Mike Stanley: Songs, vocals, backing vocals and guitars Jose Alvarez: Keyboards, programming and backing vocals Quique Munoz: Lead guitar on Half an Hour, Dead Men’s Guitars and Chewing Gum Filter.

20th Jan 2019 my new album ‘Red Pink Purple Blue’ was officially released on spotify, Amazon, itunes, Deezer and all the other main digital download/streaming channels. This my 7th official collection of tunes since 2004, which makes it an average of 1 album every 2 years, not bad for an enthusiastic non-pro, and more than most people release in a lifetime, with or without contractual obligations. This is simply my BEST collection of songs to date (yeah, yeah, I know some of you are saying ‘everyone says that’), but in this case it’s the absolute truth. Nothing like the folk of Passing Place or the heavy introspection of Dictations from a Dream, it’s more akin to the power pop of Play Stopped Rain, except without the guitar heavy multi-layered production job. And this is because they were all recorded and interpreted in my home studio by me alone, so they sound like me and nobody else. I would like to give thanks to my eternal sidekick and personal ‘Tony Visconti’, Jose Alvarez for post-production, keyboards and programming and to Quique Munoz for his contributions on guitar to 5 of the songs.

Originally released as Dictations From a Dream in December 2016 by Hungry Survivor.

All songs by Mike Stanley. Mike also played 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars and uke. All vocals and Backing Vocals by Mike with help from Cris Marin on Who’d Wanna be Famous. Electric guitars by Javi Rojas. Drums by Miquel Ferrer. Double bass by Javier Santana. Pedal steel by Jairo Zabala (Depedro, Calexico). Jose JAS Alvarez arranged the strings on Love Star. Jorge Gil Zulueta played piano on Love Star and Double Dip Darling. Salva Lata played harmonica. Rafa Rubio played keyboards and Ricart played tuba on Knick Knack. Sleeve design by Esther Paredes. Photography by Paula Stanley after an original idea by Mike. His daughter, Catherine Stanley is the cover model.

Rafael Fernández-Gil played bass and recorded and produced nearly all of the original demos. Jose Alvarez recorded and produced Marley Head Saturday and played keyboards. Special thanks to Jose Perez Edrosa who played some jaw-droppingly fantastic slide guitar and electric guitars. Diego Perez and Miquel Ferrer played drums. Patricia Martínez DeVelasco sang some lovely backing vocals. Backing vocals on ‘Scratching’ are by Pepa García Sanchez. As for me, (www.facebook.com/mikestanleybristol/) I wrote the songs, played acoustic guitar, ukulele, 12-string guitar and harmonica. I also sang backing vocals.

This set of acoustic demos from the period 2012-2015, is entitled, ‘Passing Place’. By the way, a passing place is a point where a narrow road in the countryside widens ever so slightly in order to let oncoming traffic get by and of course to get by yourself. Sometimes to get to a passing place, you have to back up a little and sometimes the guy in front has to do the same. It’s all very civilised and British and it is usually accompanied by a little parting wave. So, in many ways during these years I was doing the same thing in my life. Wandering down those back roads and country lanes and just politely stepping aside when other people needed to get past me.
These demo recordings are my Basement Tapes. That is not to say that I disappeared like Bob Dylan after a motorcycle accident, mysteriously reappearing a couple of years later at a pink house in Woodstock to ‘lay down some live tracks’ with my famous musical buddies, and I ‘ve never met Robbie Robertson, of course. But it is true that there is a large gap between 2011’s Colliding with A Heartbeat and 2016’s Dictations from a Dream. But, there were no motorcycle accidents, no existentialist crisis. Among other stuff, I was just writing songs and playing and singing them. Those songs make up the set list for the handful of gigs I did at that time under the name ‘Hungry Survivors’ and have an acoustic folky flavour to them. You can almost smell the pine walls of the recording studio. You can definitely hear the crickets outside in the quieter moments and perhaps feel the warmth of a Spanish Summer evening. The sonic quality is a little flawed as they were recorded ‘live’ with some vocal and guitar overdubs. However, they were very expertly cleaned up and much improved by Jas and I am sure that despite the technical issues, they warrant a proper release, as I am sure you will agree when you listen to them.

Mike Stanley: Lead vocals, acoustic guitars. Amable Rodríguez: Electric guitars
Jose ‘Jas’ Álvarez: Keyboards and backing vocals. Lyrics and music by Mike Stanley with assistance from Jas and Amable. Produced by Jas and Mike Stanley. Arrangements by Jas, Mike and Amable. Recorded, edited and mixed by Jas. License all rights reserved.

Colliding With A Heartbeat. In many ways, one of my best records. Hello Caveman, Oh So Sweet, You Can Never Say No To Love…Those of you who know me well probably know them all by now. Made in collaboration with Jose Alvarez and Amable Rodriguez Robles. Also contains three bonus tracks recorded with Jose and Amable in the same period: Starting to Come Together, Into The Flood and Gloriana.

All songs by Mike Stanley. All rights reserved. Vocals by Mike Stanley with help from Athanai and family (Ileana, Habana, Lucila and Sonia). Guitars by Mike Stanley, Tato Monrabal and Athanai. All other instruments and programming by Athanai.

Play Stopped Rain was a close collaboration with my good friend, Athanai Castro and my first ‘solo’ record after the demise of the group ‘Free Radicals’. Recorded over one month in the Summer of 2008, it was, and probably remains my most ‘powerful’ record in terms of harmony and guitar dynamics. The Bowie’ish Science Fiction Love and the power-pop of The Night Went Pop and One Day I’ll Die are stand-out tracks. Bad Bad Girl aches in a kind of Nick Cave’ish way and No Wonder In The Night has a touch of Lou Reed in the voice (or so I’ve been told). I think the songwriting is strong too, but the final product owes much more to the very personal interpretations and production of Athanai.