NEW MUSIC: rOCkTOBER: The Electricity Doesn’t Like The Man
NEW ALBUM - THE ELECTRICITY DOESN'T LIKE THE MAN - OUT DECEMBER 2023
In December last year (2022), I was given an Arturia Keylab 49 synthesiser as a Christmas gift. I don't play piano. I can barely play my bass! But I decided that I would spend the next year messing around with the synth and seeing what I could do with it. The plan was simple: I'd write one song a month, only using the synthesiser. No bass guitar. No normal guitar. Just whatever sounds I could get out of the Arturia.
Today, on Bandcamp, and available everywhere else on October 31st, I have released the song I wrote this month, October. The tenth song I have written using this approach this year.
I think it has become the title track for the album too. (Because, you know, it’s my ‘electric’ album). Each month so far in 2023 I have written a new song (believe it or not my last single, Anarchist Atheist Punk Rock Teacher, started life as an electric song too, written on the synth to celebrate the release of the book, and the original electric version of that song will be released as the ‘April’ song on the album, complete with cheesy synth horns!). The songs on the album cover a wide range of topics and are done in a wide range of styles. The only rule has been it has to be recorded by the end of the month, and the only instrument I can use on the recording is the Arturia and whatever drums I can program through Logic Pro.
I haven't really spoken about doing this project because - well, what if I couldn't actually write the songs? This still might be the case for November and December (those songs, obviously, have not yet been written because those months have not happened yet) but at least now I have 10 songs done and dusted. That's an album even if I don't make it to the planned 12. But I think I will make it to 12. My many years of doing improv has taught me never to underestimate the power of setting yourself arbitrary goals and trying to create something interesting from nothing. As Saturday Night Live producer, Lorne Michaels, is reported to have said: 'we don't put it on at 11:30 because it's ready, we put it on because it's 11:30'. By December's release there will be two further songs - I just can't vouch yet whether they'll be any good! The ten that already exist though - they are absolute bangers, and totally different from any of my previous SSBF releases (and even from the electro ANARCHOPHY project that first got me started with self-producing my own songs all those years ago), so even if the two songs I've not yet written ultimately disappoint, the ten I have already written will still make the album worth listening to. (And you know me - this stuff is always free/pay-what-you-want) so take the gamble!
Anyway, I've rambled enough. The point is, there's a new album coming out in December that is weird and wonderful and I can't wait for you to hear it.
In the meantime, this October-taster is a Halloween-themed true ghost story for you to enjoy. I've always had a habit of telling my students October is ‘Rocktober’, so thought I'd pay homage to that tradition by trying to write a rock song for this special month. And as those who have seen my jack-o-lantern tattoo can guess, I love Halloween. It’s also the month my mother died, so it’s nice to remember some creepy stuff that happened back when she was alive too. It’s a rock song with some spooky electro-weirdness thrown in. But yes - every word of it is true.
Enjoy!