I’m really pleased that this labour of love/obsession has finally made it out into the world. It’s been with me a long time. Almost eleven years ago now, my father died, and life was never going to be the same from that moment. I’ve talked about it before, but on that last night, having sat vigil with my mum and baby sister, my mind did what it always does, and it started thinking about anything but the reality we were facing, a life without dad. So, I started imagine this place where at the end were faced all the versions of us we had never lived to become, because of the choices we made, and then started fleshing out a fantasy world, which, because it was ugly in my heart and whenever bad stuff happens I think it really should be raining… I started thinking of as the Kingdom of Rain.

I pitched the idea to my agent, this place we all visit on our last night, and created an entire Odyssey style story, got everyone excited, and then couldn’t bear to write it because it meant going back there…

So a few years later I started talking to Tom Brown, the brilliant Tom Brown I should say, about the idea of doing it as an epic poem with 30 parts, with him illustrating each, and again when it came to it I just couldn’t write it because it was just too hard to dwell in the kingdom and that last night… 

Now while all this was going on, my little sis was taking it hard, she really struggled with the loss for years, and I started thinking about the ‘story’ differently, more as how dad might save her and bring her back to us, as a guardian of that place… 

And again, it just sat there for years, though Tom did paint 18 incredible pieces of art to accompany the ideas… 

It wasn’t until I started hanging out with a bunch of musicians at work who were just ridiculously talented and we began messing around with ideas that suddenly this was born… and ended up being 30 songs, start to finish… 

Now, my intention is for any of the income from the special limited edition Stuff.io release (300 copies only) and any small amount of streaming income that may or may not come, to be put towards doing a vinyl release of maybe 50 copies I give to my sis, my mum, and anyone who basically loved the old man… 

When I was googling for name for our little side gig, I looked for prog rock/metal bands with the name Republic of Wolves because it struck me as a pretty cool name I’d scratched down a few years back as a ‘kingdom’ to go inside Moonlands, my kids book, so I missed the fact there’s a very different band out there with the same name, and of course bullshit AI in google has already started getting it wrong and telling the world this labour of love for my family is by them… doh!

So, yeah, that’s it.