Mike Fry finds his voice for new recording

West Wittering-based musician Mike Fry reckons he’s finally found his voice after about 30 years of singing.
Guitarist Mike Fry

C120226-1 FPS Mike Fry  Photo Louise Adams SUS-151004-092607003Guitarist Mike Fry

C120226-1 FPS Mike Fry  Photo Louise Adams SUS-151004-092607003
Guitarist Mike Fry C120226-1 FPS Mike Fry Photo Louise Adams SUS-151004-092607003

You can enjoy the results on Mike’s new EP, Sweet Sayonara which is available via Amazon. The recording sees Mike team up with 
Fyn Day, combining their surnames to go under the banner FryDay Sounds.

“These are songs that are basically for a film called Sayonara Senorita which is in pre-production at the moment. This is Fyn’s film, and it’s about somebody that has hallucinations due to a very large vitamin B 
deficiency. We are still trying to raise funding for the film at the moment. We are going to start one of those crowd-funding ventures.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“But these tracks on the EP are basically composers’ cuts as opposed to how the songs will eventually sound. These won’t be the versions of the songs that will make it into the film. A lot of them won’t be sung by me when it comes to it.

Guitarist Mike Fry

C120226-1 FPS Mike Fry  Photo Louise Adams SUS-151004-092607003Guitarist Mike Fry

C120226-1 FPS Mike Fry  Photo Louise Adams SUS-151004-092607003
Guitarist Mike Fry C120226-1 FPS Mike Fry Photo Louise Adams SUS-151004-092607003

“But I am really pleased with the way it sounds. It has gone a lot more country than where I was. I am finally occupying my voice, like the natural baritone I am. I think I have always tried to sing too high up, like all pop music, I suppose. I don’t think I ever really got down into my boots in the basement which is where I ought to be. But finally, vocally, that’s where I am finding myself.

“I went around to a friend of mine, and he was setting his studio up and wanted to make sure all the gear was okay. He had been playing some Johnny Cash. I just started singing something off the cuff, and I was suddenly down there! It was just magic.

“I am suddenly the most comfortable I have ever felt at a microphone, and I have been doing this since I was a kid. It must have been something like 30 years.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Musically I am finding I am doing the whole country rock ‘n’ roll vibe a lot more. As I am getting older, it has become a wonderful place to make music, and it is great to be working with Fyn. It is a great writing partnership. He is such a great story-teller. Sometimes I have got some stuff I will just send to him, some chords and a melody and a metre to it. Or he might just have a lyric. I just really, really love the way he writes. He now understands how I sing, and we have a really good understanding together of metre and pace... plus he is just such a lovely story-teller.

“We have started writing an album, on which a couple of these tracks might well end up. It will be a whole country rock ‘n’ roll album which I am hoping will be out by the end of the year. But I am very busy. I have a 14-month old daughter Eleanor, and she has brought a whole lot of fun and inspiration. I sing to her all the time.

“I bought her a quarter-sized guitar I found in a junk shop down in Devon. I have just stuck it in open tuning so you brush past, and it plays a chord. She loves it. She will beat it. She will stand on it. And sometimes she will try to wrap her fingers round it and play it properly. Every morning, I do the morning shift, and we have a couple of hours of craziness together, having breakfast and books and songs. She has brought so much humour to everything!”

Mike will launch the album at The Thatched Tavern, East Wittering on April 17.

Related topics: