TO WHERE I AM NOW

Creativity, what is it? It has many forms, but I have always been interested in the aspect of creating something where nothing was. A lyric, a tune, a concept, a story. Characters that live and breathe, a melody that wasn’t there before. I remember reading somewhere that one of Paul McCartney’s special moments was hearing the milkman whistling Yesterday, a melody that came to him in a dream, something real from some unknown place. If you think about how much information you take in in a day, how you process it and what you do with it, there are choices. You can form an opinion, stimulate yourself, learn how to avoid trouble, find a new job, discover a new band, figure out how your mobile phone works or simply become aware, have an epiphany, change your life. Whatever it is that you get from your day you can use it to live and you can use it to create. All things that come into your consciousness are potential ideas for stories, songs, lyrics, paintings, poems and other creative mediums that need a narrative context. So, what do you need to unlock them from inside of you? First of all, you need your imagination. You need the will. You need to not give up if it doesn’t come to you quickly, so you need discipline and you need faith in the magic that makes it all happen. You are also allowed to fail. I once read a very important lesson on the back of a sugar packet – “You’re far better trying and failing than not trying and succeeding”. Wisdom comes in the oddest of places.

The other lesson here is that you don’t need many skills to create something great. You just need your unique voice. Only you can do things the way that you do them. You also need to finish what you started, create a body of work, worry about its worth later and then improve upon it if you must. It’s so easy to waste time, use your time instead. Now is the time to realize that with so many people stuck at home wondering what to do, Netflix isn’t the answer, at least not 24/7. After you’ve fixed the garden fence, caught up on sleep and replaced the garage lightbulb then pick up an instrument (that also means a pen). The world is so amazing, there’s so much to observe and contemplate, so much to discover, so much to say, so say it. There’s love and there’s loss, there’s beauty and there’s turmoil and there’s absolute fantasy, tap into the thing that suits you best and write. Write about your beautiful cat or your budgie or your partner’s smile or the rain or how the right wing makes you mad. Write nonsense, write without thinking or think hard and write something deeply personal, then erase it, or don’t. Make it rhyme, or don’t. Everything is relevant. There’s only one trick and that is that you just have to get started. There’s no genius secret, put in some effort, find the will, nurture your talent, use your imagination, try some experimentation and you’re off, see you in artistic heaven. Your biggest hurdle is your good self and time. You need a little confidence and some time management, mix it with desire and then the images will appear in front of you, you just have to capture them before they fly away and fly away they will, you just need to coax them in your direction.

I went up to Dare’s today, we had a studio day off, he was pulling the brambles out of the wall opposite his house in the hot summer sun. Nothing like a bit of domestic life to re-inspire you for the studio. I don’t really take any time off from music, it’s either studio, sessions, tours or listening to records. I’m trying to figure out how to read and watch classic films, too. There must be a way. It’s hard to get away from your stereo when it sounds so good. Perhaps people would sit and listen to records all the way through and get excited and inspired by them if they had a decent stereo system. I realize that the computer station has become the centre of the universe, but even if you don’t want physical records or CDs in your front room at least invest in an amp and speakers, because your computer is so easy to plug into a system like that and everything will sound better. Surely you want better sound if you are into music or film. Investigate this, you deserve it.

Today I have been listening to a wide selection of music. Right now I’m listening to LoveLaws (2018) by TT. It’s the solo album by Theresa Wayman from LA band Warpaint. I’m a bit of a fan of hers/them (the song Love Is To Die is what caught me). I’ll be playing their 2014 self-titled album next. As well as Wayman, there’s Jenny Lee Lindberg on bass and vocals and Emily Kokal on vocals and guitar as well as Australian Stella Mozgawa on drums (I love her feel).

I also went all Post Punk and listened to Playing With A Different Sex (1981) by Au Pairs, it’s been a while since I heard that. It takes you straight back to the energy of the era. Then there was Sulk (1982) by The Associates, what a record, what a singer. Tragically Billy Mackenzie committed suicide at the age of 39.

I started off with a hangover (not the kind you think) from the early hours by playing the only Pure Food And Drug Act album from 1972. Just one album recorded live in Seattle, they were essentially violinist Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris’ group from what I understand, but apparently he was quite unreliable and they didn’t last. The reason I played this album was because of guitar player Harvey Mandel (Canned Heat and John Mayall bass player, Larry Taylor was also originally in the band before they made the album). Mandel contributes some great moments and after this I played his great debut solo album Cristo Redentor (1968) – file under essential! (By the way, he played on The Stones’ Black And Blue.)

Somewhere between all this and perusing the letter ‘A’ as I try to sort my collection out I chanced on Harvey Andrews. A singer-songwriter that not many seem to remember. But I was thoroughly enjoying his first solo album Places And Faces from 1970 tonight. Then I followed it with his second album Writer Of Songs. These records have some luminaries on them, too: Rick Wakeman, Cozy Powell, Dave Pegg, Ralph McTell. If you are in the mood for a late sixties, early seventies singer-songwriter then check him out.

Song Of The Day is Too Round To Be Square from Art Attack (1988). I had two seshes today, one with Marc in Annapolis and one with Paul in New Orleans and we started talking about round pyramids, hm? Oh yeah and seventeen minute Bob Dylan single, isn’t life exciting?

PS: There’s a clip on the Space Summit Facebook page from the studio sessions and there may be more so if you like that kind of thing like & follow the page.

 

Too Round To Be Square

The desperate angel sits in the dark
Wings in a fold, arrow through her heart
The tepid stream runs for a medal
Silver beats gold and gives her a start

Too fine to be smooth
Too greedy to share
Too blue to be colour
Too round to be square

The perspex heath melts in the sun
The liquid slips to a room at the front
The merry house has a girl’s name
A plastic fox, drunk at the hunt

Too fine to be smooth
Too greedy to share
Too blue to be colour
Too round to be square

Too fine to be smooth
Too greedy to share
Too blue to be colour
Too round to be square

[Spoken]
Too fine to be smooth
Too greedy to share
Too blue to be colour
Too round to be square

(Willson-Piper)
Art Attack (1988)