There are external forces at play, all the time.

We all have different sets of privilege and power.

Nevertheless, I strongly believe the choices we make are still profoundly impactful on the outcomes of where we end up and where we are headed.

Being able to make good choices is a skill, one that requires introspection and a sense of philosophy.

Positive energy that we spread can result in positive outcomes.

But the same goes for negative, and maybe negative energy spreads easier. It certainly feels that way at times.

At this point I share my concern for the conflict in Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement was a much needed solution to a deeply rooted and complex problem. The solutions that were made all were put into threat when Brexit happened, something that kept the negotiations going for years.

And when lies are spread and promises broken, serious consequences can happen, and those responsible can’t deny that they were warned about this.

I sincerely hope that there is a peaceful resolve.

A year ago today, my debut solo album ‘Between a Disillusion and Resolution’ was released.

Before this, I had released my music as the progressive rock group Eden Shadow and decided to release music under my own name.

The whole process felt liberating and the nine tracks on the album features many facets of my musical personality included some progressive rock and metal elements, but I also steered towards a songwriting focus with songs such as ‘Grey Day’, ‘Kaleidoscope’ and ‘Anything is Possible’.

I wrote a lot of these songs whilst I was teaching music in Dubai and thematically the album was an exploration of transience and personal evolution. The music is eclectic and probably the most personal I have released and I thoroughly enjoyed the process of writing and recording it with my team of fellow musicians and artists.

The album is available digitally and when live shows can happen, I will be going through the process of having physical copies available, the links are below.

In the meantime, I am working on my next solo material and go into the studio next month.

I look forward to sharing more musical creations with you in the not too distant future.

When I write music and have a basis for a solo, I get really excited. This is an opportunity to take my musicianship further and express myself on the guitar in a way where I push my limits.

Once you have the chords and know what scales you need to use, there’s then the possibilities and choices you can make to unfold a narrative.

You can use a variety of techniques, dynamics, and pitch to build tension and really take the track to a new height.

Very rarely do I achieve this in the first take. I don’t even achieve it in the next ten either. It takes exploration and trial and error and eventually you find yourself in a flow state where the magic starts to happen. That may be a hundred takes later.

Don’t give up before you get there.

I’m working on a piece where I know the beginning and I know the ending.

What has been the real challenge is deciding what happens in between.

The beginning establishes the melodic motif and information, there’s a development of ideas, particularly rhythmic, and the ending starts with a return of the precious melodic material in much more dramatic fashion with a flurry of interplay between the instruments. I’m digging it but the gap in the middle has eluded me for weeks.

I’m getting there now, and from carefully chopping away at it, I’ve managed to find what works, I’m suggesting where I’m going without giving the full game away, especially from a tonal and harmony point of view.

It’s an abstract process but eventually by chipping away at it, you find a creative solution, one that bridges the piece together and allows it to establish the sense of direction.

Humans are not very good at it.

The agricultural and industrial revolutions have made us exceptionally good at utilising the Earth’s resources and improving lives for many of us, but it’s come at a cost.

And whilst I’m no expert or a virologist, I’m confident in saying that this pandemic is a cause of us taking our exploitation of resources too far, in particular the way we treat animals.

I greatly admire the innovations that have happened and developments of technology in the sustainable world of energy, but whilst there are many amazing people working in this field, there are those who are still working with resources that will benefit a minority in the short term whilst harming many of us in the long term.

We should not wait for disasters to bring out the best of us as that might be too late.

The choices we make today are essential in how we determine the course for the next century and the generations to come.

The fields that people choose to work in, the choices we make, the pressure we put on people in positions of power to live and work with the long term in mind is essential.

When I think of my outgoings, it comes down to access and an on demand culture.

I pay subscriptions for on demand, music, media and music software that I use day in, day out.

I’ve never paid to digitally own music unless it has come with a physical copy.

So with this distinction of what I pay for and what’s worth my money, I honestly find it to some extent baffling as to how NFTs have become a thing. Non fungible tokens. The idea of digital ownership is a bit crazy to me, because it is the equivalent of owning nothing, even if it is presented as ‘scarce’ or exclusive.

The idea of paying vast amounts for collecting something has always been a thing, from baseball and pokeman cards to canvases of famous paintings.

However, what is rather infuriating about NFTs is that they are not even a tangible product but use an enormous amount of electricity. What a waste.

There has been an inevitable rat race and hustler’s cycle between creators and buyers who are trying to get rich quick but the likelihood of most NFTs having any value at all is next to nothing. Maybe that’ll change in future but for now, it appears to have been a fad that went as quick as it came.

In a world where there is so much information and artists are trying to figure out how to sustain themselves in a digital world, it’s worth evaluating the way to which we value that which we create, but I am no way near convinced that NFTs and the underlying idea of scarcity is the right answer moving forward, especially where ecological sustainability is concerned.

If you are a creator, you are better off not spending any energy on trying to create or promote this kind of thing as you will be less a creator for it.

I was required to turn around some music today. It was four minutes worth to work as an underscore.

All of a sudden, an hour or two becomes precious and adrenaline kicks in and you find it within yourself to work to the wire to provide something.

It can be tense but it can also make you realise how focused you can be when the moment requires you to be so.

The other aspect of this was the challenge of finding ways to reach the required duration of the piece. I find the trick in effective choices with repetition, holding out notes and providing just enough contrast to make the music serves it’s purpose.

In many ways, I highly value the times where turnarounds are tight. It makes you realise what you are capable of when you are asked to provide in a limited amount of time. What would you be able to create and ship, if you had just 24 hours to do it?

The algorithms of social media reward you for feeding the machine, constantly.

It’s why I found it of no surprise for YouTube stars finding themselves starting to burn out, trying desperately to keep their viewership up by constantly creating new content.

It becomes a saturated rat race where no one wins because you end up being forced to find stuff to post that’s sub par standard and then views end up tanking.

Quality is what should be rewarded instead. If you should be consistent in anything it’s, making sure that what you do is consistently good and consistent in terms of it’s intent.

By intent, I mean, knowing what it is your posting and who it is for.

One of my favourite YouTube channels is Red Letter Media. They are unique in their approach to reviewing and appraising films and they are hilarious. Their ‘Best of the worst’ series where they watch B movies is a genius idea. They post quality videos consistently and they ship regularly enough but they only do it when it’s ready.

Having an acknowledgment of both consistency and intent is a good starting part when it comes to figuring out how and when you want share your own work with the wider world.

This last month, I’ve been juggling several different projects.

It’s good to be busy, but having this many different things on the go is sometimes a little tricky because it’s hard to focus in on a specific project or thing.

One way I decided to tackle this at the start of the week was writing a mind map with each project and the specific tasks required.

Following on from that I then highlighted the ones that required deadlines first, as red, meaning this was what I needed to do in the immediate short term.

Things that had a week or fortnights timeframe was highlighted amber whilst other projects that had much more flexibility were marked as green.

When there’s a lot going on, it’s good to differentiate what needs doing in the short, medium and long term.