Last night marked my first ever live performance as Second Thought, and needless to say I was extremely nervous. During setting up, numerous errors occured (as should have been expected, really), but all was resolved for the show itself.

Before I was on, Nick Robinson – a loop guitarist – played a thoroughly interesting set, creating all manner of sounds with his guitar. It didn’t transfer so well into the live situation as I can imagine a studio disc was, but I definitely enjoyed his short set. This meant, however, that I was on soon after. I sat down behind the computer screen and began. Immediately after I started came another error: my MIDI controller was not configured to work in the software. I quickly stopped, and went to set this right, to find my mind had gone blank. So the rest of the set was suddenly very different to how it was intended, and was all now improvised using the laptop only. Considering this, and the fact I had to cut a short section out, I’m very happy with how the show went, and have decided that if I can do well enough under those circumstances, I can do well any time. The set began with the opener to my next album, Vacuum Road Songs, and then went through a number of tracks from that and Purlieu, as well as a couple of rarer old tracks recently reworked for the show. I ended with a short guitar section which was unfortunately ruined due to the electronic buzz on the whole sound; I ended up cutting it short as the sound was very tedious. After the 40 minute was up, I stepped down a far more confident man than I was when I stepped up and had the best pint I’ve ever drank. Fingers crossed the next gig will go far smoother, although on the whole I was very happy with how I played. I’d like to thank all my friends for coming along to support me, and special thanks to Andy for sorting out the technical problems and driving back and forth with leads and adapters – the gig would’ve been impossible without you.

Setlist:
Borderline
Vehicle
December
Rooftops Part 2
First Understanding
Em
Rooftops Part 4
Fences

More music uploaded. This is good. I have to keep some sort of name or face around. When I get some cash at Christmas, promo restarts again. I send off fuck loads of copies of Purlieu to the various places I’ve got lined up, and begin sending VRS demos to some labels. I’m still interested in doing various releases on small labels first, mind. Shame nothing came from the AwkwardSilence label. Ah well. Maybe I’ll do something through Project Aristole when it restarts. I’ve also got the compilation on Dirty, if that gets off the ground, and of course ‘The Disk’. I’ve done some more photography, so once I get Photoshop back on this computer, I’ll be adding more pictures to the site. The ArtistServer page (formerly ElectronicScene) got redesigned with some more artwork concepts for the album.

I’ve also been working on some soundtrack stuff for one of my flatmates who is directing a short film for his degree. He wants me and Andy to do the soundtrack, so hopefully that’ll be cool to work on. Uni has provided a few cool things in that respect, really. Furthermore, there’s Anna, who I’m currently seeing, and is not only the coolest person ever, but she also likes my music. So that’s just downright awesome. So the current me is a happy me.

Well, I’ve finally uploaded the new site design. The picture it’s based around will be the cover for Vacuum Road Songs. I hope everyone likes it! I’ve revealed the tracklist, too, as the record’s about done. I still need to add some finishing touches to a couple of tracks, get some more field recordings and mix the full thing down. After that, I’m continuing the hunt for a label. If and when I get one, then I at least have a finished product to give them. Still, even then it’ll be a while before it comes out, so don’t expect to see it this side of Christmas. I’m really, really fucking happy with how it’s come along, and feel the finished product will be vastly superior to Purlieu (which, to be fair, I still love, but some parts are a couple of years old now).

It’s been over a year since Purlieu was finished now. Seems like yesterday. Still, I’ve progressed a lot. The new album’s similar in places, but overall quite different. I began to get sick of the slightly stale sound of Purlieu, with it being almost entirely electronic, other than samples. The fact that Nsepan, which is just live piano and viola, is the most popular track on the album brings that right to the fore, so I really felt the need to move things on a little. I’ve got real guitars on many tracks, some drums and even an organ. It’s an idea I’m thinking of really expanding on future projects. Either way, Vacuum Road Songs needs to be out of the way first. I have more to write about the album, but that can wait for the moment.

I’m in THE WIRE! THE FUCKING WIRE! Which is probably the best thing ever, except for maybe being in XLR8R. Which I’m not. Not yet, anyway. I stood in Virgin Megastore grinning for about five minutes when I saw it. So happy. Here’s hoping it’s a sign of things to come.

The album is coming along wonderfully. I’ve now got most of the tracks laid down. Three titles to look out for: Street, Dald and Night. These were all finished over the last week. Street and Night are very ambient… probably the most ambient things I’ve done so far, in fact, remixes aside. Dald is quite different, and almost jazzy. I programmed the drums from various samples of me playing drums, and there’s a bit of jazzy Rhodes-style electric piano and guitar improv ontop. A bit of new ground for me, which is always good methinks. Anyway, that’s about all for now. Just pottering around being bored of town before the big move in six weeks. Not long now!

Long time no update. With ElectronicScene on the brink of death, I’ve not been able to update the journal there, and have decided to simply move it onto the full site.

Purlieu was released a few weeks ago, and has been selling pretty well. I’ve also had some wonderful reviews, which have made me exceedingly happy. John from AmbientLive loves it, and Jenn and Dave, who I didn’t think would like it at all, seem to really dig it. In fact, I’ve not really had many negatives comments at all. It’s generally agreed that the second half is better than the first, which I’d agree with. In fact, there are a couple of tracks in the first half I’d really rather not have on the album now. But whatcanyado, eh?

It also dawned on me that Purlieu is exceedingly late, so I shouldn’t be too worried about new music. I was forever holding back on writing more, because I felt it was too soon, but I realised that Purlieu was supposed to be out in October, and it’s been finished for eleven months now. Meaning, given the average of an album a year, the new one should be almost done in time for an autumn release. Which, of course, it’s not, but it makes me far more confident in working on it. I’m thinking it’ll be done by the end of the summer. I have ten tracks at varying stages of completion, although probably only seven or eight of them will make the final cut. I’m not big on leaving stuff off (if a track isn’t working, I give up before completion), but there are a couple which maybe don’t fit the mood.

I’m going to be playing at the AmbientLive2k4 show in Leeds this summer, along with ambient masters 4m33s and HyperExMachina.

There’s also been a slight update to the hosting… due to ElectronicScene’s end, I’m looking for new hosting space. In the meantime, Steve of Hyperdriver is kindly lending me some space. Many, many thanks there.

I think that’s all I’ve been up to, musically. The real world’s been busy, with trips to America, gain and loss of love and general busyness.