The Making Of Peter Gabriel's 'UP'


"Deadlines are things that we pass through on the way to finishing."- Peter Gabriel

or

"I always get pregnant when I make records."- Peter Gabriel

or

"I'm just bloody slow."- Peter Gabriel

or

"Old men take a little longer to get 'up'."- Peter Gabriel

or

"Starting is always easy ... finishing is harder."- Peter Gabriel

or

"Speed is not my strength, diversions are."- Peter Gabriel

or

"We're intending to release in September - you see I never specify the year."- Peter Gabriel

or

"If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, there will be an album to put out."- Peter Gabriel

or

"The time seems to have evaporated."- Peter Gabriel


This diary has been pieced together using information from RealWorld Notes, various interviews and articles that I found on the web and from postings to the SecretWorld mailing list and Peter Gabriel newsgroup. It is not meant to be a complete diary of all of Peter Gabriel's activities over the last few years but just those that are connected with his next album.

If you have further facts or dates that I have missed or you spot a mistake then please do let me know so that I can keep the diary updated.

Last update: 12th September 2005

Follow this link for my 'Making Of I/O' page.

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Production Personnel
The Musicians
Recording Locations
Technical Information
The Final 10
The Diary
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Credits

Production Personnel

Engineer: Richard Chappell
Assistant Engineer: Meabh Flynn
Engineer/Programming: Marcus Dravs
Engineer on RealWorld Big Room sessions: Ben Findlay
Mixing/Binaural recording: Tchad Blake
Producer?Ideas?: Brian Transeau ('BT')
Production on 'I Grieve': Stephen Hague


Richard Chappell has worked previously for Peter Gabriel on 'Us' and 'Secret World Live' , New Order ('Technique' and 'Republic'), Youssou N'Dour ('Lion') and on various RealWorld records.
Meabh Flynn's work as an assistant engineer includes King Crimson ('VROOOM'), Luka Bloom and several RealWorld artists.
Ben Findlay is a regular engineer or assistant engineer for numerous RealWorld artists as well as Peter Gabriel ('Us'), New Order ('Republic'), James ('Wah Wah') and Wet Wet Wet ('10').
Marcus Dravs has worked with Bjork and produced Joseph Arthur's album.
BT is a dance producer/remixer.
Tchad Blake is a producer who has worked on numerous RealWorld projects including several binaural recordings.


The Musicians

Peter Gabriel: Vocals/Keyboards/Guitar
David Rhodes: Guitar
Tony Levin: Bass/Stick
Manu Katche: Drums/Percussion
Steve Gadd: Drums

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Vocals

Youssou N'Dour: Vocals

The Blind Boys of Alabama: Vocals

Yacine Ould Nana (from Mauritania): Vocals - listen to his album here

From Youssou N'Dour's band:
Babacar Faye: Senegalese Percussion (e.g. Sabar, Djembe)
Habib Faye: Bass/Keyboards
Hassan Thiam: Senegalese Percussion (e.g. Sabar, Djembe)

B'Net Houariyat: Moroccan female vocal group

Gopal Shankar Misra: Vina (a sitar type instrument)

Hukwe Zawose and his nephew Charles (from Tanzania): Thumb Piano

Jocelyn Pook: String arrangements

Ayub Ogada: Vocals/Nyatiti

Christian Chevretel: possibly trumpet, trombone or keyboards

Peter Green (formerly of Fleetwood Mac): Guitar

Danny Thompson (Talk Talk, David Sylvian, Tim Buckley, Nick Drake): Double Bass

Chris Hughes: Programming

Dominic Greensmith: Drums

Hossam Ramzy: Percussion

Mahut Dominique: Percussion

Ged Lynch: Drums

Will White: Drums

Melanie Gabriel: Vocals

Daniel Lanois: Guitar (on Sky Blue)

Will Gregory: String arrangements

Nick Ingman: String arrangements


Recording Locations

Meribel, France
Richard Chappell on the visits, "We achieved a lot there because there were no distractions. We did a lot of writing, and a lot of snowboarding. It's a dream way of working, up in the mountains every day. It was very inspiring and made Peter very happy. We generally worked at night time, which was tiring, because we'd be exhausted from jumping around and running around the mountain by day."

Dakar, Senegal

On the Amazon, Brazil
Richard Chappell describes the trip "It was a small trip of perhaps two weeks or so. It was a private boat with a full recording studio on it ... It's just a crazy thing that we do now and then. It was a strange and bizarre trip in which we were travelling down the river working on music and looking out of the windows seeing the rainforest go by."

