23 Jul 2024
How does a science teacher from St Albans end up featuring on the new album from award-winning composer James West?
‘Fire’ is the new release from the muscian and producer whose soundtrack for the short film ‘Reverie’ won multiple awards in 2023 including at Cannes.
On the opening track, ‘Fire’ features local environmental campaigner and science teacher, Damian Gaskin, who recently ran as a Green candidate for Batchwood in the local elections.
Damian, who is more used to cooking at a community kitchen in New Greens or picking up litter on a Saturday morning, explained how he came to be working with James, a young and prodigiously talented music producer capable of creating haunting film sound designs, French pop songs and sound exhibits in art galleries.
“I have known James since he arrived, very, very early, into this world in 1999. The son of my best friend, it has been a great pleasure to see James develop his musical abilities over the years. It does not seem that long ago that I visited James as a very premature and vulnerable baby in a Leicester Hospital; but actually that was 25 years ago and James now has a 1st class degree in music and technology from Loughborough Univesity and five albums of orginal music to his name.
The inspiration for Fire came four years ago, in the midst of the Covid lockdown, as James became intrigued by the absence of everyday sounds in the world.
He asked his friends to share the sounds that they missed in their lives. He turned this into a monologue of longed-for auditory moments.
James needed a voice for the recording and he turned to his godfather Damian Gaskin.
“I had been involved in voicing characters for video games many years earlier,” said Damian, who lives in New Greens.
“As James grew up we had a habit of trying to outdo each other with impressions of Mort and King Julien from ‘Madagascar’. I was honoured when my godson asked me to record the monologue for his album, which we actually recorded over two years ago.”
James has been busy with multiple projects whilst at the same time recording the other 14 tracks from ‘Fire’ from the comfort of his home studio. The album was released on Friday, with Damian featuring on the opening track, ‘Where Have We Been?’: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/jameswest1/the-fire
