I thought it might be fun to give you a tour of my workspace. This is the view that I spend a large portion of my life looking at (it's three images spliced together if you're confused). I have my keyboard handy, and try to always have a water bottle nearby (especially handy if I can't be bothered getting up to go to the toilet). I eat breakfast at my computer as well.

I keep a pad next to my computer and have several pens lying around to take notes and write lyrics. On my right is my beloved nord synthesizer and my mixer, through which the nord audio passes.

I normally try to take my new music to rehearsal to play for the band, which means I'll have to spend a bit of time bouncing all I have. The good news is that I'll have some new mp3s to put up for you today or tomorrow. I've got an updated version of teenage assembly, and two-three others to put up. Maybe more if things go particularly well today. How exciting!

Got a phone call just then from a friend (hello Archie) who said he is actually reading this page. He pointed out that I had been a bit hypocritical when I said I was running out of ideas for taking silly pictures of my face. Well, at the time I thought the gag was getting a big old. But artist that I am, inspiration hit me, so I thought I'd give it another try.

As far as actual music, well, I've only just started work today. It's hard to take stock of what I've done and see how to move forward. I've just begun working on the next track, but damnit, a new, really nice thing has appeared in my workspace. This always seems to happen.

It's a blessing and a curse. Ideas are like children - they're wonderful when they pop out, but then you have to care for them, help them grow, nurture them. They're basically a pain in the arse and need constant attention until they're finally finished. Then they leave home and start creating their own magic out in the world, stimulating the listeners imagination, manipulating their emotions and, in some unfortunate cases, helping fools have better drug related experiences.

I may or may not update again today - I can be certain of that. I'm going for a walk.

I have a few pictures to upload, so I thought I'd make a special blog post. When I get lost in my head, I like to go for walks, generally up to the cliffs at Coogee, and often with Meg. Today I took the camera, and took some photos of a spot. There's nothing significant about this spot, I just thought it'd be interesting to give you a glimpse at an area of Coogee you probably haven't seen before.

There is also a picture of some mushrooms growing on my front lawn, and a couple of Meg.

Did some music today, but it's kinda a pain to bounce it. I'm feeling very on track to get the album done, but the pieces probably won't come together till closer to the date. It's going to be an interesting album, and one that should be fun to perform live.

Heh, I was going to do an update yesterday when the heatsink fell off my motherboard and my computer shut down. At that point I thought I should let the computer cool off. This morning I reapplied the sticky and we seem to be all good again.

I'm definitely going to upload at least one song today, possibly two. I've been working on the bookends of the album - track 1 and track 10. Track 1 is really industrial. I mean, really industrial. I deliberately made it sound stereotipically industrial, partially for kicks, and partially because if I call my music industrial, I think I should pay homage to the genre with something that actually sounds industrial.

Track 10 is a bit different. It has a Gary Numan-esque type heavy part, then some other stuff. I was trying to coble together a couple of ideas that didn't really fit together, and kinda succeeded. Taken on its own it's an odd track, but it'll make sense as part of the album.

I'm having a lot of difficulty coming up with lyrics. I'm a very fast songwriter, but not lyricist. I normally spend a lot more time letting the lyrics come. I rarely actually sit down and try to write anything, but tend to just listen to the track over and over until words just pop out. Having to write songs quickly doesn't afford me this luxury. I'm hoping that at the end of the album, I will have improved the speed at which I can write lyrics.

Check back tonight for new music!

UPDATE: I decided to post something this morning. It still needs work, and I haven't finished the lyrics yet, but I haven't posted anything for a while, so - Teenage Assembly. The ideas are there, even if the structure and lyrics aren't.

I didn't write here yesterday because I needed a break. I was feeling pretty worn out and sick, so I did a bit of relaxation. Luckily I kicked the sickness in the butt and I'm feeling ok today. But I still think I need a bit more of a break. It's becoming really difficult to come up with ideas. Even with a lot of cool bits and pieces lying around, it's hard to find the inspiration to work on them.

