I Hate Mornings

Last night I played my first solo set for months. I’ve been busy writing, and it was exciting to perform some new songs in front of some new people. Playing live always gives me an energy boost.
I couldn’t hang around for too long after my support slot, but I saw The Shanks soundcheck and caught [...]

Nick Gill has written up a conversation we had in the States last weekend, and taken it to a beautiful new level:

We performing musicians are, by and large, an insecure lot- we want our creations to be validated. Nothing says “validation” like an enormous cheque from someone who wants to make you famous. But it’s [...]

h3. An offline voluntary pricing experiment
The last few years have seen a host of interesting online experiments with voluntary pricing models for music. I came across the idea through Jonathan Coulton (internet superstar), who was himself blogging about Jane Siberry and Songslide. The system generally relies on an artist having an established and loyal fanbase [...]

Yesterday I heard the most insipid song ever written. That’s a bold statement, I know, but this song really made me cringe. It broke almost every rule of good songwriting, and was delivered in such an earnest and well-meaning way that it was hard to know whether to laugh or wretch.
It’s going to be difficult [...]