Sometimes I just sit down and try and write a pop song. I’ve done it throughout my life and it’s an interesting thing to try and do, make something kind of catchy that might be attractive on the radio or whatever. So I was just going over personal feelings, it starts off ‘I’ve got too much on my plate and then the way I write I just follow that thought and think, ‘what did I mean by that? Explain yourself!’ So then I think ‘well what I meant was’ and then it eventually just panned out that after I’d got the verse it just became this idea of my past, my Ever Present Past. No deep meaning in it. I think what happens with me is, I just write a thing and people read more into it and I kind of like that because I think often you do things in a subliminal way, you don’t actually realise what you are doing. So something that I might think is quite a simple statement, somebody might go, ‘yeah but it means that!’ So I like that, I like there to be multiple meanings to these things even though I often just started off as a phrase that’s really just to help me write the song and get me onto the next bit. So really it’s just basically a pop song and I recorded it with David (Kahne) and we just treated it that way, bit of guitar, bit of bass drum, bit of this, that and the other.
Memory Almost Full was released in June 2007
I started this album, Memory Almost Full, before my last album Chaos And Creation In The Backyard (released September 2005). The first recording session was back in the autumn of 2003 at Abbey Road with my touring band and producer David Kahne.
I was right in the middle of it when I began talking with Nigel Godrich about a brand new project (which became Chaos And Creation In The Backyard).
After the Grammy nomination when everything concerning Chaos was finished I returned to making this album.
I was wondering if I would enjoy it, but actually I really loved it. In places it’s a very personal record and a lot of it is retrospective, drawing from memories of being a kid from Liverpool and summers gone.
The album is evocative, emotional, rocking, but I can’t really sum it up in one sentence.
The album title came after I had finished everything. For me, that’s when they normally come, with the exception of maybe Sgt. Peppers, otherwise I don’t think I have ever made an album with The Beatles, Wings or solo where I have thought of a title and a concept first.
I was looking for something that would sum the whole thing up and ‘Memory Almost Full’ came to mind. It’s a phrase that seemed to embrace modern life; in modern life our brains can get a bit overloaded.
I realised I had also seen it come up on my phone a few times. When I started bouncing the idea round with some friends they nearly all got different meanings out of it, but they all said they loved it. So the feedback helped solidify the title.
After completing the album I then started thinking about the album artwork and how I’d want it to look.
I really wanted to make the CD a desirable object. Something that I know I’d want to pick up from the shelf, something that would make people curious.
The album sleeve itself includes an etching by a friend of mine, Humphrey Ocean.
I really enjoyed making this album with David Kahne and I’m proud of all the songs.
We had a great time. I hope that the fun we had will communicate itself to the people who are going to listen to it.
Watch the Ever Present Past video.