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.