Hello friends,
A couple of months have pasted now since the world ended, and things are looking good, it generally seems to be the same kind of story it was before the end. As far as I'm concerned, we have ourselves a lovely new blank canvas on which to paint a new picture of whatever we want, the gloves of limitation have been ripped off and given to charity to send to some poor developing species in another solar system. Don't worry about fuel prices for these interstellar old junk delivery rockets, they use hyper dimensional funnels that function on imagination rather then petroleum based propulsion.
There has been a strong theme of birth and death since the new Earth began,well for me at least. For one thing my sister had a baby, the first of the next generation of my immediate family, and he's called Harrison (I like to think it's because my sister secretly loves the complex guitar stylings of the late great George Harrison, but it's probably to do with some other reason that is un-beatle related entirely).
Baby Harrison is tiny, and he comes with many many tiny accessories. So numerous are these tiny accessories, that they create an entire layer of baby over everything within a ten meter radius. While the baby and my sister were staying with us to recover, I had to become an amateur archaeologist, performing complex digs in order to locate relics of pre-baby times (such as computer games and useful adult items deemed unsafe for children). The layer of baby would quickly return though, and evidence of the excavation lost to time.
Also with new baby comes baby related programming from the flashy corner box. 'One Born Every Minute' seems like it's on all the time, showing blurry vaginas and splooge covered tiny wobbly humans in HD being pushed into our dimension through them. It's not exactly the sort of thing you want to watch while trying to eat dinner, it would really put you off your horse burgers.
I think the reason I keep encountering the 'One Born' thing is because it comes right before the absolute bestest thing on TV in the UK at the moment, namely 'Derek'. I will write a whole special blog dedicated to Ricky Gervais's latest and greatest mockumentary once the whole series has been shown. Until then, the element of the show I wish to comment on is the Old people. The show is set in a care home for the elderly, and every episode has a strong focus on kindness and being good to your fellow human beings, no matter how young or old they are. I'm not afraid to admit that I have shed a tear every time I have watched it, it works for me, mainly because it reminds me of my Granddad who inspired and influenced me so much.
Death is a big part of the show as well, and also a recurring theme in my life at the moment. No one I know closely has died recently, but my current temp job is related to death in several ways. I can't go into detail as I signed a contract not to reveal any information (which makes it sound so much more important then it really is), but I can say that daily I am thinking about growing old and the inevitable ending of that process of old growing. But who knows what my future holds, as my granddad would always say, he had no idea that in his life he would see the birth of television, the rise of computers, diseases cured, cars outside every house, spaceflight, the internet, phones in every house before ending up in every pocket and so many other mind-blowing things that if he had been told about any of it when he was young, he wouldn't of believed it possible. So who knows what will happen in the next hundred years, I am willing to bet that it will be a whole load of crazy awesome stuff that if we knew about it already, we wouldn't believe it for one moment. Tomorrows normalities are today's fantasies. If we can dream it, then somewhen down the line we can live it, but it's not all up to you, there are billions of other dreamers out there, some of them are tiny and cry lots for attention, and some are old and frail, but no matter what point on this journey of life you are at, there is loads more time for stuff to change and it inevitably will.
So cheer up, life has all the symptoms of something incredibly awesome and expansive, and it's very contagious.
Peace and infinite love
[adj] - Andy D Jackson
Saturday, 2 March 2013
Sunday, 10 February 2013
Times of Change (since we're still here)
Hello friends,
This year has brought with it change, lots and lots of change. Some of it is big change, some of it is small change and some of it is unnoticed change that has yet to reverberate through to the core, all of it is relevant in some way though.
Usually at the beginning of the year I like to do a list of the things I would like to achieve in the upcoming 12 months. For reasons unknown I didn't do that this year. It seems that the changes coming are too big for my mind to factor into decisions of the future. For example, already this year there has been big shifts within my family, newborns and break ups and the like, combined with shifts in my creative ways of thinking and personal dreams and desires.
