The Flicker Blog and Podcast

Funny thing about this blogging lark – the more that goes on in your life, the less time you have to write about it. Actually, this week’s not exactly been crammed with exciting events. It’s just involved an awful lot of writing (and clearly not here). I’m hopeful that I will continue to find the time to write here on a regular basis – but it’s not likely to be daily.

I spent most of last weekend working on a new track called “Dumb Key” which sounds to my now weary ears, pretty unusual compared to our normal stuff. As ever, I find the whole process rewarding but draining. The nature of the music production software we use (or is it my nature?) tends to involve looping small elements over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

After a couple of days of this you really do feel that a part of your brain has been worn down by the continuing march of sounds across it. Simple activities (like socialising) become quite hard until you’ve reset your brain with a good nights’ sleep.

The point I’m making here is that last weekend was very busy, and tiring (seeing Mazi on Sunday night didn’t help). This week’s also been crammed – spent much of my free time working on the application for a course at work which a has a pretty competitive selection process. Clearly a different type of writing to that which I’d do here (why is it so hard to write about the positive aspects of oneself?) but writing nonetheless. And very time consuming. So here I am, making excuses to myself for not posting more frequently!

Tonight, Gareth will be down to work on more music with me. I predict another tiring weekend involving the consumption of much Stella Artois. Hopefully, it’ll be a productive one. I’m really keen to try and get more stuff out the door and signed (as ever). The release of Demon Tweaks has reminded me that if you generate any kind of buzz, you need to sustain it. Otherwise, it’s more click than buzz.

Random thought #001 – Cycling home the other night I wondered why the indicators and hazard lights on cars are one and the same? To be able to recognise that a car has it’s hazards on, you need visibility of both sides of the car. In London, that’s pretty rare. So, whilst pushing through the driving rain on a cold, wet February evening I wonder “Is that car about to pull out in front of me, or is he unloading?”

Should keep this short – I’m so tired!

Last night was a late one. Went to the AKA Bar to catch Mazi play. Had a very enjoyable night, which happened to top off a weekend of heavy boozing. I’m paying for it today however.

It actually ended up being a great end to a very positive weekend. On Friday, Demon Tweaks got a great review in DJ Magazine. On Sunday, Mazi tells me he’s really into Little Bit, and wants to sign it! All in all, not bad as weekends go!

Mackie, Tip=Cold, Ring=Hot. Samson, Tip=Hot, Ring=Cold

So that’s it! Been messing with my soldering iron trying to sort out an irritating crackle on my monitoring setup, and discovered that one of the leads was causing a channel to run out of phase. All along, I thought I was imagining that one of them lacked impact! I don’t know if this is indicative of my fine hearing, or an exposition of how bad it is (being as it took so long for me to realise).

If this post has a point, I guess it’s that even highly irritating problems can have positive repercussions.

Well – 3 days to go until the official release of Demon Tweaks on Gourmet.
There’s been some very positive feedback for it so far – let’s hope that the sales reflect that!

Off to see Graeme in a mo with my first “finished copy” of Demon Tweaks. Being as it’s his birthday today, and as the cover image is one of his photos, I felt it worth mentioning.

I guess the novelty will soon wear off, and I’ll end up posting once a month or something. Surprisingly, I’m really pleased with the way the artwork has turned out (being a perfectionist, I’m usually dissapointed with everything I’ve had any involvement in). Maybe that’s the issue here – my involvement is minimal (actually pretty much non-existent – I’ve just passed on the image). Guess the dissatisfaction will be Graeme’s this time around! All that’s left is to hope that the beauty of the artwork translates into sales.