Review

And so this is Christmas. Time to review my last year in music.

I've done quite a few open mic nights. That was a resolution I made last year: to do lots of open mic nights. It's been great practice but I'm starting to realise that I'm not that interested in them. They're not really showcasing my songs - you don't get long enough. And having to listen to all the other acts is tedious at best, confidence-shattering at worst.

My biggest achievement in 2009 has been the two Studio 106 gigs. They were both exactly how I wanted them to turn out: a good atmosphere and enjoyable for the performers as well as the audience. I think this is partly because most of the audience already knew each other and it was a friendly and supportive atmosphere. People were laughing with me (hopefully not at me!) when I went wrong on my songs. I definitely want to do more of these gigs and organise gigs in other places with the same ethos.

I finished another songwriting class in March. Songwriting classes were really useful. Mainly to have a place to showcase song ideas and to get feedback. I don't think I could really learn any more from the teacher even though she was very good at teaching. I just don't think songwriting can be taught that much. You can have a few pointers but then you just have to go and do it. And the only way to get better is to keep doing it.

I also met Sarah on the songwriting class and it's been great hooking up with her and playing music together. I want her to play more on my songs next year. I think her voice is perfect for my songs and I like it that she can play lots of different instruments. I'm desperately trying to write a song for the bagpipes for her to play and for me to sing.

I'd like to try and improve my voice next year, maybe with singing lessons. The last studio gig was a revelation in that it was the first time my voice didn't wobble with nerves. But still... it ain't great! I listened back to the videos Helen took of the night and my voice just isn't as good as it sounds in my head.

Next year I'd like to get my own recording set up. It's been great going over to Adam & Jayne's in Hastings to record but I'd like to be able to knock little CDs out quickly and cheaply. So I'm going to look into getting some decent recording equipment.

I'd like to carry on playing music with Annie but next year will also be the year of a new project that Brendan & Anjuli of The Great Indoors and Crack-A-Jack Crow are getting together with me playing bass. We haven't been able to get together for a rehearsal yet as we were snowed off last Friday. But I'm really excited about this project. I'll write more about this next year I'm sure.

The whole getting-to-Portland thing has kind of changed. I read recently someone saying that if you don't follow up on your plans straight away that they sour and I feel that has happened with my Oregon Bound idea. I'm just not that bothered any more. It's a shame that this blog is named Oregon Bound Music because it's actually turned out to be a nice way of keeping a record of my music-making progress and I don't want to abandon it just because I'm not so fussed about going to Portland any more. But you never know... things might change and I might get longings for West-coast America again. So, for now, Oregon Bound Music it is.

And that's it. My resolution will be the same as last year... do more music!

Enjoying

I've got an idea for a concept album. It's to do an album of songs based on birds. I've already got "All These Things" which is about a magpie/my girlfriend. And I've had an idea for a while to write a song using the metaphor 'as the crow flies'. I could write about 5 songs and have a cute little album.

I was worried that the songs I've made so far don't quite make an album because there's six of them. This is too much for an EP and not enough for an LP. I was thinking I had better wait until I had some more songs to complete it. But then, my new song, "All These Things", feels different to my other songs. So then it hit me: an album doesn't have to be ten songs long - and I don't have to call it an LP or and EP as I'm releasing it myself. I'm realising that I don't have to do anything in a particular way if I don't want to.

I'm under no pretensions: I'm not making a career out of this - I'm not good enough. So I may as well do things my own way. If I want to release a little CD of five or six songs then that's what I'll do!

This can be applied to lots of things in my music. I don't have to do pub gigs or gigs just to get exposure. I'm not bothered if my music is popular or not so I don't have to do any gigs if I don't want to.

I enjoyed the studio gig last week so much! And whenever I play at the open mic night it's just a bit of a let down. I want to push myself but there's really no need for me to do gigs that I don't enjoy. And realising this is very freeing. It's exciting! I can organise gigs in woods or in abandoned places.

I've just got to ask myself the one question: am I enjoying this?

These people from Múm are clearly enjoying it

Múm - Prophecies and Reversed Memories - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Tidy

I organised another gig in my studio last night. It was great! Everyone said they really enjoyed it and that it felt very special.

I did five of my songs first. Usually my voice is all wobbly on the first couple of songs but I think I did alright this time. I felt nervous but I wasn't panicking. My fingers were something else though. They had a mind of their own but I managed to calm them down towards the end of the first song.

