In the early days of this year(2023), I started working on new music. I had to get used to the new set-up, digital recorder and stuff, dust off the guitars and even the ER-1 that still worked, and get familiar with stuff again. Inspiration was probably the will it ever be released Songs of a Lost World. That Cure tour sure had a big impact emotionally , perhaps a touch too much at some point. Anyway, here’s a starting point. I actually have a version with some rhythms on it, but not quite happy with it, and a little mix-up means I have to find a way to cut it as I forgot to stop the recording so it’s just a lot of silence at the end. There’s guitar bits too, but nothing listenable yet.
I must admit I haven’t worked on it recently, as I am currently not enough on top of things to multitask/multiproject and somehow, while it’s a bit of a procrastinating cop-out, I wanted to first finish writing all the basic material for this website, so that I did all I meant to do here, before it becomes more occasional blog posts/updates on concerts or music.
Anyway, I’m waffling on, but here’s the only real new music so far that I’ve been working on.
(It doesn’t even have a working title yet)
Finally an update on the 15th of November 2025.
Yes I have been slacking, on and off, bought a lot of instruments. There is more info on the ‘Writing…music’ blog page (which really should be titled ‘Making’ music as I am not doing much writing, and I have given up on the time-consuming and probably vain idea of transposing this onto staff this time). So there’s a level of improvisation. Anyway, having accumulated instruments, played them not long and thought ‘this sounds great’ but not done much about it, having done or not done many other things, in 2025 I decided to make a little more effort. In stages, it was very much stop/start, each new instrument (so the Bass VI in 2024, but this year two guitars, a synth and a bass), bringing new short-lived motivation. The Telecaster made me decide to focus a little more in August (as well as holidays and no football and lots of people away), September was too busy being back at work, October saw an early flurry, and then getting the Bass (it makes a whole lot of difference to make the overall sound more ‘whole’, I wish I’d got one twenty years ago) added more motivation and so in November I am once more trying to make an effort, even realising it is nowhere near enough, I still can’t play in time, my technique is really really crap, etc. But also, last long weekend, I finally studied the manual for my digital recorder (Zoom R8) a little more. I’ve only had it nearly three years, eh. And I realised I’d been fucking up a lot and should have optimised in view of freeing tracks etc. Anyway, that’s more part of the ‘making music’ blog page, but bottom line is there is a lot of work to do if I want anything to sound decent. But for now, here are three songs, two of them not really new.
Also, for now, the mixes are not very final, and maybe at least one or two parts should be re-recorded (plus I can’t do the bass right, the sound isn’t clean, parasite notes abound), and obviously no lyrics or singing yet, if there ever is. Those songs don’t even have a working title really (apart from New1/NewOld blahblah), so probably should still be filed under ‘demos’ not ‘songs’.
First up, the same song as above, but it has evolved (though I have in fact re-integrated some rhythm bits already recorded all that time ago but not published above). And when I say ‘evolved’, it’s not been a long process, it’s just ‘I added to it eventually’. I think there may be a lot of needless bits in there, I tried to cram in too many instruments (also probably too many high frequencies in the mix). And the added drum patterns (well, manual on the pads, unlike the main one using the ER-1) when it comes in at 2′ is too low in the mix, but I was limited by the volume on the raw material recorded over two years ago – and lost, volatile memory in these keyboards, see – so would need to lower all of the rest.
Then something completely new (might need drums higher in the mix), lots of entwined Bass VI lines essentially.
And finally, I decided to give the ‘New Song 10’ from the ‘lost demos’ page a new life, figuring I could re-record the first bit, and loop it a second time rather than re-record linearly to add the guitar bits, though it evolved into a different beast in the second part compared to that demo. Lots could be improved there (was too forceful on the keyboard at the start, especially as I’d initially recorded a different version with the PSS-790 before deciding that the old Roland would be better). The synth bits are an idea I like and wanted but while I got the rough sound and generic feel right, it needs to be redone/re-recorded. I also think the bass should be higher than in the current mix.
At this stage, I could still work on these three and improve, but I think that will be for later if ever. I have a couple of rough ideas/sketches that I like and this time with the guitar/bass as starting point rather than the old keyboards as for all the above, so would quite like to try and work on these. On top of maybe one or two of the old demos I might want to give a new lease of life too.