The View From The Cube

2012-03-07T10:36:00.004Z

I bring a Frost* update. I know I've been busy with the Losers stuff of late and I'm trying to get it done as quick as I can, but the dayjob is also manic and I have 4 kids. Time runs out a lot.

Anyway, I had one of those moments the other night where I dreamt up an idea that was actually so exciting and perfect for Frost it actually woke me up and I had to run downstairs and type it all up on the laptop in the middle of the night in a bit of a squeak.

So yes, this new album is going to be a proper concept album. It will all be linked together and tell a very distinct story. The other bit of news is that I'm going to be co-writing for the first time. I reckon there was a real danger of some old Godfrey compositional cliches being hard to fight off which could have resulted in the whiff of musical stagnation here and there so myself and the Mitch will be penning large chunks of it together in an attempt to keep things fresh. I've also asked Blunders and Nath if they have anything in the cellar they think might be appropriate, so I fully hope and expect the credits to read "Written By Frost*" by the end of it. This would please me immensely.

So I hope to have Losers put to bed by the end of next month. I have a very enormous gig to do for the dayjob which won't be finished until the end of June so I plan to block out some time after that to start co-writing with the Mitch. I have heard that there's a disused Routemaster bus nearby in a field that sleeps 4. I'm seriously thinking of hiring it for the first sesh.

That's all for now folks. Keep it country.

x

The Leader Of The Starry Skies

2012-02-26T15:41:00.000Z

On Monday night just gone, I got an email from my chum Tom Dolan regarding one of our most favouritist bands ever, Cardiacs. It sent me on a slightly wine inspired tour of their back catalogue and led me, inevitably, back to consideration of the very sad situation currently befalling the genius behind it all, Tim Smith.

I'd heard recently of the benefit CD released a couple of years ago, The Leader Of The Starry Skies, to raise funds for Tim's neurorehabilitation and bought it this week, not least for the absolutely beautiful and chilling version that Steven Wilson does of Stoneage Dinosaurs which was always one of my fav Cardiacs tracks anyway.

Anyway cut a long story short, I've been an avid Cardiacs fan since I was about 16 and so with a hefty dose of dutch courage I emailed The Genepool who put out the album and asked, should there ever be a second songbook to accompany the first, if Frost might be considered as a contributor.

Well, blow me down if I didn't get an email from Tavus Korabi, out of "them Cardiacs" as he called it the very next morning saying that he'd love for us to be involved. Tavus. From Cardiacs. Emailing me!! I nearly had a gentleman's accident as a result.

So, I'm saying this in the most understated way possible as Tavus did mention that making the first songbook had had it's more challenging moments here and there, but if anybody out there is also a Cardiacs fan and would like to hear us be part of a second songbook, do quietly get in touch with The Genepool and register your interest. Sorry Tavus.

I've already learnt "Blind In Safety And Leafy In Love", "Come Back Clammy Lammy" and "The Breakfast Line" in readiness.

In the meantime, why not pick up a copy of The Leader Of The Starry Skies. 100% of the proceeds go towards helping one of the most underrated musical genius' of the last 100 years.

Get well soon Tim, we really miss you.

2012-02-20T13:28:00.001Z

So I'm going to be working with the rather gloriously talented Alex Hutchings soon on a dayjob thing...I can tell I'm going to like Alex just from his facial expression right at the end of the vid.

And while I was noodling through his considerable online repertoire, I happened upon the band below...

The internet is a marvellous thing.

Attack Of The Surprise Number 1 Record

2012-02-16T13:03:00.001Z

Well now, this doesn't happen every day, but I've just had my 5th number 1!! I'm currently top of the U.S. Billboard Dance Chart with a song I co-wrote about 3 years ago.

To those who like prog, I would urge you not to listen to it as you'll get all grumpy coz it's a jolly bit of pop fluff, but I proudly like a bit of pop fluff every now and then and I'm going to stand up for my right to do that right now and say HA! THIS IS ME!! AND I'M ROCKING THE CLUBS OF AMERICA RIGHT NOW BABY!!

Right, shameless moment of self congratulation over. I'm off for a victory cuppa.

2012-02-14T20:13:00.001Z

Writ a thing tonight using chords I don't normally use. I sang a melody I wouldn't normally sing either which pleased me immensely.

Slowly, but surely my brain seems to be getting used to the idea of looking forwards rather than backwards. It sounded great too which is always a bonus.

Then I got rather sidetracked playing Angry Birds. I haven't played it in months and I'd forgotten just how mind manglingly addictive it is.

I wish I'd invented it, not least because I'd be able to go to the gym a bit later in the day than I'm currently forced to. 7.30am is a time for drinking tea, not doing 20 Turkish getups with a 10kg kettle bell.

