More Grey than Dark

Practicing my dance moves on an organ. Hmmm. Not sure it works.

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:41:53 -0400

Practicing my dance moves on an organ. Hmmm. Not sure it works.

I sat down at my piano tonight to try to capture in...

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 19:11:18 -0400

I sat down at my piano tonight to try to capture in improvisation some of the feelings of jumping in at the deep end in rehearsal 5 of the Barrowlands Dance Project: excited, lost, confused, overloaded, with a glimmer of hope, and a real sense that’s emerging, of being part of something really special.

Audio

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 19:10:16 -0400

Day two of the drums vs piano battle.

Fri, 18 May 2012 13:14:54 -0400

Day two of the drums vs piano battle.

Here’s the beginning of a collaboration (or a fight,...

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:28:26 -0400

Here’s the beginning of a collaboration (or a fight, depending on how it goes) jamming daily with Brendan for 28 days.

Our local heron, fishing. @southsidehap I can’t believe I...

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:27:01 -0400

Our local heron, fishing. @southsidehap I can’t believe I got this close to him (about 3m).

It’s started. My 40x40 project, that is. I feel like my...

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 10:03:54 -0400

It’s started. My 40x40 project, that is. I feel like my party was one of the 40 collaborations, but I’m not sure if I can count it. Hmm. Maybe I need some guidelines about what constitutes a project. The only two I have so far is that the projects must be collaborative (tick), and there must be a tangible (physical) outcome. So the party definitely counts, then.

We had an amazing time with a bunch of amazing people yesterday, with hula hoops, party poppers (seemed like there were 40 of them, but I’m not sure), sparklers as well as candles, 40 foods (including Mary’s cheesecake), talking collaborative projects, and ending with a jam session till the early hours with some wonderful musicians.

It was an amazing way to turn 40, surrounded by friends & family, sharing. I feel almost overwhelmed by the warmth and the feeling of being cared for by such wonderful people. Thank you.

What a cool end to the week. Not only did we discover a heron...

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 14:58:17 -0400

What a cool end to the week. Not only did we discover a heron living in Queen’s Park, but we also discovered a patch of boletus (porcini / cep) mushrooms near Glasgow. I’d love to tell you the location so we can share them, so if you want to know, give us a call and we can go mushroom hunting together. For now, we’ve got to decide whether to cook them with roast chicken tomorrow, or dry them for later… Hmm… Decisions, decisions…

Yay!!! A heron has arrived in the pond near our flat. Seems like...

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:58:50 -0400

Yay!!! A heron has arrived in the pond near our flat. Seems like he thinks he’s a duck; sharing bread with the pigeons. Hmm.

Oh, and I blame @sophontrack and @artistsmakers for putting me...

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:51:24 -0400

Oh, and I blame @sophontrack and @artistsmakers for putting me up to recording myself playing. Here’s a clip for #riotcleanup - they’re the pair that got the snowball rolling. Sophie (@sophontrack) is a freelance copywriter and travel writer who came up with the perfectly crafted hashtag that covered the globe, and Dan is the social artist who created an amazing temporary installation artwork called Riot Cleanup, that may well have put a lid on the explosive situation that was spreading through England. For the last couple of years I’ve been pussyfooting around starting an artists’ consultancy; one that takes the mindset of artists and creatives and applies it to the biggest, toughest problems in the world, in corporations, and in society. In meeting Dan and Sophie, I’ve realised that I finally have all the evidence I need to head out with confidence with a creative toolkit. The world needs art more than it ever has. We all need to remember what it is to be creators, not consumers, because when we’re creating together, being imperfect together, being human together, there’s really no room for being selfish bastards. Thanks, Sophie & Dan for just being so damn inspiring, and thanks for insisting that I make a video while I played Freddy’s piano. ;o)

Yesterday I met in London with @iateyourmic, a recording...

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:44:00 -0400

Yesterday I met in London with @iateyourmic, a recording engineer who I met via twitter. I discovered that Metropolis, the studio he’s been working in, has a Fazioli piano. I love Fazioli pianos. They feel like they’re just made for the way I play. This one, it turns out, is a piano that was given to the studio by Freddie Mercury. It’s a lovely piano, and an amazing room to play in. Just a shame I couldn’t spend longer playing; I had a flight to catch. I’ll be back; I’m planning to use the studio for creative events for corporate clients, and maybe as a venue to launch my new creative consultancy.

Just finished a class with Garnet McCulloch, an amazing pottery...

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:04:00 -0400

Just finished a class with Garnet McCulloch, an amazing pottery teacher based here in Glasgow. Here’s an utterly impractical creation; this one is one of the most practical, too. Hmmm.

I love piano tuning. Somehow it’s a way I stay in touch...

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 07:11:12 -0400

I love piano tuning. Somehow it’s a way I stay in touch with the seasons. I get my piano tuned three or four times a year, depending on how many seasons we have… It’s the end of the summer; the weather is getting wetter & colder. The wood in the piano is responding by breathing a sigh of relief. Last week it started to feel like it was happier, and wanted a tuning.

It’s a weird thing, a relationship with a piano. The way I improvise, I listen to the way harmonics move through the piano. I guess it probably started when i spent weeks of my life watching spectrum analysis in vocal recording studios. I was an “expert” in voice analysis, and developed a really keen ear for harmonic dispersion, irregularities, shifting harmonic energy.