Sarah played on a couple of my songs too. She played glockenspiel and melodica on Grace Is Just Her Middle Name and it made it sound amazing! It really makes them into proper songs when you have someone else playing on them. Her backing vocals on The Lepidopterist were great too. I really like Sarah's singing voice and I think it goes really well with my songs.

Next Sarah played a couple of her songs with me on bass - great to hear Sarah playing her songs - they're quite heart-breaking - in a good way! Then I played guitar and bass with Annie who's voice sounded amazing in the small studio space. I always think we sound better when we're unplugged. It's just like our rehearsals - nice and relaxed and we're just enjoying playing the music. And that is the whole idea of these studio gigs.

Finally Anjuli played her songs with Brendan as Crack-A-Jack Crow. She's such a star! So professional. Witty and charismatic on stage, she played a beautiful set. My studio colleague just walked in as I was typing this and raved about Anjuli, saying how she was just stunned when she started singing and couldn't believe that someone this amazing was playing at Studio 106.

Anjuli kindly played The Rainbow Connection for me. Thanks! I love that song so much.

For an encore I was persuaded (twisted my arm, honestly!) to play bass on a Great Indoors song, Working Overtime with Brendan and Anjuli. I hadn't practiced it so it was a bit nerve-wracking but at the same time I know it so well I could just look up and watch Brendan and Anjuli singing.

Now I've just got to go and tidy up!

Interrogates

www.faceculture.tv

Completely inane, ambiguous questions from an interviewer receive lukewarm to openly hostile responses from a host of top musicians = internet gold!

I particularly like this interview with Ane Brun, one of my musical heroes. She looks so dismayed that she's being asked these questions! And when the interviewer opens the curtains behind her halfway through a question, she looks like she's going to walk out. Then he picks her up on a throwaway comment and interrogates her about it until she looks visibly uncomfortable.

Also a great moment when Laura Marling takes the wrong meaning of the interviewer's phrase "big albums". She gives an eloquent answer about albums that were big in sales and gives an insight into her influences – he corrects her and talks about the size of LP covers nowadays.

Heavies

I'm organising another acoustic gig in my studio in December. This time my friend Anjuli of Crack-a-Jack Crow is playing. Looking forward to that already. Now I just need to find someone else to play. Hopefully my friend, Sarah, who I met on the songwriting class, will play a few songs.

I met up with Sarah on Sunday to practice playing bass on some of her songs. Good fun! I always love playing music with other people. She's got some great songs too. And she did an amazing melodica solo on my song, Grace is Just Her Middle Name.

On Thursday my mate Bezz, who I've known since we were 12, is coming down to Brighton and we're going to see the Brand New Heavies. It's been one of my ambitions to see the BNH with N'Dea Davenport. She's gorgeous and really sets those songs on fire. Bezz got me into the BNH which led me to get into funk which led me to be a funk DJ in Swansea briefly so it's very apt that I'm going with him.

Covered

Cover update: my girlfriend bought a copy of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole on VHS from a charity shop. It's a TV dramatisation of the book the was done in the Eighties. We out it on and I remembered the theme tune instantly. But I never realised what a great song it is! It's got a real bitter sweet feel to it.

I looked it up and realised it is by Ian Dury and that a full song has been made of it. Perfect cover material I think. I've found the chords online and had a quick play through last night and it sounds quite good done in my plinky-plonky guitar style.

The sequel, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, has got a different verse so I might use that one in my version too.

Cover

I'm chuffed with my new song. I keep going back on to MySpace to listen to it. I think it's very me.

I've bought myself a rhyming dictionary as I noticed when I was writing that song that I was getting stuck when thinking of rhyming words. I'm going to try using the rhyming dictionary next time to see if it helps.

But now I'm thinking about cover songs. I've wanted to cover a song for a while. I like it when a musician has just one cover song that they do really well. I heard my old band The Great Indoors again the other week and they did a version of The Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog. It was beautiful! I'd always thought that was a great song and Anjuli really did it justice. I didn't realise it has already been covered by quite a few people though. I think that's the main problem... finding a song that no-one else has covered. Plus you have to really like the song and have some sort of connection with it.

Anyway, I've been listening to Michael Hurley songs and I think they are ripe for the covering. I love The Tea Song as I think it's amazing to write a seven minute song about a cup of tea. My favourite line is "I don't care if she's left me/Just as long as the cupboard's full of tea". Amazing in it's simplicity. But, you know... that is what you do when someone leaves you or when you go through some big change in your life, drink endless cups of tea. But unfortunately I can't do those long notes and yodeling that he does in that song.

