Original Innocence is a collection of songs from 2010/11. This was the last solo project I worked on before starting The Temperance Movement. If you're a real fan of the Temp you might recognise some lyrics in a couple of songs which I borrowed for the Temp's debut. I was never very proud of this as these songs were dear to my heart and didn't deserve being stripped for parts. This is a songwriter's album.

A compilation of songs from 2004 & 2005. Here is everything I wrote on the way to my second solo album "Joy". All were discarded as my focus for that album sharpened. The work done here was vast and obsessive. Not only was I trying to make the best record I could, I was learning how to use the digital recording process and become producer and engineer of my own music. Up to this point, I'd always needed a studio and producer, so this was incredibly exciting to me.

A compilation of songs from 2004 & 2005. Here is everything I wrote on the way to my second solo album "Joy". All were discarded as my focus for that album sharpened. The work done here was vast and obsessive. Not only was I trying to make the best record I could, I was learning how to use the digital recording process and become producer and engineer of my own music. Up to this point, I'd always needed a studio and producer, so this was incredibly exciting to me.

Written and recorded in Glasgow over nine months, this is my homecoming album proper. From track one, the set makes an obvious leap from the folk sound of Daddy's Table with my own production style embracing the humour and pop sounds of earlier albums. Lyrics adopt character play and story telling which was influenced heavily by a return to the Second City. A fusion of styles, I had fun making this music like I hadn't had in years.

In all aspects it was a pleasure to complete this record. Returning from tour with David Gray with a hat-full of new songs, I linked arms with Richard Causon at his studio, The Gentlemen's Club, in London. Opening the sessions by listening to The Band, the first piece to be captured was Closer which clearly set the tone for this stripped-down, folk-inspired set. There is nothing on here that couldn't be reproduced had we suddenly been transported back to the 1880's.

Anybody who listens to Leonard Cohen will tell you that he makes a great sound track for despair and that he writes incredibly uplifting songs too. In fact the first time I heard him was in a very beautiful time in my hey day, but its no lie to say that at time of purchase Leonard Cohen’s Greatest Hits saved my mortal soul from total devastation. I recorded these on my 32nd birthday with a bottle of Champagne from Susie Q. God bless her.

A mad record and it near drove me mad mixing it. Recorded over a week or so in April ’07, this is a self-indulgent- psychedelic- crazy- country- blues record and I love it. Being a little dizzy at the time of recording, I ended up with guide tracks that had a lotta' heart but a poor sound. This weakness is a core element of the album and trying to balance this with overdubs was an obsession. Mixed at The Grove with Matt Round, cover art by Ben Curzon.

Recorded immediately after Joy, MM was 11 songs originally, but time constraints made it an EP of five. Lots of Elliott Smith influence. Heavenly Voices is written about him. It took over 3 years to complete, but the key feature on this was an Indian Harmonium, a little bellows organ which I only purchased in November '08. The missing piece.

An ironic title, this is a re-packaged and re-mixed version of Joy. Finding myself on EMI again, producer Andy Bradfield was brought in to redesign the sound for radio. Principally 3 tracks were chosen to be singles: Cold Engines was transformed; Maps bolstered with a double drum part; and Sweet Sister got the strings I had always avoided. Whatever. I was treated to a photo shoot in Las Vegas, made a new friend in drummer John Miller, radio prime time plays and best of of all Jools Holland Show!

My own first attempt at the self-produced album saw two years pass before its completion, the time needed to learn Logic software and re-learn how to write songs. Inspired by Ethan Johns productions with Ryan Adams and Ray LaMontagne, I gained a little press attention from this set. Stripped to the waist as it is (the original version of Cold Engines features only shaker eggs for percussion) Hey Mama is my favourite for being the biggest and most fun to make.

The album proper. Recorded in London in the Summer of 1996 it showcased my more elaborate plans and schemes and took a long time to complete. Months of mixing and post-production delayed its release until the end of 1997, almost a year and a half after the 6 tracker. Together with producer Dave Meegan, I threw everything I had at this record, so it makes for quite an eclectic set.

The first fruits of my formative years as a young songwriter. A 6-Track release from an impatient EMI, keen to make good on my A&R's over spending before year end. The full length album was not ready at the time the company wanted a release. It should have been. This was my shot and it contained much of the best of the album that would follow it. As a marketing tool to suss out how a young Scottish lad would fare in the post brit pop climate, it succeeded.