Joe Payne

I read Prog Magazine (of course) and when I saw that someone called Joe Payne had won ‘Best Male Vocalist’ two years running in the Readers’ Poll, I thought I would check him out.

I found some YouTube clips of Joe singing with the Enid. Both Libby and I were amazed at his range and the quality and tone of his voice; we immediately booked tickets to go and see him live. After the show we met up and had a brief chat; I can’t recall exactly but I probably did ask him if he ever did sessions. Fast forward eight months, having left the band Joe was now pursuing a solo career. I made contact again to see if he might be interested in collaborating on some songs. Having agreed, he worked on ‘One Race’; it sounded so good I immediately asked if he would do ‘Capture Light’. I knew that song needed a special voice to bring it to life and technically it required someone with a good vocal range. Luckily Joe has a five-octave range so I knew he could deliver.

The results were beyond expectation – spine tingling! By now I was working on what would be the final song for the album and again Joe agreed to sing on what would become ‘Tears from the Sun’. Joe is a perfectionist and that is apparent in his approach; his vocal contributions added so much to the ‘emotion’ of the songs and really elevated the material.