Peter describes this as "a luxurious detour travelling down the river in a floating studio. Then I had to come back to reality. But several of the songs came out of those experiences."


Writing Room at RealWorld, UK
Richard Chappell explains that "Peter made the decision for this album to get out of the production room in the main studio building and make the Writing Room his base. Whenever he walks in, his mic and his keyboards are always live so he can just sit down and play and work."

Big Room at RealWorld, UK

Peter's Studio at RealWorld, UK

WOMAD Singapore


Technical Information

Peter's Portable Studio (as used in Meribel and Dakar):
Two Mackie desks bolted together to give 56 channels
32 track A-DAT
32 track Pro-tools
3 8100 Power-Macintosh computers - one for running the Pro-Tools system and Emagic Notator Logic software, one for running backups and one for writing lyrics and internet access

Richard Chappell explains that "Peter had brought most of his normal writing setup to these places."

RealWorld Writing Room:
Sony OXF/R3 digital recording console with 96 mono faders and 12 stereo faders and a reset facility that allows the entire desk to be switched from the settings for one song to the settings for another.
Sony PCM-3348HR Dash Plus 24-bit 48-track digital recorder.

Richard Chappell's views on the console, "When we moved to the Writing Room we just had a Mackie setup here and a whole bunch of gear and a big mess of cables. After the second Meribel trip we bought the console and installed a proper studio here, with Neil Grant Boxer 3 speakers, and currently Mackie HR824 nearfields. We have two Sony Oxfords now, one here and one in the workroom in the main studio. It has 120 faders, which is just about enough for what we do!"

"With the Sony reset it's bam, bam, bam next song. The sound quality of the Oxford console is superb; it's surprisingly easy to use and allows Peter to jump between different parts of the project and different ideas instantly. This allows him to concentrate on the creative process, rather than waiting around while set-ups get recalled."

"It's an assignable desk so it does more and does it better, but not necessarily quicker. It takes longer to patch in a microphone than it does in analogue ...[but]... I think it defines the way consoles will go as an instrument."

RealWorld's Director Of Operations, Mike Large, adds "Our approach was to find one [a console] that could be used as a creative tool, bringing new possibilities to the recording process rather than to focus on any particular technology. This advanced console has clearly been developed by people who have good insight into both the creative process and the needs of commercial studios."

Peter is using a Neumann valve 47 and sometimes a Sony c800g microphone.

RealWorld Big Room:
For detailed technical information on the Big Room visit the RealWorld Studios section of the Radio RealWorld website.

Tchad Blake:
Tchad uses Neumann KU 1000 binaural heads to create binaural recordings. The head has microphones placed inside the ears to create recordings with realistic spatial imaging when played back on headphones.


The Final 10

10 tracks have been selected to be on 'Up':

Darkness
Growing Up
Sky Blue
No Way Out
I Grieve
The Barry Williams Show
My Head Sounds Like That
More Than This
Signal To Noise
The Drop

What happened to these tracks?
Nocturnals
Burn You Up, Burn You Down


The Diary

1995

Spring:
Peter and Richard Chappell spend 8 weeks in Meribel in the Alps in France working on new ideas away from day-to-day distractions at RealWorld. Recording work is done at night and the days are spent snowboarding.

23-29 July:
RealWorld Recording Week.

October:
Peter, Richard Chappell and Meabh Flynn spend 3 months in Dakar, Senegal. The session produces 70 ideas, each with a visual representation drawn by Peter and a working title. Most of the ideas consist of, in Richard Chappell's words, "a groove, some kind of chord structure and a vocal melody."

Singer Yacine Ould Nana from Mauritania works with Peter on a song about Aids.

1996

28th April:
VH1 Honors Awards. Peter debuts the track "Signal To Noise" with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and states that the track is likely to feature on his next album.

March:
Another writing session at Meribel in France. David Rhodes accompanies Richard Chappell, Meabh Flynn and Peter. Again, a lot of snowboarding is done.

August:
Ayub Ogada visits RealWorld for a recording session with Peter.

Summer:
Peter is asked about the album, "A release date? I would say by the end of this year or early next year."

October:
Neve recording console installed in the Big Room at RealWorld.

4th October - 4th November
A recording session is held in the Big Room at RealWorld (because it is the only room big enough) with David Rhodes, Tony Levin and Manu Katche. Manu Katche uses several drum kits (2 conventional kits, a midi kit, an ethnic kit and even a toy drum kit!) and David Rhodes uses Fender and Gibson guitars. The regular engineering team of Richard Chappell and Meabh Flynn have extra help from Ben Findlay operating the Neve console.

