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I hope a little of the Earth, Wind & Fire sound has rubbed off on what I do. If any hint of a smooth melody ever flirts with one of my songs then I will have to thank Maurice White. I listened to this at a time when other people were listening to U2 and The Wonderstuff. In the same way that I liked Dancing Queen, I liked Fantasy. I think I reveled in how much it was not what you were supposed to like if you were a teenaged boy.

Although the highly produced sound in many ways the opposite of the music I want to make, I appreciate the blending of vocals, instruments, rhythmn which was totally alien to me at the time. I was not used to the sound I heard in Earth Wind & Fire. It almost sounded like something from a completely different culture, which it was really. It took me out of myself and made me feel the world was a lot more full of hope than I thought, being a miserable teenager. It stuck out from my record collection like Penelope Pitstop attending an axe murderer’s convention.

If there is one thing I have taken from discovering Earth Wind & Fire, it’s a willingness to listen to melody in places I would have previously considered too commercial. That and an ability to be able to see past a spangly jumpsuit to musical virtuosity.

I did not realise how difficult it would be to translate what I have written into something that would be playable by a band without any kind of sequenced elements at all. The songs sound much more raw and it is a challenge to make them sound as full as on the recording. You need to make sure the song builds and maintains interest from beginning to end and with slightly more limited sound resources this is not the easiest thing to achieve. When writing, I have just layered one keyboard sound on top of another but when I am playing music real-time, in front of an audience, I have realised I only have two hands, so unless I want to mess about with triggering lots of sequenced loops then I can only theoretically play two different sounds at once.

The guitar is going to play more of a part in the music than it has before and I need to find ways to make the song sound like the same song, but with different parts. All the bass parts that were originally played using synthesisers with be played by a real person with a real bass guitar.

I have not written anything on here for a very long time. There have been many different reasons for that, from work taking a lot of time, to creative lethargy, meaning that I have not had any new music to upload. For the time being I don’t think I am going to have anything new but that is not because I am not still attempting to make music. After a long time planning and hoping it would come about I have assembled a band with the hope of playing live soon. This has been my ambition for a very long time so I am very pleased that it is eventually happening. We are rehearsing a lot of material and hope to have a live set completed in the next couple of months.

It would be really good if I can soon be announcing live dates here. Although I write only for my own amusement, if some people enjoy listening to us live then I would be very happy with that indeed.

Get What I Want (192 kbps, 5MB Mp3)

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I have done a little bit of cleaning up with this song so I think it is probably worth including with the rest of what I have done. It’s supposed to try and describe how I feel a lot of the time but I’m not sure it does justice to what it’s like. I am continually trying to scrape the best out of my voice, but it’s a tough job as there is only so much that can be done with it.

Little Obsessions (192 kbps, 5.9MB Mp3)

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I don’t know why I love the sound of an electric piano. I have never actually played one – just software emulations, which I don’t think really sound or feel the same. I suppose one of the reasons is that you don’t have to be a great player to luxuriate in the sound – just hold down a weird chord. I am no more a music historian than a player, but I first became aware of ‘that sound’ through Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book album. I got to know the sound of a rhodes piano at a time when it probably was about as trendy as my liking The Visitors by Abba, which by the way I still love immeasurably. Likewise, admiting a fondness for Trip Hop might make me seem stuck in the nineties but that’s where I probably got the urge to stick a Rhodes sound up against a drum machine to see what happens.

I’m constantly reaching for the sounds that got me interested in making music in the first place, and Portishead and Stevie Wonder are probably as good examples as any.

My preference is for a Fender Rhodes over a Wurlitzer any day. I like the chimey bell-like sound rather than Supertramp bark. Riders on the Storm, not the Logical Song.

If you still don’t know what sound I’m talking about here is a quick sample.

Electric Piano Sample Thing (192 kbps, 5MB Mp3)

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(Have a look at the Fender Rhodes Supersite for more information.)

Grain of Sand (192 kbps, 5MB Mp3)

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I have been working on this song through different versions over a long time. This is another of my best efforts to make it sound like a song. You can get lost in changing tiny little details until nothing means anything any more, so I’m calling this finished for the moment.

Try (192 kbps, 5.4MB Mp3)

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Here is the full version of the song, now mixed as well as I can. Hope you like it. After a few listens I will be able to pick out what needs changed next but for the moment it counts as finished and can go onto the music page. Yey!

Pointless Exercises (192 kbps, 5MB Mp3)

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