Women and Wives Production, Smile To Fall

Mostly working on my cover of 'Women and Wives' today. Yesterday I updated Prometheus to v3.91 with a new feature to change the instrument on a range of notes to any at random between two values, and added the inverse function: to change a range of instruments to a specific one. This was because this song uniquely uses many 'random' bass-drum sounds.

Recorded the vocals today. This was a little harder than expected as I first needed to match the actual vocal melody. For my live 'Wonky' performance I used my own melody because I was primarily focused playing the chords, I didn't listen to the actual melody much. Interestingly I matched it in a line or two anyway. Anyway, today started by notating that. I thought the vocal takes were instantly fine, but tonight when listening back they sound flat and bad so I'll have to try again.

The production ended with a piano sound, a D-minor chord stab and reverse piano at the start to drive this steam-train of a rhythm. The mixing has proven difficult. I had two basses, the buzzy synth bass and a fretless bass because the synth was too thin, but I couldn't quite get it right. In the end I removed the fretless bass and beefed up the synth bass more, so this is the only bass now. The chords use filter sweeps, which sound good and rich, but these can often cause mixing awkwardness and the mid-range richness competes with the vocals.

For the vocals I added a 2 second (4 beat) echo, and a fast Heartbreak-Hotel echo too, which worked well. These are switched off the for the dramatic 'Chasing Tomorrow' line, which drops to near silence.

But there's more to do. I wrote a new song last night, a possible B-side for this release. I've adopted a few McCartney-isms. I'll repeat the first verse at the end, and mentally hummed the melody first to keep it simple and memorable. It starts in C-minor but plays with jumping from G to F in the pleasing chorus, before plunging back to C-minor for the key dramatic moment. Here are the words so far:

Smile To Fall

In the ballroom
Everyone is waiting for her
Black silk ravens
Everyone is waiting for her
Smile to fall
They're waiting for her
Smile to fall a-

Sleep on rainbows
Life is harder than your childhood
Sometimes fate can
Wave its wand and blow away a
Smile to fall
They're waiting for her
Smile to fall away

In the ballroom
Everyone is waiting for her
Black silk ravens
Everyone is waiting for her
Smile to fall
They're waiting for her
Smile to fall away

Other news. I've been notified that 'Punishement of the Sun' has been accepted into the RBSA Prize Exhibition, so my 4th juried exhibition this year. We, as Fall in Green, were mentioned along with the rest of the Morecambe Poetry Festival line-up by Matt on his Morecambe radio show, which was nice. At 2pm today, Deb came by for a third rehearsal of our set.

Onwards we march.

Tooth Problems Persist, Hans Blix

My tooth problems persist, though differently. On Saturday my tooth became loose and wobbled for a day before, today, settling in a new position, where it aches slightly.

While trying to forget all of this annoyance, a generally good day today. Started by trying to get an phone-only app to run on PC with an emulator, but it was tricky to set up, so I gave up. I helped fix the carpet downstairs and ordered a cover for the greenhouse for my mother.

Then, worked on the music for a new song called 'Remembering Hans Blix', for the nuclear album, now to be called War And Nuclear Love (note that I capitalise all first letters of album titles). Music for 'Post-Apocalyptic Playground' is just about done too. Much done today.

Here are the words to Blix:

Remembering Hans Blix

Hands up if you remember Hans Blix
Wonder if he is still around in twenty twenty six
We really need to find him and his magic box of tricks
We've many invisible weapon problems he can fix

We need Hans
We need Hans
We need Hans
We need Hans

War And Nuclear Love

Weary today, but a first day of work on music, on being originally creative, in a while. Finalised the production of 'War and Nuclear Love'. The song is part of this war-themed album, themed because it's being developed to complement the Radioactive theme. The music is similar to that, very analogue-based electro-pop, in the mould of Yazoo or Erasure. Worked on a second song called Post-Apocalyptic Playground too. Here are the WANL words so far:

War and Nuclear Love

Here in my bunker
Surrounded by toys
Dreaming of the people I could conquer

Long blonde robots
Keep telling me I'm great
I'm feeling in the mood to procreate

I take my fuse
And masturbate as I muse on

War and nuclear love
War and nuclear love
War and nuclear love
War and nuclear
War and nuclear
War and nuclear love
War and nuclear love
War and nuclear love
War and nuclear love

There's something in my shattered past
That gives me a need to dominate
And if I can't attract a mate
I'll seek a rubber weakling and inflate

Look at the buttons
Awaiting a push
There's something of a Christmas morning here

Handsome generals
Encourage me to play
And I've nothing better to do today

I pray to God, grip my fuse
And he tells me that he approves of

War and nuclear love
War and nuclear love
War and nuclear love
War and nuclear
War and nuclear
War and nuclear love
War and nuclear love
War and nuclear love
War and nuclear love

Shelves Foiled, Mostly Modern Game Work

Awake for hours, ready to charge with great energy into routing my new shelves, on this, the warmest (well, mildest, at 11 degrees) and driest day for a few weeks. I woke early, assembled the wood, the hoover, rulers, and everything... but hit s snag. I'd not used the 12mm router bit, and the two that my father had used imperial shaft sizes - how I hate inches! The router comes with a few collets, but none would fit either of these, which is even more stupefying as almost all router bits come in a limited range of sizes. I sighed and was resigned to buying a new bit with the correct 8mm shaft. B & Q didn't have any (the very limited ones on offer, again stupefying, were also in inches. If I were prime minister I'd tax every device that features inches, pounds, pints, miles; it would raise money and help engineering). I ordered a set online, so must wait days, and now, my shelves which could have been completed today will take weeks. I should have tested the 12mm bit far earlier.

After that, a productive day of music. First, updating the cover artwork, and creating the 14 page iTunes Digital Booklet.

Here's the final cover (ta da!):

Then mixing the album again. In the night I thought it would be a good idea to release my Christmas song, and it's fellow two songs, as a single or EP now, rather than wait a year, so I've manically worked on mastering this. A single today has 3 tracks at most, but an EP 4 to 6, so I've toyed with making a new one. I looked at some existing songs and found a sequence inspired by Matt Gray's theme to Dominator on the Commodore 64. I quickly wrote some words on what this time of year is like; currently entitled 'Burn Me Cold':

Burn Me Cold

Dark dark November
Frigid in my bones
Everybody needin'
Money running low
It's a black white season
Don't I know

Windows are a leakin'
Saving up the mould
Give me some salvation
Dear dear Lord
And the screens that I stare at
Burn me cold

Later on, some initial mixing and track ordering for Christmas Tails. Work on that will start tomorrow.

Onwards!

You're My Candy Cane Production

A full day of production work on my Christmas song for the Christmas Tails album, 'You're My Candy Cane'. A song I dreamt on Oct 20th 2023 (dream music composing happens to most song writers, it's fairly rare for me), there's an old post here about it and the original song lyrics. I've made a few small lyric changes. The chorus was simply 'You're my candy cane, my candy' repeated 4 times. Now it's:

You're my candy cane, my candy
You're my candy cane, my candy
You're my candy cane, my candy cane

You're my candy cane, my candy
You're my candy cane, my candy
You're my candy cane, my candy cane

So, two iterations. The song starts with this catchy melody without vocals. In some ways, the song is similar to my first ever song (well, of the 'new', post-school-days era), 'I Love You For Your Money', which also featured repeats of the line, and was also dreamt.

I could make you smile If only You would stay a while

Has been changed to:

You could make me smile If only You would stay a while

To match the song's perspective, and the 'When you call' line is repeated only once.

In production terms, I began with the drums and aimed for an electro pop song. Despite my dance orientated plan, the song doesn't feature regular bass drums, few of my songs do. I seem to favour shuffle beats. I added saw-chord stab fairly early on, to match the rhythm of the melody, then added a pulse-wave lead, as imagined. In my head, it was close to the track 'Zoot' from the Flatspace soundtrack.

I added a few more experimental layers, and a second lead. Arpeggios there seemed to work well in the chorus. I expanded this lead, and made it converse with the pulse lead, one finishing the other. The basic tracks are pulse 1, pulse 2, pulse 2 quieter for the chorus, bass, bass drums, snare, hi-hats, toms. I added a Casio VL1 click as a sort of metronome pre-emptive click, evoking the beeps on the starting grid of a racing game, and added a white noise filter sweep, a classic 80s sound.

This is mostly it. The structure is as penned, but opens with a melodic chorus, and has an additional chorus for a guitar solo after the refrain; the refrain is the climax, the essential sweet-spot, and the solo is the coast down from that peak.

The next step is working on the vocals and arrangement. Songs like this benefit from layers and backing vocals. I already know I want a vocoder for 'my candy', but layered vocals may work there too. I'll certainly need layers for that climax.

I'm constantly amazed how many tracks pop songs seem to require, mine are positively frugal by comparison. Here's a shot of Prometheus with the intro, so far.

Chester, Event Preparations, Heaven's Day

A day in Chester on Saturday, collecting the 'She Was Always Asleep' painting from the museum exhibition, plus an always happy, stimulating, and energetic meeting with the sublime miniaturist David Lawton.

Lots of smaller jobs over the past couple of days. We've had confirmation of the times and arrangements for our Morecambe performance, so created a poster and sent out messages about that, Deb's two poetry book launch events, and an update on the Christmas album. I wrote another simple Christmas song for it on Saturday night. It's a slow, dream-like piece that nobody would choose for a Christmas playlist, yet, it has lots of atmosphere and beauty. I've recorded some backing already, it requires a live, very emotion-centred performance. Here are the words so far:

Heaven's Day

I saw you standing
Among the traffic
Like a bird
On the swell of sea

Snow was floating
Your red bags full
With gifts
For someone like me

But not me
For I was flying
Through wet clouds high
And the sun's rake of heaven's day
As from you I flew away
From you I flew away

Yesterday and today we've rehearsed our Morecambe set. I've also done some test cuts with the router, how I love this tool! I'm almost ready to make mine and Deb's shelves, but B & Q are out of stock of the required stripwood. Painting is now over the for the season, I'll be too busy until the end of the year with music, music videos and these events to fit any painting in, I imagine.

Hello Yellow Brick Road Glazing, Box Of Love

A slower day yesterday. I wanted to slow down and rest for a day. I wrote the draft of a Christmas song, although it changed from Father Christmas desperate to deliver a present into a love song of sorts. The melody is fast rock in the manner of 'Jamie and the Magic Torch', but it needs work. I'll leave it.

Also, framed the Lost Boy painting, which is being collected today, and painted a little more of 'Hello Yellow Brick Road'.

Box Of Love

I got a broken box of love
And I gotta give it you by midnight
The forest is a maze of twilight
The fog is closing all around

I know that you are far away
But I gotta get to you by midnight
I gotta tell you things are alright
I gotta lay your worries down

And I see a silver trail go by
Like a star lost in the sky
Lost in the sky

A blizzard is about to fall
And I worry did I miss the midnight?
Will I comfort you or kiss you tonight?
Will I ever see your face again?

I never was a man to pray
but I'm praying for another midnight
Praying for another midnight
Praying for another when

And I see a silver trail go by
Like a star lost in the sky
Lost in the sky

Slam,. Superman Sunshine

Took part in a poetry slam in the brilliant space of Percy's Bar in Whitchurch. it was nice to see a few old faces from the Nantwich poetry days, a time shortly before 2020 and Covid struck. I've barely met with poets since, and barely written much poetry, but songs have become a new focus. The 'slam' element, the competition was not relevant really. Winning such things are a matter of writing jokes or other happy and simple rhymes to please an audience; never dark, deep, thoughtful, or quiet; but for me this event was an open mic, a chance to hear new poets and perform on a good stage, with a delightful 3-minute limit (oh that all open mics were like this).

I felt like an outsider there, a distant moon to the planet of the Nantwich poets. Sometimes nothing more than the simple circumstances of seating and occasion prevents partaking in the social.

My sleep was long and shallow until nearly 10am. I completed more audio admin work related to yesterday's new releases, and created a new artist listing on a Japanese website called Top Music Japan.

The day has flown. I've spent too long trying to get Superman Sunshine to work as a song. I've re-written the words and changed the chords, but it's still not as good as the other Donovan song. I'm highly unlikely to ever record this, or any of the songs I've written especially for these special live nights (I may already have a full album's worth!) yet I still want to make these songs the best I can, so I'll try try to work on it. Of course, I have less that 24-hours to the performance day...

The words so far:

Superman Sunshine

Sipping from a coffee cup and wishing night away
Goodbye stars, see you yesterday
Here's a new hero carving up a line
Giving me a sign
Telling me it's gonna be fine

It's superman
It's superman sunshine

making a flight
hotter than a beam of kryptonite
harder than a diamond stone
he cannot be broken

Standing on a broken beach and staring at the sky
See that ray, all alone and high
Is he like me or is he divine
Giving me a sign
Telling me it's gonna be fine

It's superman
It's superman sunshine

making a flight
hotter than a beam of kryptonite
harder than a diamond stone
he cannot be broken

Superman
I'm superman
Superman sunshine

Superman Sunshine

Spent today rehearsing some poems for tomorrow's slam in Whitchurch, and finishing the music for Wednesday's Donovan night. I've written a second song for it caller 'Superman Sunshine'. These melodies are different than those I'd compose for a recording. The need for acoustic guitar feels limiting to the chords, and I tend to work out a lead melody on the piano. The song was originally about welcoming the sun itself, but I added a dark subtext. Here are the words:

Superman Sunshine

Sipping from a coffee cup and wishing night away
Goodbye stars, see you yesterday
Here's a new hero carving up a line
Giving me a sign
Telling me it's gonna be fine

It's superman
It's superman man
It's superman sunshine
Making a flight
Hotter than a beam of kryptonite
Harder than a diamond stone
Richer than a diamond mine
It's superman
It's superman man
It's superman sunshine

Standing on a broken beach and staring at the sky
See that ray, all alone and high
Is he like me or is he divine
Giving me a sign
Telling me it's gonna be fine

It's superman
It's superman man
It's superman sunshine
Making a flight
Hotter than a beam of kryptonite
Harder than a diamond stone
Richer than a diamond mine
It's superman
It's superman man
It's superman sunshine

The jobs never end. I also burned the archive copy of the All Controlled By Someone single, and made a slight mix change to it (yes, even at this last stage). I need to register it with many different authorities, and prepare the Claire Luce painting, as I may enter this into the Castle Park Open, due at the end of this month.

I Can Feel Vocals, Donovan Before I Was Even Born

Sigh, a slow a frustrating day, disturbed at night by the annoyances of so many injustices in the world. My main job of the day was to write a song of some sort for the Donovan evening, so I managed this by putting together a few words. This took rather long time; I came up with a few options and didn't want too much repetition with previous songs. I did repeat the same words a few times, because Donovan seems to repeat lines a lot in his songs. My words:

I'm reading up and down
like the colours of the rain
I'm typing up a memoir
of another you again
and the sky is black and white
like yesterday and the yesterday
you saw
In that long ago before
I was even born

And the words are all a flutter
like a butterfly of type
and the flowers in the rain
are moving to the hype
and the sky is sudden yellow
like somebody in a summer field
of corn
In that long ago before
I was even born

And now you're painted mellow
Funny how that goes
Funny how ambition
Dies but never grows
And the stars are all around us
like yesterday and the yesterdays
before
In that long ago before
I was even born

It's also Tuesday, so my only few minutes of free space to sing, so I practiced a little and sang words to the new version of I Can Heal (an old song, previously recorded with a much lower pitched melody for The Harlequin Kings album). I layered the chorus with a main lead plus 2 duplicates, and 4 duplicates of harmonies; all good. The song is certainly much better than before. I wish I had more than an hour a week to sing, but perhaps a regular hour per week is better than lots of time in a rush every few months.

This is all I have given the world today. Too little.

Prometheus v3.69, All Controlled By Someone Organs

Sigh, another day has flown, and so little to show for a hard attack at the rock face of art. I updated Prometheus to v3.69, making the new per-track EQ more efficient. I realised that even tracks that were 'off' due to extended silence were being processed, which is why the calculation was so slow, so I fixed that and removed the other 'non-EQ' elements in the calculation; I know I don't need those now. The result is that rendering is now almost the same speed as without the calculation, about double the former speed - yay!

Then, long work on 'All Controlled by Someone' production. I started with sequenced organs, but thought these would be better played on the keyboard, so played some live instead. These were quantised and placed in the sequence. Then, in a third iteration, I re-sequenced everything per-note but based on the live tunes/chords I played. The result sounds rather like the live recordings but with a few advantages; at a fraction of the memory, plus the advantage of being able to change or slur the speed (a live recording would be fixed in tempo), and the notation easily transcribed. So, this organ part has taken all day, and I'm still unsure if I really want to use it.

I listened to the whole album too, and made a few tweaks and little changes, all for the better. Only this one track remains, I think.

Tomorrow, the next stage of moving music to the new distributor, but I really need to get painting this week. I've had only one day of painting this year.

Here are the song lyrics so far:

All Controlled By Someone

Strings from your fingers
lead to my limbs
The stage of the theatre of life
Everyone is here
to delight

We're all controlled by someone
Isn't that so?
Where did all that freedom go?
Down to our minions below

We're all controlled by someone
Isn't that so?
Do you feel you're in control?
Who tells you where to go?

Slave and dictator
Fool in the wild
Teacher, preacher, and child
All must answer
To their master

Here in the theatre
Laughter and sighs
Strings from the limbs shoot to the sky
Those who pull get tangled
then they die

Yet still controlled by someone
Isn't that so?
Where did all that heaven go?
Down to the minions below

We're all controlled by someone
Isn't that so?
Where did all that heaven go?
Pray for a little control

Pray for a little control

Smashing My House Of Cards

Back to music and art yesterday after a month of largely remastering and documenting old music. I must strive to make new things as much as possible. There are 10 tracks on this as-yet untitled album, but I've worked on more than 10, including one for the 'Light Bulb' concept (which has 3 penned tracks, perhaps these can be a future EP) and a re-recording of the very old 'Written On Rice'. I may not find a use for Written On Rice.

Of the current tracks, I've divided them into groups of 3, and the last 3 will be an aside, not as linked as the first 9. The first 9 are linked musically to the last track 'Fear is Everywhere'. One remained, so I've visited one of the original songs planned for this rather darkly themed album, a song called 'Smashing my House of Cards'. I started with a gentle, almost sleepy rolling theme with a Bossa nova-like beat, that moved gently between C-Major and E-minor. This was a bit too sleepy though, I needed more energy and 'funk', so I changed the rhythm for the 'chorus' part into a more standard rock-blues rhythm, and change to the tempo to compensate. The chords are simple, and drop to F-Major, but later revisit A-Major and F-minor in ways which jar expectation.

I'll keep working on this. The last of the 12 songs will be a general one I wrote originally for the Bob Dylan night in Congleton, but didn't use. I only have the words so need a melody. That can come after this. Here are the words to 'Smashing my House' so far. The last verse is an essential reflection and conclusion which takes us out of the song to a 3rd-party space.

Smashing My House Of Cards

Smashing my house of cards
I've been smashing my house of cards
I've been building my house for years
With gentle hands
Giving it kind attention
Hoping one day to see
Heaven or something like it
From the top

Of my royal house
But it's fallen apart
Like dried up twigs
Like windows of tears in shards
I've spent the day crying
Dying and raging
Smashing my house
Smashing my house of cards

Sorry for the disaster
Sorry for all the mess
Sorry for years of work
And wasted love

Isn't it often so
That our fears become our foes?
Blowing down our hopes
As they go

Flatspace, New Guitar Lyrics

The new Flatspace soundtrack remaster was lined up this morning, and Letters From A Square Spoon submitted to a few new channels. Then, work finishing the Flatspace videos.

In between I've been practising my 'Bruce Springsteen' song for tomorrow. The link to Bruce is loose, it was inspired by his 'Used Cars', but that's it. Tomorrow will be a full day, performing in the library first, then back for the Springsteen evening. Here are the words:

I'm waitin' in the music shop for the man to come around
My dad is gazing at the sky, his head full of clouds
My brother's not allowed to touch the tambourine
Oh how he wants to touch it
I wish he'd let him touch it

I'm strumming easy Ds and easy Gs
The salesman is a staring at my prayer beads
He's hoping that our clothes are just a sham, but they're for real,
sorry man; because he knows we can't afford it
And I know we can't afford a new guitar

One day I'll get a song that is my own
One day I'll find a hidden chord that only I know
One day I'll strum a piece of luck
Upon my mind guitar
Today we have a used car
So I know we can't afford a new guitar

We're walking down the street, in october's lonely rain
My dad is telling me that santa claus is lost again
My brother's tapping rhythms with his cane
And how he loves to tap it
Oh how he loves to tap it

I'm humming easy Ds and easy Gs
When we get home I'll sing my frail old mum a melody
And I'll tell her of the instruments I saw this magic day
beyond that door; but she knows we can't afford it
And I know we can't afford a new guitar

But inside I have a song that is my own
Inside there is a hidden chord that only I know
One day I'll strum a piece of luck
Upon my mind guitar
And today will be a memory
And today will be the memory
Of the day I found a new guitar

Daytime Teevee, Remastering Thoughts

Yesterday, created some folders for annual photos. Deb and I print our photo memories each year as a long term record but sorting these out can be a chore. Now I'll do this throughout the year.

