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LeeTheFlea's avatar

Hi Paul. Can you elaborate more on how the string arrangements came about on Heartworm? Morning Rise is my favourite string arrangement on Heartworm though. In The Big Album Show interview you said that Myles was good at the string arrangements. How did Myles go about the string arrangements? Does Myles play piano? If so did he write out the string arrangements on the piano? Or did he sing out melody lines for the strings that he had in his head to the guy you's were working with who arranged the strings? Or did he play the string melody on the guitar and show it to the guy that wrote out the arrangements for the strings? And who was the professional string arranger who wrote out the full score for strings? I've got so many questions about this part of Heartworm. Cheers Paul. Ps I love Heartworm. It's one of my favourite albums. So many other bands in the 90's had much more commercial success than Whipping Boy like Ocean Colour Scene and other bands like them. But Ocean Colour Scene's albums really haven't stood the test of time the way that Heartwom has.

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Paul Page's avatar

Thanks for the kind words - appreciated. So Mylie would have worked out some of the string parts on a keyboard at the demo stage. One of the engineers who worked on the demos could play keyboards so he worked with him to get the ideas down. Warne, the producer of Heartworm, did add some little flourishes - he could also read & write music so he wrote the parts for the string section to play on the album. But the main idea & core string melodies were worked out when we demoed the album.

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LeeTheFlea's avatar

For years I always just assumed that you's got some classically trained guy in to put strings over the songs you's wrote for Heartworm. I never knew that Myles was the mastermind behind those string arrangements all along. I don't think you's really mentioned who did the string writing on the CD of Heartworm that I bought 15 years ago either. The string arrangement for Morning Rise is class man. I love the end of it when the band pulls out and the strings keep going and then the strings pull out little by little until the end of the song. It's class man. I'm assuming Myles did the string arrangement for So Much For Love too? That's a great song and the strings on it are brilliant too.

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Paul Page's avatar

Yes, the strings on MorningRise turned out really well. They were more linear on the demo but to Warne’s credit, he made them more dynamic and should take some of the credit for that. Yes, I think Mylie came

Up with the string melody on So Much for Love.

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Dean's avatar

Absolutely loving this Paul. Whipping Boy is still inspiring so many young bands which is priceless & the process is a must read for them. Fair play to ya!

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Paul Page's avatar

Really appreciate that Dean - I will keep going while my memory allows! :)

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Shane's avatar

Best one yet, loved it, so honest. It made me feel that claustrophobic energy

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Paul Page's avatar

Thanks Shane - really glad you liked it!

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Patrick M Barrett's avatar

Brilliant 👏

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Paul Page's avatar

Thanks a mil Pat 👍

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Dermot's avatar

Love these bite-size instalments Paul- hope they make a full published volume someday. Wish I had made the Falcon that night!

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Paul Page's avatar

Thanks Dermot - not sure anyone would want to read these in anything but bite size installments! :)

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Dermot's avatar

No worries- I think you might be surprised- still a lot of love for you guys out there! :)

Perfect for the train ride home though 👍

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