Richard Chappell says "The Big Room sessions followed months of preparation, writing, programming and recording the new songs. The fully formed ideas, fleshed out with vocals, keyboard, guitar and groove ... were prepared and ready for Peter and the band to work on and shape into songs ... - nearly a track a day went down on tape". A lot of ping-pong is played!

Peter reveals that there will be more space in the arrangements than on previous albums, creating emptier arrangements, and that there will "a lot of interesting rhythm."

1997

August:
Ayub Ogada visits RealWorld again for another recording session with Peter.

May:
The production team have spent the last few months "piecing together samples and sounds from the recording sessions of last summer to build into the extravagant audio collage that will be the next album." Marcus Dravs (mixer/engineer/drum programmer/producer) is reported to have been involved but it is not known in what capacity.

Meabh Flynn has built a "percussive sample library" to allow Peter to play "new grooves of samples directly from the keyboard."

Peter has also taken up guitar and has actually written some of the album on the instrument - with the result that the album has a very different feel/style to his previous work. Richard Chappell: "It's different, melody is the key thing. There's lots of strong stuff in the vocal lines and the arrangements. I think people are going to be suprised."

Apparently there is no traditional producer this time - "We've got a producer, it's just a bit different. He's dealing with it ok and it gives him more flexibility at the moment." says Richard Chappell.

Peter goes on to say "We're trying to create new samples that have, say, percussive fronts and different textural elements. I liked The Last Temptation of Christ soundtrack and the fourth album, because I'd put more energy into building textures into those records. I'd like to get to some of that again. Part of who I am as a musician is the textures."

And on the subject of ping-pong, "Each period of music-making has its own fad for us - we've had bicycles, Scrabble and whist - and the current one is ping-pong. You get quirky in the studio - you get some tension. You come out and play, and it's real physical, you can get quite effusive and aggressive and not do any harm, and 15 minutes later you're sweating, you're laughing and it's been a great release."

Peter also says that the album's title will recycle one of the letters used in the title of one of his earlier records. So that's either an 'O', S' or 'U'.

July:
Tony Levin says "I flew over to his Real World studios in England and spent three weeks recording the pieces he had written. Peter has been writing the lyrics and has been finishing up the tracks. We recorded a lot of material - on the other albums Peter had about 5-10 songs for us to work on, but this time he had about 20 songs. I was pretty interested in the stuff and I thought they were good. With anyone else I might assume they'd finish soon, but with Peter I've learnt to never assume anything. He sometimes decides to change the whole thing and can spend years with these things. He doesn't always proceed directly to the end result. It depends on the sense of how his material works."

Summer:
Peter, Richard Chappell and Meabh Flynn travel up the Amazon from the borders of Bolivia and Brazil to Manaus in Brazil on a friend's boat fitted with a full recording studio. Again, this allows Peter to get away from the distractions of life at RealWorld.

Summer:
A Sony digital OXF/R3 recording console is installed in the Writing Room at RealWorld. Richard Chappell comments "For the way Peter works, it allows him to do everything he wants. One of the Sony technicians said that the desk has evolved from the way Peter works and has become a musical instrument in itself. It's a very sharp pencil. You can be very creative and musical with it. The technology complement the music."

The Writing Room, a glass building with a grass roof in a leafy glade overlooking the mill pond, is also enlarged and converted into a full studio for the recording of Peter's album.

Summer:
During a radio interview in Chicago Peter says that he has enough material for 2 albums - to be called 'Up' and 'Another Tongue'. The second album would feature his songs with other vocalists singing them plus some duets with Peter.

16 August:
Death of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Peter Gabriel states that he will use Nusrat's vocal from the rehearsals and performance at the VH1 Awards for the studio version of "Signal To Noise".

1998

March:
Peter is reported by RealWorld as being in the middle of writing lyrics.

31st March:
"I Grieve" is released on the soundtrack album for the film "City Of Angels". It is possible that this was originally intended for the album. It appears to have been recorded during the sessions for the album as the track is engineered by Richard Chappell and Meabh Flynn and features Tony Levin.

June:
Tony Berg of Geffen Records visits RealWorld and is very "encouraged" by what he hears of the new album.

Peter says that the album will be finished in 4-8 months.

July:
RealWorld Recording Week.