On the same album is Fat Mama, another beautiful song, which seems to have the same chords as a little chord sequence I've been playing with lately. So it'll either be that or The Werewolf Song - but Cat Power's done a version of that damn it!

Finally

I've finally written another song. It's only taken me six months. Listen to it on MySpace. It's called All These Things.

It's about my girlfriend. My girlfriend has moaned at me in the past for not having written a song about her. I said that my songs were all really miserable so she should take it as a compliment that I haven't written a song about her.

Anyway, I have finally written a song about her and hopefully it's not too miserable. She's a bit like a magpie so I wrote about that:

All These Things

Turning up stones to find her fare
Branches will bough in the air
Sparkles of gold
In all that she holds
Making a nest out of bright-coloured ribbon

Buttons and bones make stately homes
Red cotton reels catch her eye
Leaves that turn brown
Come fluttering down when she's
Making a nest out of bright-coloured ribbon
Making a nest out of bright-coloured ribbon

Black and white need colour
Take flight over
All these things

Porcelain trinkets make her sing
Carries them up on her wing
Odd-shaped and old
Bring treasure untold
Making a nest out of bright-coloured ribbon
Making a nest out of bright-coloured ribbon

Black and white need colour
Take flight over
All these things
All these things
All these things

Strangers

Did another open mic at the Brunswick last night. Good fun! I was really not sure if I wanted to sing my own songs as I felt tired and unsociable and didn't really want a room full of strangers staring at me. I was just going to play guitar with Annie instead. But there were a few other acts that were about the same standard as me so I thought I would give it a go and I enjoyed it in the end. The whole worrying-about-a-room full-of-strangers-staring-at-me kind of went away as soon as I got on stage because, with the lights shining right at you, you can't see anyone anyway.

Annie asked the compere if it was bad etiquette if I went on again to play guitar with her and apparently it wasn't, so I did. That was good fun too. After our second song I looked up and most of the audience had left! The few that remained asked for another song and we obliged (with 'Another Song' - Annie's favourite on-stage joke!).

Someone came up afterwards and complimented me on Grace is Just Her Middle Name, saying she noticed the change in tense. Nice! Glad that someone's listening.

Me and Annie are talking about getting a little songwriting group together with the idea of meeting up every couple of weeks and sharing songs that we've come up with. But now I've started my scriptwriting class and that's going to take up a lot of time. Hopefully I'll have a bit of time left for songwriting.

Group

Oh dear! Songwriting's dropped off a bit. I feel like I'm on the verge of writing a new song, but I've not put aside time to sit down and do it. I haven't written anything since my songwriting class finished in March. Not having that deadline on a Friday night to write something for has meant I just haven't found the motivation. Booo!

Anyway, I met up with Annie again last week to go through some of her songs. It's been a while. Really good to be playing music with her again and she came up with an idea to get a little songwriting group together. We could all meet up every couple of weeks and present a song to each other. And then we could set ourselves new songwriting briefs. If we can get this together it would be fanastic! A perfect way of replacing (expensive) songwriting classes and a great motivation for writing new songs.

Slugs

I'm woefully out of practice with playing my songs. My girlfriend was out last night so I had a run-through of my songs. It was such a disappointment! I've had Fleet Foxes songs going round in my head lately and I think when I imagined being on stage that's the sound that came out. But I'm nowhere near that standard. I mean, I never will be, but I'm sure I was better than this!

It's made me realise that I need to keep up the practice regularly. It's like my garden: if you leave it too long the slugs get it.

Fretless

I got together with Sarah who I met on my songwriting class on Saturday to do some music. We've been meaning to have a musical get together for ages, since the songwriting class finished in fact. Now Sarah's totally inspired by Glastonbury to get going with the music. Sarah, incidentally, used to be lead singer in Headmix. Anyway, she's got some great songs and I really like her singing voice and I'm looking forward to doing more music with her.

I think my electric bass will suit some of her songs so it'll be great to get that out again. My fretless acoustic bass has annoyed me ever since I bought it. It's great to have that slightly-double-bass sound and to be able to slide up and down. But it's cheap and rattles and goes out of tune and it's hard to get the right note and it's got a cheap-looking, holographic effect ring round the soundhole. Or maybe I'm blaming my tools as the person who recommended it plays one to great effect in The Bohemia Ukulele Band.

So I dug out my electric bass yesterday and it's been so long since I played it it had actually gone mouldy! The strap was covered in white spores. Anyway, I just need to take my bass amp back home (it's still here at my studio after the studio gig in May) and I'm away.

