It's almost tragic that Sean wasn't up for drumming at any more Mithras shows; if he had been then there'd have been plenty more chances to catch that line-up playing, as I can honestly say we were totally nailing the material live, way better than than ever before. But it just didn't last and wasn't to be...
I've said some of this previously, but this is a good time to clarify it as this stuff just couldn't go concisely into any press release and people are bound to ask for more details;
The ongoing nonsense which finally came to a head around SWR Festival had really depressed me; and after all that and Sean then saying he wasn't up for playing further shows, I simply wasn't in a position mentally where I could return to the old chestnut of either actively seeking a live drummer, or just sit about waiting for one to materialise, as I'd been doing that for over ten years and frankly, I was REALLY tired of it, plus there was loads of therefore redundant live equipment in paid for storage which was just sitting about wasting money and more stuff taking up space in my house.
Now at this point in time I knew Sam was up for collaborating on new material, and Rayner had also expressed interest in returning to Mithras, not forgetting Tom Hyde who was also gunning to contribute; but the bottom line was I wasn't willing to collaborate with anyone else, as I was constantly up and down with how I felt about Mithras. After being messed about by ex-members since the band started (which led to an untold amount of wasted time), I didn't think it was fair to string any of these guys along down a path that could be a total waste of their time ending with me saying "no, sorry but I've had enough - the end", especially as I gathered Sam was making an important decision regarding how much longer he was going to stay in the UK with the call of Aus becoming strong once more and all of them busy with their own lives.
So this is why I decided last year that the best option for me, was to put to rest the idea of playing live for a while (and get rid of the accompanying mountain of gear) and work completely on my own with no one else's expectations or situations as an influence or restraint, to try and get back on track, and to be blunt, see if I still enjoyed it. So, I spent about eight months working on new material sporadically and just getting away from everything I'd come to find annoying or depressing about doing Mithras (and believe me over 12 years a lot can build up). The good news is it all levelled out for me and I became inspired again. Obviously during this time I also had a go at doing the vocals and bass myself and demoed up quite a few tracks.
It's worth pointing out (again) that Sam and me have made a great record together - The Floating World - and it's going to be released soon in all it's inglory. It took over three years from start to finish - we started in 2007, I finally finished mixing it at the start of 2011. At this point Sam had told me he was definitely going back to Australia, no super drummers had got in touch and I'd finally sold all the live equipment. Later on in April I ended up chatting to Rayner about how he was doing and it was great to hear he'd resolved a lot of things which were troubling him, he asked where I was at with new material, dropped in to have a listen and before we knew it we were actively working on new songs, and that's more or less it.
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