Summer:
Peter announces that he has agreed to work with the architect/designer Mark Fisher on a 20 minute show to be shown 6 times a day in the Millenium Dome. Richard Evans joins the production team to work with Peter on the Millenium Dome music while Richard Chappell continues working on 'Up'.

Autumn:
Rumours that the album is actually finished but that Peter is unhappy with it and has returned to the studio for yet more recording.

September:
The album's title, 'Up', is revealed. RealWorld announce that after working on the album and related 'Up' projects for 4 years Peter should be ready in 1999. Along with news of the album, the projects 'Up The Amazon', 'Up The Nile' and 'Up The Ganges' are mentioned. Unfortunately, REM also name their new album 'Up'. After talking with REM, Peter decides to keep the title, "My 'Up' project ... had always been related to water. I have been living in an 'Up' world for 4 years now and have no wish to come down."

November:
By this point both Richard Evans and Richard Chappell are working on just the Millenium Dome music - delaying 'Up' even further

December:
Peter says "I always need an eternity for a new record. This cd will sound even more African than any record I did before."

10th December:
Peter performs at the Paris Amnesty International concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One of the tracks he performs is "Signal To Noise", accompanied by Youssou N'Dour.

1999

March:
There are now approximately 94 tracks being worked on (each still with a drawing to represent it). These are split into 5 possible combinations of tracks for the album, with some of the tracks included in more than selection. A likely release date of late 1999/early 2000 is given.

7th - 8th April:
Tony Levin and Steve Gadd spend two days at RealWorld overdubbing onto existing tracks for the album and the Millenium Dome project. Tracks 'ClapTrap', 35, 57 and 96 (at least) are known to have been worked on.

Realworld say that much of the work during these two days was on music for the Millenium Dome project.

A brief excerpt of a track from the album is heard. Tony Levin places an MPEG of entering the Writing Room on his website. Playing in the background is Gabriel-esque music.

May:
RealWorld announce that the album should be completed during summer 1999 for an early 2000 release. The remaining work is on percussion, strings and some vocals with the mixing to do after that. It is also said that there are now over 100 tracks with a short list of 16. Peter will eventually have to choose 10-12 tracks for the album.

June:
At a concert in Cologne, Youssou N'Dour states that he is definitely on Peter's new album.

25th June:
Spencer Bright's Peter Gabriel biography is republished and reveals that one of the songs on 'Up' is about Peter's father (known to be 'Father, Son') and one is about Jerry Springer style talk show hosts. Daniel Lanois comments in the book that he believes that Peter should record his albums while isolated in a desert because he has too many distractions at RealWorld.

July:
At the party to celebrate RealWorld's tenth anniversary Peter states "It will come out when it's finished." and "I haven't listened to rock music for a long long time. I prefer classical music and the huge quantity of tapes that we receive from all over the world"

Peter may now have relocated back to his normal indoor studio upstairs at RealWorld.

31st December:
Premiere of the Millenium Dome show.

2000

January:
With the soundtrack for the Millenium Dome show complete Peter has taken a holiday before continuing work on 'Up'.

February:
Rumours that the music for 'Up' is complete but that the lyrics are still not finished.

May:
During a solo tour Tony Levin was asked if he would be touring with Peter soon. He said that before booking his own tour he had asked Peter if he was planning to tour during this year. The reply was 'no'. Tony stated that Peter is still working on the vocals.

Tony also said that "it's been a really long time ... (since) ... we started laying tracks for it."!!!

May:
Peter's 'OVO' album, containing the Millenium Dome music, is released. This includes the song 'Father, Son' which was originally intended for 'Up'.

In an interview promoting 'OVO' Peter says the Millenium Dome music was supposed to be a 6 months diversion that turned into a 2 year diversion. He also states that there is a lot of material for 'Up' that is near completion - "In fact there's sort of two records worth of stuff which we're going to try and put together and there's a few other projects you know with some internet and film things that also are keeping the mind occupied."

14th June:
At an OVO press conference Peter says that 'Noodle' might be included on 'Up'.

June:
In an interview Peter reveals that he now has 130 'Up' songs in various stages of completion and that after releasing 1 (or 2) albums he would quite like to make any leftover songs available for download on the internet. 'Up' will be an "internal record, edgier than the Dome stuff, more song-based" and could possibly include the track 'Father, Son' from the 'OVO' album.

Another song mentioned is 'Soft City' which deals with the altered perception you have of your surroundings under different conditions, for example, how the sounds of a city are changed when it is covered with snow.

Peter admits that he is "a master of displacement activity and distraction".