That being said, I have been doing a little bit of work. I've got two tracks coming through at the moment. I'll probably have them both finished by friday, so chances are I'll upload them then. That'll put me at the halfway point for the album.

In addition to those two, I've got three or so good ideas sitting around that I plan to finish, which brings the total up to eight. I've then got plenty of other fragments that will hopefully inspire me, and let me finish off this album. It'll be great when it's done. I'm looking forward to taking some time off from writing afterwards. I'll just sit back and do some listening.

Only a small update tonight because it's almost 1am and I have to work at 8. I spent the first half of today trying to figure out what I was going to do. I pottered around with a workspace for an hour or two, not really getting anywhere. I had some nice parts, but nothing quite good enough, and nothing that really connected together. Then all of a sudden something magical just pooped out, and everything was made clearer. I spent the rest of the day working on it, and it's almost completely formed now.

I was considering posting what I've done on the site, but I haven't recorded the lyrics yet, and it's too late to do it now because I have to sing loudly. You'll just have to wait till tomorrow. It's going to be the last track on the album, and is kinda a goodbye. It has a very big chorus, which would be awesome to play live.

I'm slightly concerned about the timeframe I have to complete the album. It seems to take me 2-3 days to get a song to a good enough level to get the point across, which means that I'll finish the album on time if I work constantly over the month (taking into account work and rehearsals and going out). I have plenty of ideas sitting there, but will I have enough mental energy to embellish them and tidy them up? I normally take much longer, and have many more breaks when I write music. We'll see I guess.

Anyway, I'm going to bed. I've been seeing shadows and things moving around, which means I'm too tired to still be awake.

I'm writing this after the fact. I had a busy day yesterday, with rehearsal and then a party at Rehan's place. I didn't get home till about 4:30. I'm feeling quite refreshed now, so I'll get back into music today (the 10th). Below are some images of the rehearsal, and then me at about 2 in the morning. I quite like the lighting in the pictures of me, so I might play with them a bit and see what I come up with.

I'm feeling a bit worn out at the moment. Waiting for various things, and watching the RPM timer click away and the pressure to keep doing music everyday is really quite draining. Nevertheless, I've done a bit more today, and uploaded a new track - my sick desire.

I don't consider this finished, but this is the type of song that I normally let sit for a while and occasionally go back to. There's a lot of room for adding and improving, but it's still quite a nice track. There is a nice contrast between the quiet verses and loud, industrial choruses. I don't think I've done a track quite like it before.

What's it about? Partially an amusing, dirty song, partially a confession. 'Nuff said.

I used my panz kit in this track, and I'm very happy with the results. The metalic, industrial sounding percussion during the chorus wouldn't have been possible without it. I love my panz. If you're a musician and haven't downloaded the panz kit yet, do so (from the link on the left), it's pretty useful. Without further ado, here are the lyrics.

Lyrics:

When I stared at my empty glass today, I wondered, was it competely empty, or totally not full?

Just a quick update. I woke up this morning and my computer began acting like a bitch. Upon inspection, it turns out that the heatsink on my motherboard has fallen off because one of the little metal clips holding it on broke. There's pretty much no way to put the clip back on, so I'm using sticky tape to hold the heatsink on, and have my aircon on to keep the room cool. This is obviously not a long term solution, so if I'm offline for a while, that's why. I hope the sticky tape holds...

Another quick update. I did a little work on contempt this morning, and decided it was worth uploading a more recent version of the song, so I did. I've called it version 1.1 to distinguish it. It's slightly beefier than the original mp3.

A sick desire...

Ok, so I didn't get quite as much done today as I'd hoped. I was hoping to have another track finished, but it's not to be. I have made progress on one though - structure is there, lyrics are there, some music is there. I'll fill in the blank bits tomorrow and post it. This song fits well into that "about love but not a love song" catagory I mentioned a few days ago. I think you'll like it.

I didn't take any photos today, and I can't be bothered doing it right now because it's just clicked past midnight and I'm tired. I'm just happy my computer held out through the day. The sticky tape on the heatsink obviously did it's job. I'll be sure as hell trying to get a decent update tomorrow. Hopefully some pictures and some music. But for now, it's bed time.

