music Archives - CRAIG WESTWOOD

(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down

Craig — Fri, 30 May 2025 00:15:00 +0000

‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’ started it’s life instrumentally in 1986. I had in mind a two-part guitar piece and it progressed out of jam sessions with a friend I’d met whilst working at Huddersfield’s Electronic Arts Workshop, Colin Ramsden, who I was trying to start a band with at the time. I came up with the claw-and-slap guitar riff, and at one point he jammed along with a little repeating section using some picked harmonics, which appealed to me.

I can’t remember now what Colin’s version was like, we made no recordings of those little jam sessions, and so when I did get chance to do my own recording of the track some time later at Rick Cocker’s home-studio, I had worked out my own version of the picked harmonic, but for me, it was a finger-picked pattern.

Having recorded the backing tracks, and adding a synth bass-line and drum machine, I had little idea where to take this. I had a melody, and a hook for the chorus: ‘Don’t hurry, slow down, slow down,’ but little else for the rest of the song. I played a few of my demo tracks to my old college friend and writer, John Helliwell, including ‘Slow Down’, and he was keen to have a go at helping me finish it. Within a week or two he had something, and the verses were formed. I used my hook and added a pre-chorus, and we had the song.

Over the years, I’ve had two or three versions of ‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’ in demo form, either on cassette, as it was originally, and then later on CD and digitally, but nothing made it beyond this point.

Fast forward 37 years or so…

I knew I wanted to do something with the song, but it was my daughter Amy who sparked it all off again. She came across to us in December 2023 for Christmas, and I did a little set for friends at a gathering at home. Amy said she’d been working on a harmony for ‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’, and could we have a go at singing it. We played and sang it for our small audience unrehearsed, and it went down a storm. It was then I realised it was ready to do another, more polished version.

I had already part-recorded a slimmed-down version of the song, with two acoustic guitars, and added a bass-line and percussion in Spring 2024. Amy agreed then to come across for an early Summer break in late June/early July and did her vocal for me during that week.

What astounded me was that Amy took to recording very easily. She hadn’t used a studio mic before, or recorded using DAW software either, but adapted very quickly, wasn’t phased by any of the repetitiveness of the comping process, and could stay on pitch like a pro. It made the whole session very enjoyable.

If anything, other issues got in the way of my finishing the song. I released ‘Wry Smile’ back in October ’24, and then we had family health issues to deal with. Claire lost her Dad in December, a long journey with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and then her Mum was seriously ill too. We went back to the UK for Christmas and to support the family through crisis, and so my planned releases went on hold for a while.

On the 29th December Amy and I did get chance to shoot video scenes in Ealand for ‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’. I had this idea to try and portray the ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ themes of the song using slow-and-fast frame videoing. It was difficult but fun filming all my scenes singing at double-speed, and Amy’s at half-speed. The result you’ll see for yourself on the video.

Our test-shots originally were made indoors with a plain-background, which just didn’t work. It was only when we shot outdoors, with the Ealand sea of wind-turbines behind us, did it help and I think aided the fast and slow element of it.

The sad conclusion to this story though is that we learned in early January that our good friend and collaborator on this song, John Helliwell, died on December 31st, after a short battle with cancer. Our song therefore has become a tribute to him and his generous and creative spirit.

We miss you, John.

There are a few more songs that John and I collaborated on, which I intend to release sometime in the near future. More news about this soon.

‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’ is out NOW.

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With the Sky

Craig — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 15:02:00 +0000

With the Sky was written in 2011, just after I checked out as a pilot. It’s had various tweaks and changes to the lyrics since then, but essentially the tune has remained the same.

I wrote it as a nod to the ballooning community, especially for those people who gave up their time for free and helped me to train to be a pilot. The majority of these belong to the British Balloon and Airship Club (BBAC), and for people in the UK, if you want to get involved with ballooning, then that’s a good place to start in terms of finding people near to you who will help you take part.