In an interview with Virtual Guitar Magazine, Tony Levin says "I think he's going to need at least another year to finish it. I think I would have heard something if he was getting close to finished. I know it's great music because I played on all these tracks. But I don't even know any inside stuff, like the titles, because he hadn't written the lyrics. I did so many tracks that I don't even know which ones will be on the record. I know he's writing good stuff and he's happy and eventually he'll finish this darn record. I think the first tracks that I played on were in 1996. That was a long time ago."

July:
Peter says that he has so much material that there may be a couple of follow-ups to 'Up' before 2002 - unless he gets distracted.

Brian Transeau ('BT') states that there are now 150 songs in various stages of recording and that Peter has asked him to help out with some production work during the autumn.

October:
In a German interview Peter says that he is currently more interested in the process of making music than actually selling it. He also says that with the endless variations of songs that can be produced it is very difficult to choose just one version for an album.
He also jokes that the album will contain plenty of sexual innuendoes.

December:
RealWorld announce that Peter is hoping to record strings before Christmas and start mixing in January - but there will NOT be a tour in 2001.

In an interview with Connect online magazine Peter explains the concept for the 'Up the Amazon', 'Up the Nile' and 'Up the Ganges' projects.
"The finished songs would be sent to a group in different countries to do their own arrangements. As India is such a rich musical source, 'Up The Ganges' was high on the list. This element of the project is still under discussion and I still have to sell the idea to the record companies, whose help I will definitely need to complete it. We would love to film any such recordings if we get the chance to do it."

In late December a string section is recorded at Air Lyndhurst Studios rather than at RealWorld because of the problems of moving over 20 musicians and their instruments. The session is described as an 'inspirational experience'.

2001

1st January:
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Peter states that 3 tracks were completed during the previous week and that he hopes to finish in May.

January:
Peter says that he now has too much material for the album and so "I Grieve" will definitely NOT be included. There is the possibility of an album of songs that Peter "really enjoys" but which "haven't found homes in any of the albums". "I Grieve" would be one of these songs.

February:
RealWorld announce that the final mixing process has started with Tchad Blake working with Peter on some mixes in The Big Room.

Tony Levin reports that in late February he worked with Peter and a new keyboard player in Atlanta but that Peter had no news on the album or a tour.

March:
Peter takes part in an online chat and reveals that there are now 13 songs selected to be on the album (including Signal To Noise) out of a possible 100 and that some of the remaining tracks will be released on OD2 at the end of 2001 or the start of 2002

He also says that "I'm past wanting to rush things out, I'll put it out when I'm ready. It's a work of pleasure, not a career move."

The new song "Nocturnals" appears in the film "Les Morsures de l'aube". Peter says that there will no soundtrack album for the film but that the track will be on 'Up', although in a "radically different" version.

May:
Tony Levin says on his own site that the album certainly won't be seen until after the summer.

July:
RealWorld announce that Peter is to start working with Richard Evans and David Rhodes on the soundtrack for the film "Rabbit Proof Fence". They don't say whether or not this will further delay the release of 'Up'.

Peter says in a radio interview that "I've got to be finished with it by the end of the year. It'll be out early or late next year..."

August:
Peter says that he wants to finish the "Rabbit Proof Fence" soundtrack before completing 'Up'.

27th September:
Peter's son, Issac Ralph, is born - he will surely delay the album release!

October:
Realworld announce that Tchad Blake has been at Real World Studios for the final mixing and it is hoped that this will be completed by the New Year.

Virgin give Summer 2002 as the release date for 'Up'.

December:
Realworld announce that several tracks are now complete and Peter is still writing lyrics for the remaining tracks.

An article at www.prosoundweb.com about Tchad Blake mentions his work with Peter and says that he is re-recording the tracks as a binaural album. On one track he has sent the orchestral strings through a 50 watt PA speaker designed for outdoor use and so changed the sound into a "very weird sort of Eastern string sound". Tchad's work on the album is due to be complete by the end of the month.

It is also revealed that The Blind Boys of Alabama are so busy that Peter had to email them the track for their backing vocals, which they then recorded when they were performing at WOMAD Singapore.

2002

March:
Peter discusses the new album in an interview at The Raft. On the subject of being so slow he says "...actually sitting in a studio and writing stuff is my favourite thing to do, so at a certain point you know time catches up and you think okay I better actually finish this stuff because I'm not always very good at finishing it."

