Failed Muso

I really don’t go in for New Year celebrations. Or Christmas as a whole, to be honest. It’s just not my cup of tea. I find it ridiculous how so many people compartmentalise their lives into groups of 365 days; a group of days determined solely by our planets revolution around a dying star. To me, that is it’s only significance. The coming of a new year doesn’t wipe any slate clean. It doesn’t draw an end to all the shit you went through in the current year. It doesn’t bring about better fortune. January the 1st is just tomorrow. Like every other day of the year, it’s just the next day in a long and continuing line of days where everything remains the same.

Bah humbug? Yeah, bah bloody humbug!

I’ve had a tumultuous fourteen or fifteen months on a personal level. It has often meant that I have neglected this blog and for that I apologise. Why has it been tumultuous? Well, the biggest thing has been my day job. This time last year, after being told two months previous that myself and four of my colleagues were at risk of redundancy, I had been through a re-interview process and been successful, along with two of my colleagues. That resulted in two friends losing their positions. One was fortunate enough to find another vacancy within the company, albeit a different career. The other was not so fortunate and went through the pain of losing their job and having to wait till April to get something else. The hardship is quite unimaginable.

So for myself and my colleagues, we were the “lucky ones”. Except for two of us, that is. Me & my friend were only given six month extensions till June ’09, subject to review. So, for six months, we were safe-ish. In May, that six months was extended by a further six months to today. That was until November. We were expecting to either be both laid off, or both hired permanently. As it turned out, we had to both re-interview yet again for just one position. I can’t begin to tell you how that feels. To go head to head with someone you admire and respect, knowing that one of you will have a job and the other won’t.

The process was brief, for which I think we were both thankful and, as it turned out, I was the successful candidate. But there was no joy, no elation, just relief followed by a lot of sadness.

“So, you should be happy”, I hear you say, and of course I am happy that I have, for the moment anyway, secured my immediate future, but I can never escape the heartache and stress the whole process caused both of us. Yes, it is validating to know that I was chosen above a man who I believed to be far superior to my own talents in our chosen industry. Yes, it is validating to have interviewed for my role three times now and to have been successful every time, but at the expense of three good friends.

So, from my job point of view, it’s all been a bit shit. But that will hopefully change in the coming weeks and months.

Musically, well, again, a bit all over the place. These last few months have seen the completion of a track in collaboration with Micky Dodds & Lori Cunningham which is an achievement in itself, given that we have never physically met and there are at least 5000 miles between me & Lori, with Micky much the same! “Where Are You Now?” has been well received and even got airplay on real life radio!!!

My studio hasn’t developed much at all. No new equipment to speak of but that will change soon too. I am seriously considering acquiring a new drum kit. I already have a Yamaha DTXpress Mk.1 which currently languishes in the garage. However, now that I have some certainty in my job and I know I’ll be home for most of that, I fancy playing live again, and so I’d like to get back into drumming. Also, I hope to lose some weight in the not too distant future and drumming is very good exercise

The only downside is that to fund this purchase I will have to sell off some of my beloved synthesizers. So, I have identified those I rarely use now and will be auctioning them off very soon. Watch this space for links. They will probably be my Yamaha DX27, CS1x, RM1x and SU-10 as well as my Roland PMA-5 and a Marshall Keyboard amp. That lot should hopefully raise enough for an Alesis DM-10 Pro kit, which I can get at trade price through my contacts there.

I was supposed to see Depeche Mode in May of ’09 but due to Dave Gahan’s brush with cancer, that gig was postponed till Feb. ’10 so I have that to look forward to. I did get to see Gary Numan again, on his Pleasure Principle ’09 Tour and as ever, he was awesome. February of next year will also see me going to a night with Thomas Dolby & Friends, an exclusive one off gig with people like Edi Reader, Trevor Horn & Bruce Walley in attendance. Very exciting. I am also hoping to go and see Peter Hook (of Joy Division & New Order fame) at a lecture on his time in both of those bands as well as the ill fated Hacienda night club.

As for other people’s music, there has been a lot I’ve been impressed by and a lot of dross too. On the plus side, there have been great album’s by Muse (The Resistance), Prince (Lotusflow3r & MPLSound) Robbie Williams (Reality Killed the Video Star), Imogen Heap (Ellipse), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (It’s Blitz), The Mummers (Tale To Tell), Little Boots (Hands), La Roux (La Roux), Tara Busch (Pilfershire Lane), Menya (Various EP’s), Jay-Z (The Blueprint 3), Lady Gaga (The Fame Monster) and Ellie Goulding (Under The Sheets). Plus there have been some great re-releases & retrospectives such as St. Etienne’s “London Calling”, Gary Numan’s 30th anniversary edition of The Pleasure Principle, Thomas Dolby’s “The Flat Earth” & “Golden Age Of Wireless”, The Beatles Remasters & Kraftwerk’s remastered albums.

Looking ahead, the new Hot Chip album, One Life Stand, looks set to break these boys in a massive way, as does the upcoming album from French Horn Rebellion.

And of course, I have rediscovered and found music from way back, such as Joy Division and John Meyer Trio to name but a few.

Movie wise, I can’t say much has stirred me except Inglourious Basterds. Not even Avatar stirs my loins to go see it. I’m not sure whether it’s because I’m losing interest in film, or whether there is just not many good films anymore.

So, there’s a bit of a retrospective and a look forward. I’m hoping that I can dedicate more time to the blog very soon. You can always follow me on twitter (link is on the right of this page) and please do come back often. Hopefully Steve at Hollow Sun will be supplying me with his Novachord samples to test soon, so expect lots of that in the early part of the year. And of course, should I get my drums as planned, there’ll be plenty of that to report on.

So, enjoy tonight. And here’s to tomorrow, and all the other tomorrows we will face…

Peace & love to you all xxxxxx

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 31st, 2009 at 11:24 am by Failed Muso and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.