Then did more work on a new song called Daytime Teevee which I sketched out. It has a simple march rhythm, and uses Casio-style instruments. Here are the words so far:

Daytime Teevee

Daytime Teevee
Daytime Teevee
Daytime Teevee
Daytime Teevee

My life feels long
It lasts for ever
You make it fly
You kill the pain of why
And in my chair
I pass the days
The pointless years
I love you through my tears

Daytime Teevee
Daytime Teevee
Daytime Teevee
Daytime Teevee

With you I fly
Beyond this world
Beyond this room
Of dust and broken light
And I escape
Into your dreams
For I have none
For I have none

This follows on, in visual terms, from the 'Parents in the Walls' song, and 'Fear is Everywhere' seems a logical song to follow, as it begins with audio from a 1950s television clip. Much of Daytime Teevee is complete already, the production is deliberately simple.

The evening of an indigestible meal has led to a night of agonising pain once more, and drinking about 4 litres of water, all little more than my usual IBS, an irrational flare-up of self-attack by my immune system.

Emubands have added a new £90-per-year tier, plus unlimited uploads to its services. As with other distributors, this means that the music isn't permanent, but taken down when the annual payment stops; presumably to stop registering, uploading lots of music, then unsubscribing. I wouldn't expect many people to do that however, as any record company would require a long term relationship. One can pay £20 per release with or without a subscription to leave music there forever, so music there without an ongoing payment to process royalties must happen, but ironically not for those who do pay regularly. At this stage it makes their costs vs. services about on-par with Distrokid.

I'm feeling a overwhemed at the task of remastering all 50 or so of my albums for this re-release process. Might this continue forever? Must I stop at some point? I had aimed to re-work a few older vocal albums, up until We Robot, that was the first I think was good enough in balancing and mastering terms. Now, I have the chance to re-work everything back to 2002, and it's certain that some albums like The Flatspace Soundtrack, and the many computer albums like The Twelve Seasons would benefit from rebalancing and better mastering and limiting. The Golden Age was the first to use the Gothic Limiter, We Robot the better Cathedral Limiter. Before this albums were either much quieter (reduced to avoid clipping, like Remembrance Service) or excessively clipped like the old The End And The Beginning.

I need a long term plan here.

Breakfast of Delight Vocals, Parents Production

I'm overwhelmed with artistic possibilities and jobs to do. As SFXEngine sells I will continue to upgrade and update it, so I will do this at some point soon.

Music, recorded music as an artform, is so overcrowded at the moment but I can't escape its draw and I'm more capable than ever; though knowing that this is the case for countless thousands of music artists. I have a few ideas for paintings but feel I mut strike at this music album in progress while it's pertinent and feels good for me.

It follows a structure like many of my albums since Synaesthesia, a story of images and places. My albums follow this pattern for me, Burn Of God, and The Myth Of Sisyphus for example. So far I have an opening 'Violet Night', then 'Breakfast of Delight', which I recorded the vocals for today; production is complete.

Next is a song penned in July 2020 called 'Parents'. It was inspired by memories and false impressions of the meaning of David Bowie's song 'Sunday'. Today I got working on the production after writing the core melody late last night. That core is piano based and it always pains me to abandon (if indeed I do) the expressive played performance for a sequence, yet the latter is needed to add structure. Drums and a regular rhythm often feel like ropes thrown around a melody of love and expressive freedom. The new 'Light Bulb' song uses live parts only, big recordings that vary in pace. This can work, but here the music is more regimented, and I don't want a song that will be too massive in size with one huge piano part for the whole song; the piano is backing here.

So, the core of the track will be sequenced, with some guides for live playing later. The music is slow and sad, in C-minor and then Bb-minor, but lowers to F#/G# for the warmer chorus parts. Much has been done. Here are the words so far, updated to fit the melody:

Parents

You will find us
Behind the wallpaper
At the end of the country lanes
Of your soul of myrrh

We were always there
Waiting for you
We were always there
In your days and darkness

We wept unseen
As you stared at the screen
As your neck bent
Into its hook of solitude

Yet we were always there
Waiting for you
And still we wait

In the dull flesh
Of the automaton
Tied to the chairs of a distant day
Like a trampled sigh

Waiting for you
To say
Goodbye

Canvases, Breakfast Of Delight

Most of yesterday was spent creating new Spotify Canvas animations for Letters From A Square Spoon. I noted, annoyingly, that all of the Salome Canvas animations have been deleted by Spotify without warning or notice, an action typical of this terrible company. Now, most of those canvases will not upload, perhaps because they are exactly (to the frame) 8 seconds, which is the limit. My newer canvases don't have this problem as they are now 7.68 secs.

