Under My Feet (Blog 2)

Simon:

The notion to create linking ‘dream’ blogs in which Dora externalises her reactions to the things going on around her, came very late in the day to the project (within the last six months of the two year work period). At the time I felt Dora required a genuine female voice and as much as I tried dressing up in stockings and floral numbers, I was never going to fit the bill.

The idea of including Danny Claire was something of an accident in that I had some sampled loops of her voice in my sound library. I had originally envisioned simply using these samples as a guide for a guest artist to refer to but as auditions came and went, I found (much like Phil Collins situation when he took over when Peter Gabriel left Genesis) I was returning again and again to Danny’s vocals and saying to myself ‘This is perfect’. In the end, I went with the advice my co-writing partner Robert Ramsay often says ‘Go with what is best and work out the rest later’.

Danny was my Dora.

Writing an additional 15 minutes’ worth of material for Danny’s voice so late in the project was a challenge but they are now some of my favourite parts of the record so I think it was worth the extra effort. It felt to my ears, that Dora was finally present within the music and I could get on with the task of telling the story through her.

This particular sequence sees Dora standing outside her old house as a girl, preparing to confront the memories of her childhood with her father.