Well, they say that the devil makes work for idle hands

and indeedy deedy,

our hands were kept super busy making the Burn Out acoustic version of Hot Lips and No Money for the Hot Lips single.

I had been toying with the idea of a song called No Money for some time and this was the perfect opportunity to lassoo the idea and make it real.

I wanted No Money to be cheeky and fresh and the vibe to be careless and punky. No Money kind of turns the whole macho idea of a boy having to buy a girl's attention, upside down and declares that just because you got no money it doesn't mean you ain't cool baby.

So me and Metso decided to record and produce the songs ourselves in our little home studio and our very good friend Xavier Alsina added his magic guitars.

We laid down the beats and bass in Reason (music programme) and recorded into Pro Tools, it took about five days to get it all rocking and Xavier's guitars were the kiss of life to the song, that brought it kicking and screaming into this world!

It was cool, we were all kind of drunk when he did those guitars at about 4.00 o'clock in the morning and it felt for a second, as though it was just us and the music and that's all there was. You often get that feeling when you're making a good song and when the guitar starts singing it's own madness and you can hear all the melodies coming alive.

The Burn Out Acoustic version of Hot Lips was a full circle for the song. I originally wrote Hot Lips on my acoustic guitar so it was a very natural transition for the song to make, from the pumping, throbbing creature it is on the Psychic Cat album, to the more laid back and wasted, mascara smudged acoustic song that it is now.

We played with the idea of congas for the song but couldn't find a conga player who would play for alcohol rather than cash, so we then toyed with programming them ourselves and let me tell you my friends, many a night was spent sleepless, in Conga Hell!

Xavier came round once again and played the beautiful slide acoustic guitars that give the chorus a real beauty.
I played the rhythm on my little acoustic into one mic and straight into Pro Tools.
We stayed up real late and the day before we had to go to mix, I remember it was about 7.00 am and the sky was all pink and blush blue and the birds were singing real loud. I was listening to the chorus of the song, with the slide guitars, kind of trippy cos I'd had no sleep and was counting on Beer and cigarettes to keep me awake long enough to finish the song. It was a really special moment.

We found a brilliant little studio in Brixton, called Wolf Studios, where we recorded the vocals and Dominique Brethes, the owner, mastered the songs. It's a wonderful studio, especially the vocal room (one of the best I've ever experienced for atmosphere and vibe) and Dominique is a cool guy. I sang the songs and we pretty much used first takes.

We mixed and mastered it the next day with a fresh set of ears and renewed energy after having had more than the four hours a night sleep we've been having for the last week and a half. Walking into the record company and delivering the finished master to Derek, the owner of One Little Indian was one of the coolest moments. It felt good to have recorded everything ourselves and produced two new songs that made us so happy, so aware of the magical aspect of thinking of a song and making it a real living creature.

Independence and freedom are the two of the most important and necessary aspects of making good music, it doesn't matter if you've just got a scratchy old acoustic or you have to get your dog to sing backing vocals, what matters is the soul of it all and the effort and focus involved in the sculpture of the music.

Metso and I would like to thank everyone involved with the songs 'No Money' and 'The Burn Out Ac version of Hot Lips'. We would also like to hear from any cool conga players in london who will play for alcohol rather than cash : )