But never mind, spring's coming eh? I think a picture of Chef Publis is in order.

2012-02-13T21:19:00.001Z

At last! The snow she buggers off. Good riddance I say, I want to be getting on with springtime thank you very much.

DNA appears to be in the can. This leaves Us Vs Night and Olympic to go on planet Losers. I've made a start on Us Vs Night just now so I hope a week's worth of evening mix sessions will see it put to bed. I've loved my time working on this album, but it will be nice to finally have it out there, tickling people's fancies.

Lovely chat with Rob Reed today, he's a very nice man who doesn't half make me laugh, and I was discussing my slow start to writing the new album. Performance anxiety isn't something Rob ever suffers from by the looks of it, he's put out two Magenta albums, made Kompendium, produced Tina's album and has another Magenta album in production, not to mention a bunch of stuff I'm no doubt forgetting, all in the time it's taken me to recover from making EIMA. It must be lovely to be able to do that, I shall have to borrow his brain when he's finished with it.

It would be very easy (not to mention speedy) just to revert to type with the new album and fill it with shred, guitar violence and 19/8, but I would consider that a massive cop out. This needs to be something new and that's what's taking the time, it's also about building up the confidence to make the braver decisions.

All part of the fun of it I guess.

2012-02-08T21:56:00.002Z

I'm just tidying away after dinner and I've noticed a letter to wife on the kitchen table from her old bank just down the road from where she used to live on the Kilburn High Road. At the top it says -

"To contact us about this letter, write to us at -

Kilburn Branch
1 Legg Street
CHELMSFORD
Essex".

Ah, the wonders of modern day local banking, eh? It took them 2 years from her initial letter for them to finally stop referring to her as "Major General Godfrey" on her bank statements. I don't know what amused me more to be honest.

DNA's about 70% there now. I also took some time tonight to peruse the sonic armoury that resides within my new laptop. It's amazing how some sounds will instantly generate new ideas, I've got 4 belters as a result.

Other than that all is quiet at Major General Godfrey Towers.

At ease men.

2012-02-07T21:41:00.003Z

And so the snow cometh. This was taken on Sunday morning. I rather like how The Cube is the only thing in the picture that isn't black and white. I haven't diddled the picture neither guv, I promise.

Back in the house now after a couple of evenings of being a Loser. DNA has been a fickle mare to try and pin down. This is version 3 of the song. The first one was put to bed months ago, but Tom and Eddy decided that it was too 90's. The whole thing that is, not just my mix bit of it. So they, along with Paul, headed back into the studio to make it a bit more in line with the rest of the album. I'm currently ripping that to bits as I still feel there are elements from the first one that still have validity. Plus I've added a whole bunch of tempo manoeuvres and textural stuff as I felt the new version was a bit too down. They could well hate what I've done when I send it over....Like I say, this is definitely the "difficult" tune. There's always one.

It's still jolly good though.

I also got sent some extra extra new parts last week which I added tonight. There is actual real trumpet on it now. I haven't had the chance to ask them yet where the hell that's come from, surely it's not another bloody instrument that Tom can play!...Tracked up and soaked in 'verb though, it sounds chillingly powerful. I'll have to remember that.

No further movement on F*** bar some dictaphone noodling this morning on the pianna at breakfast. My eldest son has deleted an entire bank of riffs and replaced it with him going "Inky Plinky Naaa! Inky Plinky Naaaaa!" I have to try and remember that this action is not one borne of malice and frankly it's my bloody fault for not backing any of it up. Even so, losing 3 years of choice riffs was a bit of a wrench when it dawned on me what had happened.

Ergo, I think it's vital I don't hurry at this point and try not to panic either. I can feel something like the nervy prickles of fear on the back of my neck, but I'm going to ignore them. I can remember most of what was on there.

I think.

2012-02-03T08:30:00.000Z

Good noodling last night, very enjoyable.

I rarely get the chance to just play for playing sake, I'm out of practice if I'm honest and the dayjob's frantic deadline ridden tempo these days makes me feel like if I'm in the studio at all, then there's probably something more important and work related that I should be doing with a greater financial imperative than trying to make an egotistical niche genre artisan musical statement that, ultimately, won't even make the mortgage blink when I throw the profits at it. Despite my love for aforementioned egotistical niche genre artisan musical statement.

Metaphorically speaking, in an ideal world I'm a manipulative agent for exsanguinous materials dha'aling, but on my mortgage application, it says "Plasterer".

