Christian Madden & The Enemy Chorus - The Extra Weight (2023)

Beginning life as a collection of drum samples, loops, chord progressions and melodic fragments; the self-confessed messy demos evolved with the help of friends into fully fledged songs. Although 100% instrumental, the tracks on ‘The Extra Weight’ stand up as bonafide songs in their own right. Christian explains, “I feel that there aren’t many composed instrumentals around these days that function in the same way as a song with a storytelling arc. I try to make organ melodies that are informed by vocal melodies, phrasing and breathing patterns. Hopefully when listening you start adding your own lyrics under your breath and becoming that bit more invested in the journey”.

Christian lives in East Lancashire, who says “It’s an area of poverty and almost criminal underinvestment but there are amazing people and opportunities here too”. His dad played in bands that supported the likes of Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight and The Pips at venues like the Nelson Imperial ballroom, where the Beatles played multiple times and the Stax Soul Revue came through. “When I decided I wanted to play a Hammond organ it was easy to find them stacked in the back rooms of the many working men’s clubs that were still found in the area. When I could hold my own on stage the musicians who were a generation ahead of me dragged me into bands featuring formerly famous 60s and 70s musicians. I played in Denny Laine’s band when I was 19, I went on to do tours with John Steele from the Animals, Spencer Davis, Steve Cropper and all sorts of interesting characters. By the time we got our first record deal with the Earlies I was a very experienced live player”.

The musicians on the album come in a large part from East Lancashire. His brother Nicky plays saxophone. Nathan Sudders, who grew up around the corner from him, plays bass. Ben Redfearn is a bricklayer from Padiham who plays guitar like Robbie Robertson. Richard Young, also from The Earlies, is on drums. Touring comrades in the Liam Gallagher band, Dan McDougall and Drew McConnell, as well as a couple of friends from college that he hadn’t played with for years, and a few people who he hadn’t actually met, all helped out on songs. “All in all I think there were 17 players”, says Christian. “That’s not ridiculous but it’s more than I’d have thought when I started”.

A lot of the song’s titles are phrases that have been collected in notebooks over the years by Christian. ‘The Cooling Stone’ is a homage to a friend who used to get in some terrible states on tour and then lie curled around the toilet bowl on the cold stone floor waiting for salvation, ‘The Extra Weight’ refers to the extra bulge people had put on after emerging post-lockdown, and ‘Athletico Talbot’ is “the name of one of the worst 5-a-side teams East Lancashire has ever seen, that Nicky and Richard played in it. I thought I’d make some kind of uptempo sports montage music that could accompany a highlight reel of their achievements”.

During the making of the album, Christian played at Knebworth twice, toured Australia and South America, and took a family of four Ukrainians into his home. “The Ukrainians were all phenomenal musicians. The three daughters played a beautiful harp-like instrument called a bandura and would sing and play folk songs to us in the kitchen. We couldn’t understand a word of it obviously but you could hear all the tragedy and staunch defiance you needed to in there and it was a privilege to listen to”.

Ultimately, ‘The Extra Weight’ is the sound of someone making the music they love with their friends for their own pleasure. Christian sums up “I once heard that if Prince was going for a drive in the car and fancied listening to some music he’d make an album quickly and stick it on a cassette. It probably isn’t true but I like the idea of making music to entertain yourself, I feel like I’m trying to extend the music that I really love”.