That’s the reason I’ve taken the lid off the piano and play with no music stand: I’m always listening to how the energy is moving between harmonics, surfing the harmonic spaces. About a month after the piano is tuned, the harmonics usually start blurring. There’s a period where my relationship with the piano is strained, where I feel like I’m fighting with it; I can’t hear what it’s saying to me. Then, once they blur even more, it’s suddenly not a problem. My playing changes, there’s less subtlety of flow, but the relationship is steady.

Then the season usually changes, and it’s time for a tuning; a bit like couples therapy for me and my piano. It reminds me of how amazing the experience of playing with a piano can be. It also reminds me that time is passing, wild mushroom season is coming, along with falling leaves, apples and chilly mornings.

Yesterday I played a Fazioli piano that Freddy Murcury gave to a recording studio in London. It was like meeting a new friend, one who needs a bit of care and attention (the regulation needs some attention, and it’s having it’s autumn slump). I hope someone will take care of it.

Last day of the school holidays. Yay.

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:36:48 -0400

Last day of the school holidays. Yay.

A little clipping from our recording session today; a jam around...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:04:37 -0400

A little clipping from our recording session today; a jam around the version we’re recording.

Turns out I’ve got a collection of penknives…

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 06:34:54 -0400

Turns out I’ve got a collection of penknives…

PROJECT 1 of 40 - A STOOL CAN BE ART TOO. Tristan and I were...

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:51:00 -0400

PROJECT 1 of 40 - A STOOL CAN BE ART TOO.

Tristan and I were leaving the barber’s today (it’s ramadan, and he was too hungry to cut any more hair), when he spotted an old stool sitting by the bin. It was missing a foot rest, and a leg was loose, but otherwise intact (if a bit stained from use!).

We decided to take it home. Tristan carried it all the way, as we looked out for dowel in skips and kerbside piles of rubbish ready for Monday’s collection. Climbing the steps to our flat, we wondered if we could find a stick in the park that would fit.

We measured the missing dowel (in palms and thumbs), and crossed the road, through the broken railings to the pile of wood that is all that remains of the Magpie’s tree. Within a minute, Tristan had found “the perfect stick”. It was gnarled, covered in bark. I almost rejected it; it didn’t meet my capitalism-induced-straightness-criterion. But there was something about the stick, and the way Tristan was holding it, that just made it perfect.

We got my 30+ year old penknife out, the one M. Affolter gave me when I was 8 or 9 to use on mountain-chicken-pine-needle-stuffing adventures. I’d not used it for years, so we had to sharpen it first. We whittled the stick, sawed the ends sanded it an the rest of the stool, burnished it with wire wool and oiled it, all within an hour.

I somehow reconnected with a part of me I’d forgotten about; the part of me that spent hours on end sitting in the woods whittling sticks, that built mighty bonfires, that explored the unknown woods behind our home in Surrey, and the Jura mountains.

We now have a stool in the kitchen for friends to come and sit on, one with part of the Magpie’s poplar in it, with a hand-whittled foot rest steeped in personal history. I wonder if the Magpies will notice when they come to the window for food.

Thankyou Tristan, for choosing the perfect stool and the perfect stick to go with it.

Brendan, Tristan and I are really bored of the holidays, so we...

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 13:04:52 -0400

Brendan, Tristan and I are really bored of the holidays, so we make a stop motion football video. Yes. It’s the obvious thing to do…

WANTED: global creative collaborators

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 06:38:07 -0400

I just remembered another project, which is to have 40 guest / collaborative posts on my blog. Interested?

I also just remembered a collaborative experiment I did in 8th grade while at the International School in Berne… Mr Sheppard, the crazy-haired science teacher, let us experiment with mixing hydrogen & oxygen in a massive double bin-bag in the playground, rigging a wire-wool and car battery fuse. We let the bag float a bit, then BANG, almost blew the windows of the school in. That’s the sort of creative collaboration I love. It was a cool spectacle. As were the hydrogen ballon ball of fire, and the spray-painted snowsculptures with Miss White, the Dracula scooter, the glowing trees… We had a lot of fun 25 years ago. ;o)

Forty collaborative projects to celebrate my 40th birthday. The...

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 06:26:21 -0400

Forty collaborative projects to celebrate my 40th birthday.

The idea that emerged on twitter - having a 40-day party to celebrate a number of friends turning 40 - got me thinking. My first thought was “why not do 40 creative projects together in 40 days and nights”. A sort of biblical flood of creativity. Then I remembered the 48-hour album 6 weeks ago, that I’m still recovering from; I’m almost 40 you know!

So, I’ve settled on the idea of 40 collaborative creative projects over the next year, using this blog as a place to post updates, involve people, share the creative process. it’s like a celebration of being “somewhere between 40 and death”. Something has really clicked for me in this proess. I’m starting to turn my ambition towards creating stuff & away from “business”. It feels a lot better.

Project 1 is an album of jazz songs with Adam and Jennifer. We’ll be recording the skeletons of the songs, then I’ll take those to different musicians who are too busy to join us, working with them to add layers / tracks, weaving their music through it.

Project 2 is an album of classical songs with Organ & (hopefully) strings.

Projects 3-40 to be announced. Ideas so far: a collaborative record label that aims for world-class recordings without the up front costs, barbie & ken cufflinks, a book called “Anarchy in the boardroom; why people who trust each other don’t need hierarchy”, a photo installation sculpted in aluminium. I’m up for anything creative, especially if it involves recording, photography, dance, tai chi, singing, piano, ceramics, architecture, poetry, painting, sculpture, coaching, design…

Anyone?