The couple of months before a new production are always exciting: it’s a time of sharing ideas, challenging each other, getting stressed, trying out new things, laughing a lot, and planning, planning, planning. It’s a great time to be at Vamos, where everyone is focussing in on making the new show the best it can be.

Being a composer is one of those jobs which is actually quite different to what people image it to be, When I was a kid I thought composers sat in garrets and waited for the muse to descend, or at the very least could be found sitting at a grand piano looking pale and creative. Of course, I do that as often as I can, but I’m just as likely to be heading out wrapped up against the wind to record sounds, or carrying my microphones and laptop into London to work with musicians contributing to a soundtrack.

Vamos has, of course, made Nursing Lives before, but the remake is a chance to revisit every aspect of the show with the experience we’ve gained over the last five years, and make it even better. It’s been a fantastic process so far, and really has shown us that we’ve learnt a lot. The production retains the wonderful, atmospheric world of wartime nursing, based on stories told to us by local nurses, but the story is now deeper, more human, and definitely (as we like to say) more Vamos.

So I’ve been spending this month discovering even more of the excellent 1940s British swing band music to be featured in the show, as well as writing some new tunes, and re-working some old ones. I’ve also spent a couple of days recording building sites and road works, and getting carried away by the sonic wonders of diggers, drills, saws, hammers, and cranes – you’ll hear them all on the new soundtrack. It’s a long way from the garret, but it’s all part of the job.

Janie x