ABOUT

This new record has roots far from Mexico City where it was recorded.

The first time I ever recorded my music must have been in 1998. The year before I moved from Melbourne, Australia to Los Angeles.
My old friend (and former guitar teacher), the great Melbourne songwriter Dan Warner talked me into it the session. He knew Mick Thomas
(of the wonderful Weddings, Parties, Anything), who had a studio in a shed at the back of his house and we arranged to spend a day recording there.
Mick was one of my heroes, still is. I was intimidated, honored, excited, embarrassed - you name it. But everyone got behind the songs and it felt great.
Shortly after that, my friend Will and I worked into the night burning CDs, printing, cutting, folding and stamping artwork into some sort of salable package.

I've never surrendered that "backyard shed " approach to recording those guys showed me - working with what you have, always remembering your most valuable
piece of equipment is the song itself. I think it's served me pretty well.

For the latest record, Mexico City, I took it to another level. I had traveled to Mexico City earlier in the year to visit my brother.
We checked out the city, went out of town, saw the sights, heard some amazing musicians, played songs around a fire in a backyard late at night, got drunk on Mezcal,
chanted to unkown gods and lived to tell the tales. The place really got to me and so did his apartment - an old stone place with endless marble floors and a very nice piano.
I could sense something in there and in me, and I felt like taking a risk. I returned to LA, finished some songs, learnt a few more Spanish phrases and booked myself a flight back.

I think every time you set out to make an album (or any piece of art I guess) you take some sort of risk. You have to. This time I took it a step further. Packed what recording
gear I could into a bag, grabbed a couple of guitars and set off back to Mexico City.
I spent a week in that apartment, alone with a group of new songs I'd never even demo'ed. I'd taken meticulous care preparing each song on the last Horse Stories record
and this time I wanted to do the complete opposite. As I sang and played in that big old apartment the songs echoed off the walls and as they went to tape, I was hearing them
for the very first time . I recorded about 16 pieces in all and culled it down to nine for the record. It was a good week's work.

Jason Hiller (who worked on November, November) and I mixed it all in mono and to tape, back in Los Angeles.
Will Mahon's helped me with the packaging again and I've done a lot of it myself. Hands-on, small numbers, only for those in the know. Just like we always did it.

Toby Burke
Los Angeles, Jan 2011

When not recording music under his own name, Horse Stories or Perfect Black Swan,
Toby Burke has been known to write short fiction (sometimes using his mother's surname Hemingway) and collaborate with good friends like photographer Warwick Baker and animator Al Macinnes.
He also runs the Perfect Black Swan label/publishing house and the store Hemingway & Pickett in Los Angeles.