In many ways, this sums up the state of play for the majority of musicians and bands working hard to make a living these days. It's very easy to blame downloading and there's no denying that it has done some of the damage, however I think everybody also tends to forget that making a living in the arts has always been nigh on impossible - reduced royalty payments for radio and TV (still ongoing by the way), the invention of sampling if you were a session musician, the never ending reduction of repeat fees for actors, TV composers and voice overs, "Pay To Play", bent management, home taping, just not actually being very good, 50% publishing deals... these kinds of career threatening events have buffeted the industry since it began, give or take.

Tens of thousands of creative livelihoods have bitten the dust over the years because they couldn't make ends meet. It's always been the way, it's just that back in the day there wasn't an internet full of blogs and forums for the world's entire population of failed actors, singers, DJs, dancers, writers and musicians to gang together in and moan constantly about how unfair it all is to anyone who'll listen. That's what all those gloriously private and catty afternoons in Soho pubs were for...

In case you think I'm being harsh or speaking from inexperience, you should know that I'm also a failed musician.

I gave it my all when I hit 16 (including dropping out of college, working full time in a high street chain of stationers for £2.77 an hour to try and fund my "career", followed by 2 pretty dehumanising years on the dole) and so by the time I got to 22, I took a look at the utter ruin that was my young life and thought "Completely and utterly fuck this for a lark!"

I made a couple of calls to some people I'd met over the years who knew some other people and managed to blag (for that read lie) my way into a job at a radio station in London. That was it for me and music as far as I was concerned, I even sold my keyboards. I was absolutely done.

Epic fail for the music career.

For the record, I adored my new career in radio and had it not been for a move to Radio 1 and a couple of chance meetings, I'd still be there. Somehow though I've ended back up in a music studio nearly 20 years later playing the piano again in exchange for cash and for that I go to work every day with one hand in the air thanking the Lord for the lucky break, the other behind my back with a big shitty stick ready to take on the next problem.

One should go into the arts knowing it's a massive risk and nothing should ever be taken for granted today let alone tomorrow. And I say that with the greatest of respect for everyone who either does, has or will attempt this as a career.

Anyway, I've taught myself some new chord sequences that are bearing interesting fruit, I'm actively trying to avoid the "reactionary frost chords" again. It's good to set oneself new musical limitations I reckon, although Blunders will be pleased to hear that the no tom toms rule has been lifted for the new album.

God, I remember I got an startling amount of flak from some unusually angry musicians about the tom toms thing when we announced it. I think they must have been under 25 because the older I get, the more I realise that most of the anger in the world about utterly harmless things (like a 1 album ban on tom toms) seems to come from the under 25's. They've got so much rage knocking about that it seems to spill out of them with very little provocation. I think one bloke even swore he'd not buy the record when I came out as it was an affront to Andy's drum skills. You'd think I'd cut TBE's arm off or something.

Mind you, I was no certainly no exception to bouts of shoutiness I must say, and my brother had a Doctorate in shouty for what felt like decades. I remember he threw a glass of Coca Cola over me once just because I didn't like an a cappella jazz record he was listening to.

He's much much calmer now though I should point out. As am I. Getting on a bit does have it's advantages...

So, I noodled a bit on the guitar last night too and I've learnt some new shapey chord things. No idea what those chords are, but that's entirely irrelevant at this point. I suspect it'll still be irrelevant when I record them to be honest.

On that note, apologies again to the few kind and friendly folk who frequently get in touch to ask me for the scores/tabs to Frost songs, particularly Hyperventilate. Sorry to say that because I can't read music, I cannot oblige you with said. It's all just shapes to me, so for Hyper, it's a kind of skew whiff pentagon with a big flat arse for the intro that goes into some triangle shapes during the piano section after which it all goes a bit echasketch. I can tell you that it's mainly in E though.

It's absolutely beautiful here today (see snowdrops above). The killer easterly gale has finally abated and although it's ice cold, the air smells strangely, but tantalisingly of mown lawns. There is also a woodpecker hammering the hell out of some poor tree over the wall, but I like him being here all the same.

It won't last though, the weather forecast for my little plot of East Sussexshire is for snow tonight and then snow tomorrow night possibly resulting in 15cm by the end of it all.

For my family, this also means internment. We live down a wee lane in a valley, my car is a rear wheel drive German sports car which, I realised as I 180'd it into a hedge, doesn't like going up or down hills covered in snow a great deal. Similarly, myne Wyfe seems to have bought the only Ford people carrier that can't be fitted with snow chains as there isn't enough clearance under the wheel arches according to the garage.

Neither of us want a 4x4 particularly and so when the weather takes a turn for the worse each year, we simply sigh, make sure the chest freezer is full of food and the garage is full of logs, crack open a bottle of red and get the Scrabble out.

I can't wait actually.

2012-02-01T19:25:00.001Z

Genius! I haven't heard this since I was about 9. Me and my brother had a copy which we played again and again until it wore out. It was a family favourite.

