Track By Track: 20 Years on, Alex Lloyd Takes Us Through 'Black The Sun'

When I started writing Black The Sun, I had just gone through my first major break-up (the girl I was with had left me for someone else). It was also roughly around the same time that my band at the time Mother Hubbard had decided to disband. I had also made some major breakthroughs discovering new music technology and was developing my skills and appreciation for music production. I spent hours and hours in my friend's studio in Balmain writing and recording new songs. A lot of the vocal performances on Black The Sun are quiet and restrained, which is mostly due to the fact I often wrote and recorded at night. It was the time when the studio was free, and 3am is the time you feel that churning feeling in your gut when you're feeling the pain of a break-up. 

Disclaimer: I'm going to attempt to do a little track-by-track synopsis of Black The Sun 20 years after the fact! It may be a little disjointed and random, so please bear with me, as I will need to jog my memory and, obviously, my interpretation of the past may have varied! 

Melting

I wrote this track after I discovered a new tuning on the guitar. It led to the opening riff. I had also discovered the Mellotron Choir (which, btw, I love to this day) which beds out the background of the verse. I originally wrote two verses for the same verse if that makes sense – I liked both of them, so ended up cutting them together to make a two-part verse. This song was a bit of a gateway opening my mind to the possibilities of studio production. 

Momo 

This song is a bit of a 'journey'. My new girlfriend at the time (who I actually later wrote Amazing about ) spoke fluent Japanese and so she features in the opening. I was fascinated with Japanese culture at the time. Originally the dialogue was in English with an American accent. It's a bit of a nod to not only my own musical influences, but some of my mother’s also – heavy beats-based with bluesy overtones (my influence) and then there are these choral singing nuns in the breakdown just before the outro, which was more my mother’s style. 

Something Special 

This is a fun track I wrote with a good friend of mine, Stuart Miller – the same guy that let me use his studio to write the majority of the album. I was really getting into the beats on this one, loving all the strange effects and bass guitar-led style. A friend of mine at the time (and one of the co-producers on the album) really opened my eyes to the whole sampling world.

Dessert 

This track is another 'journey' (so to speak). I remember hating it when it was finally finished. It took so long to finish, I think I was just sick of it because I heard it that many times! As Ed Buller (producer and ex-Psychedelic Furs member) used to say “It really did my head in“! I now really love the track – 20 years later!

Snow 

There are three versions of this track: the one that appeared on the US movie Scream 2 soundtrack; the other which appeared on the Black The Sun EP that Trent Williamson and Daniel Denholm produced and mixed (worth checking out ); then there is the one I did with Ed Buller in LA which appears on the album. I actually wrote a whole new part for it while watching cable TV in my dingy hotel room just off Franklin Ave in Hollywood. I like all the versions.

My Way Home 

A revelation here for the first time – this song was originally called 'Sunday' and the chorus was completely different. Once again, I re-wrote the chorus in LA in my tiny Hollywood hotel room while watching cable TV! Ed Buller produced this track and did a fantastic job. His '80s style retro keyboards are all over it. This was probably my favourite track on the album at the time. Later, we did the single version in Australia, which, at the time, had a more modern feel! I think the album version is my favourite. 

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Black The Sun 

Probably the first song I wrote for the album. This is all about Julie, the first real love of my life. I was quite upset when we split and this song just came out of me like magic – almost every word on the page were the first words that came out of my mouth. It took about 30 minutes to write. Daniel Denholm did a killer string arrangement.

Lucky Star 

This track was written after I watched Billy Wilder’s The Apartment. I was so inspired by this movie. It was about 3am when it finished and I remember going straight to the studio and both writing and recording the song. I think I was finished by about 10am. Later in LA, Ed Buller once again really enhanced this track with his magical retro synth parade. It also later appeared in the promo for the Aussie classic film Two Hands, as well as the soundtrack.

What A Year 

This track has always been one of my favourites!  It just works, especially if you have had a trying year! This is another one of those songs that took next to no time to write. The end part ("I'm alright...") was a jam a good friend of mine (Ben Quinn) and I used to jam on. Ben ended up becoming a director and made several clips for me, including Bus Ride, 1,000 Miles and Coming Home. 

Faraway 

This was a song I wrote in front of the TV (again!). One of those nights when you can’t sleep and you have that aching feeling inside your tummy. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself! This track also came from playing/messing around with different tunings on the guitar.

Aliens 

I think this was one of those songs I wrote from newspaper clippings, or perhaps news headlines I had noticed at the time – along with some poetic licence! I'm fairly sure I wrote the verse and chorus at separate times! It kind of took some time to piece the whole thing together. The production is pretty great. I remember recording it with Trent Williamson down in the Vault Studios in Balmain, which used to be owned by Mark Moffatt (the well-known Australian producer).

Gender 

This song was another track that came from studying Japanese culture. I was really fascinated about the way they had rebuilt after the war and the way American culture had been integrated into its modern culture, although there was still a great deal of respect and pride for traditional Japanese customs. I always liked the idea of old and new coming together and not replacing but integrating with respect – kind of like what I set out to do with the whole of Black The Sun.

Backseat Clause 

Written right at the end of the recording process, simply, and it was only fitting to finish this album nicely (if that makes sense). I think I played all the instruments on this one including average glockenspiel-playing! Ha... Nice '80s synth strings at the end though.