348 Miles

FORMATS: Film | Music | Photography | Publication & Release | Live Performance

We Are Willow co founder Chris Butler set himself the task of recording and releasing 3 EP’s within a year with 3 fellow musicians he admired, and to tour the material in the UK and abroad. The aim being to create an eclectic body of songs which would take all involved step away from their current sound.

Part One with songwriter Kathryn Edwards made its live debut on ‘Record Store Day’ in Montreal on tour in Canada. After a succession of UK dates the duo travelled down the West Coast of America in the summer of 2011 playing a series of ‘part one’ gigs along the way.

Part Two with Simon Connor of Manchester 3 piece ‘Yields’. The duo played a week of pre release gigs in Barcelona, including after hours shows in art galleries and clothing boutiques, before airing their wares back in the UK.

Part Three with Sam Lench of ‘Samson & Delilah’ was toured throughout the UK alongside Butler/ Connor/ Lench performing tracks from EP’s one and two – exchanging instruments throughout the set, sharing vocal duties from the releases.

The end of the trilogy gave way to the 12 inch record release ‘348 Miles’ – the sum total distance of the 4 collaborators birth places from the city of Manchester, where they met through music. A track from each of the release’s on the A side remixed by Roman Moses on the B side, the vinyl was selected as Piccadilly Records ‘Record Of The Week’ on its release.

CREATIVE | Chris Butler & Daren Newman

PRODUCTION | Chris Butler

MUSIC | Chris Butler, Kathryn Edwards, Simon Connor, Sam Lench, Dave Thacker

PRODUCER | Part One Ben McGarvey, Part Two Brendan Williams, Part Three Seadna McPhail, Remixes Dave Thacker

DESIGN | Daren Newman

FILM | Part One Simon Pantling, Part Two Will Grundy & Tom Monkhouse, Part Three Nick Leyland

PHOTOGRAPHY | Simon Pantling & Chris Butler