Troy Redfern, dubbed as Britain’s “King of slide guitar,” releases the official music video for his haunting new single Ghosts.
Ghosts is the second single taken from his forthcoming album The Fire Cosmic released by RED7 Records on Friday August 6th. The song is playlisted on Planet Rock and other radio stations.
Written on a beat up 1929 National Triolian Resonator, the new single Ghosts from the forthcoming album The Fire Cosmic follows a character that first appeared in the song The Line from Troy’s previous album Dirt Blues Ritual.
Ghosts, is available to stream and download HERE. Pre-order the The Fire Cosmic album HERE.
Troy states, “To me this song is part two to The Line. It’s the same woman in the narrative of that song. She’s escaped from a destructive, violent relationship, and is riding into the sunset, never once looking back.
One word that keeps coming up when people describe Troy’s music and guitar playing is authentic, and with Ghosts this couldn’t be more apparent. From the layers of weaving acoustic resonator guitars to the blistering slide guitar solo, Ghosts takes you on a musical journey deep into the Wild West.
This brand-new video for Ghosts captures the essence of the songs vintage, Appalachian feel. Filmed at a rustic cabin on the banks of the river Wye, Troy’s performance encapsulates the sense of urgency and the striving for resolution that can be heard echoing throughout his big sky cinematic soundscape.
The new album, The Fire Cosmic, follows five unprecedented albums that Troy released in 2020. It was recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studios in North Wales, the same studio where Queen recorded all their early albums including Sheer Heart Attack (1974) followed by A Night At The Opera (1975) – the latter featuring the legendary single Bohemian Rhapsody.
For the recording of the new album, Troy enlisted one of the best rhythm sections in the UK, including the legendary Darby Todd on drums (The Darkness, Robben Ford, Martin Barre, Paul Gilbert), virtuoso bass guitarist Dave Marks (Hans Zimmer), plus guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal (Guns ‘N Roses, Asia, Sons of Apollo) on the song On Fire, in what Troy describes as “the ultimate dream team” and what is arguably the British guitarist’s most compelling release to date.
Says Troy, “I chose Rockfield Studios because so much of the music I grew up listening to was recorded at this legendary studio (Queen, Black Sabbath, Mott The Hoople). The studio is hallowed ground for every musician, and the rooms there are charged with so much magic and history of all the iconic, classic albums that have been produced there.
It was important for me to capture the raw energy of three guys playing live in the same place, at the same time. That’s something that you just can’t get if you’re sending files from different locations, it doesn’t have the same vibe or feel if you do it that way.
As soon as we arrived at Rockfield, everyone, including Darby and Dave who’ve recorded all over the world, were excited to be there,” continues Troy. “It’s that kind of place. It has that effect on every musician who records there. Even before we started recording, the energy and vibe was there, which definitely set the tone for the entire album.
Troy has cut his teeth and refined his style over the last few years, playing festival main stages and blazing a trail across Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia. He’s also become a well-known draw on the UK Blues Rock festival circuit, playing alongside rock luminaries including Robert Plant.
Troy is a passionate, intense, free-spirited musician whose ferocious slide guitar style twists and turns timeless themes and ideas to his own ends. He’s a musical visionary unafraid to trample on the boundaries of restricting labels,” said Blues Matters Magazine.
The forthcoming studio album is a culmination everything Troy has learnt so far on his musical journey, and, more importantly, brings into sharp focus a much tighter song-writing and more visceral, muscular production style.
For production duties, Troy enlisted the Brighton- based producer Paul ‘Win’ Winstanley, best known for his epic rock production style, and whom Troy met and had worked with previously on the 2019 RHR album, Hotel Toledo. Troy and Win bonded immediately, and shared the same musical aesthetic, no nonsense work ethic and dry sense of humour.
Rockfield’s vintage mics, mixing desk, and analogue outboard gear gave Win options to capture the dynamic performances on the album. “It was like being a kid in a candy store,” says Win.
It was important for the album to sound massive,” says Troy. “It was a much bigger sound than anything that I’ve released before. As soon as we heard the first takes in the control, we were blown away. We knew that we captured something special. It sounded fantastic.
For the session, Darby Todd brought his vintage Ludwig Vistalite acrylic drums of John Bonham fame. The drums are renowned for sounding massive. Hearing them in one of the best drum rooms in the world, they sounded out of this world! Roger Taylor’s drums recorded for Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack album at Rockfield are some of my favourite drum sounds on any recording.
Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal states, “It all starts with the drums, if you’ve got a great drummer, great sounding room, great board, it’s going to sound phenomenal, and it does!” “I met Ron at a festival in Poland that we were both playing at, we immediately hit it off,” recalls Troy. “He let me use his signature double neck guitar to play on Anthony Gomes encore set at the festival, that was an absolute blast.
He’s such a cool, generous guy. When I returned to the UK, I emailed him to ask if he’d like to play on my new album. He was totally fired up to do it.
Troy continues, “The album really is a step up. It’s the best album I’ve made. Hiring Rockfield, getting the best players, the best producer – it was a risk, but it paid off tenfold. I’ve made an album I really couldn’t be happier with.
With all the hard work that went into getting this album to sound as great as possible, there was only one option when it came to mastering. I decided to hire Frank Arkwright (Biffy Clyro, Oasis, Iggy Pop, Paul Weller, System of a Down). Frank is the senior mastering engineer at Abbey Road.
The mastering at Abbey Road added that final sheen. Frank did an absolutely amazing job in bringing out every nuance of the recording.
“When it came to the album artwork, I was originally going to get an artist from Brazil to do it for me, however, I started working on some artwork of my own in the silver age Marvel comics style, based on the four guys that were on the album. I posted a few visuals on the socials and was overwhelmed by the response. It was a huge kick getting responses from Joe Satriani, Richie#
Kotzen, and my slide guitar hero Denny Walley of Frank Zappa fame. As a result, I created my own comic-style illustrations to package the album.
MUSICIANS
TROY REDFERN – VOCALS, GUITARS
RON ‘BUMBLEFOOT’ THAL – GUITARS (TRACK 5)
DARBY TODD – DRUMS
DAVE MARKS – BASS, PIANO, KEYS, PERCUSSION
RECLORDED & MIXED AT ROCKFIELD STUDIOS BY PAUL ‘WIN’ WINSTANLEY
ASSISTANT ENGINEER – JOE JONES
MASTERED BY FRANK ARKWRIGHT AT ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS
TRACK LISTING
- SCORPIO (4:50)
- WAITING FOR YOUR LOVE (3:34)
- ONE WAY TICKET (3:50)
- LOVE & WAR (4:37)
- ON FIRE (4:09)
- LAY THAT LOVE DOWN (3:23)
- GHOSTS (4:02)
- SAVING GRACE (4:07)
- SANCTIFY (3:46)
- STONE (5:50
Visit www.troyredfern.com to pre-order limited edition vinyl.
