October 20, 2025 • 12 mins
Featured Artist: Electric Light Orchestra / ELO
Featured Vinyl: On the Third Day
Alexis’ Hot Pick
Ocean Breakup / King of the Universe
Sam’s Hot Pick
Showdown
Thanks for listening, catch you on the next episode.
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CREDITS
Created and Hosted by Alexis Naylor
Co-Host: Sam Timmerman
Music by Alexis Naylor & Ruby Miguel
Voiceover: Ruby Miguel
Edited and Produced by Ruby Miguel
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Welcome to B Side, the mini series.
From through the Creative Door, join Alexis and Sam as they dive into the timeless world of vinyl.
For Alexis, vinyl was more than music.
It was a Sunday ritual she shared with her dad, listening, talking, and soaking in the stories behind each album and the artwork on every sleeve.
(00:30):
Though her dad is no longer with us, she continues this tradition with her friend Sam Timmerman.
Join them as they share their passion for vinyl and the stories is records.
Hold.
Hello brother.
Hello.
What time of day it is?
Is it?
What time of day is it?
I'm not sure.
(00:50):
Evening time.
Evening time.
That probably speaks a lot as to how I couldn't speak English right there.
How are you today?
Very well, my love.
How are you?
I'm well, I'm well.
I've been rabbit holing, like mad and loving it.
Love this.
Yeah,
because you've given me a record that I had not experienced before this, but I've been loving electric light orchestra for a long time.
(01:17):
It is such a great record.
I love this so much.
Such a great
on the third day, ELO.
Yeah.
Abbreviation.
Electric light orchestra.
Can we talk about the artwork first?
Now that you're holding it up?
A hundred percent.
Do we know why they're showing their navels?
(01:39):
Why they're showing their belly buttons?
No, I did.
Do you know?
You know why?
I genuinely have no idea.
I went looking and I
couldn't find it.
Find it.
So for those listening, there is a stunning black and white photo of the gentleman in this band, and they are all.
Uh, making it very obvious that they're showing their belly buttons, their navels, they're moving their shirts out of the way, or they don't have a shirt on.
(02:07):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Fun little photo by all accounts taken by Richard Den
Okay.
Is a fashion portrait photographer.
And the only things I've found out about him so far is Richard Evan worked for Harpers Ba Bizarre Vogue and El Magazine,
I mean.
High caliber.
Yeah.
(02:28):
Amazing.
Gonna,
if you're gonna get a photo for your album, get,
get the best.
Get the best.
His fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty, and culture for the last half century.
Oof.
That was in 2004 when he passed away.
(02:48):
What a legacy.
What a legacy.
I may as well talk about my top pick.
So my top pick is a song called Bluebird is Dead.
And I just absolutely adore that one.
(03:11):
It's a sad song.
'cause for those listening, I'm all about the sad songs.
Mm-hmm.
Love them.
I love how.
Sits in minor chords and then for the tension moves melodically again, love miners.
What's a sad song without miners?
So yeah, you definitely seal feel the suspense all the way through, so I really enjoy that.
(03:35):
This song also has a lovely constant groove.
It's nice and it's not too fast, not too slurs, just right.
I'm like Goldilocks.
It's just nice, nice groove.
But the one thing that I really, that strikes me with this song is that.
When it comes to the production, the actual main vocal line is not sitting right, really front and center of the mix.
(04:01):
It's actually sitting a bit backwards.
So not to say that it sort of sounds like you're underwater or you're sort of afar, but it does give you that a little bit of a disconnect because it's not like right in your face, those melodic lines and the vocal and the lyrics.
So you have to really be paying attention.
To sort of bring that forward for yourself, which I'm, and it's
(04:24):
not necessarily in that ELO 1 0 1 style of, for I, I would say choir choral style vocals.
There's not hugely layered harmonies there.
It is a subdued melody line as opposed to what a lot of their other songs are, which is that classic, you know, the kind of Bee Gee style, the Falsetto Boys, falsetto man.
