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Good evening, stranger!
I think I owe you an explanation.
Well, it all started about 3 and a half years ago. You see, I was young back then; I was in college. A wonderfully cold, depressing, and boring school it was, but it gave me good education, I have to admit. Regardless, it was my junior year, and not that I wasn’t busy enough writing my thesis, or looking for a job, my good friend Maurice Opara and I embarked on a mission to start a college band, cause as we all know, college bands are soooo cool…
Naturally, we thought we’d need to come up with a repertoire, and being the huge Depeche Mode fans that we were, we decided to start by recording and playing some DM covers. There was one problem though – we couldn’t play.  You see, I’d spent the previous 4-5 years recording and producing music, but I had virtually zero experience in a live setting, so it was not much to our surprise that when we auditioned for a gig in the local student center, we never got a call back. I vividly remember that day – Maurice and I, showing up with this huge elaborate setup, carrying computers, and guitar processors, and synthesizers, and microphones, and spending 30 minutes setting up things, only to make a laughing stock of ourselves. To this day, I keep telling myself it was the song we chose and its style that prevented us from being selected, not the playing. 
So, we didn’t quite make it to playing live. But one good thing came out of that story. We had done some recording of the song we were auditioning with, and it actually turned out quite nicely. Subsequently, I decided to do a proper studio version. The song was It’s No Good, from Depeche Mode’s very hard to assimilate Ultra record. As is known, the original song is a classic upbeat DM chart topper that was massively successful in the Summer of 1997 all over Europe and elsewhere (what a Summer it was!). Now, the version we put together was a slow, restless, dreamy, haunting piece…
I finished the backbone of the song at a, what seems to me now, speed-of-light pace – less than 2 weeks. Then, as I used to do often during those times, I put it aside, distracted by academics and “more important” tangible responsibilities. Little did I know what this song was to initiate.
A year later, I finally got to finish the damn thing, adding some additional vocals, and a few subtle aural details. Now, let me take you further down the road – May 2006, or about 8 months ago. I wish I could tell you that something really dramatic happened in my life, or some sudden realization fell from the sky and exploded in my feet, or some nonsense like that, but there really wasn’t much pomposity or triumphal atmosphere surrounding my decision to embark on what was to become my upcoming debut release.
Initially, I thought I’d quickly put together 9 or so Depeche Mode covers and release a low-key cover album within a couple of months; I was at a point and a place in my life where I could finally devote a significant amount of my free time towards what truly drives me in life – my passion for music, and in particular, Depeche Mode. It was in May 2006 that I decided to embark on this journey. Quite quickly, I realized that it wasn’t going to be a couple-of-months affair… It’s been 8 months so far, and it will go on for a few more.
I am Ghostwheel and this is the story of my Depeche Mode cover album Newborn.
Thank you, my dear stranger, for reading this and for your ongoing support.
Image credit: http://www.toothpastefordinner.com
Photo: Rehearsing in the college's band room. Maurice taking the picture & me trying to look emotional.
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