Most of the canvases are simple and based on the album art. Several animations were recycled from others to save time, and half of the tracks use a simple loop of the cover art with some extra smoke and layering effects. The Sunchild and Anthem ones are rather pretty, a simple 'glittering sun' effect.

After that I started work on a new song called 'Breakfast of Delight', following on from the 'night' of the start of the album. It has a samba rhythm made entirely from breakfast making sounds. Here are the words so far:

Breakfast of delight
You are my
Breakfast of delight

Smoked salmon
Bacon and eggs
Grapefruit cherry
Coconut muesli
Maple butter pancakes
Fresh whipped cream

Breakfast of delight
You are my
Breakfast of delight

Snap and crackle
Coffee a-froth
Caviar toast
Marmalade sticky fingers
Plums-a-fancy
Champagne volcano

Violet Night

A mix of small things done today. I must remember that image is key to creation. I'm a visual artist artist, so I tend to look at my hands when I play an instrument, I lust learn to play by feeling. I wrote some words today and played some music on a new MODX preset which swells and soars. It's a strange song overall, part monk chant. It reminds me of some of Kate Bush's Ariel tracks, the misty rusty songs in the second part. I've added lots, then removed, then added. All seeking the best. Almost all of the song is the raw sequence as played live.

I've realised that much of my music is starting to be the same, the same themes, feelings. The influence of Jarre is that some tracks are strange and artistic, some very 'commercial', but also I tell a journey of images. For all of his variety, most of Beethoven's music was a struggle for freedom, a cry of freedom above the rabble; all of the symphonies bar the 6th had this theme.

Violet Night

Close the book
Switch off the light
Sleep alone, again
The house is bleak

The stars' rays prick
My skin again
My night coffin friend
Says hello again

Like the moon at sea
Like a house on an ocean's dream
Like a child pirate
On a raft of bed

Like an adult in child's silk
After the party
Torn and sad

The Paper King and How Lonely Work

A bad night of constant stomach pain and poor sleep. Today has flown. First, finalising and filing 'From Eye To Hand To Paper', adding more bass. This was almost absent from the first version, it was so very subtle and gentle as a track. Only my EQ report alerted me to the frequency gap, so I boosted the bass. I also adjusted the sheet music to match the recording better (only the odd grace note differs between it and the live version we performed). I'm now using MuseScore 4, which is more buggy than MuseScore 3, and generally worse to use in most ways, but some formatting aspects are better, simpler, and it's generally a better idea to use the latest version of software.

Then compiled a test cover for Deb's new book.

Then, work on 'The Paper King' and 'How Lonely'. Only when I checked the global track for possible tempo changes did I notice that both tracks had a '-4' semitone pitch engine applied! This must have been done to adjust for my singing range of the day but I'd never do this now. I want to know what that actual notes are. Even when playing live I transpose live.

This led to new adjustments for key. 'The Paper King' is now in F-minor (the key it actually sounded in), and 'How Lonely' is now in C-minor. This is a lovely song, hugely reminiscent of Alphaville because it has a vocal range from mid-low to high; not quite as bold as in 'Victory of Love', but I rarely use low-ranged vocals.

Once the actual notes were established I could record a bit, and have recorded a couple of vocoder parts for both songs.

How the day is flying, I'd like to have recorded some vocals today, but cannot.

Looking at 'The Paper King' lyrics, they seem to be more depth than I'd thought. There are echoes of President Trump's orders, but perhaps more-so a psychological dimension; orders and commands ever being written by an insane but ever-active commander, our desperate mind ever finding things to do, never resting, even if self-destructive. I've made slight changes to the words today, to the last chorus, made the cows into birds, and changed the line 'Tastrophe in fernal guise' (?!) to the much more coherent 'Infernal catastrophe!'

