So, March was the last time I posted something here.

What have I been doing? Well, a whole lot of nothing, and a whole lot of everything.

I’ve played a couple of shows, but mostly been trying to keep my head down around the day job to get my next release sorted, and now I’m finished, and I’m happy.

It’s been tough, probably one of the toughest processes I’ve been through. I had planned to release this at the start of the year but just couldn’t get it done. When I thought it was finished I asked for feedback from friends and colleagues. All the feedback was positive, with one home truth: “You can do better”

I agreed whole heartily, and decided to stick at it. It’s frustrating when your brain thinks something is finished, but you heart says no. I was simply being lazy.

I gave it a rest for a week, a month, I think that then turned into 4 months, then came back to it. I started adding new sections, cutting the tracks down in size, deleting whole sections and sounds, re-arranging, re-arranging, re-arranging, recording new parts. Everything.

Throughout this process I had a gig to prepare for, my second headline show. I decided that half of the stuff had to be new material. I was playing in Cardiff with the mindset that everyone who had seen me play had heard it all before. I was glad I chose to do this. The comments were outstanding. Positive vibes all around about the new material, and people really seemed to engage and enjoy it more than previously. This was another push in the right direction.

Life got in the way again, motivation quickly disappeared, procrastination kicked in. The struggle that every creative battles with.

I finally got myself back into it a few weeks ago, nailed it within a few days, and guess what. Today it’s been uploaded. I’ve decided to hold off on it until the 7th Oct, but I wanted to just get it up into the ether ready to be distributed across all the platforms as close together as possible.

One final thing I would like to add. Being a musician is about being a musician. I’m an electronic musician, yet this album is relatively organic. I’ve never been about trying to make new sounds with the fanciest synth out there, in fact I’ve found that often to be tedious. For me it’s about getting an idea ‘down on paper’, and going with it. This whole album is just that. Electronic sounds do feature, but most of it is about me finding a bit of a voice, in both production style and melody creation (something I’ve struggled with for a long time).

This release is truly a stepping stone for myself, and I’m only looking forward to carrying on with writing new material having learned so much from what I’ve just achieved.

So guys, keep an eye out. Year Two is coming.