If you are working towards a goal and trying to achieve something, feeling frustration is a natural part of the process.
The frustration of not being able to succeed in what you are doing (yet).
If you are frustrated, you are working towards flow and conscious of the fact that you are making mistakes and not quite where you want to be (yet). It can be a useful motivator, a challenge to overcome and it is very often that moments of frustration also can lead to moments of a high level of learning.
If we can perceive the process of frustration as a good thing and use ‘yet’ as a useful lever to move ourselves forward, we will reap the rewards.
One of the best books I ever used to learn to develop and expand my guitar technique was Troy Stetina’s ‘Speed Mechanics for Guitar’.
He’s a monster guitar player but explained perfectly in the paragraphs amongst the exercises as to why we were doing the exercises and what benefit they had.
An entire section of the book was dedicated to the left hand whilst the other focused on the right. Amongst them were details on finger movement efficiency, dexterity and independence as well as a wide range of different movements that are idiomatic for the electric guitar.
The main idea that was re-enforced throughout the book was that speed is a pointless goal unless you aim for accuracy as well.
As I worked through the book along my metronome as a teenager, there were things gradually improving throughout the entire manner to which I played. I felt more in control, used the required amount of energy but nothing excessive and could play passages I thought were well beyond my ability.
These technical exercises played and still play a vital role in my journey for control on my instrument. Looking at the little details and the small steps you can take to level up is always something worth dedicating the time towards.
Most people listen to music in a way that is average in quality.
It will be most likely that you are listening to music in ear buds from your phone or worse, a laptop.
This undermines the work that producers and artists have done to make their record sound as good as it possibly can, spending hundreds of hours carefully writing, engineering and mixing their music.
Listening to music through well designed speakers or headphones and if you get the chance, atmos can open up an absolute world of sound quality you didn’t realise was there.
Companies are starting to work hard to make break throughs in quality sound systems that are affordable and it is an exciting time for that development taking place. The development of atmos is also a really exciting where you have a fully immersive sound set (2 speakers at the front, 2 at the back a sub and 2 to the side above).
If you get the chance to listen in a system that is high quality, take it, you will not regret it.
100 years from now, when Historians study the pandemic, there will undoubtedly be the analysis of how countries managed it and the fact that those who were led by women had a significantly lower mortality rate whilst many countries led by men, particularly those who had been peddling the trends of populism, had a higher death rate.
Of course there are a multitude of other reasons, including ageing populations, population density etc. but there is pattern where men who have had a dubious relationship with truth and facts, have led to tragic consequences.
It seems embedded in the culture here in the U.K. that is much more a sign of strength to stand by your viewpoint and double down on it than change your mind. It is pathological in many of our leaders that you can’t be seen to be wrong.
This has had toxic results.
Moving forward, we need to change the culture to shift in a way where changing position on something as more information comes to light is part of being human and is a desirable value.
We also need education to encourage students to leap from the safety net to be wrong so they can learn to be right.
There’s no point having a mind if you can’t change it.
Calls for unity don’t mean anything unless there’s accountability.
It’s hard when looking at detail of what happened three weeks ago over in America and not be sickened by it.
The world moves faster than ever as does news but this can’t be let go of quickly.
This was an insurrection, incited by the former president and his cronies. the white supremacists that charged on the capitol that left five people dead, had the intention of killing members of Congress along with stealing information. They openly admitted it online and bragged about it. Listen to AOC’s account of her experience and the fact that her life was put under threat.
This is unacceptable.
And just because they didn’t succeed in their plan doesn’t mean they should be let off the hook.
Just because some of them claim that they had no ill intention doesn’t mean they should be let off the hook either. This was the capitol they marched on, you can’t just do that.
Just imagine if this wasn’t white supremacists. The systemic racism on display could not be any more blatant.
The culture needs to stop coddling criminals.
A precedent needs to be set. Otherwise you are practically sending out an invite for this kind of thing to happen again.
* For more details, I highly recommend the Gaslit Nation podcast.
As was the case with many major releases, dates were pushed back from 2020 into 2021 in response to the pandemic for fear of exhausting creativity.
I think they should have just gone and released the full thing and moved on. I held my hat to those who went ahead with releases last year as new music could certainly serve as a tonic for enduring lockdown. Considering the way things have gone for the live music business and the ever sense of uncertainty, there’s no point but to continue creating and shipping in the present circumstances.
The design of the overall record is that it generally should be experienced as a play-through album and I find it quite frankly irritating that artists are finding themselves compromised with this during the streaming, algorithm era where the push out of singles is more an act of racing for attention than an actual artistic statement.
‘The Future Bites’ is an interesting listen. Steven Wilson has gone more down the synth and electronic stylistic pathway and to anyone who looks closely at his catalogue, it is of no surprise that he would pursue this further.