His 120 music ideas originally created for 'Up' are discussed - he says that some were finished for the Ovo project, some on Rabbit Proof Fence and some will be on 'Up'

Another subject mentioned is touring - "I will be doing some touring, probably starting at the end of the year, probably in America and then doing some European dates in 2003".

He also expands on the 'Up the Amazon', 'Up the Nile' and 'Up the Ganges' projects - "I've also been looking at full moon stuff too, and an interesting thing I read about this chap who worked out that when they were trying to get timber down from the mountains they'd make these little timber water shoots. And they found that during the time of the full moon they would be more successful floating big timbers down this little track then they would any other time of the month. Obviously you have the tide which is directly related to the moon and somehow I haven't quite fitted it in yet but its going to be some sort of relationship between rivers and the moon."

23rd March:
In an interview on the Yahoo Launch site, Tony Levin says "Peter assures me, and this is very recent, that we will tour in November and December in the U.S., and one could assume that there'll be an album release before that. For me, this is a very big difference from having to say, 'Well, I just have no idea,' you know? We began recording tracks for this album in 1996. Ever since then, I've been tempted to say, 'Well, you know, it should be out soon ... I'm finished with the tracks.'

I said, 'Does that mean the record'll be out?', and he said, 'Well, you can assume the record'll be out by then. You don't tour without a record out.'"

25th March:
Peter's 'Rabbit Proof Fence' soundtrack album is released.

26th April:
The 'Full Moon Club' is launched on the Peter Gabriel website. This allow members to hear previews of tracks from 'Up' and to hear Peter talking about each one. New previews will be added each full moon until the album is released. For details of what is said about these tracks see the individual song pages in The Final 10.

The first songs previewed are 'Wet One' (also known as 'Growing Up'), 'Don't Leave' (previously known as 'Man Juan') and 'Sky Blue'.

Peter reveals that the album title might be changed from 'Up' to 'I/o' - "Which is the letters I and O and also "Input/Output", which you'll see in a lot of this equipment. And "In and Out" which would be my other version. I think 'I/o' is a good title because I noticed a lot of the songs were about birth and death and a little bit of in and out activity in between."

17th May:
Realworld announce that the Blind Boys of Alabama were at RealWorld studios today "putting the finishing touches to the backing vocals on one of the tracks due for the new album."

18th May:
Peter talks about the record on a BBC radio documentary - "...finishing up this long overdue record now and its been a lot of fun working with many different areas. One of those is guitar, where I've played my first guitar riff song. I'm the world's worst guitarist, but having studied air guitar for many years, I have some of the moves down.

One of the new songs on the album is Signal To Noise and I think its quite a big, cinemascope journey, which not all the album is. I was very lucky to work with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who I think was one of the greatest singers of our time. This was a piece we managed to record with Nusrat and I think Signal To Noise, in part, is a cry for activism - in the sense that there's a lot of noise out there and the signal would be a sort of goal at the end.

I think we have 13 tracks mixed - a wonderful feeling. There's a strange sort of moment you get to in the process where you think "Ok, if I get hit by the bus tomorrow, there will be an album to put out". I've reached that point and its a great feeling to get there.

We're intending to release in September - you see I never specify the year.

26th May:
The second Full Moon Club preview is released.

The results of an online poll are also announced - the album will be called 'Up'.

June:
Robert Lepage states that he is now working with Peter on plans for the "Up" tour.

25th June:
The third Full Moon Club preview is released.

7th July:
Tony Levin mentions the album on his website, "Then, of course, there's that hovering new Peter Gabriel release... it's not ready yet, but I've heard rumors that it should be out by September. Hope so, since we'll be touring in November."

18th July:
A Virgin press release gives the full tracklisting:

Darkness
Growing Up
Sky Blue
No Way Out
I Grieve
Burn You Up, Burn You Down
The Drop
The Barry Williams Show
My Head Sounds Like That
More Than This
Signal To Noise

Peter describes the album as "'bookends' record, looking more at the beginning and the end of life than the middle." It is also said that Peter has "taken the full reins of production."

Advance preview copies of the album start to appear.

24th July:
The fourth Full Moon Club preview is released.

26th July:
The track 'Burn You Up, Burn You Down' rumoured to have been dropped from the album. The reason for this is unknown.

28th July:
Tony Levin starts an 'Up' tour diary.
He also receives a copy of 'Up', saying "...it's great. Surprising too - not what you might expect."

29th July:
Peter talks about the album title on VH1, "The title was there about 10 years ago. I was playing with words, and I put myself in this two-letter-title box for a number of years."

23rd August:
The fifth and final Full Moon Club preview is released.

