To begin with, there was only me, and John Stevens. Not in person, of course - this was 2021, many years after he died. But I had this plugin that I liked, designed to spice up drum loops, and I wondered what would happen if I put free jazz drumming into it. I sourced a solo recording of Mr Stevens, and was very taken with the results. I put some layers on top, and contacted Richard Harding to add some Chapman Stick. A couple more layers, and I had a track I was very taken with. So taken, in fact, that I got in touch with Richard Harrison to provide some more drumming to work with, and several months later, we had an album on our hands. This isn’t it.

 

For the second album, Bloodcog became more of a band, with the addition of Fran Bass and Pete Smyth. We did another album, partly in What studio, partly done in my own, but still very much a studio project. This isn’t it either. But the logical next step was obviously live shows, and that is what we did, at Brume, a night at the Carlton Club in Whalley Range, Manchester, and at the Kazimier Stockroom in Liverpool. The sound of Bloodcog is quite electronic, involving a lot of processing at the mixdown stage, so I was using a laptop live on stage, which is slightly tension-inducing, tho in the event it all worked fine on both nights. The Chapman Stick is effectively two instruments, as the bass and treble strings have separate outputs, so we’re looking at a six piece that’s capable of some serious noise, as well as moments of delicacy. The two Chapman Stick outputs go thru a decent-sized pedalboard, the kit is augmented with electronics, my woodwinds get effected from time to time and Pete Smyth plays no-input mixer and a selection of cassette Walkmans and guitar pedals. Oh, and Fran’s bass gets a spot of treatment from time to time as well.

 

The net effect of all that is that when you listen to the recordings, you’re not always sure who’s doing what. If it’s any comfort, we had that same experience on stage as well. Live gigs don’t always make great recordings, but I think this one holds up well. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to beplaying with such talented individuals, and together we’re more than the sum of our parts. The gigs were great, and the subsequent recordings are too (which is why they’ve been released! We’re already laying plans for the next steps in the project. Hopefully you’ll be there with us...