Andy Fraser

I got to work and become friends with Andy because of Kim Turner who generously funded the making of the album that Island released as Fine Fine Line.
I first met Andy at his house/studio nestled in the hills of Tujunga, California where he had an outbuilding set up to write and record his demos. Kim had previously given me a cassette of his songs that included "Fine Fine Line" which I absolutely loved.
Free, I was and remain a huge fan of being still at school when he co wrote Alright Now.
So the opportunity to get know Andy and work on an album together was a pretty amazing experience for me.
Even 35 years on I listen to the original mixes of the songs we recorded and produced together.

Early recordings we did at Skyline involved Steppenwolf guitarist Michael Monarch but sadly these sessions didn't produce anything we could use. I returned to England and Andy began auditions for a new guitarist and Michael Thompson was found.This break allowed more writing time
and when I came back to LA in 1983 I met with Andy and Graham Lyle who were finishing of a couple of songs. All musicians were in place to record the album with Tony Braunagel – drums, Bob Marlette – Keyboards, Michael Thompson – guitar and Davey Faragher - Bass
Everything was cut live with Tony set up in the iso room to the left of the control room and the rest of the band all were in the control room.
Michael's amp was in the main studio and Bob and Davey all on D.I.'s
So it was quite a cosy arrangement. Andy did not play any Bass guitar and in hindsight I regret not pushing him to at least do one track. I think he wanted to focus on being the front man and concentrate on his vocals.
The tracking all went very easily but when it came to doing the vocals Andy just could not settle in. I think he had become so used to working at home that outside of that context he was on edge. So I made backing track mixes that he could work to at home and also paid close attention to the fxs he was using at his home studio on his headphone mix. In this break time I also used his band to do a follow single for Andy Piercy of After The Fire.
This break really worked well because when we resumed Andy had really got the vocals in the pocket and we finished everything at Skyline.
I completed all the mixes which got sent to Kim and I returned to England.
In the time that elapsed Chris Blackwell got involved in the project. I had one call from him and I think he felt we didn't have a single. For me I wanted Fine Fine Line to be released. Anyway what transpired was that Andy went back into the studio with Bob Marlette and cut Do You Love Me.
I think this song was totally out of context with the album. Hugh Padgham was then asked to remix the album. I think at the time he had a #1 with "Every Breath You Take" so it was thought it would push things along.
Hugh told me some years after he never understand why it needed to be remixed and my original mixes were perfect.
Below are my original mixes of the album minus "Do You Love Me"

In 1989 I began  to work with Andy on a new set of songs he had written. We now had a new set of tools  in the recording process since recording Fine Fine Line. I worked with him on 3 songs Yours Faithfully, Jungle and All I Want Is You at Topanga Skyline Studios. It was just the two of us with a computer and Simmons SDX drum sampler. Sadly the studio closed its doors whilst this we were in the process of developing these tracks and I had to return to England. Although it took several years to materialize I was pleased Andy completed these songs and released them on his Naked and Finally Free album.