In other news: I went to the Willkommen Collective's mini-festival in Stanmer House last night. Fantastic! Such a great venue, out in the beautiful grounds of Stanmer Park. Well done! Best of the night was Pete Roe.

Drone

My latest obsession is for the first song on the Wickerman Soundtrack. A little hunt around the internet tells me it's called The Highland Widow's Lament sung by Leslie Mackie. Anyway, it's composed as a drone. I've always thought that drone songs are boring but this one is truly beautiful. It's also memorable, which again, I didn't think would be possible with a drone note running right through the song. From what I can hear it's just on one chord. Amazing!

I usually spend a long time working on intricate chord-changes as I think that's what gives my songs their interest. But now I'd like to set myself the task of writing a drone. I know a bagpipe player too who would be great to collaborate with.

As it's on one chord the song could also be sung acapella, something else I've wanted to try.

I just have to write the damn thing now!

Compare

Another open mic at the Brunswick last night. Not nearly as enjoyable as playing at my studio gig. There's just something about plugging in to an amp; it makes it stressful; more like a chore than an enjoyable experience. And it's really uncomfortable because you have to keep your head still to sing into the mic. I fluffed my lines and I could hear my voice going out of tune.

I had the usual out-of-body experience on stage. This time it was like dreaming about being on stage. It felt like I was in this room completely by myself, singing to nobody.

Interestingly, I didn't get nervous until I heard the people who were playing before me. It was then that I realised that I'm not as good as I am in my head. In my head I'm really quite good. But I don't often go out so I don't get the chance to compare myself to other musicians so there's only my past performances to compare myself against. And compared to me, I'm quite good!

Instrumentation

The next stage in recording my mini-album is to add extra instrumentation on to the songs that need it. I want to keep it all quite home-grown and a bit wonky sounding. On the weekend I bought a beauty of an instrument for this purpose. It's a little, blue, portable glockenspiel.

I've come up with a little melody to go over the chorus of 'Grace is Just Her Middle Name'. It matches the theme of the song perfectly as it's got that kiddy, girly, delicate, toy-like sound.

But I just don't know what to do with the other songs. I imagine orchestras on some of the songs but unfortunately I don't know any orchestras.

The main problem is that I just don't know music well enough to know what to put on there. It's all very well saying I would want an orchestra on a song, but what notes would they play?!

Ah well, I suppose it'll just take a bit of time to come up with the right instrumentations.

Words

I was just looking at the words I've used as titles for these blog entries...

Words, Roots, Song, Relief, Hastings, Change, Before, Stormy, Well, I've, Another, Interference, Worthy, Cock-ups, Hate, Dive, Job, Scrabble, Low-key, Ghosts, Eve, Jumping, Two, Hooks, List, Week, Toy, Appreciation, Stadium, USP, Honest, Extraordinarily, Real, Booming, Caravan, Arigato, Why

...and it's given me an idea to try and write a song using some of these words. I knew there was a reason for keeping titles to one word. Maybe I should cut them down a bit first though.

Or I could use them together:

Word roots, Song relief, Hastings change, Before stormy, Well I've another interference, Worthy cock-ups, Hate dive, Job scrabble, Low-key ghosts, Eve jumping, Two hooks, List week, Toy appreciation, Stadium USP, Honest Extraordinarily, Real booming, Caravan arrigato, Why?

Roots

Funking hell! Just discovered Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings. The super-hot weather we've been having lately has been annoying me. But as I drove home from work in the usual rush hour traffic last night, a Sharon Jones track came on and everything was alright for 3 minutes.

This video isn't the song I was listening to but it makes me want to get back to my roots and try and write a funk song.



Did I tell you I used to be a funk DJ? I played at the Yum Yum club in Swansea when I was at University there. It was great! It used to be free to get in and you got Big Issue sellers in there. One guy would play reggae and dub to start off with, then I would play funk then someone else would play more latin jazz style funk. It was the highlight of mine and my housemates two weeks. I met my first girlfriend there too when she drunkenly asked me to play another record.

I've loved funk ever since my mate Bezz got me into The Brand New Heavies in the nineties. Bezz lent me a load of Stax records and I heard all the originals of beats I'd heard sampled on hip hop records. I realised that the bits of hip hop records that I liked the most were the beats and grooves. Listening to the original funk records was like heaven: pure beats and groove.

I know you probably have to be more of a jazz musician to be able to write a funk song, and I don't want to stop writing melancholic folky stuff, but I'd love to give it a try.