I have been making music since I was about 10. The first musical project I ever worked on was with my cousin, we would design album covers and come up with song names for all the tracks on the album rather then writing all the songs first and then picking the album tracks. The first song my cousin and I actually wrote was called 'Think Big'. If memory serves me correctly (which it doesn't always) the song was based around the chords of C and D, with a possible G thrown in. It was also probably a load of shit. I think we managed about 4 songs written before we moved on to other things. I continued to write songs though.
21 years later and I am still making up albums, although now I write all the songs first and then pick the order and design a cover. In all those years I have turned my hand at many creative pursuits, hoping to find one that would launch me into the public eye and earn me heaps and heaps of sweet sweet cash. I kept changing, from acting, to writings, to singing, to drawing, to painting, just anything I could do that was creative. I never settled on one, until I started working with Ali Nicholls back when I was 19. From the forming of The Little Man onwards, I was a singer/songwriter.
I still am a singer/songwriter. But times are changing.
There isn't really a point to this blog, I just felt I should publish something as it's been ages. I'm working a normal job at the moment so don't have the spare time to sit and muse blog style over things, plus the music projects I'm working on at the moment can't be talked about here (just in case I give away any top secrets!) There just isn't enough time at the moment to be funny and interesting in blog form, so this is what you get, a half baked handful of sentences about nothing interesting or connected to your life in any way whatsoever...just like most blogs on the internet really.
Have a good day, smile at a stranger and make love to someone else (failing that, make love to yourself)
Peace and infinite love
[adj] - Andy D Jackson
This year has brought with it change, lots and lots of change. Some of it is big change, some of it is small change and some of it is unnoticed change that has yet to reverberate through to the core, all of it is relevant in some way though.
Usually at the beginning of the year I like to do a list of the things I would like to achieve in the upcoming 12 months. For reasons unknown I didn't do that this year. It seems that the changes coming are too big for my mind to factor into decisions of the future. For example, already this year there has been big shifts within my family, newborns and break ups and the like, combined with shifts in my creative ways of thinking and personal dreams and desires.
I have been making music since I was about 10. The first musical project I ever worked on was with my cousin, we would design album covers and come up with song names for all the tracks on the album rather then writing all the songs first and then picking the album tracks. The first song my cousin and I actually wrote was called 'Think Big'. If memory serves me correctly (which it doesn't always) the song was based around the chords of C and D, with a possible G thrown in. It was also probably a load of shit. I think we managed about 4 songs written before we moved on to other things. I continued to write songs though.
21 years later and I am still making up albums, although now I write all the songs first and then pick the order and design a cover. In all those years I have turned my hand at many creative pursuits, hoping to find one that would launch me into the public eye and earn me heaps and heaps of sweet sweet cash. I kept changing, from acting, to writings, to singing, to drawing, to painting, just anything I could do that was creative. I never settled on one, until I started working with Ali Nicholls back when I was 19. From the forming of The Little Man onwards, I was a singer/songwriter.
I still am a singer/songwriter. But times are changing.
There isn't really a point to this blog, I just felt I should publish something as it's been ages. I'm working a normal job at the moment so don't have the spare time to sit and muse blog style over things, plus the music projects I'm working on at the moment can't be talked about here (just in case I give away any top secrets!) There just isn't enough time at the moment to be funny and interesting in blog form, so this is what you get, a half baked handful of sentences about nothing interesting or connected to your life in any way whatsoever...just like most blogs on the internet really.
Have a good day, smile at a stranger and make love to someone else (failing that, make love to yourself)
Peace and infinite love
[adj] - Andy D Jackson
Sunday, 27 January 2013
The Moon of Life and Death
Big full moon,
A full moon of life and death. Reaching endings and fresh beginnings, marching ever onward through time in a universe that never stays still.
There are two inevitable things about life, things you can't avoid (yet... that could change with the invention of new technology). No. 1 - Change, and No. 2 - Death.
