Available on CD now!!! for ordering info: breakfree74@hotmail.com Hayley Oliver, Rob Smith & Richard Anderson SOMETHING TO REMEMBER Produced by Rob Smith @ Polar Music New Zealand Studio's, Ratapiko, Taranaki, New Zealand 1. Drifting Away (R.Smith) (4:07) 2. I Can't Help But Feel The Way I Do (R. Anderson, R. Smith) (4:03) 3. Something To Remember (R. Anderson, R. Smith) (3:36) 4. The Silence Of It All (R. Smith) (5:00) 5. Let's Get To The Heart Of The Matter (R. Anderson, R. Smith) (4:33) 6. Love You Forever (R. Anderson, R Smith) (4:05) 7. Through The Heart (R. Anderson, R Smith) (4:09) 8. How Many Ways (R. Smith) (4:23) 9. I Believe In Angels (R. Smith) (4:06) 10. The Simple Things In Life (R. Anderson, R. Smith) (4:13) 11. You Might Think (R. Anderson, R. Smith) (3:23) 12. Days Gone By (R. Anderson, R. Smith) (5:29) Introduction by Rob Smith: It's an amazing thing that todays technology allows us to have made this album from opposite ends of the earth. It's no small feat either, as we have constructed this album from e-mail correspondence only, and that can be such a hinderance at certain times, and it certainly makes the bringing together of this album even more satisfying, that we have achieved our goal and come up with an album that Richard, Hayley and I are all truly proud of. 1. Drifting Away (R.Smith) Richard: "Drifting Away" by name and nature, this is the 2nd track that Rob penned for this album solely. Every now and then I will need to mellow out after a hard day rocking out with GONE WILD tunes (during the making of "Something To Remember" we have been working on our 2nd album), and what better song to calm the soul with? Rob: I really like this track, thats why I chose it as an opener for the album. It has an easiness about it that I really like, it kind of sets my mind drifting away if you'll excuse the pun. The idea to take seperate verses works great, and brings a different element to the album. A great job Hayley! Not a bad lyric, not really my department, but I occasionally come up with something, "Drifting away like a dreamer". Hayley: When we were discussing the duets for the album we decided that it'd be rather nice to include one where Rob and I took turns in singing the verses unlike our other songs together, hence the vocal arrangement on this one, it was a good choice, it worked great! 2. I Can't Help But Feel The Way I Do (R. Anderson, R. Smith) Richard: Rob came up with the title and told me to write something with this title in mind, he'll do that on occasion without an actual theme, just to trick me I am sure (laughs). Lyrically this one came to me pretty quickly, at the time I was going through a patch in my life that was quite blissful which was the complete opposite to what the song was about...but I have definitely lived this song. Once again the blending of the vocals really worked for me, I can tell you that Hayley's vocal talent far exeeded many people I have worked with just on this song alone. Rob: This is the first song that I sat down and wrote especially for Hayley, and it will always be one of my favourite songs of ours. While writing the song I was trying to imagine Hayley singing it, and when I received her vocals for this song and then added them to the backing, I was blown away. Hayley had exceeded all my expectations, and I was struck with how Hayley had managed to sing the song with such feeling. Something I would soon learn Hayley has a real knack for. Hayley: "I Can't Help But Feel The Way I Do" came along at the beginning of our project, I loved singing it, such a beautiful heartfelt lyric, the kind of song many of us can relate to and that always appeals to me. 3. Something To Remember (R. Anderson, R. Smith) Richard: We were thinking of a name for this project, baring in mind that it is different stylewise to what both Rob and Hayley had been working on. Seeing how everything was coming together I thought to myself how we would look back on this experience of working together as something pretty special...something to remember. Thankfully Rob and Hayley both felt the same way about things, there was a real connection there as far as the pooling of their talents was concerned. With that all in mind the title of the song was born, as was the name for the project. Once again I knew we were onto a winner for sure. Rob: A nice title track, this song has something going on that reminds me of christmas (sorry Richard), I think it has something to do with the backing vocals, I get images of a little group of christmas carol singers, standing on some corner in the snow haha! Hayley: "Something To Remember" a very fitting title and track for our project! I love the positivity in this song, it sparkles, and I found it uplifting the first time I heard it, singing it was a joy! 4. The Silence Of It All (R.Smith) Richard: I'd told Rob that if he had anything in his back catalogue that he would like to contribute to this collection then by all means feel free to go there. What he did instead was write this delightful song especially with Hayley in