Bio
Formed around singer songwriter Graham Trust and founder members Tony Potter (drums) and Martyn Gilbert (guitars) The Vow made their commercial debut in 2012 with the album FOR A DREAMER. The Liverpool 3 piece’s brand of indie pop has surprising lyrical themes focused on infinity, the transcendental and the fey. The album was produced by Robbie Williams’ engineer Andy Strange (Intensive Care – 2005) and recorded at Liverpool’s now legendary Parr Street Studios. Keyboard duties fell to Guy Davies a Musical Director to Australian legend Jimmy Barnes.
The band released 4 albums in 4 successive, prolific years. 2013’s BLUER THAN YOU consists of several tracks not considered appropriate for the occasionally melancholic debut album. Here, there are rockers like “Free the World” and bright, catchy ditties like “Someone to Talk To” and “Falling Stars“. Then followed 2014’s YOU ARE? album and 2015’s GHOST WRITER . The single “Ghost Writer” concerns a romantic liaison with a dead Victorian authoress.
2016 was a barren year.
The Vow’s 5th studio album “IGLOO” is due for release in the summer of 2021. This comprises 12 songs which have either been recorded and produced at Igloo Studios in Liverpool or have been processed in some way there. This includes the single “I am immortal” / “Je suis immortel” (a tribute to the deceased French racing driver Jules Bianchi ), “All the other boys” which concerns the so called Universal Laws which feature in the book and film of The Secret, “That’ll be the day” (a sweet ballad about a love affair that can never be), a reworking of 2013 track “Caroline” accompanied by Simon Denny’s string arrangement, the love song Venus Girl and the similarly upbeat / up tempo “Madrid“. “Julia” explores the feelings Winston Smith may have held for Julia in George Orwell’s classic novel “Nineteen Eighty Four“. “God Help Me” plunders the depths of despair following the end of a love affair. The album will be completed by the inclusion of 2021’s “My Blues Tomorrow“, “Che” and “If Only”.
Interviews
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Tom Walker Interview (25.5.2019)
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The idea for this song was given to me in the late 1980s by my friend Christine Abbott, who challenged me to write a song containing the word "vulnerable". I duly wrote a song called "I am Vulnerable" but failed to finish the lyrics as I couldn't think of enough to say on the theme of vulnerability. Little did I know then that my quest for the right words would last almost 30 years! Over that time I did refine the song structure, melody and harmonies and I eventually changed the title to "I am immortal". However, after several more months of struggle, it proved impossible for me to conjure up enough lyrics on the theme of immortality, and so I reverted back to "I am vulnerable".
Fortunately, over the years, I had been able to add the odd word or phrase here and there and, by July 2016, the lyrics were about 80% complete. However, I had once again hit a brick wall. Then one night, I began to think (I don't know why) about Jules Bianchi, the French racing driver who died in 2015 after a grand prix accident the year before. Within no more than 5 minutes of reading his wikipedia entry, I had finished my song. The missing lines came so quickly to me that I could hardly believe it. After all those years, the lyrics finally made complete sense. I read it over and over. It was perfect! No song of mine other than "Bluer than you" has ever had such a long gestation period as this one. Sometimes they take hours, sometimes weeks, sometimes months, sometimes years but rarely more than a quarter of a century. However, it was worth the wait! It always is.
Cynics might consider it disingenuous or even callous of me to use Jules Bianchi's tragic demise as the vehicle for finishing a silly pop song. They are, of course, entitled to their opinion, but that really isn't how it is. This is not my song. It is Jules's song and I was just the conduit through which it had to emerge. I worked exceptionally hard to finish it and then to record it. It was NOT easy, I can assure you. I began recording in July 2016 and didn't finish it until March 2017. In the words of Lennon and McCartney, "I got by with a little help from my friends" - Martyn Gilbert (electric guitar), Tony Potter (drums) and Wayne Wilson (keyboards). I hope "I am immortal", "Je suis immortel" will be played, sung and enjoyed for many, many, many years to come and that the memory of the late, great Jules Bianchi will be stirred each time it is heard.
Having co-produced all 4 of The Vow's albums with Andrea Wright, I felt it was time for a change. This time I enlisted the expertise of 7 times Grammy nominated producer Ken Lewis. Ken has a long list of number 1 hits to his name. He\'s worked with some true greats - Eminem, Jay Z, Bruno Mars, Drake, Alicia Keys, Usher and Kanye West - to name but a few. I figured that, if you want to improve your chances of having a hit record, you have to go to someone who has a good track record of producing hit records. In my opinion Ken has sprinkled my song with magic dust and given it the best possible start in life.
All income from the sale of I am immortal / Je suis immortel" will be donated to the Jules Bianchi Association
Graham Trust
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