Wendy James announces new album
Wendy James is set to release her new album, “The Shape Of History,” on October 25th. Written, produced, and mixed by James herself, the album was recorded in West London and New York City. This will be her tenth album and will be available digitally, on deluxe vinyl, and via a deluxe CD. To coincide with today’s announcement, James has released a video for “Freedomsville,” the first single from “The Shape Of History.”
‘I grew up, musically, in the age of the sequencer,’ reflects Wendy. ‘There was Transvision Vamp and there was Sigue Sigue Sputnik, and we were both drawn into the future by Ridley Scott’s movie “Bladerunner”. The futuristic, seedy glamour, the overcrowded Chinatown, and the high, high skyscrapers, where the masters of the universe observed and policed down below. Mixed in with that: Polanski’s movie “Frantic,” Beineix’s movie “Diva,” European dark electro, and Klaus Nomi’s “The Cold Song.” I wrote “Freedomsville” on guitar like all my songs. My mixing engineer Jesse Nichols couldn’t believe how unchanged the recording was from the guide and how much sound and arrangement had been created. In the end, I didn’t use sequencers at all; it’s all real humans playing very rhythmically on repeat for six minutes straight.”
‘My songwriting has always been a wide mix of sounds, which naturally reflect the different music and references I have and love. My sweet spot is mid-late 70’s downtown NYC New Wave Punk: CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. It is from this sound that my taste for sequenced and dark NY and Euro electro and no-wave evolved. “The Shape Of History” was recorded on Scrubs Lane, West London, with Alex Ward, Harry Bohay, and James Sclavunos. I then went off to NYC and Brooklyn to record the pianos and organs with Dave ‘The Moose’ Sherman. Overdubbing continued with Al Lawson at the engineering helm in his Shepherd’s Bush studio, and then I went back to Berkeley, CA to mix with Jesse Nichols before mastering with Fred Kevorkian in Brooklyn, NY. I have spent so much time with this music, I know it note-for-note and I love it, and I am so happy for you to now make it your own.’
‘”The Shape Of History” has a lot about love in it, a lot about appreciation of oneself, one’s life, and importantly, of others. It is life’s arc of starting out, blooming into something, and in some ways maturing. I don’t think my music has gotten older; I know I’ve not gone mellow! My attitude can be more ferocious and fearless than ever, but there is an acquired wisdom, which naturally comes after having been alive for a few decades! “The Shape Of History” is a love letter and a thank you note to life so far. The culmination of my tenth album is the result of co-musicians and engineers who I’ve worked with previously and with whom I share a language. We know each other, we choose to work together. We enjoy each other’s talent and personalities. There is a happiness, a belonging when we meet up, and an open and determined desire to achieve what we know we have to.’
‘From meeting Nick Christian Sayer and forming Transvision Vamp, the two of us walking into EMI Records and demanding to see the head of Artists and Repertoire, Dave Ambrose. Getting signed and making our hits of the late 80’s and 90’s. From collaborating with Elvis Costello and mixing that album at Sunset Sound in Hollywood where The Stones mixed “Exile On Main St.,” then moving to NYC to start writing and recording as a solo artist, all the gigs I’ve played and the friends I’ve made around the world, the astounding, incredible, wonderful people whose lives I’ve crossed paths with… I am so grateful for it all.’