(04:49):
Oh my goodness.
That range is stunning.
It is lovely, but it almost, because it's that little bit further back in the production, in the mix, it has this, it brings more tension, it, it adds more grief to the lyrics and to.
The ambience of the song
(05:09):
makes you listen harder as well.
Oh, a hundred percent.
And that's why like that tension with the chord changes as well as having that real falsetto that sits back, I think it actually adds that tension.
So you are actually.
You are not quite sure why you're squirming a little bit, but you're feeling that grief.
That's a great way to describe it.
I'm not sure why I feel semi uncomfortable, but music
(05:32):
making me, yeah, and it builds and then it releases and then it builds again and it releases.
And that is it to you
for making me feel something.
Yeah.
That is the best bit about music, but yeah, that's.
I just love it.
I love something that just I can listen to when it washes over and it makes me feel something.
Mm-hmm.
Even before I've even dived into the lyrics.
(05:54):
Love it.
Fantastic.
I love Bluebird In the context of the kind of four and a bit song Sweet that they created at the top of the record.
Kind of those bookends by ocean breakup, the start of the record being this jagged, almost hitch cocky and kind of, dang.
(06:16):
It's so fantastic.
For those listening, don't put on this record and be alarmed by the first track.
Like your fire alarm isn't going off.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like the first track is I, it's almost, yeah.
What the hellie, what is going on?
It got it called me by surprise completely.
I was going, I love EO and that happened and I went, oh my God.
(06:40):
It's just so much fun and bookended those, that whole first half of the A side really, really well.
I loved that.
Bluebird coming second out of that was a. Bit of a left turn as well, which I thought was really cool.
There's quite a few little left turns
and this is why it, what made me appreciate Showdown even more.
(07:03):
Showdown is my pick for this time.
It made me appreciate Showdown even more because it was the the Suite I Ocean breakup bookends.
Either way you get that real intensity and then out of that comes just what.
A lot of people would say is classic EO, just
(07:24):
little groove.
And it's back into them doing their choir vocals.
It's back into the strings are in doing their iconic melodies that you hear, and I'd heard showdown so many times before.
And then hearing that in context was, I should have listened to it in context 20 years ago.
But, you know,
hey, better late than that the, the
point of this thing right.
Yeah,
(07:45):
exactly.
Yeah,
it's a lot of fun.
And I love that song purely because
now that in context as well, it is a, it's a little bit of a sigh of relief back into a bit more of a sit back and listen kind of style.
But also, I love the fact that even when they describe it themselves, they just talk about the fact that it's not meant to send a big message.
(08:05):
It's not about a specific narrative or anything like that.
There's an interview with Jeff Lynn about.
Um, the song, and he is, all he says is the lyrics are not meant to convey any sort of deep, philosophical, philosophical message.
It's just talking about a situation or a story, and it's just, it's meant to be listened to and felt like you said before you even care about the lyrics, which makes it a lot of fun, which is why my honorable mention also is Daybreaker, because instrumentals are killer.
(08:36):
Daybreaker so much fun as well.
And Mama.
Mama Bell.
Beautiful.
I didn't pick it.
It's there.
We love it.
Honestly, I found it very difficult to have a top pick.
Very, very hard.
Definitely
very hard.
I did
a little bit of a deep dive about the production as well.
Oh, did you do mostly
checking out the studios?
Because I was interested in, I'd never heard of United Artists Records before, but I had heard of United Artists before, which was essentially, um.
(09:08):
Essentially, it wasn't a union in the sense of the word, but that's kind of how it operated.
But United Artist Artist Records was founded to distribute movie, um, soundtracks.
Hmm.
And the studios that they recorded in were designed for overdub or movie dubs.
(09:31):
Which I thought was really cool 'cause this, this record in itself was produced across two different studios.
We've got Della Lane, I'm sorry, Delaine Lee Studios, both in London, Delaine Lee, which was very much a movie, dub studio.
