Self financed project. Cover picture of Hastings Pier (taken shortly before the fire of Oct 2010) by Paul Garrett used by permission. Album concept inspired by a comment about a review I did of an album by Anathema on Amazon.com.Album issued as a Digipack. Contains fold out poster/booklet which contains the following essay:‘Dark Clouds’ is the end result of an idea I first came up with back in the 1980’s. That idea was to produce a complete symphony of music within which a framework of poems relating to a singular theme could be housed. Poetry and music are not natural bedfellows and many over the years have expressed the opinion to me that my idea simply would not work. I, however, have always believed in the concept of a marriage between the emotional impact of music and the intellectual impact of words. If the two could be made to work in unison and in harmony with each other, I felt there was every chance my concept would work.My first attempt at creating my idea was called ‘Never The Joker… Now I’m Serious’ and was something I put together myself on a cassette interspersing my poems with selected emotive musical passages from songs like ‘Moments In Love’ by The Art of Noise and ‘All By Myself’ by Eric Carmen’.‘In Words, In Music…Of Life, Of Death’ (2007) was my first professional stab at creating something along the lines of my original idea. Instead of focusing my attention on just a single theme though I chose to create an album of poems and short stories on a wide set of subjects in order to (hopefully) not just entertain people but to take listeners on an emotional journey fuelled by their own life experiences. I love the ‘In Words’ album but most people simply didn’t understand the concept, found it confusing or failed to see the point of it. More encouraging though was the fact that those who did like it loved it and raved about it. This made me feel as if I was on the right track but had just not ‘hit the nail on the head’ quite yet. Working with Harvey Summers on that project was both unforgettable and invaluable. We had worked together before on an album of karaoke songs entitled ‘Songs From The End Of The Pier’ (2006) and when as part of ‘Breeze’ I recorded some vocals for group songs like ‘Doom And Destruction’, ‘Champagne’ and ‘Show Me A Man’ but until ‘In Words’ Harvey and I had not really worked creatively as a unit before. To see Harvey Summers at work is akin to marveling at a ‘Mad Professor’ muttering away to himself twiddling knobs etc in his laboratory. Once ‘Harv’ is dialed in to the idea the best thing to do is simply sit back, be quiet and marvel at his genius. There are times of course when things don’t seem to be going in the direction I envisage they ought to be and sometimes I call a ‘time out’ to discuss things. It is testimony to just how well Harvey and I work together, however, that very often we are both heading in the same direction and want the same things its just that as a proper musician (I can’t play a triangle in tune!) Harvey is going about achieving that in a different way for musical reasons.The more I have worked with Harvey Summers, the more I have learnt to trust in his judgement. When we do find ourselves in ‘opposite camps’ about something it’s because something is wrong with the track we are working on and therefore both of us are ‘fishing’ for how to fix it. I will often call a halt to the day at that point to give me time to come away and come up with a solution. It is nothing to do with ego’s clashing (I leave mine at the door when I arrive at Broadoak Studios) its about my firm belief that when Harvey and I are both ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’ we are a pretty potent creative force! In ‘Dark Clouds’ I feel Harvey and I have finally brought by original idea to life. The beautiful, haunting, spiritual and emotive music Harvey has created to accompany my work is breath taking in its own right which is why Harvey’s version of it is included here as a separate entity for your enjoyment. Having suffered with anxiety and depression for most of my life, I have written much about the darker side of life. There are a lot of lonely and scared people in this world but few who have the strength to allow themselves to show their emotions. Listening to ‘Dark Clouds’ you will learn an awful lot about me but more importantly I hope you will realize that you are not alone. We are all thrust from nothing into the scary and unpredictable chaos that is life and none of us come supplied with a map or a rulebook, do we?Love to you all,Tony May9/5/11.