UPDATE I've just finished work on a remix of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. Called the War of the Worlds ULLAdubULLA Redux, it replaces the original songs with remixes, mash-ups and bootlegs to create an hour-long story.
Since I started writing music, I've been an avid fan of recording my compositions and performances for posterity.
In the summer of 2004 I put the finishing touches to an album of my work from 2000, which was recorded on my home recording system and presented here, complete, in 64kbps Joint Stereo MP3 format for download. The masters obviously have a much better sound to them, since they haven't undergone audio compression, but I'm still pretty pleased with the final sound of these web-based songs. I've not updated this page in a while though, so bear with me!
Nothing Ever Changes 2.02MB, 4min25
This very percussive track was written on my trusty old dreadnought, when I lived at St Barnabus Road in Cambridge in the autumn of 2000. The final verse was added when I returned home that Christmas. It wasn't until about six months later that I actually recorded the song, when I lived in the Hostel in Emmanuel College. Recording was at the end of June 2001.
Stay By My Side 1.79MB, 3min55
I first wrote the arpeggio for the verse during the Christmas break of 2001, but didn't add the lighter chorus until I returned to University. I had just finished my term in office as President of Emmanuel College Student Union, and so found that I was playing guitar a lot more. This was the first song recorded using my system featuring the Soundblaster Audigy, and I think you can tell from the sound quality that I'm using improved equipment. The percussion track also uses three different synths, just to put the soundcards through their paces! The instrumental key change was always written to make space for a big electric guitar solo, but I'm not very good at playing lead guitar, and haven't got round to getting anyone else to play it for me yet!
Fly Away 2.37MB, 5min10
This started life at St Baranabus Road, had its first incarnation over the Easter of 2001 and had these final lyrics finalised in the spring/summer of 2001 when I lived in the Hostel during my 2nd year at University, shortly after I bought my nice new guitar. I wrote the lyrics the night before I flew out to Europe to go travelling, while Alice had already been halfway up a glacier in Switzerland for a couple of weeks.
Five out of Five 2.62MB, 5min43
Five out Five is the oldest song in this small collection. I wrote it in September 2000 as an attempt at a slightly more up-tempo song after I'd been writing wrist-slitting pessimism for the previous 2 months. It became a standard part of the set for Mostly Harmless, although it never quite had the sonic impact that I had intended. This recording was made in June 2001, concurrently with Nothing Ever Changes, in an attempt to create the big sound I had envisaged when I wrote it.
A Song For You 1.55MB, 3min24
I completely wrote and recorded this little tune in about 5 hours in the early morning (from 1am) of Sunday 22nd December 2002 - after getting back from seeing a Madness gig at the London Arena! It's obviously a very different style to normal, probably the result of working amongst "specialist" music in HMV. I also approached the song with the intention of keeping overdubs to a minimum, because I can sometimes get a bit too excited with multitracking and just keep adding layers, making the final result sometimes very messy.
See Childhood Through 1.46MB, 3min12
Making full use of a load of new Soundfonts that I downloaded for use with the Audigy, this track was really to test out how well woodwind instruments would work in a song and I didn't properly fit lyrics to it until I'd finished recording the entire instrumental section. The first verse was written shortly after we booked a holiday to Boston, the rest was done much later in January 2003. There's only one guitar track, split into 2 takes. The vocals were recorded without edits or overdubs, which kind of explains the consistency of my voice...! I actually use a lot of effects on the guitar and vocals, but I try not to make them too obvious. One effect I have used a lot though (you can hear it also on Stay by my Side) is a stereo delay bounce on the vocals. I've found that in thinly recorded music, such as this majority computer-generated stuff, such an effect beefs the overall sonic appearance up a notch.