And then the one I had fun with was associated independent recording studios or air studios, which I, I had a little read on.
And it's a lot of fun if you could get tons of breed through all of this.
(09:55):
Quite crazy, but they started off in London, right in the middle of Oxford Circus, looking for a place where they could dub movies and bring producers from around the world.
So they needed to be closer to the fancy hotels.
They put their studio there.
Lease came up on that.
They went out to Lyndhurst Hall and Hampstead.
Created an amazing space there, and then sold the studio itself.
(10:18):
Sold the business, moved to Montserrat.
Out in the Caribbean.
What?
And from 1979 till about 1990, God, the, the list of artists that went to Montserrat to record in this little studio next to a volcano is hilarious.
Elton John recorded three albums there, dire Straits, recorded Brothers in Arms There.
(10:43):
The police did two albums there, earth, wind and Fire went there.
Paul McCartney, rolling Stones, black Sabbath, little River Band, Duran Duran and Luther Vandross have all recorded in the jungle in the Caribbean.
That's insane.
Or it got minor damage in a, um, in Hurricane Hugo, I believe it was.
Oh my gosh.
(11:03):
And they
abandoned it.
Anyway, that's the story of Air Studios.
I love that.
I love that.
See, I love these little rabbit holes we go down.
Yes.
I told you I went rabbit holes this time.
It's a lot of
fun.
Oh, fantastic.
Go and check
out on the third day Electric Light Orchestra.
You won't be disappointed.
It is a bloody vibe.
(11:25):
Listen to it in its entirety.
Please do not.
Don't skip.
Don't skip.
No.
And just embrace the chaos for the first track.
It'll be worth it.
Totally worth it.
Thanks for tuning in for another episode of Through The Creative Door.
(11:48):
If you enjoy our episodes and find value in them, consider supporting us by making a donation.
Just visit buy me a coffee.com/through the creative door, or via the link in our Instagram by where you can choose an amount and even write us a little message.
Every little bit helps, and we truly appreciate all of your support.
(12:11):
But if you can't donate, no worries.
You can still help us out by sharing our podcast with your friends and family, and leaving a review on your favorite platform.
Thanks so much for being part of our community, and we'll catch you on the next episode.
Bye.
Welcome to B Side, the mini series.
From through the Creative Door, join Alexis and Sam as they dive into the timeless world of vinyl.
For Alexis, vinyl was more than music.
It was a Sunday ritual she shared with her dad, listening, talking, and soaking in the stories behind each album and the artwork on every sleeve.
(00:30):
Though her dad is no longer with us, she continues this tradition with her friend Sam Timmerman.
Join them as they share their passion for vinyl and the stories is records.
Hold.
Hello brother.
Hello.
What time of day it is?
Is it?
What time of day is it?
I'm not sure.
(00:50):
Evening time.
Evening time.
That probably speaks a lot as to how I couldn't speak English right there.
How are you today?
Very well, my love.
How are you?
I'm well, I'm well.
I've been rabbit holing, like mad and loving it.
Love this.
Yeah,
because you've given me a record that I had not experienced before this, but I've been loving electric light orchestra for a long time.
(01:17):
It is such a great record.
I love this so much.
Such a great
on the third day, ELO.
Yeah.
Abbreviation.
Electric light orchestra.
Can we talk about the artwork first?
Now that you're holding it up?
A hundred percent.
Do we know why they're showing their navels?
(01:39):
Why they're showing their belly buttons?
No, I did.
Do you know?
You know why?
I genuinely have no idea.
I went looking and I
couldn't find it.
Find it.
So for those listening, there is a stunning black and white photo of the gentleman in this band, and they are all.
Uh, making it very obvious that they're showing their belly buttons, their navels, they're moving their shirts out of the way, or they don't have a shirt on.
(02:07):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Fun little photo by all accounts taken by Richard Den
Okay.
Is a fashion portrait photographer.