It’s very much a “pay-it-forward” community, in that it’s best to find a balloon team, help out with being part of the chase-crew, whilst you decide whether ballooning as a sport is really for you. Claire and I got involved in ballooning in 2001, and we were crew members for a number of teams until late 2007, when Claire ‘checked out’ as a pilot, and then we bought our first balloon, enabling me to train afterwards.

Essentially then, it took me nearly 4 years to train as a pilot. Partly due to the fact that I was sharing balloon time with Claire, who was still a novice pilot herself.

What I hoped to convey in the song, was life as a balloonist (or is it a “loonist?”). The fact we’re always watching the sky, looking at weather forecasts, checking out the wind speed, looking toward the tops of the trees even, in the sheer hope that the winds will be calm enough for us to fly. A lot of the time, especially when we lived in the UK (and we were up North as well….), those hopes were often dashed by turbulence, fog, and, more often, rain.

I don’t think that there’s been another song written about ballooning as such since Fifth Dimension’s “Up, Up and Away” in the 1960s. So, it’s really a modern slant on ballooning, from a pilot’s perspective. There’s no doubt in my mind, and I’ve seen significant changes in the weather since 2001, that the weather patterns are worsening. There are far less calm flyable winds since we began ballooning in the. early noughties. Some of our ballooning colleagues who’ve been flying since the 60s, 70s and 80s have said that those weather changes are even more significant since they began flying even.

So the “Give me another window in the weather” line in the song is a plea for just the chance to fly, which is becoming more and more the balloonist’s anthem, I think.

With the Sky was released on March 8th.

It’s on Spotify:

You can find the video here:

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Life, the Universe + Music…

Craig — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 16:37:00 +0000

Leading up to the release of my first few songs, I’ve decided to make some informative short documentary videos about the journey so far. Starting with the decision to make a serious effort to improve and get the music ‘out there’ that I made in early 2016.

Look out for Life, the Universe + Music on YouTube… Episode One is out NOW!

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Making videos…

Craig — Sat, 10 Sep 2022 15:52:00 +0000

This Summer of 2022 I’ve been concentrating on filming some videos to go with the songs I’ve recorded, mixed and had mastered.

The first one I’d started with was Whispers of Home, which involved the use of some discreet footage I shot from a train window on my way to King’s Cross in London, actually at the beginning of my trip to Los Angeles, after I’d won the All Guitar Vero Contest.

I decided that I’d look at some creative and cost-effective ways of making my music videos, so I have some very different ideas for all of them, some a little more ambitious than others!

The next video to have a go at has been Only the Good Ones Go First. I’ve had this idea for a long time to have a posterised approach and to make it a lyric video too with cartoon bubble text. As it looks and sounds at the moment, it’s got all the energy I was expecting, and I think it’s going to look great…

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Thinking On Your Own – Part 1

Craig — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 14:19:00 +0000

March 19th. The UK was going into lockdown with rising cases of Covid-19 being reported. The media frenzy at the time was on how people were panic-buying in the shops, with various photos and video footage of people stockpiling shopping trolleys full of toilet roll, pasta, bread, milk and other groceries, and in doing so, depriving the most vulnerable in our society.

I was angry at what I saw, and I felt I had to write a song about it. Sure, people were scared, none of us really knew how Covid was going to affect or change our lives. But, depriving others at a time of real need, was selfish and unnecessary. Global crises really show us how base and primitive the human race can still be.

It didn’t really matter to me that the song was probably just going to be labelled as ‘another from the glut of songs written in lockdown’; it was heartfelt, and I felt strongly about its message. I wanted to get across that, in isolation, we are still able to think of others and should be concentrating on them, not thinking on our own. It was asking people to consider: “Who else can I help?”

If, in listening to this song, it makes one person think again, and decide not to act selfishly, giving the more vulnerable person a chance – just for once – then it will have done it’s job.

I posted it on Facebook. I wasn’t sure what to expect really, but I asked people to like and share, and a few people did. Thank you to those who did, because what happened next was a complete surprise.

