Why Travalog?

Without planning it, the songs that came (and the videos that accompanied them) were broadly united by a theme of travel - car journeys through the scorched hills of Andalucia (Rezo), the Atlantic ocean pounding the Karst rocks of the Aran Islands off the West coast of Ireland (Sing), an Indian boatman sailing his houseboat through the backwaters of Kerala (Loner).  A musical travel diary - a travel log.  All the more poignant and ironic given the travel restrictions that came with the pandemic.  And while we recorded it remotely - Rory in Spain and Colm in Dublin - and digitally in that we were relying on computers and virtual instruments/loops as much as real instruments - we were very clear that there had to be an analogue feel to it.  It sounds old-fashioned but we wanted it to sound like a band playing the songs.  Cool and contemporary yes but somehow credible too.  Real singing.  Real harmonies.  Real guitar.  Buzzy strings.  Fingers squeaking across the fret board. So an analogue travel log.  Travelogue.  Travalogue.  Travalog if we Americanise it to acknowledge that connection with our folky American cousins.  From CSN&Y and the Everly Brothers to Sufjan Stevens and everything in between.