I’ve decided to have a go at making some youtube videos. My first project is a set of lyric videos for the Miser’s Will, a song cycle I wrote for my album Ironbark.

The Cartographer’s Tale

What’s the story?

This story is from the point of view of a cartographer who is sent a map, one he drew. But this map has marks on it that lead him to buried ‘treasure’: brass and gold claws buried in the earth. The letter that accompanied the map tells him to dig these up and take them into town. He does this, and is met by the executor of the titular will…

What’s going on musically?

The time changes are a bit silly, there are parts in 4, 7, 5 and 6 and the key changes are interesting as well. Its trying to do what many of my songs do and have sing-along vocal hooks and silly prog stuff in the same song. I want to write music that makes people who like a tune happy, and still entertain nerdy muso types. I think this achieves it.

It’s really interesting listening back to this. While I’ve played it live several times I haven’t really listened to the recording for a couple of years. It’s slower than I remembered and I’d totally forgotten about the synth melody.

Anyway, next up is part 2: What The Orderly Saw…