Moving away from Dublin to the more rural Ballymore Eustace in 2008 had an effect on the songwriting and, of course, on the cover of the production.
Both "Love Letters ..." as well as the predecessor "Painted Dreams" have a very natural feel to them both acoustically as well as optically. Natural colours and soft, quiet topics graze the covers of the aforementioned albums and soft synth sounds reflect the mood captured optically.
Initially I'd planned to call the album "Akiko", Japanese for "Autumn Child" and I wanted to use manga drawings of little school girls but none of the artists I had approached replied to my requests of using their artwork.
After the song "Crossroads" was finished and mastered I felt that would be a great title for an album, especially since 2010 marks my 30th anniversary as a musician but the ideas I had for the cover couldn't be done due to budget constrains.
After seeing PK's drawing of a couple sitting outside and enjoying being together it immediately resonated with the songs I had composed for the new album and PK was very happy to letting me use her artwork.
"Love Letters ..." is the quietest and perhaps most romantic album of mine in years.
The 2009 release "TJ - Painted Dreams"
took up art when i was 12 and started secondary school..i had a fab teacher..