I still remember all the words. In fact I've just perplexed my children by reciting it manically at them.

C d V did make an album around this time including the also similarly unhinged track "Drunken Uncle John", but the drummer ran off with the recordings. This track also has one of my favouritest ever guitar solos, rather unexpectedly.

2012-02-01T12:50:00.003Z

Pinch punch and all that!

Sunny very sunny, but with a vicious biting easterly that could strip the flesh off a horse.

Things are going well with 1000 Bridges. I now have the princely sum of 1 chord for Home Sweet Home, but WHAT a chord it is. Actually I have slightly more than 1 chord, but I'm taking my time. I've actually got about 6 chords, some melody bits and pieces and a bit of a vibe for what the arrangement will do. The secret is to try not to think about the enormity of the task ahead and do things little by little. "Chip, chip!" as Wyfe says when ripping out the whole downstairs loo, re-tiling the floor, changing the taps, putting tongue and groove along two walls and painting the whole thing some fetching Farrow and Ball colour.

She has a point.

Tonight, after she's replaced the house with a completely new one, she's going out running for 2 hours whereupon I shall get back to my little podule and see if I can't hockle some more music out of me. The slight problem I have is that I've just bought the DVD of "A Cook On The Wild Side" which I've not seen in 10 years. I loved both series of it, so there's a slight chance that I might end up at least having to slightly check to see if the DVD's not scratched or anything by playing all of it whilst sitting on the sofa and drinking a cup or two of tea.

It's tough this songwriting lark...

2012-01-31T12:36:00.000Z

It's snowing. I've just been in the garden with my Fairlight attacking bricks and things and recording the results for Towerblock. It's a song about the wearing down of inner defences so it kinda feels right to have some real world destruction in there. Plus I'm a sucker for a bit of foley, I had the ceaseless rain that made up the summer of 2007 as part of the backdrop for the title track of the last album and to hear it even now makes me smile when I think of it, two cheap Behringer mics hung out of the old Cube, getting soaked...

Tonight I shall get stuck in to the album proper, I've been circling it for the last month, a bit scared to start truth be told, however today's the day, Jan 31st. Let it be known that this was day 1.

I won't be tackling Towerblock though, I'm going to start at the beginning with track 1 which is called Home Sweet Home. A highly sarcastic song title.

2012-01-28T10:34:00.001Z

Saturday morning, Danny Baker on the radio. Sun shining. Wyfe out running. Think You finished. Eggs boiling.I think I'm going to have the day off.

2012-01-27T11:48:00.004Z

Ooh, get me and my arty picture!

I've just learnt a new word - Peloton. Obviously, I'm pronouncing it like a baddie from 1970's Dr Who, so it's a Pel-oh-ton rather than something that sounds like "Pelican".

All you'd have to do to prog it up it get it to belong to someone. Preferably someone with an enormous brain, coz Prog likes to think it's all brainy, like...

How about Newton's Peloton?

Actually, that sounds like some kind of bog cleaner from a pound shop, scratch that.

Top night up that Laandin with Thomas Waber, Jessica Lausen and Freddy. Freddy didn't tell me his surname which makes him rather enigmatic. I have to confess I had quite a lot of sake. Seeing as I've not been drinking much lately, it rather went to my head so I do hope I didn't make a complete tit of myself.

All in all though, t'was a good and constructive meeting that I left smiling from, although that might have been the sake...

Notably, and this is the thing I really took away from the meeting, I was gently reminded to make the album I want to make, not the album I think the fans want. Sounds like a throwaway comment, but I think it was an immensely important and well observed point.

En route then to the shires and the initial plan had been to crash over at a mate's house in Tunbridge Wells, but I jumped off the train at Tonbridge and grabbed a cab which took me home as I do like to wake up in my own bed if the chance presents itself. However, myne Wyfe was still under the impression that I was out for the night so I returned home to find the place locked and bolted which forced me to take shelter in The Cube.

A few mobile phone calls later and I was in the house looking at a very surprised Mrs G who'd just rung her dad by accident in her half asleep state. I imagined that he too was now looking surprised in his house in St Austell.

So there we are. Tonight I shall finish the mix of "Think You". I took the 97% mix with me in the car yezzerday and it sounded great. The Beemer always tells it like it is so it was great to get the thumbs up from the car.

And the sun is shining. I like to remind myself that by next Wednesday we shall officially be in late Winter. Then it'll only be four weeks until early Spring. The snowdrops are already out in the garden which always puts helium in the soles of my shoes.

Happy days!

2012-01-25T22:31:00.002Z

Quick update from moi.

