"Songs Of The Feet" is the debut album of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK, band The Third Space. Poppy melodies, jangly guitars, three-part harmonies and wry observational vignettes. Music for grown-ups with an indie pop sensibility. Witty, quirky, but accessible.

The album title “Songs of the Feet” was suggested by Joe.

I (Henk) had – rather

"Songs Of The Feet" is the debut album of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK, band The Third Space. Poppy melodies, jangly guitars, three-part harmonies and wry observational vignettes. Music for grown-ups with an indie pop sensibility. Witty, quirky, but accessible.

The album title “Songs of the Feet” was suggested by Joe.

I (Henk) had – rather ponderously, perhaps even pompously – been toying with the idea of calling it “Songs of Defeat”, given that we were 45 years old and perhaps had not achieved everything in life we would have liked, as chronicled in the closing track “Far (from where you wanted to be)”.

Joe suggested “Songs of the Feet” as a light-hearted pun, but also in reference to dancing. Given that music is supposed to make you dance! I really liked the suggestion. So…the title of the first record was born!

Earlier incarnations of all these songs were all written a long time ago (just never recorded). Mostly when I (Henk) was at University (1987-90) but one (“Best Friend”) also in the mid 1990s. The most recent song on the album is “En Famille”, which was written in remembrance (and in grieving) of my beloved Aunt Annick who passed away in March, 2013.

Only two of the songs survive in their original incarnation (“Gardens” and “En Famille”). All of the rest were touched up throughout 2013. In between these two dates (1990-2013), these two musical bookends, there was a lot of stuff – work; living abroad; marriage; kids; divorce – but not much in terms of songwriting! 

That has now all changed.

The way we worked on this album was that Henk would bring in a song, in some sort of state of readiness (sometimes near-complete; sometimes more of a snippet) which Joe would then build-upon, expand and polish.

The overriding themes on this record are love, memory, finitude and regret.

Love and finitude covered in the “Best friend” is about the AIDS-related death of a ballet dancer in St. Kilda, Melbourne in the 1990s; “Remember You” is a tribute to Joe’s great-uncle Sydney Wyles, who died in WWI aged only 18; and “En Famille”, a eulogy to a favourite aunt of Henk’s who passed in 2013.

“End of the Road” chronicles the break-up of a love affair.

In terms of regret, “Home” is about a bar bore failing to face up to the reality of his somewhat empty life; whilst “far (From Where You Wanted To Be)” is a rueful look back on a youth now gone.

The exceptions to the theme of interpersonal relationships are “Gardens” (about three gardens mentioned in the bible: Eden; Babylon; and Getsemane) and “Vicar on a Harley” (a pardy of the lack of coolness in all things ecumenical) – and as such have something of a religious motif to them.

Track listing:

1) Gardens 2) Best Friend In The World 3) Home 4) Remember You 5) Colours 6) How The Other Half Live 7) End of the Road 8) Vicar on a Harley 9) Far From Where You Wanted To Be

The songs on this debut album ("Songs Of The Feet"), all started started off life as kernels of Henk songs, which Joe nurtured over time and polished into the true collaborations the songs became.

Drums: Max Saidi Drum / Conga Programming: Joe Farthing Bass: Joe Farthing; Hendrik Kleinsmiede Guitar: Joe Farthing; Hendrik Kleinsmiede; Will Manwaring Keys effects: Joe Farthing Harmonica: Joe Farthing Vocals: Joe Farthing; Hendrik Kleinsmiede

Produced by: Kevin Paul