Szikla: The One That I Truly Loved

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The One That I Truly Loved

the second solo album by Andy Szikla

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Jordie Albiston was one of Australia’s great Poets, and she died tragically in the summer of 2022. To recording artist Andy Szikla, Albiston was his wife, and the love of his life. Prior to her death Andy began work on an album of love songs intended to give her pleasure, but this work was cut short by Jordie’s passing. A few months later he resumed, but now in the form of an elegy. In its completion, the work stands as a personal and loving celebration of her memory. The One That I Truly Loved, by Andy Szikla, was released by Rhinoceros Music on Jordie’s birthday, September 30 2024.

From 1982-1985 Szikla played guitar in Melbourne synth pop band Ides Of March, which featured Andy McLean on drums (who later fronted cult band Horsehead and did a stint as a presenter on Countdown Revolution).

n 1986 Szikla and McLean toured as members of abstract rhythm band 87 Fat Girls, with Szikla (as Mr Fish) on guitar and McLean (as Salli Mclean) as front man. They released one studio album, Jump From The Top (1987), and one single "Shine Your Light" bw "Basically" on Cleopatra Records. John Rees from Men At Work produced the album and played bass but did not accompany them live. On tour they were joined by Cameron McKenzie, also later of Horsehead, who became the permanent bass player. At the end of that year Szikla left to perform solo as Mr Fish, and the band changed its name to 21 Guns.

During this period Szikla also served as guitarist side-man in The Kerri Simpson Trio. His guitar style was compared to that of Ry Cooder

As Mr Fish, Szikla progressed through various incarnations from soloist to guitar/drums duo, to power trio. Eventually the name Mr Fish described a five piece band of permanent members, featuring Szikla as front man and main singer/songwriter. Described by The Independent as a "90's Outcry", influences included Bruce Springsteen and Husker Du. In 1994 Mr Fish Featuring Andy Szikla released their first and only album Allow Me To Introduce Ourselves. In 1996 Szikla emigrated to China, and Mr Fish was disbanded.

In 2007 Szikla was living in Sydney Australia. After a long time away from music and feeling lost after his mother’s death and a marriage breakup, Szikla started writing new songs, and eventually completed his first solo album Dark Valley.

Released on Rubber Records in July 2013, Rolling Stone compared the sound to "big budget Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen", also noting Szikla's ability "to write impressive songs." This small budget album of nine songs was in fact recorded over a year or so in the living room of Szikla's flat, using a laptop, Mbox2 interface, a couple of mics, and his newly designed Szikla Prodigal Channel Strip (also used on recordings by Elton John, Jimmy Barnes, Diesel, and Baby Animals).

Produced by Szikla, Dark valley was mixed by Aria winning producer and engineer David Nicholas who worked on Kick (INXS), and was Chris Thomas's engineer in London for some time. Mastering was by the legendary Don Bartley

Praise was widespread. Writing for Inpress, Jeff Jenkins opined: If this guy had been around in the seventies he would have been a superstar. Drum's Michael Smith called it "a punch collection of Dark Roots /Folk/Americana-style ballads on which Szikla has sung and played everything." BRAG Magazine, among others, named Dark Valley Indie Album of the Week. Chris Parke of PARX-E Web Zine referenced "the Album's lyrical poetry" selecting 'Into The Light' as a "perfect example", and described Kerri Simpson's guest vocal performance on 'Take Me Up' as "scorching"

Szikla: “I met Kerri in high school. She pretty much always wore a leather jacket and I thought she was the coolest kid there. I was a dork, but we both played guitar and were a bit on the outer, and we became friends. She didn’t sing then, or hum or whistle. A couple of years after graduation I bumped into her and she said she had a voice. I think I asked her how the fuck is that possible?”

