Peter-john vettese
Producer
If Peter-John Vettese had not become a musician, he would surely be a world renowned Rocket Scientist or Philosopher. A whirling dervish of knowledge, vision and intelligence and one of the most accomplished free-jazz and improvisation pianists I have ever heard. I remember that during the State Of The Arc sessions, whilst the studio was being set up on the first day, Peter sat at the piano and just improvised for 15 minutes. It was pure wonderment, joy and understanding of his craft. Close your eyes and it was as revealing and astonishing as any Herbie Hancock or Chick Corea riff.
To be perfectly honest, I was not aware of Peter prior to recording There is a Dream at Sphere Studios (now a block of apartments!) in Battersea, London back in 2013. Sphere housed a bunch of studios/production rooms, used by the likes of Duran Duran, the film Composer Guy Farley, and a bunch of other fine artists, including Peter. I was introduced to Peter during my time at Sphere, which would turn into a significant collaboration for this project. Peter ended up working with me on Dance The Rain, Weather & Time, Because They Say So and Kiss The Sun. After learning about Peter’s career and realising that he had been involved in so many great tracks that had been of significant influence to me such as ‘You Have Been Loved’ (Sia), ‘Legend in my Living Room’ & ‘Walking on Broken Glass) (Annie Lennox) & ‘Bangs & Crashes’ (Go West), he was the obvious collaborator to help on so many aspects of realising my own vision for each track. I remember going to Peter with Dance The Rain, explaining that in my opinion, the track was just missing 10% or something etherial. Because it was the only track that had been put together over a few years, in many different studios, some remote sessions and many disparate situations, the track was just not feeling natural and flowing. I left it with Peter and his absurdly brilliant engineer, Mark “Tufty" Evans and what came back, was the missing link. A little bit of shifting here, some tinkering there and also re-recording the backing vocals with Peter Cox (Go West), it all came together brilliantly. Peter completely understand my massive under-expressed concerns and nailed it.
Apart from being a brilliant producer, Peter is first and foremost, a consummate musician. If you get a chance, try to get to listen to his project with Zoe Pollock The Majesty of Light or his recent Lockett-Vettese collaboration https://watch.lockett-vettese.live/ - both mind blowing listening experiences.
Here are just a few of Peter’s musical chat up lines…………..
’THE NEGATIVE SPACE OF NOSE-FLUTE’
‘I GET A A LITTLE GREEN CUBE THAT ROTATES HERE, IN MY MINDS EYE, BUT IT’S OUTSIDE MY OWN HEAD & IT ROTATES A LITTLE BIT IF I AM HAVING A GOOD IDEA………………'
‘I WAS PLAYING A LOCRIAN FLAT 9 SCALE AND SOMEONE SAID - “YOU BETTER HAVE SOME CAMELS IN THE VIDEO” - BUT ALL I COULD SEE WAS A BOX WITH A CAMEL ON IT, INSIDE A NATIONAL CASH REGISTER’
Peter-John Vettese provided arrangements on ‘Dance The Rain’ & co-produced on ‘Because They Say So’, ‘Weather & Time’ & ‘Kiss The Sun’