Song

Singing and songwriting are on hold at the moment while I move house. But I'm still constantly thinking about it...

I went to an Ane Brun gig that was part of the Great Escape Festival in Brighton last weekend. She was amazing; like the last time I saw her at the Duke of Yorks in last year's Great Escape. And also like the last time I saw her I had to sit through two fucking awful bands before she came on.

It comes back to me over and over again that in music, it's all about the song. It doesn't matter if you've got an amazing voice, or if you've got virtuoso musicians around you, or a band with cool guitar sounds, or a fashionable 'name' singing with you. You can have all these things and more but if the song's shit it's always going to sound shit.

I'm also noticing how musicians present their songs. It just seems slightly arrogant when people don't introduce their songs; when they don't even say a word and try to look all gloomy. Ane Brun was warm with the audience and humbly introduced her songs and you instantly liked her.

But, more than anything, her songs are just brilliant.

Relief

I had my gig in the studio where I work last night. It was great! Everyone seemed to really enjoy it and said what a nice atmosphere it was. That was what I was hoping for.

I went on first. I was nervous as always and my fingers were like jelly when I was trying to pick the guitar. But I thought my voice wasn't too bad. It wasn't wobbling everywhere like it used to. I did start to feel sick half way through my set. It just seemed to be taking ages! Anyway, I got through it and got a good old round of applause.

Most people in the studio don't really know that I write songs and play guitar. I think they just see me as Simon-who-disappears-into-his-office. So I found it quite difficult to suddenly stand up and sing songs in front of these people. And I think they were quite surprised. Hopefully in a good way!

Anyway, Annie played afterwards and I played guitar with her. Her two violinists played too and they sounded great. Her first number was quite atmospheric and there was a huge downpour outside which mingled perfectly with the song as it bashed against the metal roof above us. It was one of those never-to-be-repeated moments.

But best of the night was definitely The Great Indoors, the band that I used to be in. Brendan's songs are just brilliant. The Great Indoors are Brendan singing and playing guitar, Anjuli on backing vocals and sax and Dan on double bass. Together they had a really warm, rich sound. Like a dark, mature, red wine. Delicious! I thought I would be a tad jealous seeing them with a different bass player but I wasn't at all. It was just really good to hear them play again. They very graciously let me play bass for their last song, Working Overtime.

So overall, a success! The audience enjoyed the music, the musicians enjoyed playing.

Here's me on my last song, Indian Summer. You can almost hear the relief in my voice!

Hastings

I was recording my EP/LP in Hastings on Sunday at Blue Eyed Sounds. I had such a great day! Six songs in one day! Adam & Jayne always make me feel welcome and are always enthusiastic about music and that makes for such a good atmosphere for recording songs. Thanks guys!

We spent the morning recording the guitar parts and then the afternoon doing vocals. I did a couple of the songs live which was a new experience for me. Doing songs live you can really get into the feel of it and hopefully that comes across in the recordings. I might wait a bit to reveal the recordings to the public. I've got other parts to write for them and I'd like them to be really finished before I put them out there.

At the end of the recording session Adam took some photos of me at a local crack-park. When we got over there there happened to be some kids' paintings of butterflies on the wall! Perfect! We'd just been talking about the meaning of my song The Lepidopterist too (it's about a butterfly collector).

For more of Adam's gorgeous photos have a look at his photography site.

Change

My Portland dream moves away from me like the door at the end of the corridor in Poltergeist.

The recession is hitting my business as my main client is making drastic cutbacks and I'm losing loads of my regular work.

And now my landlord (and friend) wants to move back into his flat so me and my girlfriend need to find somewhere else to live.

And my neck's fucked again.

What a shit week.

It means I can't afford flights to Portland in the near future. And now my parents have bought a caravan in Wales where I can go on holidays. Not exactly Portland I know but a much cheaper way of spending my hard-earned spare time. And I'd be spending it with the girl (and dog) that I love. Funny how ambitions change.

And the good news:
It's two weeks to my Studio 106 private house-gig!
I'm starting to record my EP/LP in Hastings on Sunday!

Before

I should mention at this point that I've been to Portland before. I think. This was before I got into music in a big way and I'd never heard of Portland.

I worked at a summer camp in Connecticut over the summer of... '97 was it?... Anyway, I worked there for two months – as a steward in the kitchen – and then went travelling around America. I had visited New York for a couple of days, relaxed on the coast in Avalon for a few days and then had a mammoth, seven-day journey right across the country from Worcester, Massachusetts to Seattle, Washington. After spending a few days in Seattle I got the overnight Green Tortoise bus to San Francisco.

