On Completing My Album

That's it! All done!

Well, not quite. I still have to mix everything. However, unless I find a gap during the mixing, all parts are now written and recorded. As a matter of interest, it was the very first two pieces of music that I recorded that longest resisted any lyrics being imposed on them. I might easily have junked them both, yet, unexpectedly, within two days everything finally fell into place.

In Retrospect

Most of the guitar work was done
on this old workhorse, called Cassius

There were honestly times I thought I would never finish this project. It has taken about two years, perhaps a little under - I think I started Easter 2015 but it is so long that I can't really remember. That's much, much longer than the first project which I did with my friend, Adam Steiner, when we were students at Aberdeen. He would come round with a bottle of wine, and I would cook dinner. We would eat and drink by candlelight. Fortified, we would then start jamming, or working on a preconceived idea, or whatever, and our work rate was such that we would bash out a song in a day.

It is likely one reason I was slower this time is that I had no one to inspire me, nor anyone for me to inspire. All my ideas had to be intrinsic, and to a large extent, spontaneous and well timed. During term, I am simply too exhausted and ideas never come. During holidays, I am often sick. At weekends, there are so many things to do. It is difficult to pick up the axe and mic and just churn them out like I - we - used to.

But there are other reasons. I am more of a perfectionist now, because I am a better musician. I take longer to rehearse parts before setting them down, whereas before, my method was pretty much to make it up as I went along, producing tracks with lots of good ideas but shoddily played and recorded. Also, the parts are more complex and layered with a greater variety of moods, which takes longer to devise and master. Some tracks I had to practise for days and days before I could even think about reaching for the mixing desk.

I also had to deal with some technological issues early on in the process. That didn't help. Two songs had to be re-recorded entirely at one point. But my gear now works a dream and makes it all sound great.

The Record

Edgar will now take up most
of the new work

I still have not decided on a track order yet, so I can't comment on the mood of it overall. Having worked on it for so long, I did not achieve my aim of creating a unified tone and theme. However, there are consistencies. Most of the songs, in one way or another, involve alienation. That includes optimistic reflection upon the opportunities involved in moving on, or confronting failure, departure, or else an angry riposte at someone or something. Some of it is about silent longing. Whatever this all says about me, I would not wish to tell. 

This is not by design. I almost always (with only one exception on this project, called 'Standing on the Shore') complete at least the structure and texture of the music first, before composing a melody into which to squeeze the lyrics. That's the tricky bit: sometimes a vocal line is just obvious, but other times the music poses no obvious solutions for the singer. 

In these cases I have two approaches:

• Download the track onto my phone and listen to it again and a
  gain on my way to work. Eventually, sooner or later, a phrase will just jump out, some few words that fit some rhythm or guitar phrase, and which act as a hook on which to hang the rest of the words. Like a seed, it germinates and blooms, and when it happens, the lines can be written in under half an hour, even after months and months of nothing but frustration, doggerel and emptiness.
• Wail over the top of the music. This usually produces a ghastly noise, like a dying bird or wailing pig, but before long and melodic line begins to take shape. Into this line I then pour some nonsense words, just to get the syllabic structure of it right, then adjust them with more meaningful words. An example of this would be something like 'hold my green waiting room' transforming into 'God save our gracious Queen'. 

Next Steps

Nothing. I just want to focus on performing with my new band. I am content to play covers until we are comfortably in our groove. Then I might push forward some of these songs for us to play, and if the band say yay, then so much the better; if they think it stinks, no matter: it can sit on SoundCloud anyhow.

On TM and the US Travel Ban

On TM and the US Travel Ban

Throat clearing

Like many others, I am concerned at the callousness of the refugee ban, announced on Holocaust Memorial Day, and the blanket travel ban imposed on people based on their country of birth. I am also genuinely surprised that this affects US citizens - green card holders - and British citizens, of dual citizenship, including one of our own Conservative MPs, Nadhim Zahawi.

This is one of those moments where even the quietest of us must say something. But Theresa May has said almost nothing about this in public.

What I admire about May

One of the things I admire most about May is that she is no waster of words and does not allow herself to be boxed into certain positions. This can be irritating for a lot of people, as it means she rarely answers questions directly, either from the press or MPs, but it does mean that when she gives speeches at important moments, such as addressing US Republicans, or setting out her position on our future relationship with Europe, her words resonate both with the public and in political circles. Her silence at the Turkish press conference is therefore, in my view, in keeping with her MO, and does not bother me. In fact, I prefer my Prime Ministers not to indulge in megaphone diplomacy or reflexive virtue signalling.

That is one reason I admire her.

'But...'

The other reason I admire her is that she has shown in the past that she can establish principled and difficult positions on things, such as modern slavery, the Police Federation, reminding the Reps. about the value of NATO, global trade, etc. And in her conference with Trump, she made the point - a good one, too - that a meaningful relationship involves honest disagreements.

Now is the time for such a response.

But so far, the indications are that she would rather duck the issue. This would not be ethical, or politically tenable.

What should she do next?

PMQs is coming up on Wednesday. She had better have an answer by then.

Perhaps something along these lines:

• That the UK-USA relationship is meaningful: communications have been made to the US administration that Britain is opposed to these measures and will not adopt such a policy herself for some very good reasons.
• That some of those affected are British citizens and should be treated with due respect.
• That she has reminded the President of what it says in the front of every British citizen's passport:

Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State Requests and requires in the Name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.