Be careful what you wish for! I always wondered what that meant?
When I was working at my real job I used to dream of having a recording studio and whiling away the days writing songs, playing the guitar and wondering whether to get dressed?
Then due to the kindness of my pre orders and some family support (thank you mum x) I managed to fulfill that dream. I worked hard, built my little studio and recorded P'dice. It took a little longer than I anticipated but that's because I had no real idea of the work that would be involved. To be honest I never classed it as work, it was my hobby and I was loving it. Gavin Harrison and Marco Minnemann had kindly offered their services to play drums and life was good. What could go wrong?
Well after the release of P'dice I lost my Mojo. Writers block. Dreaded second album afterlife syndrome? Not sure what its called but my musical passion had become my day job and I missed the Yin of my normal engineering job that balanced my Yang.
Prior to P'dice I always used music as my sanctuary from the real world. I picked up the guitar almost every day and bashed out riffs to decompress. I tinkered on the keyboard finding beautiful chords, and some not so tonally enticing. But music was my sanctuary. It was the place I went when I wanted to shut out the world and its problems.
So after P'dice I was faced with the life pressures of getting a "real" job and the recession was biting every where ever I looked. I had spent almost 18 months living the dream and I was forced to wake up. I also spent months unable to pick my guitar up. We had stopped talking to one another. It happens to the best of friends.
Anyway here I am over two years later. I'm on my third engineering contract. One 9 month contract involved a daily commute from York to Huddersfield, a round trip of almost 120 miles. I have rejoined the rat race. My yin and yang has been re-balanced, my Mojo has returned and over the last few months I have made friends with my guitar. Life is good and the balance has been restored.
So what happens next? I have started writing and recording again.
I have about 500 clips / samples ranging from 10 seconds to 10 minutes of me jamming to myself and I've compiled them into little projects. But the idea of tackling a full album in one go fills me with a feeling of work rather than play. So rather than release an album I think I'm just going to release singles as and when they are complete. That way the monumental task of creating a full album is broken down to bite size pieces and I can enjoy the loop of "write - record - release - write - record - release" on a more regular cycle. Each track can be enjoyed in its own right.
I find that song fatigue can set in when you constantly have a track you can revisit and tweak. The brightness of the original spark of creativity is dulled and burns out. I start to forget what was the inspiration behind each track. Perhaps that's not exactly correct but the emotion that helped create the track fades with time.
Singles will be released digitally and an album will be released in various formats consisting of your favourite tracks.
At the end of the day I don't think my music will ever pay my bills. So I'll side step the business side of things and concentrate on doing what I enjoy.
If you enjoy it too then you're a welcome partner in my journey.
Baby steps...... (again)
When I was working at my real job I used to dream of having a recording studio and whiling away the days writing songs, playing the guitar and wondering whether to get dressed?
Then due to the kindness of my pre orders and some family support (thank you mum x) I managed to fulfill that dream. I worked hard, built my little studio and recorded P'dice. It took a little longer than I anticipated but that's because I had no real idea of the work that would be involved. To be honest I never classed it as work, it was my hobby and I was loving it. Gavin Harrison and Marco Minnemann had kindly offered their services to play drums and life was good. What could go wrong?
Well after the release of P'dice I lost my Mojo. Writers block. Dreaded second album afterlife syndrome? Not sure what its called but my musical passion had become my day job and I missed the Yin of my normal engineering job that balanced my Yang.
Prior to P'dice I always used music as my sanctuary from the real world. I picked up the guitar almost every day and bashed out riffs to decompress. I tinkered on the keyboard finding beautiful chords, and some not so tonally enticing. But music was my sanctuary. It was the place I went when I wanted to shut out the world and its problems.
So after P'dice I was faced with the life pressures of getting a "real" job and the recession was biting every where ever I looked. I had spent almost 18 months living the dream and I was forced to wake up. I also spent months unable to pick my guitar up. We had stopped talking to one another. It happens to the best of friends.
Anyway here I am over two years later. I'm on my third engineering contract. One 9 month contract involved a daily commute from York to Huddersfield, a round trip of almost 120 miles. I have rejoined the rat race. My yin and yang has been re-balanced, my Mojo has returned and over the last few months I have made friends with my guitar. Life is good and the balance has been restored.
So what happens next? I have started writing and recording again.
I have about 500 clips / samples ranging from 10 seconds to 10 minutes of me jamming to myself and I've compiled them into little projects. But the idea of tackling a full album in one go fills me with a feeling of work rather than play. So rather than release an album I think I'm just going to release singles as and when they are complete. That way the monumental task of creating a full album is broken down to bite size pieces and I can enjoy the loop of "write - record - release - write - record - release" on a more regular cycle. Each track can be enjoyed in its own right.
I find that song fatigue can set in when you constantly have a track you can revisit and tweak. The brightness of the original spark of creativity is dulled and burns out. I start to forget what was the inspiration behind each track. Perhaps that's not exactly correct but the emotion that helped create the track fades with time.
Singles will be released digitally and an album will be released in various formats consisting of your favourite tracks.
At the end of the day I don't think my music will ever pay my bills. So I'll side step the business side of things and concentrate on doing what I enjoy.
If you enjoy it too then you're a welcome partner in my journey.
Baby steps...... (again)