It was an amazing bus trip; probably the best bit of the three months I was in America. The bus didn't have a toilet on board and stopped every 45 minutes. One of these stops must have been in Portland as the route goes right through there. I do remember stopping in one place that seemed very cool – lots of record shops – and in my mind that's now Portland.

The bus stopped off in the woods at a place that was looked after by employees of Green Tortoise. There was a sauna built of wood into the hillside with a fire lit underneath it. We got in the sauna and then ran down to the stream afterwards and jumped in. It was such a beautiful place. A hippy showed me round his teepee (no, that's not a euphemism) and we all had a cook-out. Amazing!

Stormy

I just walked past some god-botherers knocking on people's doors. There was an old lady inside one house, the door opened just a crack, with two women standing on her doorstep. I overheard one of them say, in a terribly dramatic voice: "The world is in a stormy situation".

I can feel a song coming on!

Well

I did another open mic night at the Brunswick last night. It went well I thought. I was more nervous before I went on this time. But when I was on stage I was alright. I was a bit shaky through the first song but I relaxed after that.

I think I'll always find being on stage a weird experience. It's like you're not in control of yourself. You can look down at your body playing guitar, thinking all these thoughts to yourself like: "Is this me on stage? Is my voice in tune? Why is it so quiet out there? What if everyone thinks it sounds shit? Did I say that out loud? This song is taking ages? Is everyone bored? Do I look silly singing with my eyes closed? That note sounded alright! Hey, I'm doing it, I'm on stage and it's going alright. That note was a bit off. Shit, I went wrong there... etc"

At one point, because I had my eyes closed, I fully expected that when I opened them there would be someone standing right in front of me shaking their head and saying "No... can you get off stage now" and people laughing behind them. Thankfully this didn't happen and it seemed to go down well.

I've

I've done a drawing for my album cover. It's of my ten-ton typewriter.
I've got three of my latest songs up on my MySpace.
I've got a gig coming up.
I've performed my own gig once before at the now defunct Mint Bar in Brighton but this feels like a proper gig with songs that I'm happy with.
I've made it so it's completely acoustic. I want it to be really relaxed like a house-gig.
I've organised it so it's in the shared studio where I work on Thursday 14th May, invite only.

Another

And another song! I'm churning them out!

We were set a brief in songwriting class to write a song with a refrain at the end of the verse using the theme and word 'corner'. I changed it a little. As I'd written a song last week I really didn't think I'd be able to come up with anything this week. But I had a bit of time off work and I used a chord sequence and melody that I already had and I came up with something that I'm really pleased with.

It's based on the fictional library in Richard Brautigan's The Abortion: An Historical Romance where people can bring books that they've written themselves and place them anywhere on the shelves.

The Public Library

"Imagine a room" he said
A library in his head
"Shelves full of stories that people will bring
With pages bound up there in paper and string"

His wishes came true that May
In bricks and plaster and clay
Paid for with charity, friendship and thrift
Built on the corner of Mission and Fifth

Some people came just to look
Or to bring their hopes in a book
Dreamers and authors were welcomed by him
Catalogued, stamped and their books held within

A novel called Victory
A six-year-old's poetry
Love Always Beautiful by Charlie Green
Placed on the corner of shelf forty-three

People and times grew hard
His library fell apart
Coffee shops sprang where the building once stood
Shelved and forgotten its doors closed for good

Now all of his books are boxed
Their words all tied-up and lost
Dust on their jackets and leaves turning brown
Scuffed on the corners and left facing down

Interference

For a while now I've wanted to write a song about some experiences that happened to me when I was having a really bad time a few years ago. When I was at my worst I seemed to affect electrical equipment. I completely wiped my hard drive. God-knows how. And another time a street light went off when I walked up to it. It turned on again when I'd walked past.