Installed Komplete 8 and Reason last night. Komplete took 4 bloody hours!! Hence I didn't get to bed till gone 1. Was up a 6.30 to head down to see Evil Deano who made me cycle up a mountain repeatedly until I couldn't crack any more wise arse remarks so I'm feeling a bit second hand at the moment.

Did a bit more to "Think You" this evening. Just got the middle 8 and end chorus' to go. Tom sent me over a new quiet vocal sung by Paul M for the second pre-chorus to "Us VS Night" after I suggested that perhaps a wee drop before it all kicks off would add to the drama of it all, will check that out tomorrow.

Came back up to the house to finish installing the remainder of my kit onto the lappy while I boiled a haggis. I'm not and indeed have nothing to do with Scotland, but I do love a bit of haggis every now and then. Thought I had tatties and neeps, but turns out the kids ate 'em so had to make to do with peas. Not quite the same, but there you go...

I did, however, find the remains of a particularly nice single malt hiding behind the bread bin so I toasted Rabbie in the traditional manner and attacked my wee Chieftain Of The Pudding Race. T'was delicious. Happy Burns Night all.

Briefly got the lappy up and running with all the new gizmos. Initial test firing declared a success!

Tomorrow I'm heading up to town to see Thomas Waber and my product manager. Never had one of those before. They're taking me to eat sushi, this is a good thing. Will report back on how it went.

Now though, an early night beckons... Got the M83 album to listen to on the train tomorrow. Looking for'ard to that.

Night humanity!

A Statement Of More Than 140 Characters

2012-01-24T11:51:00.008Z

Day 2 in the frozen isolation of my post Twitalyptic world and thank you for all your comments. Sorry to those I've clearly irritated by my tactical withdrawal. Fair point about the PlanetFrost account, I'll put that back up today for the good of the band. In some ways, the volte-face speaks volumes doesn't it? Social media is supposedly non compulsory, but I guess there's non compulsory and then there's non compulsory.

It's interesting though, we like to think of ourselves as individuals, yet there we all were - neatly and unquestioningly lined up from top to bottom, willingly constrained in small oblong boxes like little online battery hens, all limited to 140 characters...

I spent last night being a Loser, working on the third from last track "Think You". It's one of my favourites from the album, the one I'm working on next "Us VS Night" is perhaps even better yet. It's such a joy to be involved in this project. There are meetings going on that I can't talk about in any great depth, but the future could be very bright indeed if the mistresses of fortune can be bothered to get themselves aligned. I shall also be joining the band on keyboards for some of the summer festival fun coming up.

In other news, my new shiny shiny laptop should be rocking up today. This evening shall see the interminable dance-of-the-installations. I've got a whole bunch of software to hoik aboard.

As I mentioned someplace else, myne Wyfe is training to do the Brighton Marathon (plus a couple of half marathons locally beforehand) so she's out with her running club a lot in the evenings at the moment. This means I'm doing a lot of babysitting in the evening. I'm not really a telly watcher so I figured I could use the time to carry on writing stuff for the album while I mind the stores. Plus I've never really written on a laptop before so I'm hoping the shock of the new will nudge me into some happy compositional accidents.

I have to say I'm rather enjoying this blogging lark again.

Silence Is Golden

2012-01-23T10:53:00.011Z

I deleted my Twitter accounts last night. Facebook too. And no, I wasn't drunk.

It's Imogen Heap's fault.

After dinner, I decided to watch her documentary "Everything Inbetween - The Story Of Ellipse" while I cleared up. At the point where she introduced somebody as her "assistant and artist in residence", I had a bit of an epiphany. First of all, I was profoundly irritated that it took her 810 days to make her album. She's not like the rest of us who have to scrape by trying to shoehorn two or three careers into the one 24 hour period so that the men with clipboards don't pop round and take our houses off us, no she actually gets to be a bone fide recording artiste full time. Ergo, to take 810 days to make what is if we're honest a bit of a patchy album, if not quite making my blood boil, certainly got it above room temperature.

Initially, Imogen went abroad for 9 or so weeks to write and as far as I can tell spent most of the time either faffing about at tourist locations going "Me here! *points* Oooh!" or fretting to camera that she was behind schedule.

Then she came home and built a studio which took her about a year by the looks of things. Not wishing to rub her nose in it, but I managed a similar feat from a standing start in about 10 days. Most of her dilemmas seemed to stem from angst about paint schemes and not getting enough exercise.

I'd love to tell you what happened next, but by the time her "artist in residence" was introduced and Imogen bought a Morris Minor, I could bear the vapid middle class angst no more, extracted the DVD from my laptop and binned it.

And this got me thinking...

