April 2022 "twelve days late"

it gets later every month… but that was April, a whole third of the year gone already.

first up - scum of the earth came out on 29th April - probably the culmination of everything i’ve ever done up until this point… from composing and recording all the music at home, demoing in logic with guitar rig and not changing or redoing any of them, literally the guitars (and bass) you hear on the album are the ones i played, for the most part, the first time i came up with them and never again.  all the way to recording shotty’s verses and rap production in general. to mixing drums, sample replacement, working with clicks and cues - plus all the mad loops and samples and weird reverse guitar shit, this album was always, in my head going to be a cross of everything, so incorporating ‘keys’ had to be done tastefully and cleverly… as i said to my students last week, or this week?  when you want to inject some cool shit into your productions, especially now, so many bands and artists just default to synths.. it’s like ok, you’ve got a synth sound, now what?  the chords? some camp flowery god awful dx7 style melody? fucking horrendous if you ask me… just screams of being void of ideas and awareness, so anyway, lots of recycled audio and mad glitchy, lofi style augmentative production also went into it… but the props has to go to Shotty himself, a masterclass in song writing and lyricism… yeah, we know, he’s a battle rapper whatever and he’s bound to be words words words but raindrop drummer, army of flies, just might be dust, manda lynne, 100,000v, just every tune on there - not only great lyrics and writing but melodies and patterns the elton john’s, swedish pop producers and guy chambers (is that his name?) would be proud of - so yeah, search SCUM OF THE EARTH, it’s the one with my mate Billie’s amazing art/photography on the front. it’s the total package. plus Tommy Lee, said it’s killer and has some bowie sounding shit on there. high praise.

another album, this recreation album, i can’t believe it… all of a sudden it’s like ‘oh yeah we’ve done all that’ or ‘yeah only 2 bits left and it’s all done’ - my mindset at the beginning was to just kick my hardest and most ruthless work ethic into life and let’s WORK, but it’s not even been needed - everything’s had careful thought, nothings been rushed but plenty of stuff has been nice and straight forward… it’s gonna be class when it’s finished 

Jace Campbell has also kicked a new project into life with myself too - i mixed his first few singles that were produced at the spot by Ben & Rory and now he’s doing three more. He’s got a very strong clear communication style, he puts his thoughts and ideas across boldly and tells it like it is, i knew this going into it, so took extra time and care to make sure when i sent him the first preview of what i was thinking he would be into it. thankfully he was. he’s also got his best pal, Max aka Rodders - and when i see them both, i can’t lie, i get jealous.  Being 18, writing tunes, with your best mates and going 42s etc… i miss it, because that used to be me. however none of my best mates would back me up and be my right hand man when it came to rhythm guitar and angelic harmonies.  Jace is a lucky guy, long may their friendship and musical bond continue and here’s to some new amazing sounding singles featuring the harmonies of Max aka Rodders

running out of time but more successful studio spells with Baby Daisy, Ellen aka e l l e n, Ken Like Fit, Srab Mancunian and Tino Caine amongst others this month as well

special mention to those artists and basically anyone who’s looking at their finances and thinking what the fuck. A few artists i’m working with have decided to ‘pause’ things, and that’s cool - it’s always been the deal from the beginning, to keep it flexible and as free from pressure as possible… the cost of living has gone up, by quite a bit and i can’t see it coming back down anytime soon - not that i’m some big economist… it’s just extra respect goes out to those who, despite the bullshit, still sacrifice what they can in order to keep investing time, money, blood, sweat and tears into their music

66% of 2022 left to go…