The moon and the sun both act as good analogies for these two seemingly unavoidable facts of life. Over the course of a single day the Earth rotates at such a speed as to give it's inhabitants the illusion of the Sun rising and falling, but in reality the sun is merely rotating around the central point of our galaxy, it does not rise or fall at all. The Sun will eventually die, it won't be tomorrow (probably), but it will eventually meet some kind of end. The Sun will change over time, a much larger time scale then a single human life of course, but never the less, it will go through drastic changes.
The moon has a pattern of it's own, showing itself to us a bit at a time, until it is full, and then removing a bit at a time until it is gone, to once again start showing itself to us. These cycles of change represented to us by the celestial bodies of our solar system can be seen reflected in the cycle of the seasons, and the life cycles of all the inhabitants of Earth.
A cosmic dancing of energy that is taking place on levels both infinitesimally small and infinitesimally large acts as a blueprint for all creation, and every single section of this vast awesomeness is only really capable of interacting and understanding an infinitesimally tiny section of the whole, so as to render it's understanding meaningless and allow for exploration of something new.
So put bluntly, none of us know anything of any worth and we should pay more attention so we could possibly learn a tiny bit more before we all explode one by one like the sun.
This blog was bought to you by : Changes in my life, [adj]
A full moon of life and death. Reaching endings and fresh beginnings, marching ever onward through time in a universe that never stays still.
There are two inevitable things about life, things you can't avoid (yet... that could change with the invention of new technology). No. 1 - Change, and No. 2 - Death.
The moon and the sun both act as good analogies for these two seemingly unavoidable facts of life. Over the course of a single day the Earth rotates at such a speed as to give it's inhabitants the illusion of the Sun rising and falling, but in reality the sun is merely rotating around the central point of our galaxy, it does not rise or fall at all. The Sun will eventually die, it won't be tomorrow (probably), but it will eventually meet some kind of end. The Sun will change over time, a much larger time scale then a single human life of course, but never the less, it will go through drastic changes.
The moon has a pattern of it's own, showing itself to us a bit at a time, until it is full, and then removing a bit at a time until it is gone, to once again start showing itself to us. These cycles of change represented to us by the celestial bodies of our solar system can be seen reflected in the cycle of the seasons, and the life cycles of all the inhabitants of Earth.
A cosmic dancing of energy that is taking place on levels both infinitesimally small and infinitesimally large acts as a blueprint for all creation, and every single section of this vast awesomeness is only really capable of interacting and understanding an infinitesimally tiny section of the whole, so as to render it's understanding meaningless and allow for exploration of something new.
So put bluntly, none of us know anything of any worth and we should pay more attention so we could possibly learn a tiny bit more before we all explode one by one like the sun.
This blog was bought to you by : Changes in my life, [adj]
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Winter adventures - (Greg Kinnear edition)
So friends,
Not sure if you know this or not, but I'm working at the moment...in a proper job! Oh yes I am working for the man again, for the first time in a long time. It sucks, it really doesn't suit me, I think I might be allergic to conventional work, but anyway, I gotta do it, I need the money to live. The only real plus about work is that my beauty works in the same place, so we get to see each other sometimes.
I can't tell you about my job because it is super top secret and I am sworn to secrecy (I had to sign a form and everything!), all I can say is that it is basic office work in a warehouse. That's it, I've told you to much, they will be after me soon...
My winter adventures have something to do with this job, hence my mentioning it. On Friday it was scheduled to snow down here (or up here - depending on where you are of course), in the morning I got up as per usual and had coffee and breakfast. There was no snow...yet. As beauty and I left the house and began walking to the station, it was not snowing. We got to work, and it was snowing then. After a few hours at work, we were all sent home because it was snowing heavily. We spent half an hour at the station freezing, watching the trains get delayed more and more (and once, just once, it was un-delayed!, we all screamed "Un-delay, un-delay", but it didn't happen again.) It felt like a trial, a test, man against nature. Nature won and man got very cold and icy wet.
