A bit about the band.
This name is an all encompassing title that incorporates anyone who happens to be around at the time we need to perform. Male, female, whoever is there, gets to be a son. This project is the culmination of a spiritual journey and awakening.

A bit about the project
Being primarily a writer of songs, I wanted to express what I had come to know and feel about God, in music. The number seven is scripturally very significant and rather than write and produce just one album I felt that the project itself needed to learn, grow and evolve over a period. I am not a fan of producing albums myself. I am more of a “here is the idea, bring it back when it’s done” type of producer. I love to write and I know the style I want for the song, so I found choosing a producer for the song was a great way of doing it rather than having a producer for the whole album. This of course goes against the rules of having sonic continuity and all that rubbish but its continuity lies in its unique variation of tracks. Each album will contain songs all written by me about my faith but produced by the best person for each track. I cannot accept there are rules in music as much as there are no rules in art. This having the “right sound” for radio is dribble. People don’t want to hear what commercial radio thinks is the “right music” for them as much as they go to an art gallery and view only blue paintings with fat people in them. All that said, air play is not the intention for these songs. I would like them to be your songs, listened to because you love them and they mean particularly wonderful things to you. If they end up on radio, that would be fine with me. I passionately love the medium of radio and have committed my business life to growing it but I am in the fortunate position in life where it actually is not important to have my own music played on it. If God wants the songs I wrote for him to be played on commercial radio they will be there. I am loving the project and will write more about the journey as it unfolds. With regards to the number of songs on each album, I wanted to keep the track count low and the price for each of the seven discs low. This way each track can be breathed in and given full attention. Sometimes album tracks are put on as packet fillers. I wanted each track to have its own reason for being.

The People behind the project

First the producers.

Hamish Robertson, Michael Fix, John Beland and Simon Mills (yes I did one too; couldn’t help myself ?.

Hamish (the hammer) Robertson. www.hamishrobertson.com :

“I’ve finally come home” and mixing/editing on “To my father.”
Being a London Music Group employee, I knew Hamish had a predisposition to working for weeks on end without sleep, so I thought why not slot a song production project into his insane schedule. He’d never even notice. He not only noticed, he achieved the most incredible result. To hear the demo I spewed at him and to compare it to what Hamish produced, is akin to creating a palace from a tent. Robertson is to be one of the country’s finest producers. Unfortunately he won’t know it because he will be locked in his box hiding from sunlight and researching how the ear reacts to string vibrations from a Lithuanian 9 string lute but we will email him when the awards are on. The word “boffin” was made for him. In fact it should be Hamish Boffinson. Well done Hammer. You are a bionic, sonic, phonicaholic and we love your work.

Michael Fix: www.michaelfix.com

“At peace tonight” and “Home to me.”
‘Mix it in the Fix,’ ‘Strange Fixation,’ ‘Of No Fixed Abode’ and ‘Fix Tricks,’ are just a small handful of album titles that Michael refuses to give to his beautiful projects. 3 time Golden Guitar winner, musician and producer of great note and just the most fabulous fellow to pick a string, Michael was an obvious choice to produce some of this album because he was…..well….. standing in front of me when I thought of it but what a lucky thing that was, as the two songs he produced for “One of Seven” are truly beautiful and a great addition to the journey. Thank you Fixenheimer. You are the gentleman of producers. Oh, alright, let’s not forget Fix Licks, Fix Bits, Slick Fix and Fix Pics. All great Fix album titles to be. Check out Fixie’s fantastic, however boringly named, instrumental albums at his web site.

John Beland: www.johnbeland.com :
“Let him in.”
I am not going to list John’s credits in the music industry as he has a website with 20 gig of achievements on there which you have to see to believe. From

Dolly Parton to Ricky Nelson, John has worked with them all and to have him produce one of my songs was pretty darn impressive. JB produced “Let Him In” for Marg Manfield’s album “Come As You Are.” You can hear that whole project at www.margmanfield.com. JB, you are a merlot quaffing, guitar slaying, super producer and you are so good it’s sickening. In a thousand years when we are all dead and gone your headstone will still proudly say, “one more time and I got it.” Thanks JB. You are like a fine red wine, not without your headaches but well worth experiencing ? .

Simon Mills: www.simon-mills.com :
“To My Father.”
Well I had one song left to produce, Anna was on her way over to sing it and I hadn’t written it yet. So four hours later we had written, recorded and produced what we thought would be a rough demo of “To My Father” but found it could not be improved and sent it to Hammer for mixing. That’s my sort of producing.

Other stuff
Mastering: Bruce Jacobson from Grevillea Recording Studios, Brisbane. Nicely done Bruce. You enveloped the entire project in a certain Bruceness that would not have been quite the same if a Trevor did it.

Copy editing album notes: Krystyna Mills. Finally a reason for having married an English teacher ?. Thank you very much for your work on this. Aaaas youu “ “can” cee I adddad this bit aafta coppy,,,, edyiting was dun.?!

Baby sitting, meals, washing, errands, loose ends, remembering things, reasons to go on and endless Love and patience and also remembering things: Molley Mills. Thank you for letting me be my bohemian self.

