Stripping

I am having to force some downtime down my neck at the moment.

I should be collating a bunch of songs for a bonus cd to be sold with the album when bought directly through my label, and i could do that easily from Warpsichord offcuts, but nothing is ever EVER good enough so i'm busy reproducing things, re singing re writing.

Its excellent to visit some things i hadn't heard in a while and it gives me little thrills to hear things i did that i had forgotten, but here's where the problem is. THERE'S TOO BLOODY MUCH OF IT. My hard drive is clogged with nearly 60GB of recorded bits and bobs, which would be amazing if they were all tremendously well executed pieces of musical literature. But a lot of it is recordings of "the time my voice cracked at the top note and i laughed and it sounded cool so i kept it to use later" and the like. I'm gonna have to pack some of it away before i can do new things. Onto a harddrive. Or two.

To be honest its been a long time coming. I have gradually become so freakishly patient that if a pitch bend takes five minutes to load i shall wait. But thats not really good enough. I don't have a great short term memory and things fall out of my head almost instantaneously so i have to be able to work quickly.

I wonder if my short term memory is actually an inability to pay attention. Some sort of attention defecit. I once told someone i had Attention Defecit Disorder, and then completely forgot to tell them it was a joke. But they were convinced for a few years that this was indeed true.

Its not that i can't pay attention really, but just that i try to pay attention to lots of things at once. I have the TV on when i read. I listen to music while i watch a movie. I draw while i make music. and i beatbox when trying to sleep.

Thats the worst one really the drumming at sleepytime. I'm terrible for drumming my fingers and hands. I walk in drum rhythms and have to keep them constant. I can't keep my fingers still and this all comes most violently at bedtime. I suddenly realise i have an amazing beat clattering around my head and i tap it out on my head/on the bed head. And its not just any old beat, but TRULY THE MOST INCREDIBLE FUSION OF DISRYHTMIA EVER BEFORE WITNESSED. This can keep me up for a long time. I'm kind of used to it, so i can still drift close to the edge of slumber paddle in the wake even and keep doing my beats without much hassle. But then a kind of anxiety starts to form and i wish i had a dictaphone to transcribe this magical clunking. But NO! Not a dictaphone. That, by morning would sound like a spittled fart from my tired lips pressed rudely into an insufficient mic or a mindless contextless clatter of nonsense beat on a dirty bed.

I need you to be able to hear all the villagers pounding these beats on the floors of my medicine mans hut, to hear the subtle cracklings of electricity flying between the poles of my fingers. And whats this?! over these thumps and splutters comes a growing sine wave. louder and louder, changing key fighting against a angry flute! staccato notes spiralling against the steady advance of the synthline! A harpsichord is sexually plucked with soiled plectrums making a tinny sharp oscillating etch against the lush and airy flutes.

And i can see the notes I'm going to sing, the voice I'm going to use, the look on my face as i spit the words. I can hear the colours flying around me at night. If i could see my own head at that point i bet there would be little glimmers floating around it.

But by morning its gone. I'll remember a word or a note, but mostly, my great concerto, my tribal aria is gone. No room in my head to keep it all in.

So i wonder if anyone can lend me a hard drive for my computer and one for my brain?

Band Practice featuring the X-Men

I'm watching the X-Men Animated Series today. I've had two glasses of red wine today and read four books this week, which is something of a record for me.

Band practices are going really well. What's really cool about it is remaking songs from scratch, some you wouldn't recognize from the album versions. Me and Matt were talking about it last night on the way to see Wolverine, how cool it is that the versions of the tracks that appear on Warpsichord are by no means the definitive versions. The bare bones of the tracks remain the same, but everything else can change and should change. I like the idea that this release will mark a point in history of these songs and this idea. Like a single frame in a roll of film.

When I was finishing off the production of this album I really liked the idea of releasing it as a double sided disc, one side containing the main mixes and the other side the tracks completely reimagined or remixed. The idea being that you wouldn't necessarily know which was which, it would be down to the listener to decide which version was the definitive one for them.

I shied away from this idea eventually, partially because of the difficulties that would arise for a DJ from a double sided disc, but also because I want this album to be as accessible as possible from the jump. No gimmicks if possible. But there is no reason not to investigate things in a live setting. Its also going to be really beneficial for the other musicians playing with me to be able to improvise themselves, and that without the rigidity of a backing track i can begin to experiment vocally.

I can't wait to get going with this now. I think Ireland will be first.

I've been thinking a lot about my next project recently. I think its going to be pretty fun to work on. I'd like to bring in other musicians for this one i think. I'm so used to working alone, but have found these past few weeks enlightening.

I wonder if i might have a little sleep now. That episode of X-Men where the Morlocks first appear is on and its one of my favourites.

Would anyone be interested in reading a blog which is less about music and more about my favourite X-Men?

Well you might get one anyway

love love love love love

The Captain America Video.....Video

The Captain America Video.....Video has been live on youtube for a while now, but i must simply tell you about it.




Its been a wee while since we shot it now so my memories are sort of Hazy.

We did principal shooting on a really hot day in June Maybe? I cant remember specifics. Me and Lin went a driving up to East Acton to Director Lulu's beautiful flat where the video was to be set.

