It was a festival of our music in our house today as we got up, set up and rehearsed our songs right through to the show. We played for our audience of two, Jason and Kathy in Michigan, this is their second Skype performance by us (last time they had guests). They were one of the first to do it in January and Jason said well it’s been around six months, seems like time for another one. I commented that if David Sylvian was performing every six months I’d be keen. There are of course fans that follow a band on tour and go to all of their gigs especially in a small country like the UK where it’s not so hard to get from gig to gig as they make their way around the country (it’s a little harder in the USA). Does anybody out there think that the distractions of the modern world have slowed the population’s interest in music? Social media, computers, phones, games, rich sports stars. I know there are big bands that would bring lots of people to their shows but is there less room for you if you are not fabulously successful? I know how hard it is to travel around the world, get work permits and accommodation, ground transport, tolls, merch manufactured and CDs and vinyl to sell on the road. Hiring venues, paying commissions, rehearsals, other band members. I would tour with a full band but the costs are so high and there’s a minimum audience size needed to justify it. It seems like for all the flamboyant rock stars of the past, there was still a lot of room for smaller, less successful, less personality-based groups who were purely musical and were releasing records or was it always this way? We do what we can and at the moment it’s Olivia and me in our front room, playing to Jason and Kathy. This was our setlist today, mostly chosen by Jason with songs added by us:

Tristesse
Water
Into My Hands
You Whisper
High As A Kite
Lullaby For The Lonely
Melody Of The Rain
Feed Your Mind
Sanctuary
Listen/Space
Chromium
She’ll Come Back For You Tomorrow
Scandinavian Stare
Field Of Mars
Under The Milky Way
Hopes And Fears

Thirteen

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One of the things about swimming a lot is that it softens up your callouses. I’m trying to figure out a way to play the guitar and swim at the same time or at least play as much as I swim. But then, I’d like to spend as much time composing as I do swimming or writing or working with the sessioneers. One of the good things about working with the sessioneers is that it incorporates a lot of these things. Sometimes I’m producing, other times I’m playing guitar or bass, or arranging, helping with lyrics or in the case of Arktik Lake singing the songs although I didn’t write them. Space Summit has me producing, playing all the guitars and bass and co-writing the music (check out the official video for the first single below), Ahad has me co-producing and playing all the guitars and bass but I didn’t write the songs or sing them. This is also why I collaborate and as you can imagine working with Jerome Froese or Brix Smith, Anekdoten or The Wild Swans is different again. MOAT, Noctorum and Salim are all different. Sadly with Steve Knott’s passing Atlantaeum Flood has come to an end.

Today was Record Store Day and the elves were out trying to find some of the titles that I was after, here’s another list:

Cat Stevens – Harold and Maude s/track (1971)
Bee Gees – Three Kisses Of Love (1963-1966)
Bill Fay – Time Of The Last Persecution (1971)
Bobbie Gentry – Windows Of The World (Unreleased Album)
Black Sabbath – Master Of Reality (1971)
Captain Beefheart – Unconditionally Guaranteed (1974)
CSNY – Déjà Vu (Alternate, 1970)
Hawkwind – Greasy Truckers (1972)
Rory Gallagher – Cleveland Calling (Part 2)
Sun Dragon – Green Tambourine (1968)
The Sweet – Platinum Rare (Rarities)

Music today was in celebration of Black Sabbath’s RSD release of Master Of Reality (1971). I’m not sure what this new pressing has to offer over the pressings I already have but it’s always good to get a new pressing of a classic album from the seventies (I also listened to the first album, 1970).

Music Of The Daze