This is exciting! IronBark 2020

This is very exciting! I have just finished recording a new version of my 18 minute ‘epic’ song, IronBark. I am so excited I immediately made as many little homemade singles as I had the materials for. Which is 18 (I only had enough labels for that many).

There are 18 CDs of the brand new version of IronBark. It sounds well good! 18 minutes of music about the murderous, melodramatic happenings in the town of Ironbark, all set to twisty guitars and synths and stuff.

I’ve put them onto these vinyl style CDs. You can have one, if you’re quick! £1 (or more if you want) plus a little for the postage.

I have no idea if a ‘proper’ physical version will ever exist – I have literally just finished the recording and have had no time to work out plans for a release. So this might be the only way ever to get your hands on a physical thing with this song on it. Certainly the only way for a while. (Can you tell how this is a smooth, commercial endeavour full of careful planning?)

Get ’em while they’re hot.

All together now: “Five men know where the bodies are buried…”

My indecisive face

Here’s a pic of me pulling an indecisive face. I’m trying to work out what to do next, artistically speaking.It’s a weird time. The eye of a plaguey storm. We’re likely to be heading back into full-on lockdown soon here in the UK and while I’m lucky to have a relatively secure job and little personal risk, that doesn’t mean I’m unaffected. I find myself lacking concentration. Do you find that? Hard to focus on anything weighty, long, meaningful.

I’ve been throwing around ideas for the next album. Is it a scifi concept album? Is it a looser collection of songs that will allow space for the big long prog rock epic that is currently brewing? Is it a combination of the two?(I might be combining those two ideas into some chimeric monster album)

But, is it the right time to be thinking of an album? That’s a big load of music, a large statement. I’m not sure now is the time to be making big statements. it might be the time for lighter distractions. Individual songs. Sillinesses.

Not sure.’Just follow your muse. You’re an artist, do what feels right’.But a lot of that view of the artist – that we’re instinctual, creative, making decisions in the moment without too much thought – is fiction. Getting an album written, recorded, mixed, mastered, released? That’s a big project with lots of moving parts. Musicians who get stuff done are project managers as much as ‘artists’.

So I’ve decisions to make about what the next things I release are.I reckon those two album ideas that have been knocking about are about to become one idea.I reckon before that there might also be:

– Another demo tournament. I enjoyed the last one.

– Revamped ‘Seven Bells John’ songs plus the short stories that go with them (yes these exist). That’ll include new versions of Through These Veins and Ironbark which I’ve nearly finished. They sound fantastic.

– Individual single releases.

Probably that’s what will be happening. Maybe.