A couple of weeks ago I read that this is a phenomenon that has been recorded. It's called Street Lamp Interference (SLI) and a project has been set up to study it called the Street Lamp Interference Data Exchange. Reading a few stories of 'SLIders' helped me write my song. I know it's probably circumstantial nonsense but I still think it's a great subject for a song:

Dark Receiver

Street lamps see her coming
Fade away to nothing
Sets her compass spinning
With no other witnesses

She walks streets at midnight
Bathed in pools of black light
And when her thoughts surround her
Volts flow from her fingers

Dark receiver
Static showers
Down on her

She attracts repulsion
With her cold transmissions
Weak electrons scatter
Car horns whimper back to her

She rides faulty train lines
Switches off their stop signs
And when her thoughts surround her
Volts flow from her fingers

Dark receiver
Static showers
Down on her

City lights no longer
No lamps here to bother
She calls out for thunder
Fuses skin with undergrowth

She scares crows at midnight
Sparks from flower-flashlight
And when her thoughts surround her
Volts flow from her fauna

Dark receiver
Static showers
Down on her
On her
On her

Worthy

By my reckoning I've now got seven or eight album-worthy songs. That's quite impressive! Here's what I've got so far:

The Lepidopterist
Junior Architect
Grace is Just Her Middle Name
Indian Summer
Houses Don't Know Poetry
Poor Frederick Isaac Gold
Dark Receiver (more about this new song soon)
Down the Line (not sure about including this one yet)

Just a couple more and I've got an album!

Cock-ups

I did the Brunswick open mic night last night. I was a bit less nervous this time, probably because I was on first and there was hardly anyone there.

The first song I played I had the microphone angled too high and my lyrics were on the floor so I had to look up, sing, look down at the lyrics, look at what chord I was playing and then look up again to sing.

So for the next song I arranged my lyrics on a chair next to me and angled the microphone so I could look down at them. Half way through the song the microphone started to sag. I tried to lower my head closer to it but it carried on sagging. When that didn't work I tried singing louder. When that failed I stopped, apologised, adjusted the microphone, only for it to happen again ten seconds later. A girl in the audience jumped up and had a go with the microphone while I tried to carry on singing. She couldn't do it either. I joked to her "You'll have to stay there now". She did. She kindly held up the microphone until I'd finished. Why the sound man couldn't have helped I don't know! He eventually came and sorted the mic out and I did my last song without any major cock-ups.

Although it was all a bit shambolic, I did it quite calmly and I was able to pick the guitar without my hands turning to jelly. I'm starting to realise that performing live is a whole other ball game though and I need a lot more practice.

Listening to the other acts last night made me think about what I appreciate in music. There was a singer – very beautiful and with a fantastic voice – but I just thought: who cares? I'd much rather listen to someone interesting with something to say in their songs.

Hate

I've written another song. We were set a short project in our songwriting class to write a song about someone who is in the public eye who we either hate or admire. I had a few ideas as there are a number of people on the telly who I hate... usually without particular reason, I just don't like the way they talk. Miquita Oliver, for instance, has a half-stoned drawl and a jumped-up arrogance that makes me want to punch her face in.

A couple of days later I was watching Grand Designs and shouting at the telly as usual. It featured the most boring couple I've ever witnessed. They had bought a castle, added a lego brick house on the side and filled it with plastic chairs so that they could sit at home and watch DVDs. Jesus... is that really what we're all meant to be aspiring to?

But that wasn't what wound me up the most. In his summing up of the finished Ikea meets Lancelot building, Kevin McCloud said "This building has a poetry to it."

What the hell has some yuppy's house got to do with poetry?!

And so I had found the subject of my hate song. It's about poetry getting its own back on Kevin McCloud

Houses Don't Know Poetry

Poetry will kick down your door tonight
Mask you up and leave you stripped outside
Poetry will crash your 4x4
Wipe your face in mud and metaphor

And walls won't help you now
Your facias let you down
And foundations will flee
From the scene
Cause houses don't know poetry

Poetry is not at fashion's call
It's not an ornament shown off in halls
It's not a book of rules, but a ransome note
It picks you up and grabs you by the throat

And mauve won't help you now
Your palettes let you down
And colour swatches flee
From the scene
Cause houses don't know poetry

And houses
Don't know a thing about poetry
And real estate
Isn't as real as you think it to be
And houses
Don't know a thing about poetry
Oh no...

Dive

I did a gig with Annie in the Providence again last night. The Providence is such a dive! Loud, shitty music before the bands came on, pissed old men laughing at nothing... As soon as I got there I just wanted to be somewhere else... anywhere else. The gig went well and neither of us made obvious fluffs. I think because I wasn't expecting it to be a good gig I just did it without worrying about it.

I'm meant to be collaborating with some people off my songwriting class but it sounds like it's all gone pear-shaped already. The three girls I'm collaborating with met up without me because I couldn't make it (had to watch Lost!) and couldn't agree on anything. Songwriting class tonight will be interesting.

Anyway, I'm so excited by this video I found the other day:

Job

I've found the advert for my perfect job!

