Counteract

Wendy James is set to release her new album, ‘The Shape Of History,’ on October 25th. The album, written, produced, and mixed by James herself, was recorded in both West London and New York City. It marks her tenth album and will be available digitally, on deluxe vinyl, and via deluxe CD. Alongside the announcement, James has unveiled a video for “Freedomsville,” the first single from the album.

“I grew up, musically, in the age of the sequencer,” reflects Wendy. “There was Transvision Vamp and Sigue Sigue Sputnik, both influenced by the futuristic, seedy glamour of Ridley Scott’s ‘Bladerunner.’ The overcrowded Chinatown and the towering skyscrapers where the masters of the universe observed and policed down below.” James drew inspiration from films like Polanski’s Frantic, Beineix’s Diva, and Klaus Nomi’s The Cold Song.

James shared her approach to creating “Freedomsville,” saying, “I wrote ‘Freedomsville’ on guitar, like all my songs. My mixing engineer Jesse Nichols couldn’t believe how unchanged the recording was from the guide and yet how much sound and arrangement had been created. In the end, I didn’t use sequencers at all; it’s all real humans playing very rhythmically on repeat for six minutes straight.”

“My songwriting has always been a wide mix of sounds, which naturally reflect the different music and references I have and love,” James explains. “My sweet spot is mid-late 70’s downtown NYC New Wave Punk: CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. From this sound, my taste for sequenced and dark NY and Euro electro and no-wave evolves.”

The Shape Of History was recorded on Scrubs Lane, West London, with musicians Alex Ward, Harry Bohay, and James Sclavunos. James then travelled to NYC and Brooklyn to record the pianos and organs with Dave “The Moose” Sherman. Overdubbing continued with Al Lawson at his Shepherd’s Bush studio, before James headed to Berkeley, CA, to mix with Jesse Nichols. The album was mastered by Fred Kevorkian in Brooklyn, NY.