When Norwich singer-songwriter Lee Gordon decided he was going to record his debut album, he had a stumbling block: first he had to build a studio. With the help of his bass player Darren Woolner and drummer Matt Hewitt, Lee took over an old pig shed on a farm owned by Matt's father and converted it into a recording studio. Pig pens were replaced with sound booths at the studio, near Frettenham, where Lee and his band spent around five months holed up laying down tracks for his first album, Fire In My Hands. Producer Mark Daghorn, who has worked with Cradle of Filth and One Minute Silence, mixed the self-funded record which blends acoustic folk with rock. The album will be launched at a gig at the Norwich Arts Centre on Friday 15 July 2005 and the 26-year-old plans to follow up the date with a string of performances in London. His recording kit has since been sold off to pay for the album's pressing and the studio has taken on a new use as a rehearsal room. A regular fixture on the local gig scene, we caught up with Lee before his return to treading stages to chat about his new album, song-writing and his future plans. What's the support been like for you locally? It's been pretty good. It's been sporadic because I only started playing around what local scene there is a year and a half ago and decided quite quickly that I wanted to make an album. The album's taken me five months to do, so I've been away for a little while and people haven't seen my name on the gig listings very much. Can you describe your sound? It's my favourite subject! It's all acoustic based music. My influences have been the heavier end of music - rock and metal. But I like emotive music as well so that's where the acoustic folky thing comes in. It's a mixture of everything but I always use an acoustic guitar. Who have your influences been in particular? Song-writing wise people like Jeff Buckley and Neil Young have been a massive influence, not just because of the music but because of the amount of emotion that they put in to what they do. I was brought up with Hendrix, Guns 'n' Roses and Pearl Jam and all the Seattle stuff. But if it's music I like it. I've always liked anything that's got a lot of emotion to it. I'm drawn to that. What do you tend to be inspired by when you're writing? It's all personal experiences, whatever bugs me: relationships and things. I'm not breaking ground in song-writing and I don't try to. I can only do what I do and I love what I do so much. They are very passionate songs because that's where the interesting things in life come from. So it's a diary of your life? Yes. I don't write songs about politics or religion as that doesn't empower me at all. It's whatever I'm feeling. It seems like you've been gigging for a long time, so does it seem that it's taken a while to get to this point of releasing an album? I don't think it's taken a long time. It hasn't been a struggle as such because I don't really see myself as getting that far - nowhere near as far as I'd like to go. It's just about conviction and you really have to believe in what you do. With that, I think anything is possible. What's your ultimate ambition? I would love to be able to do what I do for a living. I haven't got aspirations of grandeur - I don’t want to be on TV. I'd like to be happy in what I do and do it full time. I love being on stage and to do that full time, I'd be happy with that. Does getting signed feature in your aspirations? If it helps me do what I do then great but if not then I'm quite happy doing it myself. I don't want to be a famous rock star. Your album has been self-funded, did you also produce it? The way it was recorded was interesting. I wanted to record it myself, I didn't want to do it in a studio. I decided to fund it myself - I've had various offers of management and promotion - but I wanted control over what I was doing. I gathered up all the gear and found a place to record it - an old pig shed! You built your own studio in which to record the album? Yes, it was at a farm near Frettenham and there was this row of pig sheds that belongs to the father of my drummer. We put the studio together and sound-proofed it and made it very comfortable. We put all the different sound booths in. All three of us did it - me and my bass player and drummer. It was empowering because you could see it growing. Why did you decide to build your own studio - a pig shed's not the most obvious choice! The land was there so it seemed like a good idea. It's tucked away from everything and we could take as much time as we wanted. If you book a studio you have two or three weeks, so you're limited and under pressure to get it done whereas we took our time. Were you camped out there? Well, I don’t live that far away but I did stay there occasionally. I'd stay there late and try to work out the parts. The album grew - it’s not like we had all the songs. The songs were written in the studio, so it was very organic and I liked staying there. I disappeared from the world for quite a while. So you were totally immersed in the album? Yes, that's what I wanted to do and the way I wanted it to sound. What are the plans for the studio now? We use it as a rehearsal room now. I bought all the recording equipment and then sold it to fund the press and printing of the album. The album was mixed by a producer - was it hard to hand those songs over? Yes, a little bit. Mark Daghorn's a really experienced producer, he's worked with some great bands over the years and is a fantastic musician. He usually produces heavy metal bands and rock band and I wanted that edge to it. He knows what he's doing and I was happy. Why's the album called Fire In My Hands? It's probably about the music 'thing' I have and how passionate I am about it. And it's a track from the album as well. I was trying to think of a title for the album which encompasses everything I do and the amount of emotion I put into it and that was it. I figured maybe I should write a song about that - it's only a very short solo song. Why have you chosen the Norwich Arts Centre as the venue for the launch? There doesn't seem to be too many places around here to put on a big show and the arts centre does a great job in promoting arts in all different aspects and I love the venue. It's a beautiful venue to play in - the sound needs a bit of work but they're trying to get funding for that. It's a fantastic place. What other dates have you got lined up? Loads and loads coming up all over the country. The album's gone a bit mad since the promotion has been done. I'm playing various places around London - different acoustic clubs. I'm looking forward to some of the shows in London as the London crowds are really tough and I'm doing a bit more solo stuff now which is great. They expect a lot and they put a lot of pressure on performers to be good. I love that pressure - it's so much fun. What are your plans now? To play as many gigs as possible and to promote the album. I recently did a BBC Radio 2 showcase with a few other songwriters from Norfolk and Mark Daghorn - one of the producers really likes what I do. So it's getting down to London so they can come and see some shows because unfortunately everything seems to be based in London. A few contacts can come and see me playing and hopefully something may come of it or at least a few people will want to buy the album. | 