We managed to get home, faster then the cars in fact. We walked for an hour keeping pace with the cars the whole time. Oh this country is funny when we get a little adverse weather, it all comes grinding to a halt. It's beautiful though, feels like the clouds come down to our level for a bit of down time.
I wrote two songs with my brother Nick in the afternoon, while the snow kept falling. A much better way to spend the time. I tackled the elements and almost lost my toes to ice leprosy, but it was worth it to have the afternoon making music with Nick. One day in the future, Nick and I will write an entire album of songs about Greg Kinnear, it will be the most misunderstood album about a famous person named Greg ever.
Well if you can't hear it, you should Greg Kinnear it...
The two songs we wrote during the blizzard were not Greg Kinnear related, but the improvised versions both before and after the actual writing contained several references to both Greg and Kinnear.
The next day there was still snow everywhere, but this would not deter me from making to trip to Studio Stax and getting two new demos recorded with the help of Mr Donny Stax and Mr Truth. Two whole demos finished in about 5 hours. That might not sound that impressive, but it feels impressive to me, and I'm sure if we asked Greg he would agree. We got sick beats, some sweet strings, layers of guitar and vocals, and a hefty dose of How Bout That to boot.
The year is looking good so far...
isn't it Greg?
Peace and infinite love
[adj] - Andy D Jackson
 |
| This blog contain 30% Greg Kinnear |
Not sure if you know this or not, but I'm working at the moment...in a proper job! Oh yes I am working for the man again, for the first time in a long time. It sucks, it really doesn't suit me, I think I might be allergic to conventional work, but anyway, I gotta do it, I need the money to live. The only real plus about work is that my beauty works in the same place, so we get to see each other sometimes.
I can't tell you about my job because it is super top secret and I am sworn to secrecy (I had to sign a form and everything!), all I can say is that it is basic office work in a warehouse. That's it, I've told you to much, they will be after me soon...
My winter adventures have something to do with this job, hence my mentioning it. On Friday it was scheduled to snow down here (or up here - depending on where you are of course), in the morning I got up as per usual and had coffee and breakfast. There was no snow...yet. As beauty and I left the house and began walking to the station, it was not snowing. We got to work, and it was snowing then. After a few hours at work, we were all sent home because it was snowing heavily. We spent half an hour at the station freezing, watching the trains get delayed more and more (and once, just once, it was un-delayed!, we all screamed "Un-delay, un-delay", but it didn't happen again.) It felt like a trial, a test, man against nature. Nature won and man got very cold and icy wet.
 |
| "God damn it Greg, it's snowing everywhere" ... "No need to shout friend, I Kin-hear you just fine" |
I wrote two songs with my brother Nick in the afternoon, while the snow kept falling. A much better way to spend the time. I tackled the elements and almost lost my toes to ice leprosy, but it was worth it to have the afternoon making music with Nick. One day in the future, Nick and I will write an entire album of songs about Greg Kinnear, it will be the most misunderstood album about a famous person named Greg ever.
 |
| "Get me a copy of that album about me now, and also some anti Popeye cream" |
Well if you can't hear it, you should Greg Kinnear it...
The two songs we wrote during the blizzard were not Greg Kinnear related, but the improvised versions both before and after the actual writing contained several references to both Greg and Kinnear.
The next day there was still snow everywhere, but this would not deter me from making to trip to Studio Stax and getting two new demos recorded with the help of Mr Donny Stax and Mr Truth. Two whole demos finished in about 5 hours. That might not sound that impressive, but it feels impressive to me, and I'm sure if we asked Greg he would agree. We got sick beats, some sweet strings, layers of guitar and vocals, and a hefty dose of How Bout That to boot.