mind. The theme of the song is something pretty special, hearing Hayley sing this song it for me was one of those moments where I sat in awe. If I hadn't have known better I could have sworn that Hayley wrote the song herself due to the fact that her vocal performance was so believeable, that takes a lot of talent to put across someone elses words as if you had written them. I think that also is a credit to Rob's writing ability to be able to have written something to get that out. Sometimes some things are just meant to be, this is one of those songs that tells me that about this whole experience of working together with Hayley from afar. Rob: I'm sure living here in the country had quite a baring on the writing of this song. I am surrounded by nature, and I have always been tapped into it, something my grandfather and father passed on to me. Hayley truly delivers a heart felt performance with this song, and that feeling I spoke of earlier is in this song in abundance, - fantastic job Hayley. Hayley: This song just fit like a glove vocally! at the time Rob and Richard sent it to me it was a little different from the material we had been recording up until that point! I love it! It is one of those very special songs that stay with you, deep and meaningful and open to interpretation, in our own way I think we can all relate! 5. Let's Get To The Heart Of The Matter (R. Anderson, R. Smith) Richard: This was the first song that we wrote with Hayley in mind, well before there were any plans for this album. Originally this song was planned for a different upcoming project. It instantly hit me how wonderful that Hayley and Rob's voices blended together, this has gone on to be a favourite of a few people close to us...In fact my mother and Rob's wife both love this song which is a nice thing I think. I'd not long returned from my first jaunt north to US when we got the idea to work on this song and was staying with my grandparents where I wrote this lyric in their spare room, It's a nice thing for me personally to think of them when I hear this song...Grandad really fell for both Rob and Hayley's musical talents too. Rob: One never knows how things are going to pan out when you start a new project with someone, Richard and I had this song in mind to use as a duet with a female singer, and we had tried a singer or two when we came across Hayley Oliver, and we offered Hayley the song. We were both very taken with Hayley's singing, and though Hayley was mainly into country music, I could hear a quality in Hayleys voice that made me think I would love to hear Hayley sing something more mainstream or contempary. We were both really pleased when Hayley accepted our offer to sing this song, and over the moon when the song was completed, our voices blended really well together, and Hayley had really nailed it. Little did we know then, that we would embark on the making of this album. I guess we both have Richard to thank for suggesting it, thanks Richard. Hayley: This song is pretty special as it was one of the first Rob, Richard and I collaborated on together, and as well as being a beautiful song, always reminds me of that time. It was mine and Rob's first duet and back when we recorded it we had no idea that it was to be the first of many for an album project. I felt priviledged to be working with such talented guys and to duet with such a great musician as Rob. 6. Love You Forever (R. Anderson, R. Smith) Richard: Initially the lyric for this song was a bit different and in fact intended for another project, but as often happens we move things around a bit...Rob added some changes to the lyric that really sealed it for me. It was always intended to be a sweet and honest in intent, I love the harmonies on this track, it is a sweet song and for me one of my favourites on this album. After we had finished with this tune it was then that I got the nerve to suggest a whole albums worth of songs, it was then a matter of talking Rob and Hayley into it...which I wouldn't have done had I any reservations about the quality of the material we would go on to write for this project. Rob: One of the more difficult songs on the ablum for me as a player. To get the backing track just right, took some considerable effort. In it's early stage's, I very nearly scrapped the song altogether, because I didn't think it was strong enough to be on this album. Thank god I didn't do that, as this is also one of my favourite songs on the album. Hayley: Our second duet, and a very sweet song, a good opportunity to add some harmonies and I think the blend of both our voices worked really well on this track. 