From FAWM

NEW MUSIC: Never Clever Ever / Are You Feeling Stupid?

Here’s the first taste of my upcoming new album, ‘But Her Emails…’ It’s a single called ‘Never Clever Ever’, backed with ‘Are You Feeling Stupid?’

I know I said in the last blog post I’d just be recording every song ever in alphabetical order, but that’s kind of a dumb idea, now that I think of it. Maybe I’ll do one-offs, but for now, I’ve written a whole new record from scratch – and it’s all about Donald Trump. Truly. Don’t believe me? Listen to the two songs above and tell me it’s not!

Pay what you want/free download. Coming to iTunes, Google, Spotify etc very soon. Here’s a lyric video if you like to read words while you listen to music.

FAWM is over!

And I managed to write 28 new songs, all demoed… you can check them out on the fawm.org website or click here to download a zip of all the mp3s. It’s about 108mb, has all 28 songs I’ve written and recorded in the last four weeks.

(if you’re typing the FAWM website into the address bar, do NOT use .com. It’s .org. You have been warned!)

Now I guess it’s time to go back to working on either the rock album, the indie rock with synths album, or the next Dharma Police album… one day I’ll work out what my actual ‘sound’ is.

12 days into FAWM…

And I have 18 new songs! I know it sounds like a lot, but I came into February Album Writing Month prepared, with some pre-made drumbeats and years upon years of unfinished snippets, chord progressions and unused lyrics.

If you want to check out what I’ve been working on – all the songs have demos you can listen to – they’re all on my profile. Best ones have the little heart symbols next to them – really proud of time signature-challenged ‘Banished to the Black Hole’ and the religion-questioning ‘On the Fence’.

Got a few more days off before I have to get back to work, so who knows what else I might come up with. Hopefully something I can actually sing… yeah, right.

FAWM 2013

It’s January 31, one of my favourite dates of the year – no, it’s not my birthday or Christmas. It’s FAWM Eve!

What’s FAWM? Well, to its mother it’s called February Album Writing Month, but that’s quite a handful so everyone just calls it FAWM. Everyone who knows what it is, anyway.

The aim is to write at least 14 new songs in the month of February. Why? Because it’s fun and awesome. I actually put off writing new material in the months leading up to it, ’cause it’s such a buzz getting so much new stuff out all at once, uploading demos and getting instant feedback.

A number of songs on the Dharma Police albums were written during FAWM 2011 and FAWM 2012.

From It’s All Downhill From Here, tracks 2, 5 and 6 were written during FAWM 2011, and tracks 3 and 8 during FAWM 2012. On Question Mark, tracks 3 and 8 are from FAWM 2011, and tracks 2 and 4 from FAWM 2012.

The first FAWM I ever did was 2006, and a number of songs from that year eventually ended up on the Radio Over Moscow album Hide the Decline – tracks 7, 8 and 10.

Give it a go if you’ve happened to book a whole lot of leave from work in the next month, like I have!