In May 1843, twenty-four-year-old artist Richard Dadd returned home to London after spending several months honing his craft in the Eastern Mediterranean. His behaviour increasingly erratic, Dadd murdered his father and claimed that he had been compelled to do so by Osiris—the Egyptian god of the dead—to cleanse the world of heretics. Dadd was transferred to Bethlem Royal Hospital and Broadmoor Asylum for treatment, where he ultimately thrived due to the physicians’ compassion and adoption of a form of proto-art therapy.

I have researched Richard Dadd’s life according to nineteenth century attitudes towards masculinity and mental illness in an academic context for several years. His story has remained with me and acted as the catalyst for the second Cries for Colour album—entitled Yellow Sands, which began with the writing and initial demo recording of the title track in July 2021. At the end of this email, you will find an exclusive link to stream or download the original demo and a unique fragment of some of the instruments featured on the more lavish and cinematic final recording.

The lyrics to the title track (and a few other songs on the album) make reference to Richard Dadd’s paintings, poems, asylum case-notes, and contemporary newspaper articles written about his crime. However, Yellow Sands uses Dadd’s story (and other pieces of Victorian history) as a means to communicate personal feelings and thoughts on disease, healing, and spirituality. It is not a historical concept album. 

Yellow Sands is around 70% finished. As I do not wish to release singles because the album is intended to be listened to as one singular piece, these occasional emails will provide exclusive peeks behind the curtains while the album receives its finishing touches. Each email will include some combination of alternate mixes, demos, audio fragments, finished excerpts, visuals, and text from the upcoming album. All write-ups and audio files are hosted on a hidden page (criesforcolour.com/thespellbound) so that they will remain available to those who join the mailing list at a later date.

Take care and until next time,

Quinn

Welcome to 2024! I wanted to share an update on the new Cries for Colour LP, which will be released sometime in the next few months. Around four tracks (of seven) are almost entirely finished and mixed. Of these mostly completed tunes, I wanted to speak briefly about “Spellbound,” a soft and ethereal piece. Radically different from the final version, it began life as a trip-hoppy interlude with a distorted and wailing harmonica solo reminiscent of Mark Feltham’s work with Talk Talk.

As the track gradually became prettier, the harmonica began to feel out of place (but too good of a performance to entirely scrap)… so a new song was written around the solo, entitled “Heavenly Bodies.” Below you’ll find a streaming/download link to the original embryonic harmonica-driven piece that spawned both songs. 

Hope you find the demo interesting.

Take care and until next time,

Quinn