7. Through The Heart (R. Anderson, R Smith) Richard: This one was actually a bit of an insight to an emotional experience of my own, the title was inspired by something that Rob had written to me in an email during a very trying time in my life...he had a point and was right about it too. It was nice to be able to put some of my real emotions into the lyrical content here...Rob and Hayley more than fulfilled their end of the deal with regards to bringing this track to life. Rob: I will never forget working on this song, the lyric in the opening verse about good and bad news will always be a reminder to me of some bad news I recieved at that time. That aside, I do love this song a lot though, my guitar compliments the vocals in a way that I am really pleased with, and our voices blend together really well after a few early key issuse's. Slightly more uptempo than I intended, but it still works fine. Hayley: Another uplifting song, I found this very inspirational, it has such a good message. 8. How Many Ways (R.Smith) Richard: Having Robin play sax on this tune was something that Rob and I had discussed, we thought it was a nice way of tying in some of the sounds of what we capture with GW and also with some of Rob's solo material to this project. We liked the idea of trying to take this away from being just a country album and more of a meeting of minds and styles. I know Rob is particularly pleased with this song. Rob: It would be silly when you have a great sax player as a friend, not to ask him to play something on this album you are working on. The sax solo on this song is one of Robins best, not complicated, just very tasteful and in keeping with the song. It was actually recorded in a scout hall where we sometimes rehearse, not in my studio, and it has a nice ambience to the sound. Brilliant job Robin cheers! I love the easiness to Hayleys voice on this song, and the feeling she put into it. Not an easy song to sing, but you did a brilliant job Hayley. The song was inspired by an Italian singer I like called Gino Vannelli who sings in this style. Hayley: I was blown away by this song! I knew from the first time I heard it, that it was going to be a special one for me! It's one of my most emotional vocals I think,it's so powerful, and extrordinarily different from anything else we've worked on, yet perfect for our project, I was so glad Rob and Richard sent it over to me, I would hate to think that this could have passed us by! 9. I Believe In Angels (R.Smith) Richard: Rob and I have both written songs about angels previously with other projects, the fact of the matter is that we're both believers in them. This is another one of those songs that really does it for me. Rob: While writing this song, I had a basic idea going on, but I needed something else to bring it alive, after trying a few ideas, I stumbled onto the simple acoustic guitar peice that goes along with the song. Once I had that, then the song all fell into place. Angels are something Richard and I have written about before,and I like the title, as angels really do look after us you know, I have had such an experience myself. Hayley: I love songs about angels, I'm a believer in them too, and when Richard and Rob mentioned the title to me, I knew I was going to love it! I certainly wasn't disappointed when I heard it, it was as great as the title suggested! 10. The Simple Things In Life (R. Anderson, R Smith) Richard: Life can often be so hectic that we go about living far too fast and don't get to the point of saviouring all the good simple things. I'm one of those people that is quite content with the simple things in life as opposed to having the need to be a part of the in-crowd. My thought was to incorporate some of that into this project as I know Rob is like that as well. Musically i think there is a bit of a tip of the hat to Roger Hodgson (Supertramp), I know Rob has been enjoying his "Live In Montreal" DVD, it seems to have rubbed off...which is a fine thing! Rob: I think you are right Richard, the Roger Hodgson DVD definately played a part with the writing of this song. We had been playing the DVD for several weeks here at home. and the chorus of this song is very much something like what Roger would have written. I love Hayleys vocal on this song, this was a song I knew would really come to life once her voice was on it, and I wasn't dissapointed as it's the type of song that really suits Hayley, great job! Hayley: I would echo Richards feelings on this, this song is simply me! the way I view and value life, it's the simple things that can mean the most, it's so true! 11. You Might Think (R. Anderson, R. Smith) Richard: We decided to try something a little different with this song, we're all fans of Shania Twain so I guess in some ways this is a bit of a tip of the hat to her and her ex-husband who is a musical hero of mine. I like the fact that we were able to add in a bit of humour to this project, and full credit to Hayley for endulging my wim to have something a little sassy into the mix. This song always puts a smile on the face, both the album version and Rob's demo. Rob: A fun uptempo song, Richard and I discussed the lyric he had written, and thought it would make a fun Shania Twain type song, so I purposely went down those lines with the arrangement of the song. Full marks to Hayley for getting into the spirit of it, it's not always an easy thing to pull off these type of songs. Hayley: Richard was set on recording a Shania style song, and I was all for that! this was fun to sing, and always brings a smile to my face, nice to have a little humour on the album, and I think it fits perfectly. 