9th September:
The first single, 'The Barry Williams Show', is released.

In a Billboard interview Peter comments on the album's theme of death, "I'm just a happy-go-lucky fellow, aren't I? Seriously, this wasn't intended to be such a heavy piece of work. It just turned out that way. At the same time, I wouldn't portray these songs as morose or depressing."

September:
In a www.pixelsurgeon.com interview Peter jokes about why the album took so long to record "I was going for the record for the longest time to make an album. But I think the serious answer is that I enjoy the process of making music better than being a travelling salesman. So I probably avoided finishing the record. And I do get attracted by detours."

"I wanted and needed to take stuff in. When you make a record you’re spewing stuff out, and unless you’ve had enough input how can it be interesting to other people and reflect what’s going on? All that makes it a slow process for me"

"The songs come from all over the place. I throw up ideas that interest me melodically and rhythmically and keep trying to develop them. It’s like growing fruit. Eventually it feels heavy or ripe enough and you squeeze it and it bears some juice."

On the album title - "It’s a very positive word and I liked that aspect of it. When I listen to the album there are definitely some darker songs on there. But I feel in a good mood at the moment and I think the record is more up than the last couple of albums. But I’ve always found it harder to write happy music than sad music, although I’ve managed it occasionally."

On the lyrics - "I have to discipline myself to write. I have to go away and stay in a bed and breakfast or drive around the place and I have to do that on my own. Travelling is good for lyrics. Sitting in a room with a blank sheet of paper is tough."

"Some of it is less specific and more observational. It’s less about relationships, but it’s still a pretty personal record. It’s a ‘bookends’ record, looking more at the beginning and the end of life than the middle. Death has been more present in my life in the last ten years as friends have grown older and died."

19th September:
In a Guardian Online interview Peter explains why he has taken so long making 'Up', "I enjoy the process of making music more than being a travelling salesman for it. And when you make a record, you're spewing stuff out. You need to stop and step back from it in order to take stuff in."

"It's a messy, sprawling technique in which you chip away and spiral inwards until you find the centre. But it works for me,"

On the subject of all the distractions at RealWorld, "It can be dangerous when people isolate themselves. So many bedroom tapes sound alienated and lonely. The studio exposes me to so much other music. There are always different musicians in here: it keeps me fresh and open...Collaborations bring air into music and take you places you wouldn't otherwise go. There are advantages to being in a band and advantages to being a solo artist. Collaborations allow you the best of both worlds."

He describes 'Up' as "a songwriter's record rather than a world-music album...although in the list of musicians and friends I have, there are many people from many cultures who add different moods and rhythms to what I do."

23rd September:
'Up' is released. The final tracklisting is:

Darkness
Growing Up
Sky Blue
No Way Out
I Grieve
The Barry Williams Show
My Head Sounds Like That
More Than This
Signal To Noise
The Drop

24th September:
'Up' is released for purchase as a digital download.

27th September:
In an interview on vh1.com Peter talks about taking so long to record the album, "Well, it’s quicker than a hundred years! The tour/album/tour cycle is a little like a dog eating its own tail. After a while, you get to know the taste pretty well. I wanted to do other projects. During this period I had about 130 ideas that I was working on. Some went into my Ovo record, which didn’t get released in America. Then I did the soundtrack for the film Rabbit-Proof Fence. Then I did some other stuff for this current album, Up, and the next one, which will be called I/O."

He also explains how the final 10 songs were chosen, "Using the songs that got finished made it a little easier. Then there were songs that seemed to fit together. There was a journey emerging.....it felt like the lyrics have more to do with the beginning and end of life then the middle. I was surprised to see four or five songs talked about death in one way or another. That’s not the normal pop subject!"

And why, despite the gloom subject matter, it is still called 'Up', "I have an anti-title attitude. Originally I wanted just pictures on my records. I remember my records by the pictures, not the text. After a while it got confusing and Geffen said that they weren’t going to put out my records unless I gave them a title. So I called my fifth album So and then carried on with two-letter titles. I generally think of them first, so they’re like a notice board on which I stick up the songs. Like many random things, once they fall in together you start seeing ways in which they make sense. With the birth and death themes, there was a sense of up and down-ness."

October:
Peter talks about recording on the Amazon in the Tower Records Pulse magazine, "Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) has this boat with a studio on board, and it was going down the Amazon. And that sounded like an offer way too good to refuse."

