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!