There are 2 types of people: Those who will come over in the middle of the night for a vocal session and those who won’t. Outstanding Jake! Nicely sung. Thankyou. A new addition to the LMG team of singers.

Kerrie Maunder:
Backing vocals on “At Peace Tonight” and “That’s Home to Me.’

We found Kerry on a recent trip to New Caledonia and insisted that she move to the Gold Coast and join the company and the band and the family. The voice of a young Aretha and the spirit of an angel. We’re keeping her.

Lead Vocals on “To My Father” and backing on “That’s Home to Me.”
Well…….What to say about Anna? Anna is a star. Having toured the world with Savage Garden for several years playing to packed stadiums, she arrived back on the Gold Coast to be hit by Wazza with, “Laspina, glad you’re back, the singer is crook so can you come and fill in with the band (The Bizarre Gardening Accidents) at the Parkwood tavern tonight?” And she did. And that sentiment is Anna to a T. Humble, brilliant and a star of the very near future. When I first asked Anna to be on the album there were some problems with her label, Sony Music. Apparently God wanted Anna on the album as Sony was removed. Look out for Anna. She can sing your head clean off (in a good way) and love you to death with her big fat Italian heart. (scared you with that line hey Laverne ?)

Marg Manfield: www.margmanfield.com
Lead vocals on “At Peace Tonight.

My wonderful friend. When my wife won’t talk to me and her husband won’t talk to her, we call each other up and laugh at it all together. We somehow find common ground in the few bits that our partners don’t understand. Marg heard this song, claimed it and made it hers and she belongs to it. Marg has been an inspiration to my faith and constantly keeps me on track by plaguing me to death about doing the right thing in our Father’s eyes. I call her Ethyl and she calls me Clary because we are like an old bowling couple who are so comfortable with each others faults that we would miss them if they weren’t there to annoy us. Marg started out as my manager many years ago and here she is singing on my album about God. There is a lot more to that story but you can read it in her album notes rather than me write them all again.

Pat Morgan
Lead Vocals on “That’s Home to Me.”
Pat is a true lady of the gospel with a voice and heart from heaven. We met once at the Mayoral Prayer breakfast on the Gold Coast and simply had to work together. Can’t wait to work with Pat on some songs for her own album. It’s a great privilege. Thankyou Pat for breathing life into this track and just for being the fabulous and gracious you.

The musicians

String Quartet. (At Peace Tonight)

Violin: Jo Lack

Viola: David Collins

Cello: Ben Tolliday
Don’t you just love it when there are only three people in the string quartet?.

Drums: Wazza. My dear brother who has been with me every step of the way on this amazing journey and one of the founding members of the Seven Deadly Sons. He actually named the band 30 seconds before the first gig.

Guitars: Michael Fix, Dan (the man) McGahan on “Finally Come Home” and John Beland on everything you can hear on “Let Him In.”

Bass: Scott Williams (my Brother of the blues from Brisbane) and Rob O'Sullivan on “Finally Come Home”. John Beland on “Let Him In.”

Tuba: Hamish Robertson. There was no Tuba on the album but when you have a tuba player in the family, he needs all the credit he can get. Plus a Tuba player called Hammer that looks like an early Beatle, truly rocks.

Piano: Me, only me and I was just fabulous. Thank you me. Oh stuff it, if ya don’t love yourself,what hope has anyone else got ?.

The songs

To My Father
This is the song that I wrote at the last minute, because I wanted something that suited Anna’s vocal ability more than the song I had intended for her, called “The Lord’s Day”. I held that song over for the next album, “Two of Seven” after writing this song. “To my Father” draws the analogy between the pride an earthly father sees in his child and the pride of the Heavenly Father when we sing to him. To picture your father looking on while you sing your sweet song to him is just a joy and I wanted to communicate that in these words. I never had that privilege with my own father but it has certainly been made up for since I met my new one.

That’s Home to Me.
I just love the old Gospel blues tunes and I simply had to write one and include those basic grass roots ingredients. Sometimes it’s hard to include humour in a gospel song but I really enjoyed doing it in this song. The line, “low daily reprayments”, whilst possibly perceived as being slightly irreverent, draws a very nice picture of spending time alone with God each day.

Let Him In.
You don’t have to go anywhere to meet God. He’ll come to you wherever you are, whenever you call him. All you have to do is let Him in. That’s the good thing about God; wherever you are there he is.

I’ve Finally Come Home.
This is a song about baptism, the simple act of proudly declaring your faith in front of all others. It is an act of obedience and one I struggled with for a time, being inherently disobedient. But once I made the decision to walk up and say, “The old me is dead and I’m here to stay,” it felt like coming home after a long time away.

At Peace Tonight.
This song dredged up great pain from deep, deep inside. I was completely exhausted after writing this song but also somehow completely at peace. I found and amazing relief when all my burdens were taken away and this song is about just that simple feeling of painlessness. To be wrapped up and held in loving arms. To know Him is to be at peace and I hope that this song can say that to anyone who is still searching. It is my job to communicate messages with music. I have built a great company on that ability and to be able to use it for what it was intended, is a great blessing to me.

To My Father Radio Edit.
I just put this on for a bit of a joke. I see heaps of albums with radio edits on them and they never get played on radio either . Mind you, the song does work splendidly without the extra verse before the bridge.