A friend of mine (one of the Monday night football gang) has been producing a new album for a very talented American singer over the past couple of years. It's been amazing for me, to listen to all the trials and tribulations of the tortuous process of making this record. My friend is actually in a different band and this has been a side project for him His main band are not exactly known for speed of their work, but I've been amazed at his ability to remain involved, enthusiastic and motivated enough to see the project through to a conclusion.

Most of us go into work and have a certain routine that we follow through, things crop up and get sorted and we move on. In my line of work, most things hang around for a few days, some last several weeks a small few are with me for a couple of months. So the prospect of working for several years on a CD which lasts about 45 minutes, leaves me with great respect for the tenacity of everyone involved. One of my other friends has been involved in the artwork and design side of the project, and it's been really interesting heading off to football every Monday evening with these two guys and listening to the discussions taking place at all levels of the project, from trying to get distribution in the USA, to what font size to use on the CD sleeve. They are both very talented guys, whose level of care and concern for the project is amazing.The whole thing was further complicated, by the fact that the singer whose album the name is in, lives in New York so obviously time difference's add further difficulties to the whole thing.

Anyway the album finally hits the shops today and on Friday evening they managed to get themselves onto the UK's only non chart-pop music show on Terrestrial TV, Later with Jools Holland. A pretty good show it was to, as they put in an excellent live performance alongside Lou Reed, Goldfrapp, The Kings Of Leon, The Vines and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The next step is getting radio play and creating a profile for someone that is pretty much unknown in this country. It's a fascinating process, made more interesting for me, because my friend is well aware that he is trying to create great soul/pop music in the way that someone like Aretha Franklin used to do, which in these days of short term, teenage, manufactured pop domination is a pretty difficult thing to achieve.

If you want to see and hear what the project is all about go to www.stephaniemckay.com