I was just checking one of the sites I use to host my music. Confession of the Whole School songs have been listened to over 14,000 times. That’s not bad is it? And that’s just the number of ‘streamed’ plays from a single site! Anyway… ha ha! … if only I could translate that success into 14,000 album sales! That would make me a very happy man! Ha ha! Anyway… I’m glad people continue to enjoy my music.
The independent release of my music has been quite liberating. For you see… there was a time when the holy grail was getting signed to a “major label” – that was all you could really strive for. 99.9% of bands would fail. Now… 100% of bands can get their music to the masses. And for all the downsides… (a trillion crap bands!), there is now the chance to be true to yourself as a songwriter and just do what you want. I have only ever done what I want… and in the past that has sometimes got me into trouble. People would often think I was a control freak. But I’m not sure that being a control freak is necessarily a bad thing… in fact it’s an attribute that is positively sought after these days! Anyway… having my own studio has enabled me to be the master – in control of songwriting, performance, production and art direction. I love it.
The main aim for me is to make sure my music always has something interesting to communicate. My latest album, ‘The Galton Detail’, was the quickest album I’ve ever recorded. I abandoned my usual quest for ‘detail’, and just tried to let the songs ‘flow’ out of me. That sounds sexual… but it isn’t meant in that way. I just realised that sometimes people don’t necessarily care how long I have taken to write a song. I can layer all the detail in the world into a song and yet people will only really assess it in one way. Is it good or bad? So… I thought, “what the hell?, why not just bang an album out without dwelling on it?”. And that’s what I did.
… and just to piss on my own fireworks, my most played song at the moment is apparently ‘Dorian Gray’ from my ‘All Monsters and Dust’ album… a song that took years to complete! Ha ha! Always good when a monologue is destroyed in the final paragraph. Ha ha! Anyway… there was no real point to this post. I just wanted to say thank you all for being involved with my quest to keep thrusting music into the atmosphere. I feel swamped by the sheer amount of music that is out there and I’m sure some of you do too. The internet has changed the music industry and the by-product is an awful lot more crap to have to wade through. I’m just trying to keep the standards up. And I’m still on a break (WE WERE ON A BREAK!!!… oh, I watch too much Friends! Ha ha!). No, I’m still on a break. Watching films and listening to music. I’m trying to write a few more reviews too. I just know that a lot of people out there need to have an opinion from someone as opinionated and as amazingly knowledgeable (and humble) as me. Speak again soon.
confessionofthewholeschool.com 