Got there kind of early and so the two of us went for a wander and a nice cup of tea in a nicely weird place whilst Lu and Mags finished setting the equipment. I took loads of clothes up with me, my laptop, an amp for playback and some other bits and pieces.

We did a lot of performance shooting initially to capture what was going to be the crux of the video and then moved on to some really fun set pieces. These included Mags and Lindsay hiding in the cupboard and fashioning a method of turning the lamp off from within.

Amazing fun, but i always thought i would be more of a show off when actually tasked to perform, i was really shy instead. i think i started to pick it up though.

We finished off kind of late that night and Lin and i listened to Anat and Jem and the Holograms on the way home.

Work resumed later in the week with an evening shoot to get some darker shots and play with the lighting a bit more.

Lu had a really impressive set up. The lights were amazing and i think have turned out triumphantly in the finished video. This shoot was a lot easier in that i found it much easier to perform. In fact i think this is where we got the best bits of the video.

Marvellous fun during a sequence where i am wrestling with the tape on the bed, i fell back mid wrestle slamming the back of my head on the wall, but carried on as you do. I had to stop when we got to the climbing out the window bit because i was a bit woozy.

Anyway, i have better stories thn this somewhere and i shall write more thoroughly soon, but in the meantime, i think you should go and have a wee look if you havent already.

Get it here : LOOK!

more soon.

best again.

xxx

The God Song

It's been a while. I have been absent.

Life happened and didn't happen in equally devastating measures, but it appears the seas are finally settling.

During this vacation I began to write terrible amounts of words and during this proliferation I reconsidered some of the words I had written previously. Sometimes I don't know what I'm writing about until its done and then I have to apply it to my life like a horoscope to decipher the meaning. Sometimes that's the final stage in the writing. Once a chord progression and beat have been found, i mumble the lines i have come up with over the music and edit out the less lucid parts for more appropriate phrases. I'm kinda equal parts when it comes to composition. At times I write music to a lyric and at times I write lyrics to a music. But the most common scenario is this kind of edited autowittering translated into a story, sung over the bare bones and given flesh afterwards.

The words to The God Song happened more or less in this fashion.

There was a time in my life when i considered myself a viciously silent religious person. Troubled as I was and most everybody is, i could roll my eyes closed and bathe in a blonde light of comfort in times torment or stare at some invisible entity in dark formless clouds and feel connected to it.

I never really spoke about it and never attended a church, for it was a private experience and so greatly enriched by its secrecy. I think back to that time now and realise i was addicted to secrets. The pleasure and trauma of having something unknown to anyone but you. Terrible things really. i try not to have any secrets these days. I am fairly certain this happened because of all the X-Men and Spider-Man comics i consumed. Ha.

A few of my friends had deep seated, sturdy christian beliefs which could not have been more alien to my personal beliefs. They would effervesce communally and loudly over the correct approach to sex in the eyes of god. I would listen and offer a view based only on fact or logic, deadpan and devoid of religious overtones. The straight man. Secretly i would converse with my Cloudman in pictures, not words. I would ride out the detriment of homophobes and bullies with knowing but desperate looks upward and feel protected. It was better on the darker cloudy days cuz it added to the whole drama of the thing. It was more satisfying and dramatic to imagine and Old Testament god looking directly at me atop a huge fucking thundercloud. And on sunny days i didn't really think about it.

And then one day it stopped. I'm not sure what happened, but it was like my access was rejected. The pleasures of comforts I had had during times of torment were now defunct and non renewable. A gloom would well beneath me and I couldn't tilt my head to see beyond it. That's probably enough metaphors about that.

I mean I tried to rejuvenate it. I bumbled with guilt and puzzled over standard thoughts of the forgotten sinner. I looked to more conventional means of contact to try and sidestep the malfunction and for a time began praying nightly. But it would not work.

Perhaps I grew up? I don't know what happened, but something ticked over in my head and I wasn't as easily rewarded. Which is probably a good thing. After a while I stopped even thinking about it. I got over the drama of having lost my imagined connection and got on with life.

And so the words to The God Song are largely about this time. My state as a marionette and the horrible moment an unseen crow snipped the strings to the sky. I actually thought about that image as I composed and tried to represent the crow by the marauding brass in verse two. just so you know to look out for it.

But I'm not REALLY a snipped puppet, and far from lifeless. As it is you find other ways to connect as we bumble along. to each other, and perhaps thats what I was looking for at that point in history and didnt realise.

This was a rather sombre one folks, so i'll stop there. I promise to be more fun next time. I will tell you about all fun things about shooting the Captain America Video Video, Maida Vale Studios, Radio One, Manchester, Gay Festivals, Chicks On Speed and Radio Plays with Blevin. Oh and remixes.

MORE (cheerful) SOON

AMX

xxxx

Hello Again!!

So today, i thought i'd tell you a bit about the history of 'Warpsichord'. I'm trying to think of the best way to phrase it, how to describe the thinking behind it in an eloquent manner, trawling through all my old emails in an effort to be factually correct, but insteaaaaaad i think what will do is just bibble on for a bit and hope that it makes sense.

