The genesis of my collaboration with The Verve is signified by a casual meeting with Nick McCabe in February 2008 outside the Britannia Row Studios in South London. Little I knew at the time that this was going to be the beginning not only of a great musical adventure but also of a great friendship.

Nick was doing some rough mixes, I believe, for the Verve’s new album to be (title-less at the time and later called Forth as everyone obviously knows). I was there producing a band called Hana-b.

If I remember well the conversation started with me complaining about a guitar amp I just bought and ended up with him mentioning that he was looking for some cello player for a song they were working on (I See Houses).

I said that I didn’t play cello but with my Violectra I could do a cello and more if he wanted to. On March 5th, after a gig with Goldfrapp at the Union Chapel I went down to Richmond where they were recording.

There I met Tim Bran, Chris Potter and later Richard (Ashcroft) came down the studio as well.

As soon as we opened the first track, I realized something special was actually happening. To me it was just amazing, this was the band I’ve been waiting to meet all my life. It’s a little difficult to explain and I mean no disrespect to all the wonderful artists I’ve been working and I’m working with still, but there it was… clear as a glass of water!

It was a wonderful session, I was supposed to try out a couple of tunes and instead ended up knocking about six whole tracks until about 3.00am.

I will always remember that day, with Richard singing to me as I was playing on Sit And Wonder and by the end of it feeling dazed, as a result of a truly spiritual experience… oh well, whatever that means…

After a couple of months I completed what I started on that session in my own studio and the result was a contribution to six tracks: the already mentioned Sit And Wonder and I See Houses and also Love Is Noise, Rather Be, Judas and Valium Skies.

And of course I had the honor to join the band on stage during some of their summer festivals gigs, headlining Glastonbury, the V Festivals, the Summercase Festivals in Spain and some other tv and radio appearances in the UK.