7 Worlds Collide

Ed O'Brien (Radiohead) & Neil Finn (Crowded House)

Initiated by Neil Finn, several well-known musicians (a.o. members of Wilco and Radiohead) and their families gathered in Auckland (New Zealand) to record a charity album during the Christmas holiday 2008. It became a studio collaboration of original songs, partly inspired by the dramatic coastal location of the nearby beach at Pihia. The album is accompanied by a stylish informative website.

http://www.7worldscollide.com/7worldscollide/

One of the stories mention at the website involves the musical evolution of Radiohead drummer Phil Selway:

"Unbeknownst to many of those present, Phil had learned his way around the guitar and found his own songwriting voice.

But if such a relative novice was cowed by the presence of Neil and Johnny Marr - artists whose music he had listened to as a teenager - it didn't show. 7 Worlds Collide marks Selway's recording debut as a solo songwriting entity. Neil remembers: "Early on in the sessions I remember him going off to a quiet corner, the stairs outside the studio, and writing The Ties That Bind Us there and then - which, quite frankly, I would have struggled to do. When he came back, he sang it - and musically and lyrically, there was nothing wrong with it." KT Tunstall echoes Neil's astonishment: "It didn't just end there. He recorded it and - I kid you not - he was pitch-perfect. And this from a guy none of us had heard sing before."

Roundhead Studios (Studio A)

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