The year is looking good so far...
isn't it Greg?
 |
| "Yeah, yeah it's looking good Andy" |
Peace and infinite love
[adj] - Andy D Jackson
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
No. 1 in the Reverbnation singer/songwriter charts
Hello friends,
I'm number 1 in the local charts for singer/songwriters on Reverbnation, check out my page on this link here http://www.reverbnation.com/adjandydjackson
Or you can enjoy the songs from my profile right here in the blog, they are just below these words.
Big thanks to everyone that helped me get to the top, I shall not fail you now that I am your leader, I shall always do my best to make music that you want to hear.
Peace and infinite love
[adj] - Andy D Jackson
I'm number 1 in the local charts for singer/songwriters on Reverbnation, check out my page on this link here http://www.reverbnation.com/adjandydjackson
Or you can enjoy the songs from my profile right here in the blog, they are just below these words.
Big thanks to everyone that helped me get to the top, I shall not fail you now that I am your leader, I shall always do my best to make music that you want to hear.
Peace and infinite love
[adj] - Andy D Jackson
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
2013 - Day 1 : Sunshine & Magic
Hello friends,
Day 1 of year 2013 in the Gregorian calendar
We all successfully survived the ending of the world, the new world is here and it looks pretty good. I can't really see much difference between this brand new age world and the old treacly world we were in before it all ended...I guess it takes time, I'll keep a lookout for us.
I'm going to add another title to my .... err ... title (clearly not adding words to my vocabulary though)
From today onwards I shall be known as the Adventuring Creative Wizard, I'm adding real magic to my rostrum of self congratulatory names and coming out of the magic closet as it were. I've always been a wizard, as long as I can remember I've had special magical powers that I keep under lock and key in a metal safe in my brain, I haven't been able to find the key, I'm sure it's around here somewhere with my other keys. I did put one of those clap responsive beepy things with the keys, but I must have set it to silent or something, coz no matter how hard I clap my hands I can't hear a beep!
I decided as this important year has now begun, it's time to rethink and just forget about the key altogether, I don't need the key, I just need some extra strength mind metal dissolving acid, and I happen to have a whole vat of that in my imagination right now, so the dissolving process has begun and soon all of the magical powers in that locked part of my brain will come shooting out and evolve me into the Wizard I am. The acid is very effective, it took no time at all to get rid of that mental metal lock, and now the magical powers are seeping out into every part of me. If you would like to get rid of that pesky magic lock in your mind as well then you are more then welcome to have some of my acid, just imagine an empty jug and I'll fill it with acid for you.
Okay, so for my first magical experience of 2013 I am going to predict the future. I know this is probably the easiest of the powers to master straight off the bat. For this I have done some automatic writing out in the sunshine. Below are the results...
It doesn't make much sense, in fact, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever...yet. Maybe in the future it will, when the squiggly predictions come true and I can go back over them and tell you all what it says in retrospect. This might seem like cheating, and in many ways it is, but in other ways that are mystical and powerful it isn't.
My predictions are my own, and involve my life (as well as other people that influence my life), you might very well be one of them. If you are then please have a healing energy light bubble on me, and an infinite luck bubble too. Close your eyes and they will be waiting for you on the inside lids. No need to thank me, I got a job lot of both bubble types off the back of an ether-truck that got lost on it's way to the past (I gave them precise directions and I let them have a go on my new sweet ass hover go-kart in exchange for the job-lot, everyone was a winner).
It's about to get intense...fasten your mind belts.
If that made any sense to you then you are on the way to becoming a master wizard as well. Now pick up your big pointy hat and meet me in the etherworld.
Magic and Infinite Love to you
[adj] - Andy D Jackson (Wizard)
Day 1 of year 2013 in the Gregorian calendar
We all successfully survived the ending of the world, the new world is here and it looks pretty good. I can't really see much difference between this brand new age world and the old treacly world we were in before it all ended...I guess it takes time, I'll keep a lookout for us.