And the only things I've found out about him so far is Richard Evan worked for Harpers Ba Bizarre Vogue and El Magazine,
I mean.
High caliber.
Yeah.
(02:28):
Amazing.
Gonna,
if you're gonna get a photo for your album, get,
get the best.
Get the best.
His fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty, and culture for the last half century.
Oof.
That was in 2004 when he passed away.
(02:48):
What a legacy.
What a legacy.
I may as well talk about my top pick.
So my top pick is a song called Bluebird is Dead.
And I just absolutely adore that one.
(03:11):
It's a sad song.
'cause for those listening, I'm all about the sad songs.
Mm-hmm.
Love them.
I love how.
Sits in minor chords and then for the tension moves melodically again, love miners.
What's a sad song without miners?
So yeah, you definitely seal feel the suspense all the way through, so I really enjoy that.
(03:35):
This song also has a lovely constant groove.
It's nice and it's not too fast, not too slurs, just right.
I'm like Goldilocks.
It's just nice, nice groove.
But the one thing that I really, that strikes me with this song is that.
When it comes to the production, the actual main vocal line is not sitting right, really front and center of the mix.
(04:01):
It's actually sitting a bit backwards.
So not to say that it sort of sounds like you're underwater or you're sort of afar, but it does give you that a little bit of a disconnect because it's not like right in your face, those melodic lines and the vocal and the lyrics.
So you have to really be paying attention.
To sort of bring that forward for yourself, which I'm, and it's
(04:24):
not necessarily in that ELO 1 0 1 style of, for I, I would say choir choral style vocals.
There's not hugely layered harmonies there.
It is a subdued melody line as opposed to what a lot of their other songs are, which is that classic, you know, the kind of Bee Gee style, the Falsetto Boys, falsetto man.
(04:49):
Oh my goodness.
That range is stunning.
It is lovely, but it almost, because it's that little bit further back in the production, in the mix, it has this, it brings more tension, it, it adds more grief to the lyrics and to.
The ambience of the song
(05:09):
makes you listen harder as well.
Oh, a hundred percent.
And that's why like that tension with the chord changes as well as having that real falsetto that sits back, I think it actually adds that tension.
So you are actually.
You are not quite sure why you're squirming a little bit, but you're feeling that grief.
That's a great way to describe it.
I'm not sure why I feel semi uncomfortable, but music
(05:32):
making me, yeah, and it builds and then it releases and then it builds again and it releases.
And that is it to you
for making me feel something.
Yeah.
That is the best bit about music, but yeah, that's.
I just love it.
I love something that just I can listen to when it washes over and it makes me feel something.
Mm-hmm.
Even before I've even dived into the lyrics.
(05:54):
Love it.
Fantastic.
I love Bluebird In the context of the kind of four and a bit song Sweet that they created at the top of the record.
Kind of those bookends by ocean breakup, the start of the record being this jagged, almost hitch cocky and kind of, dang.
(06:16):
It's so fantastic.
For those listening, don't put on this record and be alarmed by the first track.
Like your fire alarm isn't going off.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like the first track is I, it's almost, yeah.
What the hellie, what is going on?
It got it called me by surprise completely.
I was going, I love EO and that happened and I went, oh my God.
(06:40):
It's just so much fun and bookended those, that whole first half of the A side really, really well.
I loved that.
Bluebird coming second out of that was a. Bit of a left turn as well, which I thought was really cool.
There's quite a few little left turns
and this is why it, what made me appreciate Showdown even more.
(07:03):
Showdown is my pick for this time.
It made me appreciate Showdown even more because it was the the Suite I Ocean breakup bookends.
Either way you get that real intensity and then out of that comes just what.
A lot of people would say is classic EO, just
(07:24):
little groove.
And it's back into them doing their choir vocals.
It's back into the strings are in doing their iconic melodies that you hear, and I'd heard showdown so many times before.
And then hearing that in context was, I should have listened to it in context 20 years ago.
