to record properly and built my own small "project studio" where I could finally get near to some of the sounds that I had always been after but been far too poor/busy/lazy to achieve. I spent a long time just writing and arranging - the biggest concentration being the 365 Minutes project (more on that at a later date) - I took a lot of advice and did a hell of a lot of listening, and I was finally starting to work out how to do this properly.

So, armed with Pro Tools, a pair of Genelec monitors, an ADK mic and a slew of fun instruments, plugins and patches I set about writing and recording Everyone Looks Good In Black.