A University of Winchester’s academic’s dream of recording an album has come true thanks to the help of two students.
When Music and Sound Production student J Dengate attended a gig by local band Never the Twain, featuring Performing Arts lecturer Dr Stevie Simkin, neither could have guessed they would end up recording 12 songs together.
Love Songs for the End of the World, engineered and mixed by J, who also co-produced the album with singer/songwriter/guitarist Stevie, comes out in October.
Never the Twain, which also features talented local violinist Dan Conroy, have been active for nearly a decade and often play the Railway Inn.
J was drawn to the band’s folk-inflected, mostly acoustic performance as it contrasted with the heavier music they were used to recording.
They asked Stevie if he would come into the university’s state-of-the-art recording studio and collaborate as part of a final year Extended Independent Project.
Stevie, who had heard third-year Acting student, Edna Doust playing piano in between rehearsals in the performing arts studios, invited her to help out.
As well as improvising keyboard parts around two songs, Edna added beautiful harmony vocals to four tracks.
Over the summer, eight more songs were tracked, with J adding bass to most of them.
“It’s been a hugely rewarding collaboration’, said Stevie. “J was imaginative in approach, meticulous in their process, and totally dedicated to the project; their technical skill and hard work say a lot about them as well as the Music Production course and the lecturers who teach on it.
Stevie is also one of the hosts of weekly Open Mic nights which regularly feature University of Winchester students.
“I think the way our album came about is just another instance of the Railway Inn being such a great creative hub and a good crossover between the university and city,” he said.
J, who comes from Rye in East Sussex, said: “This was my way of pushing myself out of my comfort zone for my dissertation, due to both the genre and working with somebody completely new to get a taste of a real working relationship.
“My primary concern is ensuring that whoever I’m recording with enjoys being in the studio environment and gets something out of it on top of the actual recordings – this was absolutely achieved with Stevie and the other brilliant musicians who came to lend a hand”.
Never The Twain will launch their album at The Railway on 25 October when, for one night only, the band will feature Edna on harmony vocals and J on bass.
That performance will come just two nights after J and Edna’s graduation ceremony in Winchester Cathedral.
Multi-talented Edna also provided the distinctive artwork for the album cover, inspired by Stevie’s song The Drowned Mona Lisa which tells the mysterious story behind the face of the “Resusci Annie” doll used around the world for CPR training.