He also discusses how the exotic recording locations don't seem to have influenced the tracks on 'Up', "'Up' is more like a songwriter's album than a musician trying to explore the influences of the world...There's quite a few songs that aren't quite out but will come out, I think which will have some of the elements of percussion we recorded. But the places weren't directly influencing the music, except for maybe the Senegalese percussion."

In a USA Today interview he says "I noticed at a certain point that about four or five of the songs were about death. I think that sometimes by dealing with difficult stuff like that, you actually feel lighter. We have a culture that loves youth. But in other places, death can be more present, and there isn't that kind of desperate yearning to be eternally young."

"A lot of (Us) was about relationships. This album is still from a personal perspective, but it probably looks at a bigger picture. I think a lot of what we see in life is what's just ahead of us; we forget what's above us or below us."

"The moon and water were symbols for this record. They have a continuous unseen influence, and it's that unseen world I wanted to write about."

3rd October:
In another VH1 interview, Peter is again asked about the album's 'death' theme, "I think sometimes by going down, you create the possibility of being up. In other words there's a catharsis. Sometimes by allowing stuff to come out, you get to a real positive place."

And on why the album took so long to record, "Part of the reason is, whenever I get bored I come up with a new idea. So we ended up with about 130 ideas. Also, I did this Millennium Project that was supposed to be this six-month diversion but ended up taking two years. I've also been pursuing other things with human rights, working with apes and world music stuff with WOMAD."

"I think there will be three or four records that come out of this period of writing, so that way it's not so bad. It's still slow by most people's standards, but sometimes I get writer's block."

15th October:
Tony Levin makes further comments on 'Up' on the Krimson News site, "The new CD is very different from previous ones, with less band-based energy, and more changes of mood within songs."

He also talks about Peter's working methods in the studio, "That varies on different pieces. Sometimes Peter has a bassline in mind (sometimes a very good one) and wants me to at least start out with that. Sometimes there are no ideas and we come up with a bass line in the studio. Often it’s a combination of his ideas and mine. With other musicians there are different approaches. Peter usually leaves the guitarists to find their own parts. Drums have big discussions about what direction the playing should go in."

3rd November:
The American leg of the 'Growing Up' tour starts.

2003

May:
Richard Chappell dicsusses use of hard disk recording in a Sound On Sound interview, "Looking back, I don't think we would have been able to do it with more traditional studio gear. With Peter's way of working there's simply no other way of doing it. It does get quite crazy, because he doesn't like to throw many things away, so you build up a huge archive of tracks and tracks and tracks. I had various assistants on the project and one of their main jobs was to listen to things and make notes of what's happening and highlight the different bits. These highlights then ended up on DAT tapes so we could go back and listen to them. Then they got transferred to iTunes, the Macintosh's MP3 player, and so Peter always had a point of reference."

On Peter playing guitar - "Yes, Peter plays guitar now and yes there are particular ways in which he works, sometimes with sampling, sometimes with manipulation. He doesn't play it normally, let's say. But he has fun doing it, and he likes to record a lot of it, and then he likes to go back and find out what happened."

On some of the unusual instruments listed on the album - "Peter likes to credit things in a particular way if it has been useful to the song. The Mutator is a filter box, and the Jam Man a small Lexicon delay box. You record into it and loop it and it layers and delays. It distorts really nicely and it's great fun for making instant loops that you can play with. Firefly Keys is simply Peter's way of describing a sound on that track."

On Tchad Blake's work on the album - "I think Peter invited Tchad because he was producing himself and wanted to have a fresh pair of ears towards the end of the project to keep things under control. Tchad is very strong-willed and having someone like him around is a good discipline. We tried out a few songs with him, and Peter liked the results, so we kept going. Tchad is a genius with what he can do sonically. We also have a history with him here at Real World, so that's what we went for."

"...the strings on 'Signal To Noise', for instance, were recorded quite dry, so he decided to spin them through a room and bring them back in via the binaural head."

"With Tchad mixing in a separate room it meant that Peter and I could keep working. Peter would be in here recording things with me for the same song that Tchad was mixing, and we'd walk towards the main building to add these things to the mix. Tchad would either agree or disagree, and they'd have to figure out between them what was going to be used."

3rd November:
'Hit' CD compilation and 'Growing Up' tour DVD are released.

2004

18th April:
'Growing Up On Tour - A Family Portrait' tour DVD is released.

31st October:
'Still Growing Up - Live And Unwrapped' tour DVD is released.

2005

25th October:
'Play' video compilation is released on DVD.

Peter continues with work on 'I/O'? Follow this link for my 'Making Of I/O' page


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