The response on social media, typically propelling the loudest angriest voices, cried betrayal of Wilson selling out, going pop and leaving behind his guitar driven, progressive pathway. It will be completely expected that he will disregard this noise, as with many of the artists that have influenced Wilson, he is never eager to repeat himself and continue to evolve.
It is perfectly fine to not dig the aesthetic and many of my friends much preferred the records where Guthrie and Marco offered their instrumental virtuosity to Wilson’s artistic vision. As they are fellow musicians, that’s an understandable stance.
I am enjoying the record. The production and sound design as always is stellar, in particular, the synth work in ‘King Ghost’ and the accompanying animated video from Jess Cope.
The key thing that continues to make SW captivating is his ability to make an album focus on contemporary themes with clarity and relevance albeit with a familiar sense of melancholy and doom. ‘The Future Bites’ is very much about our interactions with technology, identity, behaviours and consumerism. There is subtle humour and irony amongst the songs. Whilst Wilson critiques social media, there is the self awareness that he is equally as any of us required to interact and to an extent, depend on the technology available to us.
I remember hearing ‘Lemonade’ and then ‘Bipp’ and being completely baffled.
As a student, teacher and writer of music, it is hard for me not to listen to music taxonomically and usually I can get a rather good sense of what is going on with the production, but with Sophie, I had to admit I was completely mystified by a lot of what was going on.
Whilst her own work is an acquired taste, there is a lot to be admired. Her approach was bold, out there and adventurous. Her music was ever captivating and that’s what an artist is meant to do, explore the edges as that is where things get really interesting.
Her virtuosity, attention to detail and creativity meant that her work is well loved by many and besides her own work, she was building an extensive list of collaborations including Charli XCX and Madonna. I would argue that a lot of the sounds listeners are hearing are a result of her influence (despite her perhaps not being widely known).
Furthermore, Sophie’s debut album Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides explored identity, non conformity and transcendence and offered solace for many. I read someone say that Sophie’s artistic influence held them with embracing transition.
Sophie was a linchpin in a scene that has offered some of the most interesting and adventurous contemporary pop music and the fact that she has lost her life in an accident is tragic when undoubtedly she had so much to offer.
Her legacy and work will continue be influential for the future of electronic music.
Is conversation and political discourse now about which side you are on and whether you are winning? Has it always been this way?
Yesterday, my twitter feed epitomised this. The EU were wrong to threaten to invoke article 16, and Brexit is also having awful consequences for many businesses and people. Both things can be true.
The facts don’t seem to matter anymore, it is more about point scoring. This has come to the point where hypocrisy and double standards are happening all of the time so one’s stance can be propped up whilst another is knocked down. The middle ground has seemingly disappeared whilst feelings lead us to following our leaders like it’s a cult.
Is this really the road we want to continue going down?
I grow ever weary of ignorance being satiated, facts being ignored, truth being bent and the whole notion that you are in the mix to win. This is not a sport, and no one will win in this manner. It only leads to hatred and violence.
There needs to be serious reflection on how we move forward, from the systems we use to connect and consume information to the way in which we behave online and the standards that must be upheld. This is one of the biggest challenges of modern times and needs to be embraced.
Expertise, nuance, attention to the details and analytical and critical thinking all needs to become fashionable again. The notion that many of will be wrong and can change our minds needs to be acceptable again and is a sign of weakness, not strength.
We have so much more in common than we think we do.
The internet has been around for three decades and change is happening faster than ever to the point that it is as terrifying as much as it is thrilling.
Phones are more than a daily accessory. There is an extraordinary level of dependency on them for how we operate and behave on a daily basis.
There have been tremendous pitfalls along the way, consequences that could be considered dystopian and that have affected our physical and mental well-being.
As we move into the 3rd decade of the 21st century, there will be further developments and one thing we can do is evaluate what’s important.
For instance, are we using social media as a means to connect, or are we using it for status, are we a product?
How do we spend our time with technology. Are we learning, gathering use information or engaging in politics of hate and doom scrolling?
We must endeavour to have control over use of technology and ensure that it’s not the technology that is controlling us.
I’ve made 5 studio albums and I’m proud to say that each one of them is unique and different.
There are processes I repeat on a routine basis but there are other things I’ve moved away from, be it because my tastes have changed or what I did before was naive.
I’m working on my 6th album and I’m adopting new things I’ve never done before and it’s exciting. One thing I’m working with a lot more is synthesis and it’s uncomfortable because I’m working in an area where I’m not entirely sure what the creative outcome is. But that is part of the fun.
With each new project is an opportunity to try something different, follow a new path and evolve.