I'm going to add another title to my .... err ... title (clearly not adding words to my vocabulary though)
From today onwards I shall be known as the Adventuring Creative Wizard, I'm adding real magic to my rostrum of self congratulatory names and coming out of the magic closet as it were. I've always been a wizard, as long as I can remember I've had special magical powers that I keep under lock and key in a metal safe in my brain, I haven't been able to find the key, I'm sure it's around here somewhere with my other keys. I did put one of those clap responsive beepy things with the keys, but I must have set it to silent or something, coz no matter how hard I clap my hands I can't hear a beep!
I decided as this important year has now begun, it's time to rethink and just forget about the key altogether, I don't need the key, I just need some extra strength mind metal dissolving acid, and I happen to have a whole vat of that in my imagination right now, so the dissolving process has begun and soon all of the magical powers in that locked part of my brain will come shooting out and evolve me into the Wizard I am. The acid is very effective, it took no time at all to get rid of that mental metal lock, and now the magical powers are seeping out into every part of me. If you would like to get rid of that pesky magic lock in your mind as well then you are more then welcome to have some of my acid, just imagine an empty jug and I'll fill it with acid for you.
Okay, so for my first magical experience of 2013 I am going to predict the future. I know this is probably the easiest of the powers to master straight off the bat. For this I have done some automatic writing out in the sunshine. Below are the results...
 |
| Wizard powers engaged |
My predictions are my own, and involve my life (as well as other people that influence my life), you might very well be one of them. If you are then please have a healing energy light bubble on me, and an infinite luck bubble too. Close your eyes and they will be waiting for you on the inside lids. No need to thank me, I got a job lot of both bubble types off the back of an ether-truck that got lost on it's way to the past (I gave them precise directions and I let them have a go on my new sweet ass hover go-kart in exchange for the job-lot, everyone was a winner).
It's about to get intense...fasten your mind belts.
If that made any sense to you then you are on the way to becoming a master wizard as well. Now pick up your big pointy hat and meet me in the etherworld.
Magic and Infinite Love to you
[adj] - Andy D Jackson (Wizard)
Sunday, 30 December 2012
2012 - a creatives review
Hello friends,
We made it! We survived the Ending of the World. I knew we would, I didn't doubt it for one second. I knew we wouldn't accidentally destroy this magnificent planet, no matter how hard we tried to make things difficult for her, she will always prevail against the tiny arrogant god complex monkeys.
Time for my review of my year. All over the internet people do reviews of the year, in TV, in Film, in Politics, in Sport, in Computer Games, in Board Games, in Conspiracy activity etc. All of the reviews are just one persons opinion, or at best a couple of people who share the typing, but they all claim to have some higher perception on their subject of review. I won't do that, because it doesn't matter one bit what I thought was the best (or worst) TV, Film, Game etc. I'm going to focus on my own life, as I am privileged enough to get to live it here with all of the other opinion generators.
2012 has been another big year for me. Since leaving the daily office grind back in 2011 I have been adventuring around the creative lands in my own unique way. My adventures were very outward and adventury back in 2011, but in 2012 they have, for the most part, been inward facing, introspective and self growthy. There have been smatterings of outward, extroverted and self expressive moments such as the handful of gigs I have done with Donny Stax, the One World festival and my adventures in the land of busking, and if you want to know more about them things then I advise you venture back through my year of blogging, all of them have been blogged about.
Here are my internal reviews of the big sections of this year for me, in chronological order:
At the beginning of the year, I wasn't really sure what was going on. I had been working on my four seasons project (an album a season) and my plans had been to do a winter one to complete up the project. I dropped it, I dropped winter as if it were a cheap mobile phone falling out of a plane and into a frozen lake where it shattered into two thousand and seventy one pieces. The winter album never happened...because I started work on something very different and very special instead.
My whole year had been made exciting and creative thanks to one person, 2012 has been the year of Donny Stax. I checked the Chinese calendar to see if this was meant to be the year of Donny Stax, but I can't read Chinese so I'm not sure if the intricate and beautiful Chinese characters said 'Donny' or not. I know this wasn't the year of the monkey, because I did all my monkeying around back in 09 and 0-10.