Scrabble

Apologies for my absence... work is crazy. (As if anyone cares!)

I've started another songwriting class. And I've just written a new song called "Grace is Just Her Middle Name". Listen to it on my myspace page. I wrote it by this method:

I had a game of scrabble with my girlf. At the end I wrote down all the four or more letter words. Then I picked every other one. I then tried to include as many of these as I could in a song lyric.

For this exercise, 'grace' was the strongest word that I came up with so I based it around this. Once I came up with the phrase "Grace is just her middle name" I had the idea for the song. I was trying to write a new melody for it but I found myself singing it to a harmony I'd written the week before. So I followed that through to it's conclusion.

I debuted it at the songwriting class on Friday. The feedback I got was good. One person suggested leaving more gaps in there. I changed the arrangement a little and added bars here and there which have stretched it out a bit and actually made it easier to sing and to remember the lyrics.

I'm quite please with this one. I wrote it all within the space of a week too.

Low-key

Last night I did an open mic night. The Brunswick in Holland Road, Brighton.

I was trying to think of it as a low-key performance. I dressed down and told myself I was going to make mistakes. I was telling myself anything that would take the pressure of performance off so that I could just get up and knock out a couple of songs. This all changed when my girlfriend invited a few friends, who then invited other friends, and then there were about ten people round our table waiting for me to go on!

The acts started and I was feeling nervous. My heart was racing and no matter how much I tried to rationalise things I couldn't control it. Then a guy came on who was doing all twiddly rock guitar stuff, his fingers moving up and down the fretboard at a lightning pace. I knew instinctively that I would be next and sure enough I was asked to get ready to go on.

"Great", I said sarcastically down the boomy microphone, "That was a great act to follow. Thanks". I got a laugh. Hope the guitar guy didn't take it the wrong way!

I started playing The Junior Architect. Heart pounding. I looked down at my fingers picking out the notes but they didn't seem to be hitting the strings properly. They wouldn't relax enough to play properly. I struggled on and started singing. Jesus my voice sounded loud! My voice sounded okay but my guitar picking was awful... every note was wrong, some notes weren't coming out. I abandoned my picking half way through and strummed it instead. This was better even though I had never strummed it before.

I got through that song. Not too bad except I was annoyed that I couldn't have picked the tune. My fingers had just turned to mush. I made a quick decision and rather than try to pick another tune I opted for an easily strummed song: Down the Line. I know this really well so I could relax a bit more and I think I got through it okay.

I got some good feedback. My friends said it was good and congratulated me. Obviously they would, but it was nice none the less.

I waited around and played guitar with Annie for a couple of songs, one of which Annie dedicated to my girlfriend. I really enjoyed playing this time. It felt like all the pressure was off because I'd done my songs. I fluffed it a couple of times but it didn't matter to me. I was just having fun.

Anyway, I did it! I knew I would make mistakes, and I did, but I'm just thinking that this was the first of many open mics so it doesn't really matter. Adopt, adapt and improve.

Ghosts

At the end of last year I wrote another song for my songwriting class. The theme was 'ghosts'. I wrote a kind of historical murder ballad. Here are the unfinished lyrics:

The Ghost of Frederick Isaac Gold

Wandering...
Down the dusty, disused line
Crumbling...
Down the bridges over time
And time didn't register
In the field where he was thrown
Left to crawl back on his own
He never made it home
Oh no

Shimmering...
Over streams like Damselflys
Wallowing...
Under cloudless late July
He hit the ground struggling
Tried to keep his timepiece gold
Left a childless widow cold
Poor Frederick Isaac Gold
Oh no

Sleeping his way through the tunnel
Shot to the floor with a tumble
Thrown from the carriage a bundle of bones

Stumbling...
Cause his feet won't touch the ground
Hollering...
Though his cries don't make a sound
And people walk through him now
In the street where he was born
Worked the chandlers for their corn
But now that it's all gone
Oh no

Hovering...
Over cornfields dressed in gold
Wondering...
What the next life's gonna hold

It's loosely based on a story I read about that happened close to Brighton in the 1890s. A petty criminal shot a wealthy, somewhat miserly gentleman on the train from London. He put up a struggle but was eventually pushed from the train in Balcombe Tunnel. It was in the middle of the summer.

My idea was to tell the story of a ghost haunting summer fields where he was pretty ineffectual, the same as he was when he was alive. But I don't really think this comes across in the lyrics I've written. I don't know... I'm just not happy with it. Maybe some tweaks would make it come alive a bit.