Warpsichord began its conception at the beginning of 2007, but it wasn't Warpsichord yet. I submitted a track to a label called Smalltown America in what was supposed to be a massive label maildrop. In the end, STA were the only label i submitted to. I began a dialogue with Andrew Ferris from STA who was very encouraging about the track and was kind enough to include it on Public Service Broadcast 9, a regular compilation the label released. The track was called 'Love Is A Terrible Thing' and was taken from my third collection of songs (unreleased, of course) called 'I Do My Own Stunts'.

Shortly after this i began speaking to Daniel Fawcett from STA about releasing an album of my songs. I was far too excited at this point to give any thought to what would be on this album, flabbergasted by the oppurtunity, and i dawdled for quite a while in its execution. You know, its like i was so overwhelmed by the possibility that it could actually happen that i couldn't quite organise my thoughts properly. I had just finished, as i say, my third collection of songs and therefore had a good wealth of songs that were ready or nearing ready that i could have included, but once i got myself sorted i decided that i had to do right by this offer.

I mean, this might be the only time i ever get to do this. It has to be right. Which is terrifying.

So i decided that all of the songs for the album had to be new. They had to be written specifically for this project to give them a familial cohesion. And I didn't want my first official release to be a compilation. Not that anyone would realise if it was, for the other albums live in my room and the rooms of friends. But i would know.

I decided quite early on that this album should contain mainly samples of orchestral instruments. It was just something that was tickling me at the time since i did the Peaches cover, which you might have heard? I think it might still be up on the ART SCARE myspace. I wanted to make an album full of contrasts and contradictions. Orchestral instruments which didnt sound QUITE RIGHT, or married with other incongruous instrumentation. Huge Ampitheatre timpani's with a shitty little stylophone dancing on top, heavily distorted brass with electro beats and a xylophone bought from Tiger, Harpsichords and string enesembles with skittery glitch rythmns fitting underneath. I can't remember what else, but you'll hear it if you buy the album or look at my myspace (which i hope you will do).

And i set to work.

They came really slowly at first. But two by two they came, and eventually i had a handful of brothers which i could sift through rather than trying to finish them to order. It was quite interesting actually, the way they were born. In two's. Disgusting reflections of each other like a wrong mirror. I hope that i get to keep creating in that fashion because its really fun to work on two completely differing pieces and alternate.

And i noticed once i had finished the writing process that this was a really colourful collection. It wasn't what i had orginally conceived at all and it took me by surprise. For example: this album contains the first love song i have ever written (eugh)

Actually, not (eugh) at all. Its lovely to be able to write a song like that. And there's never been a more appropriate time.

In reality, all but two of the songs on this record were created specifically for it. The two oldies were from my first ever attempt at album making and were completely re-recorded and re-orchestrated and in part, re-written to fit in with the others. They were adopted. I want to include them on this because they are two that have always excited me in their frivolity and glee. Written while i was first learning how to write songs and how not to, it makes sense that they are here when i say hello to the world.

I think thats probably about enough for tonight. My hair looks funny in a kind of hitler-youth fashion because i didn't DO it today and i think i'm wearing the top that i had my hair cut in, because there are unexplained little pokey things in my neck. I really hope they are hairs and not monsters. 

You hear a lot of stories about that.

So now that i've told you a bit, not a lot, but a bit about how Warpsichord was conceived, i think i'll break it down a bit and tell you about the songs individually. Probably do a song a day, so you know all about them by the time it drops.

But in conclusion; What is Warpsichord?

Warpsichord is Science Fiction.

More soon.

xxxxxx

Good Evening.

Hello.

This is the first time i’ve ever written a blog. But i think now is probably the right time to start one.

My debut album is being released on the Smalltown America label in the next couple of weeks. Its called ’Warpsichord’. About two or three weeks before that comes out we are releasing the lead single off the album which is called ’Captain America Video’ as a download and 7" and is up on the player at the moment, albeit in its domestically mixed and horrendously loud state.

In reality this is the fourth or fifth full length album i have produced, but its the first to gain a release and its probably my favourite so far, so in preparation for its release i thought i would tell you a bit about it and hope that its an interesting story.

So what i’m PROBABLY going to do is give you a little bit of blog every now and again about a specific song on the album. I’ll tell you what its about, how it was made, why it made the cut, what colour it is, whether its a girl or a boy, just a whole bunch of rubbish that’ll be really interesting to write and really boring to read.

I’m also going to tell you little bits about all the wonderful people who have helped me to make this and those who i am going to be working with shortly, give you little bytes of info on how the AMX campaign is ticking along, who’s played me where, where I am playing, where i WANT to play, alla that jazz, i might post a couple of videoblogs up as well (VLOGS?) so you can all look right at my face when i am saying my story.

But i’m afraid, as yet, i don’t have any recipes to share

.Soz.

So before i conclude this introDUCTory blog, please allow me one absolutely unabashed, unashamed plug...........................AMX live Radio One Session at Maida Vale on the 23rd of April,

so,

in a months time exactly, i will have done that two days ago.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh

x

p.s.

STA