OLI REES

I find the acid test for any new song is to play it for someone else on an acoustic guitar. Sometimes I have done this and realised before the first verse, it is going nowhere, but just occasionally you know you actually have something.

I first recorded at Henwood Studios in South Oxfordshire back in 2015. Originally intended to be confined to a weekend session to capture two or three songs with the band I was part of at the time, it turned out to be the foundation for a first album, Oakley Sky, released in February 2017 with eleven songs produced and mixed by Pete Brown. The highlights for me were No Returning Angel and Ebb And Flow, both of which featured at different times on BBC Introducing.

The second album, 'Out of the Frame' was released in May 2019, with Richard Newman on drums, Andy Crowdy on bass, and Rich Milner on keys. Some experimentation on this one for sure. While I tend to write working only on guitar, it’s always interesting to see how other musicians interpret a song when recording. Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes piano, cello, and lap steel guitar were all used to add signature threads to pieces on this project.

Following recording at the renamed ‘Brown House Studio’ the latest album, Elusive Truth, was released in March 2022, this time with the percussive wizardry of Fergus Gerrand added to the mix. Unlike previous albums, which had an eclectic balance of old songs and new experiments, Elusive Truth was written from scratch and feels more cohesive as an album. I am grateful once again to Pete Brown for his great patience in producing the album and capturing the one acoustic track ‘We Never Go Far' as a live take.

I am currently working on demos for a 4th studio album, which I hope to record later in 2023.