Anyway, the winter album dissolved, and 'Fine' took it's place.
'Fine' is still available, it's even on Itunes and Spotify and all the other music sitey places. We made it in a few months, and it contains 'Live Up There' which has been spun several times on BBC Introducing The South as well as making it to their 'Best of 2012' show which is on tonight (30/12/12). It was an ambitious project for a first album, but working with Donny Stax was easy, we clicked quickly and worked at the same pace, 'jet-propelled'. Each time we met at Castle Stax we would knock out a new song. One occasion we even managed to get two songs done in one session. The album came together quickly and by May we were twiddling our thumbs trying to work out what to do next.
Most bands would at this point probably start hitting up the live scene like it was lines of cocaine in a porn stars arse crack, we however, didn't. We did a few live gigs, some open mics etc. but our hearts were in the studio, making new music. So for the summer we worked on a bunch of songs we intended to sell to other artists or record labels for hard hard cash. We had a bunch of them ready by July, but we had no idea how to sell them to anyone...so we released them ourselves.
'Free Music (Donate Now)' came out in August and it is available from bandcamp at http://howboutthatrecords.bandcamp.com/album/free-music-donate-now, done more as an experiment in creating Pop, it was a strange record. Neither Donny Stax or myself really felt that connected to it, so it never got that much promotion or attention. It did however contain the track 'Separately' which has had numerous radio spins on redshiftradio by my good friend Benjamin Stubbs.
The best two weeks of this year were in the summer at One World festival. Big shout out to all my peeps from the Soggy Biscuit Improv group as well as all the other wonders of the One World. I wrote a big blog about that back at the time, which you can read here.
The year has been full of weird coincidences and moments of growth. One World was full of that, but both Abi and I have had loads of bizarre nature moments, sky moments, people moments and moment moments, moment to moment. Now the word 'moment' looks wrong to me, I've written it out too many times.
Anyway, musically, I continued to work with Donny Stax, we moved on to another album project, one more for us and not with the aim of selling any of them. We took our time and tried to construct new and interesting creative explorations of the musical realm. The result of this was released in December and can still be bought from bandcamp at http://howboutthatrecords.bandcamp.com/album/self-aware.
'Self Aware' was our most ambitious record, and allowed us to try many new things. We explored the electronica realm with it a lot more then our previous two records, making up whole tracks around repetitive synth lines. The result is the best of the three records we put out in my opinion. We got a track from it spun on redshift radio again several times. Listen to it here just below all this text. The whole album is very positive and upbeat, looking for solutions to problems rather then getting all down in the mouth about how shizza everything can seem. This is the most positive and self affirming record I have ever worked on, and the title felt very fitting. Mr Stax also upped his game massively for this album, adding singing to his repertoire and some fantastic rapping and crazy song structures. Winning it was, winning, winning, winning.
I also managed to squeeze out a little solo musical effort this year, my very first electronica record. I also wrote a story to go with it. 'Sounds for Drowning Robots' it was called. It had amazing artwork done by Mel Pellatt, and it is available from bandcamp also. http://howboutthatrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-for-drowning-robots
In-between all the music making and crazy moments with the world, I also did a whole heap of busking, quite a bit of computer game playing, and lots and lots of tea drinking. What a good year.
To finnish off this year I went and recorded a new track with Mr Stax called 'We Survived the End of the World', which will feature on our best of album (due out early 2013).
I hope you have had a good year too, tell me about it in the comments if you like :)
Bring on 2013
Happy New Year everyone
Peace and infinite love
[adj] - Andy D Jackson
We made it! We survived the Ending of the World. I knew we would, I didn't doubt it for one second. I knew we wouldn't accidentally destroy this magnificent planet, no matter how hard we tried to make things difficult for her, she will always prevail against the tiny arrogant god complex monkeys.