In actual terms, how much do we really need to know about people's lives? So much of social media is actually just meaningless noise. I was chatting to a very good mate about this the other day and we both agreed that social media is actually a bit of a curse. Do I really need to know that the members of Scroobius Pip are hungover, or that Kate Silverton is a bit tired because she was up all night with her newborn daughter? No, not really.

And if you think about it, isn't there actually something slightly creepy about complete strangers telling you this kind of info? You wouldn't get on a train for instance and suddenly announce your innermost thoughts at the top of your voice would you? That kind of behaviour normally makes people get properly uncomfortable, especially at rush hour. Why does doing it on the internet make it ok?

Similarly, is there really any point in those irritating tweets from some bands saying "WOW! HAD THE MOST AMAZING REHEARSAL! I'M SO LUCKY TO BE IN THIS BAND!". Nobody who pays tax actually thinks or writes like that in the real world, so why do you suddenly think it's ok to do so on Twitter or Facebook? It's clearly bollocks and makes you sound desperate.

Now I don't want you to think I'm just being a grumpy old man (even though I clearly am), but just think about how much time we piss up the wall reading such siphonflappery. In my case it probably amounted to a couple of hours a week. It's shocking really.

So I've decided that I'm going to lead by example. I'm not such a raving egomaniac that I truly believe I've anything much of interest to say anyway, this blog is enough for me. Even if I had a readership of one (me) I'd still do it. I keep a private diary as it happens which definitely has a readership of one and in many ways that's even more cathartic. Sometimes less is definitely more.

If I have something to sell, I'll put it on a website or do a bunch of interviews about it. Simply telling the world that I've been to the gym and my legs hurt serves no purpose and wastes your time as much as it does mine, and for that I retrospectively apologise.

So it was with a sense of great relief that I woke up this morning and realised I'd liberated myself from the never ending whooshing sound that 154,000,000 people make when they all talk at once.

The peace and quiet in here is positively lush.

Why not give it a go?

Questions

2012-01-10T12:03:00.004Z

Just looking through the comments (thank you all for them by the way, I do read everything), I've just seen one from "James" which I think deserves a more widely read repy.

James writes -

"Mr Jem,

I am a big fan of the two Frost albums, Milliontown and Expelimats in Mass Apples. Oh crikey... are there more? WheRE?

On a more serious note (B flat), my question is this: I am sure I read somewhere that you are basically *done* with the Frost* format (proggy rocky kinda stuff with Mitchell et al). But I cannot find the reference now.

Is this right? As Obi Wan said, you must do what you feel is right. But it would be sad - you chaps seemed to have an absolute blast doing Frost*y stuff and I really enjoyed the music.

Please let me know... is there to be more Frost*y stuff in the future or is it done?"

James, firstly thank you for the comment mate, well we are doing a new album I hope you know so it will inevitably have Frost-ness about it. The sound will be quite different from the first two however as that's my doctrine for the project. Will it be "prog"? Well, that's not for me to decide, but if your definition of prog is the same as mine in that the band progresses, then I think it's all systems go. :)

As things currently stand, it is an hour long album of songs connected together to form a continuous linked idea. There will be some, shall we say, technical moments and I'm even using a smidge of Mellotron this time out (although obviously not those sounds...). The current working title is "1000 Bridges", but I stress that's just a working title. However, despite the (on the face of it) overtly prog sounding synopsis, bear in mind it's me that's making this and will therefore be about as far from a chummy little Minimoog infested Wizard's convention as Nanette Newman is from restarting the Third Reich and invading the moon.

In terms of how it'll sound, bizarrely I think the best description I currently have is this -

I hope that answers your question sir.

Mr Fogg

2012-01-08T00:42:00.005Z

There is a young chap from Reading who is an inspiration to me. When I was having my "dark" time marooned up a horrible hill in Somerset, this man was like a life boat with his album "Moving Parts". I won't harp on about what this album means to me, but I was initially alerted to his existence by my good friend Eddy Temple-Morris.

I reckon Mr Fogg is a bit of a genius actually. He's not playing by the rules either which is another reason why I admire him so much. I sincerely hope fate will give him the recognition he deserves.

Check this video out and I hope you'll see what I mean. He's bright, creative and totally serious about his work. I am a HUGE fan.

And here he is doing "Keep Your Teeth Sharp"

I can't think of many acts I'm aware of who would write a chorus in 10/4 and have a brass band march onstage halfway through.

Lastly check out this, the opening track from his first album.

Good on you mate, I sincerely hope our paths will cross at some point, if only so I can buy you a well deserved pint and tell you that I'm trying to spread the word.

I'm learning on a lamp post...

2012-01-06T10:56:00.000Z

Many thanks to everyone who pointed out the typo on the previous post.

