The third in my series of spider-themed improvisations. This piece is a little mantra to myself to simply let go of all the music I've made so far, and to not get caught up in trying to music that will equal or better it. Just keep making.
Read More
The second in my series of spider-themed improvisations. I have been working on a series of performance pieces for this opera, which is debuting on Thursday, so most of my music and lyrical creative energy over the past week has gone into that project. I have been indulging my cinematographic creativity as part of this project instead.
Read More
A spider mind map, and some writing exercises, which I divided up to form a trio of improvisations. This is the first.
Read More
I reached 100, though only just. This was some rejected text from number 99, what I lacked in creative songwriting energy I made up for in creative visuals.
Read More
Hailstones was my starting prompt, but this was just a small snippet of text from some writing exercises that went on to inform the next day's song.
Read More
From Thursday 13th, the starting prompt was lace curtains.
Read More
These are the words from the previous day's random word selection exercise, strung together into nonsense, recorded right before I crashed onto the couch in my pyjamas for the rest of the evening.
Read More
I started with the word draught from the previous piece, and then opened the book The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (highly recommended by the way) to random pages and chose the first word on the pages starting with each letter of draught. The words led me here, and I let myself just hit random keys on the piano for part of the accompaniment as I'd run out of energy to nut out something more functional.
Read More
My starting prompt doorway led me to this ghost story, which formed the basis of my writing exercises. I eventually gave up trying to turn my scribblings into some kind of traditional song and just had fun with my effects pedals instead.
Read More
Part III in a mini series, an actual dream. I've been having lots of bizarre ones lately, I think my imagination is on overdrive.
Read More
Part II in a mini series. No wind this time, just lots of coffee.
Read More
My three-month, one-season marker came and went without a blog post, and I've finally got through the backlog of stuff on my camera. I'm still finding this project incredibly difficult, and I think the madness present in the pieces of the past week speaks for state of mind right now. I am mainly struggling to sit down and write, and the inner critics in my head are shouting very loud. However, watching back over the last week of videos makes me realise it really doesn't matter what I create. I can make anything! I can let the slamming of a door be part of the project, as in this piece. Or my crazy dreams about a barnyard brawl (Filter (II)), or picking out random notes on the piano (New Year's Even Aquarium), or making strange noises with my voice through effects pedals (The Grey Lady), or simply stringing a bunch of nonsense words together (Up Glasses!). These pieces all felt like a last resort, when my creative anxiety wouldn't let me make anything else, but they are legitimate creative expressions that capture my mood and mindset.
Read More
I spent yesterday afternoon trying to sort out a pedal/instrument setup for my gig this Thursday night with Joyce Prescher and Kerryn Fields. While everything was plugged in I recorded this short little vocal piece, continuing with the autumnal theme of the previous piece. I love to cook, and I love the change in produce each new season brings. Autumn is probably my favourite time of year, and as the song says, I have been waiting for walnuts and chestnuts.
Read More
Here's last night's piece, just a little acapella improvisation. My starting prompt for this one was gumboots and the text is the result of a 90 second writing exercise. As an aside, it's finally jumper weather in Melbourne, which makes me really happy. I love this time of year.
Read More
Tuesday's piece, with a whisper following on from the hush of a lullaby.
Read More
Saturday's piece, a very quick improvisation before I took the night off. Just one take with both the text and melody improvised in the moment.
Read More
My last post was Thursday, which seems like an eternity ago as the last few days have been really difficult. This project was never meant to be easy, although up to now it has never felt impossible, and I've generally kept to my deadlines and retained my confidence in my ability to churn out new music when required. Over the weekend, however, I fell apart and spent a large part of it paralysed by anxiety. My rational brain knew that if I could just sit down and do the work I would end up with something, but when I tried I was unable to concentrate and found the anxiety expressing itself in physical symptoms, which is something I haven't really experienced before.
Read More
This one is Wednesday's, my starting point was ink from the previous day's piece. I had very little time to spare, so it's just a quick improvisation on a small lyrical idea. I borrowed a little bit of descending whole tone melody from the previous day's piece too.
Read More
The calendar says autumn but the weather says summer, summer, summer. Indeed. It was over 30 degrees and humid yesterday in Melbourne, so I wrote about that. I feel like a broken record complaining about the weather, but I've never really had to really push through creative work in uncomfortable environments before. In the past I would have just taken a break for the day and gone to find somewhere cool to hang out, but there are songs to be written, so I might as well mine the discomfort for ideas.
Read More
Song 70, and the completion of week 10 of this project. I am desperately in need of a quiet evening, so I was kind to myself and kept this one as quick as possible. A 90 second writing exercise and a free improvisation while the sun slipped down on this hot, Autumn evening. Now I'm going to make spaghetti carbonara with some "Bulgarian pancetta, the best kind!" from the gruff Eastern European deli-man, and try to finish knitting the collar of a jumper that has been languishing on my table for several weeks now.
So goodbye from week 10, see you all tomorrow for week 11.
Read More