May I con-join you?

Puff...pant...wheeze...sorry Im late everyone. Stopped off for sweets. Getting excited by the new album. Sam and I are doing a track together and have been researching conjoined twins, with the aim of singing a duet. We have settled for the classic Chang and Eng Bunker. Not only are they perhaps the most well known, but also they have quite a beautiful story behind them too. Two very different characters. It will most likely be a "Jimmy Binks " sounding affair. Stripped and accoustic. Will gentle harmonies.

Le Greek. C'EST FREAK!!

Getting really stuck into a couple of collaborations for this project now. A big freaks workout with Brainy Brown and his travelling circus of technology and a bit of work on Joe’s track about Hephaestus.

Hephaestus was the blacksmith to the gods and was a decent enough guy despite being thrown from a cliff as a baby and suffering subsequent lameness (He is often portrayed as having 2 backwards feet – I doubt he looked forward to his P.E lessons). Sadly his wife left him for the God of War. Typical.

It struck me that the bizarrely deformed Hephaestus and the snake-headed Medusa were basically ‘freaks’ of a sort (apologies to any snake-headed women reading this blog) and that our fantastic album title is now beginning to work with more coherence than we may have anticipated.

I wonder if anyone else has picked a freaky Greek (or a Greeky freak?).


Ancient Greg

Everything's got to be ... just right

Well I set about starting my writing for AGACF which as well as a chord sequence is also the abbreviation for our latest album, Ancient Greeks and Circus Freaks. Incredible, just incredible. You see what happened there? More procrastination. I actually lifted the lid on the piano next to me to test that chord sequence before continuing to blog. What does it mean? Well, working on these projects has got me comfy, too comfy perhaps.

As I was saying, I sat down to start writing at the weekend and decided that because I didn't have all my bits and pieces plugged in (midi synths, guitar port) it was just going to be too difficult to start recording in a fit of inspiration. So I built a shelf to put my speakers on. Typical, rather than picking up an acoustic guitar to do some noodling and writing, I built a shelf. The theory being that to be set up for a life of continual creativity, the tools that you use to create should always be as easily accessible as possible. Well I've now got there. EVERYTHING is plugged in whenever I switch on the computer. There are little LEDS all over the shop screaming, make me twinkle, make me twinkle. And what did I do? Pick up the acoustic guitar and sit on the sofa for two hours with a pen and paper. Instant song.

Now that everything is plugged in I can relax, finally I can pick up my acoustic guitar, and turn the computer off.

Oh and the song I've written is a love song about Medusa. I think it's going to need the cliche police to go to town on it before I record it. Perhaps even, whilst only looking at the lyrics with a mirror in case the nature of them turns people into stones. That's what she did right? Turn people into stones?

Freak out or Greek out?

I'm very excited about this concept. Both the title and the change of process sound fab. Could be an amazing album.

Here's what happened to me this week. I filled my head with some of the remastered Beatles albums on Wednesday and Thursday then, on Friday night - very late -I went into the attic with 2 cans of Marks and Spencers lager (Yes thats's right - 2 cans!). When I woke up I had written sketches for 2 songs. One, a bar song delivered by Jo Jo the dog faced man, and the second a large ensemble piece with a cast of circus announcers and a chorus of singing freaks which sounds suspiciously like Sgt Pepper for some reason. hmmmm.

Might try the same thing tonight but with Tesco's lager and see what happens.

G

Brief is the word

Just emailed the brief out. Hoping that lots of people will rise to the challenge. Am then off on holiday for a bit, a perfect time to dream of ancient greeks and circus freaks. I think I better take my uke with me in case any songs drift out of the ether.

Trying a new direction

I'm just putting together the brief for our next album and have decided after chats with regular IML contributors that we'll play this album differently. No that doesn't mean we're going to take the CD out of the CD player and put it in the Sandwich Toaster. It means that instead of ENFORCING COLLABORATION like a bunch of nartsties we're going to ENCOURAGE COLLABORATION. This means those that won't to write a song, record the whole thing, can do so. Personally speaking, I think I'm going to write a song, record bits of it and then put a general call out for someone to do a Freak out solo over the top of it. Imagine the possibilities?

Oh did I mention that the theme for the next album, which we're going to get out at the tail end of 2009, is going to be Ancient Greeks and Circus Freaks? I was surprised to see that nobody else had already used that address in blogspot. What a relief!