Learning is everything, but as you rightly point out, at my age, leaning is also everything. :)

I'm off now to attend my "don't-type-in-such-a-hurry-you-bulbous-fool" classes...

And You Will Obey Me

2012-01-05T23:24:00.001Z

It seems a tad cocky of me to be thinking about mastering at this point in the album's progress, but this is all part of my new "shit together" plan thing.

When she recorded "Speak For Yourself", Imogen Heap famously booked her mastering session one year to the day in advance to ensure that when that day came, she'd have no choice but to be ready. I can't remember if she actually made the deadline or not (answers please?), but I'm not planning such a bold manoeuvre, not least because I don't have the time what with the proper job 'n' all.

What I am trying to do though is not cut any corners with this - the third and final album to be released by InsideOut.

With the first album, I spent most of my time in an incredulous daze that anybody would actually want to release the cacophony I'd just invented (I still am some days). With the second, I felt a bit more assured, hence I think most of the advance went on vintage copies of "Look-in" and space hoppers...

Now with the benefit of hindsight and a 3 gram wrap of humility, I feel I've moved through the 3 ages of ego adjustment and find myself wanting to do the music justice before returning to my shed for a bit and seeing what I fancy getting up to next. Which is why I want to record the drums at somewhere like Sarm or Strongroom, master at AIR or Metropolis and generally focus on making this a bit of a sonic festival for all involved. Especially you, I hope, dear reader.

Much is made of the sonic debate about whether thems of us "in our bedrooms", for want of a better generalisation can ever compete with the big guns in their lovely purpose built studios.

Truth be told, 99% of my entire music career has been spent in one bedroom or another (even during my poptastic number 1's phase) and so to get out of them has always been a dream of mine. As I said, this is the last of my 3 album deal with InsideOut and after this I reckon I'll most likely be on my own. Therefore, as this is probably the last record advance I'll ever know, I figured it was time to finally put my(?) money where my mouth is and find out first hand what the difference was. Why the hell not?! Let's go play with the big boys and see how it feels. I probably won't get the chance again.

So, I hear you cry, am I just playing at rock stars? At my age? I won't lie. Basically, yes.

Will I learn something?! Without a doubt. It'll be worth it for that alone. Leaning is everyhing. Even at my age.

Anybody who does an activity with a passion does it to ultimately get better at it and therefore get more from it. The other stuff is just fluff.

So however it turns out, when I finally sit there in the mastering room, I'll just feel honoured to have had the chance anyway.

Not Paying A Penny Moore

2012-01-03T17:41:00.004Z

So. At some point in the next 24 months, I'm going to have to upgrade my studio computer. It's the nature of things as Moore's law continues to prove, more or less. This will mean I have to abandon my trusty, stable(ish) and much loved Digidesign ProTools 8 software with which there is nothing wrong.

So. An Avid ProTools 10 HDX1 system is £7,878. Obviously I should time that with a new MacPro which, if I spec it for 4 years future proofing and tax efficient depreciation, will cost about £9,000. Also Avid have made sure that ProTools 10 HDX1 is only compatible with the latest Nehalem/Westmere Mac Pros. Which mine naturally isn't.

So. That's £16,878 in the basket and I'm only halfway there...

Then, of course, I'm going to have to upgrade all my plug ins to Avid's new AAX format that is due to replace TDM and RTAS. I know for a fact that these upgrades are not going to be gratis. Now I have a lot of plug ins obviously so that's going be something like....ooh.....3 grand? At least.

So. Through no fault of my own other than an ability to exist along a timeline for a bit, I'm going to have to shell out something like 20 grand just to stand still bar a few tweaks like clip gain and a bit of extra headroom. Whoop de do.

For £20,000 I can buy nearly two brand new Ford Focus'. Four of the very best televisions Sony can build and still have enough change to buy 3,636.36 Curly Wurlys. I could fly to New York in the tippiest of toppity upper class and still be able to blow 8 grand at Macy's. I could put it in a fund for my kids, put a useful dent in my mortgage. Go on a much needed child free holiday of a lifetime with Wife who seriously deserves it.

Frankly, this really pisses me off.

I've been using ProTools since 1994 when it was basically shit, but promising. I saw the change from 16 tracks to 24, from 16 bit to 24, the arrival of something approaching usable midi...

I smiled patiently as they introduced RTAS and a plethora of budget versions, all of which undermined my investment in the best quality versions I could buy. I even paid up nearly 2 grand for a hardware "crossgrade" when I got my last Mac Pro without too much of a grumble. Indeed for about 18 months I actually travelled around with Digidesign sporadically championing their cause to the trade shows of the European Union.