12. Days Gone By (R. Anderson, R Smith) Richard: I'm sure we have all had moments in our lives where longtime friendships have changed for all manner of reasons without our really wanting them to. This song is all about reflection...I'm quite proud of what we've written here actually. Musically the song reminds me of summer with a dreamy kind of feel, which serves up something different for this project. Rob: Quite a different song this one, I wanted something to end the album that was a little different to what we had done so far, and this song is certainly that. The song was a real mission to complete, right from the writing stage, right though the recording of the instruments, and then the mixing stage. That was actually the hardest part, mixing the song. I think what we have though is an interesting song, which give a bit of contrast to the album, and finishes off on a different note. Hayley: Richard should be proud of the lyrics on this song! I think it's also a good one to close the album with, a nice and lighthearted mood yet reflective.

Rob and Hayley both play live, in New Zealand (Rob) and England (Hayley), from time to time Richard gets up at some of Rob's gigs.

The songs on this album were influenced by all manner of real-life situations.

The Making Of "Something To Remember" 1. How did this project come about? Richard: At one point I was getting online to check out a lot of and interesting artists that I thought might be worthy of contributing to another project that we have planned for a little down the track. One night I stumbled across Hayley's site and heard a couple of her songs, I thought that Rob's father would really like the sound of her voice so sent Rob an email telling him to check her out and pass on a song or two to his father. Lo and behold Rob really tripped out over her voice and commented that we should ask her if she wanted to work on a song or two....well a song or two quickly became an album, a real no brainer, it was only really seeing weither all 3 of us had the time to be able to dedicate to an album that really was of concern. I knew Rob was keen on the idea, and had said so...If I remember correctly his words were "If Hayley wanted to work on an album's worth then I'd be up for that, but It'd have to be her idea". I played the middle man on that one (laughs). Rob: I'll go along with that Richard, not much more I can say! Hayley: I first met Richard and Rob on soundclick. richard contacted me and introduced me to his and Rob's music. Later he made the suggestion of all three of us collaborating on a project, I was thrilled! at that point the project was to consist of one possibly two songs, intended for my solo cd, it was after we'd recorded "Let's Get To The Heart Of The Matter" and "I Can't Help But Feel The Way I Do" and we were all so happy with the result and worked so comfortably together that we decided to work on an album of our own. 2. Have you enjoyed the processes of putting "Something To Remember" together? Richard: Oh yeah, It's been a case of each song that is completed being meant to be I think. I'm sure both Rob and Hayley are pretty happy with their efforts, as well they should be. They've both been gracious in their working on this album, which is a bit of a bonus because quite often there will be moments where I'll scratch my head and think that something might not quite be 100% in a team situation, In this case I've not had any real complaints at all. It's been a relaxed association, which I think having approached things a song at a time has helped keep it that way. Rob: I have really enjoyed the making this album, working with Hayley and Richard has been a real pleasure. I have achieved all my goals with regards to the making of the album, and I do hope Hayley and Richard feel the same way. Hayley: Definitly, I have not only enjoyed the music I have been fortunate enough to record with Rob and Richard, but also the experience of working with two great people, we've pulled together and managed to make this happen from opposite sides of the world, and not only created an album but established a great friendship along the way, I know we will always be friends now! 3. What expectations do you have for this album? Richard: Well all my expectations have already been fulfilled, 12 times over (laughs). The intention for us was to deliberately create an album where any one of the songs could be classed as a favourite, of course there are always going to be standout tracks for the other people that might hear this material, but the reality from where I sit is that each song stands up on it's own and there are no duds. From a label perspective, remembering that Rob and I run Polar Music New Zealand it would be nice to be able to get a bit more airplay for not only the songs on this album, but also for both Rob and Hayley's back-catalogues to be acknowledged more. However that all aside, I