In Progress
People who know me well, know that the music never stops really. There’s always something that I’m pursuing towards the next song or the next instrumental, whether that’s learning a new plugin, getting to grips with a new piece of recording equipment, just practicing a tricky new piece of music ready to record or play live, or simply just all of the above.
(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down
‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’ started it’s life instrumentally in 1986. I had in mind a two-part guitar piece and it progressed out of jam sessions with a friend I’d met whilst working at Huddersfield’s Electronic Arts Workshop, Colin Ramsden, who I was trying to start a band with at the time. I came up with the claw-and-slap guitar riff, and at one point he jammed along with a little repeating section using some picked harmonics, which appealed to me. I can’t remember now what Colin’s version was like, we made no recordings of those little jam sessions, and so when […]
What’s behind the… WRY SMILE?
I wrote Wry Smile in 2017, after I’d seen enough of the antics of a certain Donald Trump who was in the White House at the time. To be honest, I was more than a little concerned as to why he’d been elected in the first place. Then, I saw such a parallel with our own situation in the UK at that time: incompetent right-wing leaders, too guided by lining their own pockets and those of their friends, than that of the welfare of the average person. That certainly showed itself in the few years that followed. Especially when covid-19 […]
With the Sky
With the Sky was written in 2011, just after I checked out as a pilot. It’s had various tweaks and changes to the lyrics since then, but essentially the tune has remained the same.