I’m the same age as my favourite records, most of which were made in the late 1970s.

That didn’t go down so well at high school, where I wrote soft rock songs on a battered piano in a dimly-lit rehearsal room while people laughed outside the window.

Nevertheless, I was taken with the crazy idea I might make a living out of music, so I left school early and found a job in an inner-city Auckland bookstore.

A chance meeting with audio engineering student Michael Lloyd eventually led to us forming and producing the dance-pop group Deep Obsession in 1997, who remain the only New Zealand group to score three consecutive #1 singles.

After writing and producing a string of further top 40 hits in New Zealand for other artists, I retired from the music business, relocated to Australia and didn’t touch a piano for over ten years.

So what started me up again?

Well, the older you get, the more you can feel a need to go back. I never fell out of love with the universe of records I grew up with from the 1970s: from country and sweet pop, through to orchestral art-rock.

I found myself missing the epic, warm sounds that fit like a comfortable sweater every time and transported you to a place that only existed inside the tiny grooves on a bit of vinyl.

And then inside the lyric book you found the stories: mysterious journeys, love lost and found, mistakes made, people and things left behind.  

As I sat down again at the piano, I found myself wanting to recreate those experiences - and eventually share them here with you.

We’ve recorded remotely across the world in England, the US, Italy, Venezuela, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.  

I’ve been fortunate to have great musicians along for the ride on this batch of recordings, including some that I have admired for many years like Leland Sklar (Phil Collins, James Taylor) and Mike Garson (David Bowie).  

I hope you’ll enjoy listening to these songs as much as we did bringing them to life.