The Paper King

Paper stretches eye to eye
Paper people paper trees
White as dwarves and thin as paper words
Ruler of this paper world
A literate and learned king
He the only pencil holds and wields

Write another paper rule
Write another constitution
Write another history
Write another me

All the peasants, all the lords
Held the words in great esteem
Everybody knew the king was just
Every paper person read
Noble deeds and noble laws
From the castle orders came and went

Write another paper rule
Write another constitution
Write another history
Write another me

Burn the rot the orders said
Burn the cardboard hermit men
Burn the old and build a better world
Burn the tissue paper birds
Burn all houses facing west
People set to burn as they were bid

Infernal catastrophe!
Storms of flame consumed the world
Every beast and every person fled
In the castle still it wrote
On the body of the king
Frantic pencil, terrified alive

Dancing like a hurricane
Frenzied like a revolution
Writing chaos in a torrent
Writing all alone

Mad as any paper king
Sane as any revolution
Never reading, never stopping
Writing every day

More Dusty Mirror Video Work, and The Johann Strauss Blues

A power day of attacking the videos for The Dusty Mirror. These are so much work, and I can't help but add little things at every step to push myself, thinking that these tiny touches only add 1 or 2 percent to the work time. This is making everything take weeks. I must keep charging.

One other job was to decide on a release plan. My plan now is to release 'Fear Of The Thing Itself' as a single and video. This is partly because the video is complete and it reasonably good looking. As a single it is not catchy or in any way like a pop hit - but this too can have merits, it may stand out. the charts are littered with songs which are not catchy or instantly appealing which have become hits; and besides the odds of me ever having a pop hit are so minuscule that I need not worry about trying; my concern should be artistry.

For this single release I've decided to add a B-side, a lovely excuse to add new music, but this is of course work too, driven by childlike enthusiasm. I found an old instrumental tune called 'The Johann Strauss Blues', from 2004. It sounds like a drunken orchestra playing an out-of-tune and out-of-time waltz. I've not used it for anything, so today played about with it and added some words:

I'm so lonely
waltzing on my own
Won't you come and
see me in my home
Madelaine?

Oh Madelaine!
Won't you come and see your lonely Johann?

See me waltzing
Waltzing around the room

I'm so lonely
waltzing on my own
Won't you come and
join me
Madelaine?

I used the new Rode NT1. It sounded rather hissy and cold. My old NT3 sounded much nicer somehow, but of course my ears are very used to the NT3, and the mix, rather than the mic, may have been the problem.

For much of the day I've worked on videos. I added some red eyes to 'Moments Of Terror', trying two methods; one animated, one with actual film clips. The latter didn't quite work because the clip is too short. The animated looked stranger, a little jerky, but better overall. Perhaps better due to strangeness.

Other videos completed in a first draft (with lyrics) today included 'Falling Apart Again', and 'Two Parents Of A Child'. These were largely done, but lacked lyrics.

I'll not do more on most of them, so the work is now finalising those, and adding the lyrics. Two videos which do need creating are 'Norman Bates' and 'The Arm'.

SFXEngine Finalisation, Lilac 12 Fold, Back To The Zoo

Much of yesterday was working on SFXEngine again, though only a small program update. Most of the time was preparing new graphics and organising new DLC.

Today I worked on and completed 'Lilac 12 Fold Dodecahedron' for the next Fall in Green album, a poem about Rudolf Steiner's educational philosophy. The process was difficult as my left ear is blocked, so I'm working partly on instruments but mostly relying on my right ear.

In between I've written and practised a song for tonight's Paul Simon night, a sequel of sorts to 'At The Zoo'. It's musically very simple, using a beat that's a bit like 'Refuge' from Synaesthesia, with a bit of 'Pinball' by Brian Protheroe thrown in. The chords are largely A-minor, E-minor, E-Major, so easy to play on guitar, but I'll use the Microkorg.

Back To The Zoo

Someone said somewhere that it's still happening
at the zoo.
Must be true
Let's go back to the zoo

The jungle drums are clichés
like the plastic desert rocks
Let's buy a toy
A little mannequin of nature

The elephants are matriarchs
The tigers are the oligarchs
The penguins are the populace
The jackals laugh at them but hiss at you
When they see you in the queue
For the zoo

The bats all fly Deliveroo
The chimps have nothing much to do
The butterflies are dolly'd up
The vultures reminisce about the, old days
When they had desert skies of blue
Before the zoo

We should build a prison here
to show the animals that we cage
people too
If they only knew

If they had a choice of home
would the animals choose the zoo?
If you had a choice would you?