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First recording session

Craig — Thu, 19 May 2016 09:47:00 +0000

Finally got in touch with Andrew last Tuesday, who texted me to say that he and Matthew were starting to record the tracks the next day… “Hang on a minute…” I thought, “…where do I fit into all this?” Turns out they were planning to do the session without me. Anyway, I promptly texted back to voice my desire to be included in the process, after all, these are my songs, and I want to be involved in the sessions. So it was then re-scheduled for Friday morning. I have to say that I’m used to having complete creative control, and “letting go” is very difficult.

Once I arrived on the Friday morning, it was revealed that some of their ‘artists’ don’t actually get involved in the recording side of things at all, they just turn up and sing, and let Matthew and Andrew sort out the rest. Now I’m not that kind of person at all: I’m a very ‘hands-on’ guy, and especially since to date I have recorded all my own instrumentation. Still, I have asked for them to tell me when they are next scheduling in sessions, and to invite me along.

So – We started with the track I had sent across to Matthew: Watching the Rain. He has put all of the audio tracks I’ve exported into Cubase, and roughly mixed them. Then he had Andrew, with his steel strung acoustic, playing layered guitar over my backing track.

First impressions: I must say, Andrew’s style of playing is more than a little different to mine. I just got the impression that he felt restricted with me being there, listening to him playing along to my DI (direct input) guitar. It sounded a little awkward with Andrew trying to emulate my style of finger-picking. At one point Matthew asked me to record my guitar part again over the top of Andrew’s parts using his steel guitar, but he faded this low into the mix, so I’m not sure if he really wanted to use this, but perhaps it was an attempt to include me in on the session. I really felt that they just wanted to record all of the session themselves, and I was in the way.

Anyway, with several layers guitar parts recorded, strummed, some flourishes added, a few other textured guitar playing, mostly double-tracked, and with time running out (I think they’d only scheduled in and hour and a half, and this was running to two hours), Andrew started to play cajon over the guitar, quite a vigorous pattern of playing that, to me, didn’t suit the ‘feel’ of the piece. All the time in the session I found myself saying “Keep this gentle… Keep this simple…” as it’s a gentle song. Again I feel they have other ideas for this.

Anyway, to save us clashing here, I have concluded that I will let them run with this one. How else am I going to find out what they’re capable of? At the end of the day though, I’m here to learn the processes, and to pick up the recording and mixing side of things for myself. The recordings then are a bonus. I guess if I want to record my music in my own way, then I can still do this at home.

Further to this session, Andrew has asked me if I want to work on my live performance. My task for this week is to come up with some covers that I might want to play at an ‘open mic’ night… I told them that my last stage performance (some 30 years ago) was pretty disastrous, and this put me off performance. I said I wanted to work on building some confidence first.

Neither Matthew nor Andrew are very much about prompting students to book sessions, I’m starting to learn that it’s very much you having to chase them, rather than the other way around…

Addendum to this entry is that I’ve contacted Andrew and now booked a couple of lessons, to work on stage performance coaching, and I have an open mic to visit and watch next Monday evening… I guess it pays to not be afraid to chase people up!

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Here We Go…!

Craig — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 15:08:00 +0000

Well, it’s my first entry on this new website.

I’m going to try and document the whole process, as I think it’s a way of showing others what I’ve done to try and get my music played to a wider audience. I hope in starting this it might inspire others to give it a try too. You’re never too old if you have the enthusiasm!

I’ve been a guitarist and songwriter, and composer/music-maker for about 30 years. To date, it always remained my hobby, and something I never ever really took seriously enough. Often I’d play a track or two to friends and they’d say: “You really should do something with these songs…” and I’d always respond by saying: “Yea, maybe, one day.”

I’m now the wrong side of 50 years old, and it really should have been something that I did sooner.

So – armed with some worldly wisdom (!) but with a complete lack of knowledge of the modern music industry, I’m setting out to try and get an album produced, and sell it to the public…

Here’s my story.

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