just look forward to being an old fart and remembering working with these 2 exceptional folk on a really nice album. Rob: I do hope as many people as possible get to listen and enjoy this album, other than that I don't have too many other expectations for it. From a writer and producers point of view, my expectations are already fulfilled with the completion of the album. Hayley: I think we have achieved so much with it already! so many of my expectations have been met in the completion of a project like this and beyond too! a few years ago I wouldn't have dreamed it would be possible to complete an album with people I have never met who live so far away. Of course what I now hope for the album is that it reaches people and touches them in some way, and that they get as much pleasure from listening as we have recording it. For us personally it is something we can treasure, "something to remember"! 4. How do the songs compare to your solo endeavours? Richard: Well compared to my solo endeavours the guitar playing is a whole lot better (laughs). Actually at the moment I am not working on anything solo, I'm far too busy with GONE WILD and my work behind the scenes with Polar Music New Zealand, as well as some other work I am doing with some pals of mine in the US and Australia. I'm sure that Rob and Hayley will answer this question differently however, but I do think there is a lot of nice melody type things going on that are very much a part of what Rob writes for his own material and indeed for GW as well, that's always a consistant really because the fact is we like our music to have a nice melody, even the hard rock material has to have a good hook, listen to this album and those things are all there in spades. Rob: There are definite comparisions, with me writing the music and playing most of the instruments on the album, my style is definitely in there. But I of course wrote these songs with Hayley in mind so they have a different flavour and style going on too. There are sections of songs, and songs themselves in which I would never write that way normally for a Rob Smith solo song. Hayley: One of the things I like about this album is that it is quite different from my solo projects, I am a country singer so this is unlike anything else I have been working on in recent years, I always find it refreshing to experiment and try something different, it is interesting to find new perspectives of music and I think strengthens my development as a singer. I also think that in selecting the songs we have been considerate of our individual styles and have brought them together in a totally unique way which has created a sound all of our own! 5. What is it about Hayley's vocals that inspired you guys to write with her in mind? Hayley: I don't think I can answer this one! Richard: For me the most important thing I heard was a clarity, you can tell every word that she is singing. Which as a lyricist is actually very important, there's no use having lots of clever words and feelings in a song if it can't be heard properly. We also liked the idea of hearing what Hayley would sound like doing less traditional country sounding music, we encorporated some country things into this project and were never totally against it popping up, but given that Hayley has her solo material that leans towards the traditional material, we felt it best to try something different and see how that would go thus keeping it a seperate entity to both Hayley's solo material and it also had to be different to other country-related projects that Rob has worked on with his father. Rob: Hayley is a brilliant singer, and she sings with feeling. Her attention to detail when learning a new song is fantastic, as some of the phrasings on some of these songs were quite difficult to sing. Hayley also has a great ear for music, her pitch is terriffic and this makes my job as producer a lot easier, unlike some other singers I have worked with. (no names mentioned haha!) 6. Whilst working on this album, you said you took it a song at a time... Richard: What we tend to do is wear a few hats at a time, we'll be working on several projects at once and often jumping from one project to another. During the making of this album we've been working on the new GONE WILD album, Rob's also produced quite a bit of his fathers material and also worked on his wife Carol's album. Whenever we've needed a breather from the hard rock material we've thought "right time to work on an STR song". It's been like coming down after a good night on the sozzle to a nice wake-up...or something like that (laughs). Rob: Actually after a few weeks working on some rockin out music with the GONE WILD stuff, it was a nice break for me to be able to work on the STR album, and put my head into a different headspace and style of music. I think this possibilly helped in the writing of the STR album, as it encouraged the ideas to flow as I wasn't having to think rock music, and slipping into the easier listening mode seemed to work well. Hayley: Yes, I think that was a good