An interview with Second Inversion

I recently discovered a fantastic new radio station in Seattle called Second Inversion.  Second Inversion are part of King FM (the classical station here) and are devoted to supporting and giving exposure to new modern music.  I was so excited to hear about this because there's so much great new music getting made these days that might otherwise fall through the cracks, so it's fantastic to hear of such a dedicated group of people spending time in this genre of music.

I was completely stoked when they reach out to me recently and very kindly asked me to come into the studios and record a show about my 52 Weeks project!  Of course I very willingly obliged, and I'm pleased to say that below is a link to the show.  I talk about about the inspiration behind 52 Weeks and also a bit about 12 pieces I chose to play for the show.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I had fun!

Week Forty Six Project

I was beginning to worry that I was going to have to tell you I had a really hard time with this week's project as well.  I nearly fell into a bit of a rut again, and then Greg calmly told me I should use some of his synthesizer and electronic equipment.  Which I rarely (ermm read: never) touch.  If I'm going to make up excuses for myself, I guess piano and acoustic instrument sounds are my 'go to' thing to the detriment of electronic options which are available to me.  And that's a really terrible inexcusable reason, so I'm determined to change my ways and become more electronic-y!  And it's not that I don't like electronic music either because I really do.  One of my top 3 albums of last year was Tim Hecker's brilliant "Virgins".  Amazing.

Anyhow, it's no Tim Hecker, but here's my first dive into the realm of experimental(ish) electronic music as brought to you by our Dave Smith Mopho analog synthesizer and Memory Man pedal!


And in case you're interested, I thought I'd also share a photo of my bedroom 'studio' so you can see where all my pieces are getting made.  The only thing missing is Lucille, who often decides to take a nap on the keyboard when I sit down to do some work.

'Hana' and 'My Winter Eyes' released by Bigo & Twigetti

As I recently mentioned, London based label Bigo & Twigetti asked me to write a piece for their soon to be released Spring Sampler, and I very willingly obliged and wrote a track titled 'Hana'! Bigo & Twigetti are a fantastic London based label, and I'm thrilled to be included on their release. The album is being released on 24 March, but in the meantime you can hear 'Hana' on Soundcloud:



Also I'm a bit slow on posting this (and I promised I would a while back), but Bigo & Twigetti had also included my track 'My Winter Eyes' on their Winter Sampler, which is now out through Bandcamp and iTunes.  You can stream 'My Winter Eyes' here:

Week Forty Five Project (and some sparkly shoes)

If you've read the last couple of entries of this blog, it won't come as a surprise to you that I've been in a bit of a musical rut the last couple of weeks.  I was starting to feel like my projects were a bit uninspiring and 'samey' and I was having trouble getting something out to be honest.  So this week I have broken out of the ambient style of pieces I've been writing lately and created a more grating and percussive piece, and I quite like it.  I think I just needed to change things up a little bit.

Now Week Forty Five is out of the way….. I've got to tell you….. I just bought the BEST SHOES!!!  They're glittery oxfords and they got their first outing tonight!  I can't wait for rainy season to be over (I think we're on our way) and then these babies are going to get a serious workout.  

Week Forty Four Project

Again, truthfully have to say I'm not super into this week's project.  It seems to be a current trend. I don't know whether it's because it's 1am and I've lost perspective, or whether it's just not that great (I think it's the latter).  So, it is with quite a lot of hesitation that I'm putting this piece up.  I have to - it's been 12 days since my last posting.  Although, I actually have been quite busy writing music this week!  I was asked by the label Bigo & Twigetti to contribute a piece for their upcoming Spring Sampler so I've been writing a new piece 'Hana' which should be released soon (I'll keep you posted)! Exciting! Ok, but before that here's Week Forty Four Project:


Music aside, here's a few photos from the past week:

SJP?!  So I was walking through Nordstrom (to see if they had a pair of glittery Oxford shoes which I'm currently in love with), and SJP made an appearance?!  She was launching her new show line and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Sweet!

Ok, I CANNOT WAIT to bust this one out!!  It's a vintage jewel-tone jumpsuit!!  I need to find the right paid of platforms to wear it with, and then it's going to be my go to outfit for spring.  

Beautiful Ballard.  Even the derelict parts are lovely. 

Week Forty Three Project

Struggle struggle struggle.  That's what this week's project was like.  Apart from writers block, I've been dealing with technical issues and frustrations.   But this is a warts and all project, so I'm putting Week Forty Three up regardless!  This is a very dense piece, and by that I mean that there's a lot going on in the mid-range frequencies.  This is intentional, but I would actually like to work on having all these instruments and sounds sitting next to each other a little better.  In addition to composing, I'm obviously recording and mixing these pieces myself, and even after week Forty Three I sometimes feel like I'm still only at the start of a pretty huge learning curve.  I'm not sure about how I feel about this week's project.  I often need to take a few days to allow my pieces to sink in and make a decision on whether I like them or not.

So here it is:



I think I may have mentioned that I volunteer a couple of days a week at the Seattle Opera, and as a result I get free tickets to their dress rehearsals, so this week I was fortunate enough to see their production of Menotti's "The Consul".  The only other 'modern' opera I've seen is "Tomorrow, In A Year" by The Knife, so I was really excited to see what The Consul was like (especially as it won a Pulitzer Prize for music), and I was not disappointed.  I like opera, but usually glaze over when people try to explain why the stories of Rigoletto and The Magic Flute are relevant today.  In fact, I really don't care about the stories.  I unashamedly go for the music.  However The Consul was different.  I loved the score, which I found very accessible (and reminded me a little of golden era Hollywood film scores), but I found the story itself to be gripping and more than relevant today.  It was particularly poignant to me considering Australia's current political climate which is sadly and incomprehensibly hostile to refugees.  Whoever knew that a 3 hour opera about applying for a visa could be so compelling?!

Week Forty Two Project

This week I went for a kind of rousing cinematic feel.  Greg had suggested that I write a soundtrack-y type of piece, which I was in the mood to do, so  here's the opening credits for a film that doesn't exist.  Perhaps the camera would be panning across a lake? Through countryside? Or….. filming SNOW!!!!!!!  Ok more on snow in just a second… first here's my Week Forty Two Project:


Ok, back to the snow thing.  We finally got some in Seattle, and it was beautiful!!  It happened last Saturday night, so Greg and I kept popping out of our cosy apartment to do some laps of the block.

Me taking a photo of Greg taking a photo just outside our apartment.  

Midnight snow angel!

Ummmm…. I'm kinda excited….