When John's son Simon Jay was born on February 8th, 1994, John wanted to surprise his wife by giving her something special. After all, John had been waiting far too long to have a son after he already had two daughters: Jamie Lee and Lauren Fay. So it was kind of 'third time lucky' for John, hence the idea for that something special. He wrote a song, but because John can't play an instrument, he had to wait no less than seven years before he could finally record this song!

In August 2000, John stayed in Göthenborg, Sweden at Björn Johansson's place and his Discus Ursi studio. The main idea then was to record demos for the If Only Stones Could Speak album and talk to the band Sinkadus to see whether they would be interested in joining this project, or experience as it is now called. At the end of the sessions John asked Björn if he could put a subtle piece of guitar on top of the song he had written all those years ago. John started singing a capella and after only the first chorus Björn had already added a couple of chords. In about fifteen minutes both vocals and guitar were recorded and John took with him a minidisc of the recording.

Back home in Belgium John visited an old friend of his, Bernard Dewulf, who owns a studio in Oostende. Bernard had been the keyboard player of the band Quies, John's very first band way back in 1980. John told Bernard the song still sounded very "naked" so maybe he could add some Mellotron sounds to make it sound fuller. Not only did he add those glorious Mellotron sounds but he also took hold of his violin and added some stunning live violin there and then. In all, it didn't take longer than half an hour to result in the version you can hear here. So far this track is only available on the latest sampler CD (N? 29) which comes free with Mellotron magazine in Argentina. Interested parties should contact editor Andres Valle through mailto:andresvalle@fibertel.com.ar to see whether at all copies are still available. Other artists which feature on this sampler are Janos Varga Project, Isildurs Bane, Pär Lindh Project, Guillermo Cides, Fruitcake, Odyssice, Subterra, You and I, Ergo Sum, Rockenfield Speer, Contraluz and Bran. In the case of "Lovely (for Simon Jay)" it concerns an exclusive track, as this song won't be included on the forthcoming full album by the Bollenberg Johansson Experience. Although released under that same name, this track here is rather a demo, a demo which has been given an extra treatment by adding Mellotron and violin at a later stage. To be honest, even Björn doesn't know it exists this way! Talking of surprises!

If you like John's voice and are looking for a voice to feature on your forthcoming prog release(s) then don't hesitate to get in touch with John through info@progressiveworld.net because he is eager to lend his voice for forthcoming projects. For the time being though I'm sure he'd be very interested to know what you think of this track so send him a mail and let him now!

[Though I'm certainly not impartial, in listening to the track myself in prepping the RealAudio file above, I have to tell you that John really does have a nice voice. I'll properly review the track in my upcoming review of the Mellotron CD, of course. - Stephanie (ed.)]

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Published on: 2001-07-18 (2886 reads)