But, you know,
hey, better late than that the, the
point of this thing right.
Yeah,
(07:45):
exactly.
Yeah,
it's a lot of fun.
And I love that song purely because
now that in context as well, it is a, it's a little bit of a sigh of relief back into a bit more of a sit back and listen kind of style.
But also, I love the fact that even when they describe it themselves, they just talk about the fact that it's not meant to send a big message.
(08:05):
It's not about a specific narrative or anything like that.
There's an interview with Jeff Lynn about.
Um, the song, and he is, all he says is the lyrics are not meant to convey any sort of deep, philosophical, philosophical message.
It's just talking about a situation or a story, and it's just, it's meant to be listened to and felt like you said before you even care about the lyrics, which makes it a lot of fun, which is why my honorable mention also is Daybreaker, because instrumentals are killer.
(08:36):
Daybreaker so much fun as well.
And Mama.
Mama Bell.
Beautiful.
I didn't pick it.
It's there.
We love it.
Honestly, I found it very difficult to have a top pick.
Very, very hard.
Definitely
very hard.
I did
a little bit of a deep dive about the production as well.
Oh, did you do mostly
checking out the studios?
Because I was interested in, I'd never heard of United Artists Records before, but I had heard of United Artists before, which was essentially, um.
(09:08):
Essentially, it wasn't a union in the sense of the word, but that's kind of how it operated.
But United Artist Artist Records was founded to distribute movie, um, soundtracks.
Hmm.
And the studios that they recorded in were designed for overdub or movie dubs.
(09:31):
Which I thought was really cool 'cause this, this record in itself was produced across two different studios.
We've got Della Lane, I'm sorry, Delaine Lee Studios, both in London, Delaine Lee, which was very much a movie, dub studio.
And then the one I had fun with was associated independent recording studios or air studios, which I, I had a little read on.
And it's a lot of fun if you could get tons of breed through all of this.
(09:55):
Quite crazy, but they started off in London, right in the middle of Oxford Circus, looking for a place where they could dub movies and bring producers from around the world.
So they needed to be closer to the fancy hotels.
They put their studio there.
Lease came up on that.
They went out to Lyndhurst Hall and Hampstead.
Created an amazing space there, and then sold the studio itself.
(10:18):
Sold the business, moved to Montserrat.
Out in the Caribbean.
What?
And from 1979 till about 1990, God, the, the list of artists that went to Montserrat to record in this little studio next to a volcano is hilarious.
Elton John recorded three albums there, dire Straits, recorded Brothers in Arms There.
(10:43):
The police did two albums there, earth, wind and Fire went there.
Paul McCartney, rolling Stones, black Sabbath, little River Band, Duran Duran and Luther Vandross have all recorded in the jungle in the Caribbean.
That's insane.
Or it got minor damage in a, um, in Hurricane Hugo, I believe it was.
Oh my gosh.
(11:03):
And they
abandoned it.
Anyway, that's the story of Air Studios.
I love that.
I love that.
See, I love these little rabbit holes we go down.
Yes.
I told you I went rabbit holes this time.
It's a lot of
fun.
Oh, fantastic.
Go and check
out on the third day Electric Light Orchestra.
You won't be disappointed.
It is a bloody vibe.
(11:25):
Listen to it in its entirety.
Please do not.
Don't skip.
Don't skip.
No.
And just embrace the chaos for the first track.
It'll be worth it.
Totally worth it.
Thanks for tuning in for another episode of Through The Creative Door.
(11:48):
If you enjoy our episodes and find value in them, consider supporting us by making a donation.
Just visit buy me a coffee.com/through the creative door, or via the link in our Instagram by where you can choose an amount and even write us a little message.
Every little bit helps, and we truly appreciate all of your support.
(12:11):
But if you can't donate, no worries.
You can still help us out by sharing our podcast with your friends and family, and leaving a review on your favorite platform.
Thanks so much for being part of our community, and we'll catch you on the next episode.
Bye.
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