Then... Avid got involved and after the brief "Hi, we're the new neighbours, we'll be no bother" bit, cynically and inevitably fucked the entire past into the bin and are now hell bent on charging me a sum of money that I would have taken as a bloody good year's wages when I was 20 for a load of kit I fundamentally already own. And I'm not even the worst affected, they're also making all the old Digidesign control hardware obsolete too so those who rely on that will have to buy all that shit again as well. It's absolute robbery WITH violence.

Now I know that some people would just say bugger it and stick with the system that works, but as with all things computer-y, eventually my Mac Pro will fall over and heroically urge me to go on without it. And when that happens, God knows how Apple will have buggered with the new internals of the Mac I buy to replace it (they're no better than AVID in this respect) so that old stuff doesn't quite work anymore. And the software companies will abandon development of my plug ins... It's commercial entropy of the most cynical kind.

So. I hope Avid go down the pan with all hands lost. I don't even mind if they take ProTools with it. It is an unacceptable way to behave when the benefits are becoming narrower and narrower with each passing version and the costs seem to rise and rise. It would serve as a timely warning to other such companies who seem to show such complete contempt for career long users and supporters. I shudder to think what I've already poured into that company's coffers since 1993. This is a fine way to say thank you for my loyalty. It's like the CD revolution all over again where everyone was forced to buy their music for a second time.

I wonder if they've actually read a newspaper in the last 3 years. The world's going to hell in a handcart, but they're carrying on like it's 2006 and we're all wondering what to do with all this spare cash that's falling out of the trees.

So. Between the now and the time I'm finally forced to drop my trousers and bend over I shall think hard about how to get my own back. It may take a while, but I'm not going down without a fight.

Avid - On this day that you have "Peace!" writ large on your homepage, you've made an new enemy today.

A Doorway Open Wide

2012-01-02T12:29:00.004Z

I'm sat at my kitchen table having a cup of builders and being warmed by the mid-winter sunshine pouring in through the windows, it's almost springlike here with soft birdsong drifting over on the gentlest of breezes in the garden occasionally interspersed with my kids yelling at each other while playing Mario Speedcart... What feels like it should be the first working day of the year is actually a holiday although I'm definitely mentally back at the coalface already, I've got today and tomorrow off before the actual work begins, but there's plenty to do before that.

First up, I have to pay the taxman a scary five figure sum so that he doesn't start frowning at me. I've also got to do my VAT as well.

But once that's done, I can take stock of what's left in the Cube coffers and make a plan. There are a few items I need for the coming year, most important of which is a new MacBook. The device from which I'm currently typing is now seriously elderly and I fear is not far off one of those terrible moments when I fire it up one morning and it merely stares back at me with all the comprehension of a freshly baked crumpet. That's why I don't turn it off anymore...

That reminds me, I need to back it up again today, just in case.

Wife is gearing up for running the Brighton marathon which means she'll be out a lot practicing between now and April, ergo I need to have a method of still making music whilst not in the comfy confines of yon Cube. Ergo, I'm going to go for the slightly tangential route of getting Reason 6 on the new lappy. "Why not ProTools 10, ProTools boy?" I hear you think, well for one thing, I think a multi platform approach to making music is a good thing as it makes you do things differently which can plop you up with some interesting results, it's the same for when I occasionally write on guitar - coz I'm shite at the guitar it makes me focus on different things which yield results like the "It makes no sense here, the watcher's on the fence here" bit from The Dividing Line. I'd never have written that section if I'd done it on the joanna and I think it's my fav bit from TDL.

I've got Ableton on the big system and I flirt with it from time to time, but Reason and I go way back (it's 80% of "The Other Me" for example) so it feels a bit more intuitive to me than the perhaps more DJ-centric way that Live works at this time.

But more than that, it's now January. I love January. All the excess and pomp of the previous month's celebrations are done and dusted. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time (and I hope you did too), but this is a clean, lean month. A good time for getting on with things while we wait for the longer, brighter, warmer days ahead, and on a day like today when the sun is beaming down on me like this, I can't help feel anything but excitement for the coming year. There's much to do, I've got to finish off the Losers album for one thing (3 tracks to go), the dayjob diary is also chocka until nearly June which is great for the coffers, but there's also Frost 3, or F*** as some members of our support troupe have rather gloriously coined it. There's going to be some long hours up ahead, but I'm ready for it. I've got 6 or so songs in various forms of existence already so there's plenty to be getting on with. On a slight downside, it'll most likely mean we don't gig much, if at all, this year as prep takes bloody ages and diverts time away from what I think is the more important job to do.

I won't lie to you though, I doubt this new album thing will be ready much before this time next year, but there'll be plenty of online food to digest to sustain you as it progresses.

So let's get cracking eh?

Happy New Year!