way to do it. Apart from the practical issue of having to be flexible because we needed to divide our time between this and our other separate projects. I believe that working this way gave us plenty of space to step back from each song and consider the development and direction of the album more thoroughly, that has made it what it is, we learned as we went, if we had rushed to finish it in a few months I really don't think it would have been the same. 7. What has feedback been like to the songs that people have heard? Richard: The feedback has been great actually, I've had people of all ages marvel at how nice the blending of Rob and Hayley's voices sound. We knew that it worked, but sometimes it's nice to have other people realise that too. It's been an interesting experience in this regards because even people that might not be into the lighter kind of music that is represented here, have expressed to me that they really like what they've heard. I think they've both made a few more fans through having worked on this album. Rob: We've had some great feedback from people who have heard some of the songs. Once this album is available and people get to hear all of the tracks then it will be interesting to hear what they have to say about the album. My mum heard a few songs and said they sounded really professional, thanks Mum! Hayley: The feedback on some of the songs we've streamed on soundclick has been fantastic, we have had a lot of support already, a great start! 8. How hard was it for you to lyrically put your head into the frame of mind that someone else was going to be singing your words? Richard: That's never really a huge problem for me personally, as quite often I'll write something just for the sake of writing it, never knowing where it might wind up and weither it will have music written at all. With this project however I was mindful of the fact that in some instances I had to put myself into a different head-space, I would just relate to how women I know would react to different situations...at least in the instances where there were obvious female-intended sentiments to a song. I was pretty relaxed about the prospect of where we were headed songwise, having worked closely with Rob for a while now on a few different things I knew that trusting him with one or two of these things was going to be alright...and yes there were cases where some trust had to be involved (laughs). There were one or two challenges along the way, for instance when we were reaching the end of the album, Rob asked me to conjur up 2 new lyrics to put to music. At the time I wasn't really in the frame of mind to be writing ballad-y type musical themes...but thankfully I had a technique that I knew would work for me, the muse was indeed kind in this regards (laughs). As a whole it was really just an honour for me to be involved, Rob could quite easily have written an albums worth of songs himself but was gracious enough to keep me involved and not just in the way of co-writing songs. As a producer Rob was great about listening to different ideas that Hayley and I both had as well. We approached this album I think in a way that was a bit different too in that it was never a case of worrying too much about who wrote what or who got to sing what, I really liked that aspect of it all. Rob: All of the songs that I wrote lyrically for Hayley worked out great, so it wasn't a hard thing for me to put my head into that frame of mind at all. I could imagine Hayley singing the songs while I was working on them, and they came back even better than I imagined. 9. Will you 3 be working together again? Richard: There are some plans for some other songs to be tended to for another couple of projects where Hayley will be guesting on a track or two. But as for a 2nd STR album, that's not something we're planning at this stage. We really want to saviour this album before thoughts of that happening are ever conjured up (laughs). That and I think we all have unfinished business where other projects are concerned that we want to finish up, then if we feel that making another album such as this is then we'll do it. Anytime Hayley needs a song for any of her solo albums then I am sure Rob would agree to lending his skills, as would I. Rob: Maybe sometime down the track we might do something else together, if everyone is in agreement? But right now I have a load of other projects that I must tend to, so I'll be busy with those throughout the next year or two. I'm not getting any younger you know haha! Hayley: I certainly hope so! though we don't have plans for a second album together at the moment we have discussed working on material for other projects. 10. Just before we finish here, name one song on this album that you most personally relate to... Richard: I can't name just one, I can relate to them all in some way...even those I didn't co-write. Rob: "Through The Heart" Hayley: I can relate to them all in different ways, but if there is one that stands out, for me, I think it has to be "How Many Ways", I am so moved by that song!