22/03/2015
A remixed and remastered version of the album Broken, originally released in 2012.
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Broken: Fixed

I recorded and released my first album Echolocation in 2010 as a kind of experiment. I asked myself the question, ‘Is it possible to make a decent sounding record in the living room of a one bed flat with some rather questionable equipment, whilst also making it sound like it’s been recorded by an actual band?’ The answer is yes, if you know how, and no, if you’re winging it. I fell into the latter category. The resulting album was a bit of a muddy reverby mess, but it was a start. In 2011 I then went for something different. I was getting into electronic music more and wanted to reflect this in a new album. The idea was to be bolder and more experimental, whilst also trying to make it sound a heck of a lot more professional than the last one. Dissonance is easily a better album but on reflection it feels like an opportunity missed. It’s a cold album as well. But then seeing as it was mostly inspired by the internet and designed to sound in parts like the inside of a computer, I suppose that was the idea.

Then 2012 came along and by this point I was trying new things in my life and music was unfortunately taking a backseat. I knew I wanted to make a third album, maybe even a final one. And this was going to be an honest album; an album which involved simple songwriting and no fancy pants synth sounds or ridiculous marketing ideas (for Dissonance I created a cryptic and ultimately pointless website about pretty much nothing). Broken was born out of the desire once again to try and capture the sound of a band but doing everything myself. That was the last album I recorded as Rough Citizen. Recently I felt the strange desire to revisit it.

To paraphrase the great filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson when he speaks about his 1999 film Magnolia, for better or worse, Broken is probably the best album I will ever make. Not necessarily from a production point of view (at least I hope not) but in terms of the songwriting and the arrangements. I have since come to realise that although I am happy with the songs, the overall sound is simply not good enough. Hence Broken: Fixed - the remixed and remastered version I have just released. In all honesty there aren’t any major differences. I’ve just tried to clean it up, add some clarity and a sparkle, boost the bass a bit, and make it LOUDER. To my ears the difference is incredible (well I pretty much did this to please myself). It’s not perfect by any means. It never will be unless I re-record the whole damn thing, which I won’t. With some of the tracks I just couldn’t do much with what I had to work with. But I feel much better about it now. I’ve also included Wait For Me as a bonus track, my first new song in a while (and personally a very important one). You can view the video here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmmAywlTj34

I hope that maybe, just maybe, the improvements will lead to people who have the original liking it more, and maybe even there being a possibility of a new audience being found (lots of maybes there). Feedback is, as always, welcome. And who knows, maybe I’ll play some of songs live again one day.

You can download Broken: Fixed for free from this site only.

Thanks and bye,

RC