12 October 2022 - 0 Comments

Voices, released this week, is the debut album by Logan Wedgwood. Recorded at Roundhead Studios and Parachute Studios, Logan is an Auckland-based business advisor, husband and father who, in the middle of the March 2020 lockdown, found himself at breaking point and turned back to music for salvation.

Beautiful yet brutal and deeply personal, Voices is an instrumental anthology that marks the culmination of a lockdown passion project. Logan’s debut album speaks to his personal highs and lows through the pandemic, including falling back in love with his life as a husband and father.

“I was at breaking point,” says Logan, “During the first lockdown, my wife and I found ourselves working 16-hour days, trying to juggle full-time parenting, with very little time and energy left for each other or anything else.

“The pressure of work, being chained to Zoom, and the stress of the unknown, found me in a state where I wasn’t taking care of myself. I wasn’t mentally present and able to be a good husband or a good father. I started to think, ‘what’s the point?’”

Incredibly unhappy, it was at this low point that Logan realised his need for a creative outlet. He decided to rediscover this former love of music by teaching himself the guitar via an online course. Practising the guitar every night became what Logan describes as “his salvation”. A retired drummer and regular gig performer, Logan was in a pop/punk band for a decade before refocusing on his career and family. This journey of self-discovery found him not just learning guitar but also bass guitar and re-discovering the piano and the drums. All the instruments that listeners will hear in the album are played by Logan.

Many nights have been spent playing and writing after the kids went to bed to produce this album. Playing and writing music has helped Logan to fill his own cup and fall back in love with his wife and his role as a parent again.

Voices gives rise, not through words but through pure instrumental bliss, to stories that are relatable and reassuring. Logan hopes that listeners can see their own journey in the music and fill in their own lyrics, their own story, into each song. The album’sfirst track, The Longing, is about the intense feelings arising from a disagreement with a spouse.

“The longing is about having a fight with your partner, the push and pull and letting egos get in the way,” says Logan. “It’s about sitting on the couch next to my wife, both of us still angry at each other. No one wants to be the first to speak and the first to say sorry, so we sit in silence. But slowly, you choose to forgive and forget and look to each other for connection.

“Sharing this music with others isn’t about fame or ego. Rather, it is about sharing my story in the hopes that other people might find something they can also relate to. Ultimately, I hope people have a listen and enjoy feeling again.”

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