To Luke Axelby of the NMIT Campus Rap, Szikla's return from hiatus is seen as "purposeful and individual. Each song tells a story, some, like the title track, in an epic and almost apocalyptic manner." Lauren Katulka in Sounds Of Oz mused: "If only every debut could be this good." Patrick Emery writing for Beat declared: "Szikla’s rich narratives... convey a sense of intensity and pathos that’s as compelling as it is endearing, with the title track being an epic, occasionally existentialist journey through the frustrations, contradictions and occasional moments of sincerity that permeates human existence". Finally he states: "Andy Szikla is no ordinary artist, and Dark Valley is no ordinary record."

Music videos were created for each and every song, featuring archival footage of farming communities, confronting cinematic images, and children enjoying the simple pleasures of a lost world. Most of the videos were made by Szikla himself, with two videos ('Bastard Child' and 'Dark Valley') credited to Tony Saad.

Szikla: “I wanted to make some videos but had no budget, so I toured the op shops looking for any movie that was more than fifty years old and therefore out of copyright. Then I threw bits of this and that together on my computer. It all looked very low-res and nostalgic. At some point Tony Saad came to the party with two very nice vids along the same lines only better.”

In 2011, at the time he was editing videos for Dark Valley, Szikla met the love of his life – Australian Poet Jordie Albiston. Five days later they were living together as a couple. Six months more and they bought a house. Then in 2014 they married and lived happily until Albiston’s tragic death from alcohol poisoning in February 2022.

During those years Albiston produced book after book filled with love poems to Szikla. His reaction was to begin writing an album of love songs for Albiston.

Szikla: “I actually became embarrassed that all this love for me was pouring out of those pages, and I hadn’t ever written her a song. So I got to work.”

But preparations for the album were cut short by her passing. After her funeral, and several months’ work dedicated to Albiston’s ongoing legacy, he reinstated the project, but this time in the shape of an elegy.

Szikla designed and built a number of new gadgets to help him during the recording process. Among these were a large condenser microphone, a six-input mixer, a four channel headphone amplifier system, two lateral mosfet stereo power amplifiers, a tremolo pedal, a fuzz box, re-construction of a cheap double bass, and an audio recording booth in the downstairs living area.

David Nicholas agreed to act as executive producer and adviser, while Szikla oversaw matters at the microphone face. Long-time friend and collaborator Simon Kennedy (Preachers Of Fiction, Mr Fish) signed on as bassist, and recording sessions were spread across the better part of a year. In between, Szikla would mix, and sometimes chop up and re-arrange the songs in the process. Generally there would be a guitar and/or vocal overdub, but no drums, and no other instruments besides guitars and double bass.

Szikla: “I wanted to hear what a band would sound like with just a guitar, a double bass, and a voice. I imagined the voice completely dry and naked, with no reverb, nothing—and the double bass in a massive space with an enormous reverb. That’s the sound I wanted to go for, and David very much encouraged me to stick to that vision. I deviated into vocal repeats on the title track – but it still has zero reverb.”

While finishing the album Szikla found himself in some very challenging and uncharted emotional territory.

Szikla: “Simon and I were recording each song as a live band with a live vocal, and most of the time I would keep the instrument tracks, but re-record the vocal to get a better performance. But I soon found singing to my dead wife to be dreadfully upsetting. More than once I came to the microphone drunk and did what I could after a couple of takes of just weeping and not much more. ‘I’m Going Away’ is one of those. Two takes of crying, three takes of sincerity, and one take shredded and wanting to be in a coma.”

The first song written for the album was ‘She Orders Her Books’ the lyrics of which Szikla printed out and gave to Albiston prior to her death.

Szikla: “She loved it, and that’s what it was supposed to be—just these heartfelt little songs that would say to Jord ‘I recognise you, and I accept you’. The title track was another, but now it’s totally turned into something the opposite of what it was. In the prototype, ‘time had ended’ because we had met, and our love was so perennial that time was irrelevant. In the current version ‘time has ended’ because she has ended. And for ten years she was my life.”

The release date of 30 September 2024 has significance because it is Albiston’s birthday. She would have been 63.

Szikla: “This record has never been anything other than a gift to Jordie, and it might possibly be the final gift I give her. Her birthday seemed like the most appropriate day.”