Western Skies - Lazyboy

Dan Carey and Rob da Bank are Lazyboy and together with a select cast of collaborators they have made one of the most inspirational albums of 2004. Penguin Rock, will quite possibly be THE soundtrack to your summer.

Together Rob & Dan have a combined CV that makes their chosen moniker strangely innapropriate. Rob is the driving force behind the Sunday Best record label and parties (look out for their inaugural 'Bestival' - a 10,000 capacity boutique festival on the Isle Of Wight this September) and co-presenter of Radio One's influental Blue Room show that helped to introduce artists such as Lemon Jelly and Royksopp to a mass audience. Dan is no slouch either, having recorded for Virgin as Mr Dan and for Sunday Best and Skint as Danmass. Dan recently received the the recognition he so richly deserves in the form of two highly prestigious Ivor Novello nominations for co-writing and producing Slow for Kylie Minogue one of 2003s most innovative and original pop songs.

'Western Skies' released on 16th August is one of the most thrilling moments on Penguin Rock, and features 80s indie-pop icon Roddy Frame on vocals. The former Aztec Camera vocalist was a first choice collaborator for Rob and Dan, and the partnership has been a rewarding one. According to Roddy:

"Robbie and Dan sent me a CD of rough instrumentals and I found myself singing an almost reggae-ish melody over the track 'Bats Head'. My screensaver at the time was a picture called 'Big Evening Sky' by Dorset artist Richard Pikesley and I started to think of the hippy surfer kids I'd seen on the west coast of Devon with their long hair, reggae tunes and VW vans and the lyrics took shape around that.

When I got to the studio in Brixton, the first thing I saw was Robbie's VW van parked outside. He and Dan read the lyrics to what had become "Western Skies" and revealed that 'Bat's Head' was a place on the coast where they went for inspiration. It convinced me that when musicians collaborate they can tap into an almost telepathic form of communication.

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