Sean T. Wright
Veteran English singer-songwriter Sean T. Wright has been recording since the 1970’s, Sean exemplifies the true home recording spirit by giving away ALL of his music for free. Many solo and collaborative albums are available at his web site.
Do you remember your first tape trade, and how did you find people to trade with?
I think it was early 1974. I’d just formed my first band with my school buddies. I played in a lot of local bands during the mid to late 70s. We made recordings of our live gigs and many of our rehearsals, just to crit our performances really. But other band guys and a handful of enthusiastic fans (kids we’d gone to school with) used to trade tapes with other musicians in the local pub and clubs. So it was very local and rural – East Anglia.
How about your first home recording experience on a multi track deck?
In 1976 I got my first experience of a TEAC reel to reel 4 track. The jump up from recording directly onto a little portable cassette (stereo) to bouncing tracks on the 4 track was awesome, a revelation to me. I had so many ideas floating around in my head. II was desperate to get them down on tape – so the 4 track really liberated me. I remember thinking: this is it! This actually sounds good. My first proper album CARCASS was recorded on it and released on cassette in ’76. It’s a free download now on my website www.seantwright.com – I used to listen nightly to the John Peel BBC One Radio Show in the UK, and would compare the quality of the songs with my own. I still wasn’t 100% happy with the sound quality of CARCASS.
So the next year I worked in construction as a labourer, digging holes in the ground with a Jackhammer, 7 days a week, all the hours I could get. I eventually got together enough money to buy pro studio time in a happening new wave/punk studio called Spaceward, recording my first single, released in 1978 on 45rpm vinyl, called “Strange Situation.” I sent it to John Peel and he played it a lot in 79 and 80 on his show in the UK. The NME, Sounds, and Melody Maker reviewed it. Max Bell of the NME raved about it in his DIY Artists section, writing “extremely creditable D.I.Y independent. Wright is an enigma worth popularising. His A-side offering ‘Strange Situation’ comes replete with straight ahead hard rock vocal punch and well-played instrumental expertise (uncredited). Over the edge is his ambition. The reverse ‘Silent Dreams’ is more enterprising, acoustic buildings tumble towards an electric style both inventive and hinting at a bright future. Information required from this unusual and potentially solid purveyor of crunchy biscuits.”
As you can imagine, at 19 years of age, I was elated!