I worked today, then went to the city, but didn't go out in the evening as I thought I would be, so I've had some time to work on music. I did a bit more work on contempt - enough that I've posted it on the site (lucky you). Here's the mp3, and it's also on myspace. It's about parents who raise their children in the "I can't be bothered/here have some money" style. I realise that I'm not really old enough to be an authority on this matter, so I threw a bit of humor in there too. Lyrics are posted below.

The odd spoken word part at the beginning is Raff, my drummer. I handed him my tape recorder and said speak, so he did. The guitar playing is Rehan, who happened to be fiddling with guitar effects at the time. Neither of them mind me using their voice/guitar to make platinum selling demo albums, which is very nice of them.

Coincidentally, Raff uses a big to small audio cable adapter when we play live, but hasn't owned one, and hence had to borrow one in all our rehearsals so far. I decided to further empty my dwindling cash reserves and splurge on said adapter to put him out of his misery (as I was walking past Dick Smith anyway). $4 later, and there's the adapter in the top picture.

I thought that if I was taking one picture of my hand, I may as well take a few. So there's one directed at the record industry. The third is for all my bunny rabbit fans. The fourth for my Star Trek fans.

Lyrics

he walked along, singing his song
he flipped me off, told me I was wrong

it's alright
it's ok
I'm just here to be used

only 25 but I'm old
or at least that's what I get told

it's alright
it's ok
tell me you're so great
hold me up
pull me down
teach me all the score

how do you expect your kids to live their lives,
when everything thing they get is so damn easy?
how do you expect them to survive,
when everything you tell them is a lie?

it's alright
it's ok
you've got all you need
money does equal love
just give me my pay

when I was young
I was a bastard too
a stupid little fool
but I wasn't as bad as these little shits...

he treated me with contempt...

One last thing - I meant to fade the track out at the end, but I forgot. I can't be bothered doing it now, so just pretend.

First things first. I've split the blog up to save on loading times. The dates before the 5th can be reached by clicking here, or on the link above.

I'm still working on multiple things. I've been trying to figure out how to connect the fragments in my workspace by using colours, but instead of the different fragments coming together, they're just growing in number. The image of the right is a snapshot of the workspace. You can see by counting the colours that there are now 5 ideas in the workspace. Consolidating these things is my task for today.

I want to start elaborating on the ideas and turning them into finished products. I'll no doubt have one of them ready for download tonight, and then, if I'm lucky, one each day for the next few days. Check back late tonight for news of the day, and perhaps some nice new sound. Now, I'm off to buy some nice hot chips.

Contempt in the evening...

So I kinda in a way managed to sorta, after a fashion, almost get to the point where I'd consider, all things taken into account, that I've just about completed another demo. That's right, demo. You read correctly, I'm now calling them demos. Stop looking confused, I already told you - demo. I'm not calling it a song, oh no. A demo.

I've been thinking about what I want to do with this album, and although I'm not going to tell you what I'm thinking (because it's a secret), I will say that I'm planning something quite different to what I've done in the past. It's more of a long term thing, so you won't hear about it for a while. The important thing to know is, this month, I'm creating a demo album for an unspecified future purpose.

Now, to the "demo". I'm not going to let you download it, because it's way too unfinished. Instead I've posted it on myspace, so you can head over there and listen. The stupid mtspace upload form is broken, so I couldn't put it up. I'll work on the song tomorrow and post on on this site in all it's mp3 glory. It's called Contempt. I haven't spent much time on the lyrics yet, so what's there is basically whatever I was adlibbing to get the vibe. It will be about youth and how we teach them, or the divide between young and old, or something along those lines.

I may not be home for much of tomorrow, so I don't know how much work I'll get done. I hope to get back into the tunes and finish something else (after a fashion). One thing I'll have to think carefully about is what pictures I'm going to put up in future. I'm running out of silly faces to pull, so I might have to resort to something else.

Those are my shoes.