Time for my review of my year. All over the internet people do reviews of the year, in TV, in Film, in Politics, in Sport, in Computer Games, in Board Games, in Conspiracy activity etc. All of the reviews are just one persons opinion, or at best a couple of people who share the typing, but they all claim to have some higher perception on their subject of review. I won't do that, because it doesn't matter one bit what I thought was the best (or worst) TV, Film, Game etc. I'm going to focus on my own life, as I am privileged enough to get to live it here with all of the other opinion generators.2012 has been another big year for me. Since leaving the daily office grind back in 2011 I have been adventuring around the creative lands in my own unique way. My adventures were very outward and adventury back in 2011, but in 2012 they have, for the most part, been inward facing, introspective and self growthy. There have been smatterings of outward, extroverted and self expressive moments such as the handful of gigs I have done with Donny Stax, the One World festival and my adventures in the land of busking, and if you want to know more about them things then I advise you venture back through my year of blogging, all of them have been blogged about.
Here are my internal reviews of the big sections of this year for me, in chronological order:
At the beginning of the year, I wasn't really sure what was going on. I had been working on my four seasons project (an album a season) and my plans had been to do a winter one to complete up the project. I dropped it, I dropped winter as if it were a cheap mobile phone falling out of a plane and into a frozen lake where it shattered into two thousand and seventy one pieces. The winter album never happened...because I started work on something very different and very special instead.
My whole year had been made exciting and creative thanks to one person, 2012 has been the year of Donny Stax. I checked the Chinese calendar to see if this was meant to be the year of Donny Stax, but I can't read Chinese so I'm not sure if the intricate and beautiful Chinese characters said 'Donny' or not. I know this wasn't the year of the monkey, because I did all my monkeying around back in 09 and 0-10.
Anyway, the winter album dissolved, and 'Fine' took it's place.
'Fine' is still available, it's even on Itunes and Spotify and all the other music sitey places. We made it in a few months, and it contains 'Live Up There' which has been spun several times on BBC Introducing The South as well as making it to their 'Best of 2012' show which is on tonight (30/12/12). It was an ambitious project for a first album, but working with Donny Stax was easy, we clicked quickly and worked at the same pace, 'jet-propelled'. Each time we met at Castle Stax we would knock out a new song. One occasion we even managed to get two songs done in one session. The album came together quickly and by May we were twiddling our thumbs trying to work out what to do next.
Most bands would at this point probably start hitting up the live scene like it was lines of cocaine in a porn stars arse crack, we however, didn't. We did a few live gigs, some open mics etc. but our hearts were in the studio, making new music. So for the summer we worked on a bunch of songs we intended to sell to other artists or record labels for hard hard cash. We had a bunch of them ready by July, but we had no idea how to sell them to anyone...so we released them ourselves.
The best two weeks of this year were in the summer at One World festival. Big shout out to all my peeps from the Soggy Biscuit Improv group as well as all the other wonders of the One World. I wrote a big blog about that back at the time, which you can read here.
Anyway, musically, I continued to work with Donny Stax, we moved on to another album project, one more for us and not with the aim of selling any of them. We took our time and tried to construct new and interesting creative explorations of the musical realm. The result of this was released in December and can still be bought from bandcamp at http://howboutthatrecords.bandcamp.com/album/self-aware.
I also managed to squeeze out a little solo musical effort this year, my very first electronica record. I also wrote a story to go with it. 'Sounds for Drowning Robots' it was called. It had amazing artwork done by Mel Pellatt, and it is available from bandcamp also. http://howboutthatrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-for-drowning-robots
In-between all the music making and crazy moments with the world, I also did a whole heap of busking, quite a bit of computer game playing, and lots and lots of tea drinking. What a good year.
To finnish off this year I went and recorded a new track with Mr Stax called 'We Survived the End of the World', which will feature on our best of album (due out early 2013).
I hope you have had a good year too, tell me about it in the comments if you like :)
Bring on 2013
Happy New Year everyone
Peace and infinite love
[adj] - Andy D Jackson
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