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Iain Mackay has been hard at work making another short film entitled ‘Out’. You can watch it on YouTube. The film features a song I released in 2004 called Find. Iain heard the song played live at the last Arc gig and decided it would be appropriate for his club scene. He ended up using the song as theme music as well. It has been good to support Iain’s projects musically as I think he makes appealing films of an artistic quality miles above simple home movies.

If you happen to be an Armidale or New England local you might like to come along to the Belgrave Twin Cinema on Wednesday 29th of November at 7pm. ‘Out’ will be premiered on the big screen along with all the other short films from the TAFE film school. The showcase is usually a very interesting mixed bag.

See more of Iain’s films here – especially ‘Killshot’ which features music from Unity Gain.

As far as being an aspiring commercial participant of the music industry reluctantly accepting that one has to get a day job in order to survive, this is not too bad a compromise:

Photos of where I work during the day.

I work only 25 hours a week so I get ample time to keep other creative projects going at home. The general plan is to eventually make my creative work my main job, but while I’m gathering resources and experience working at UNE is gentle compared to many other jobs I’ve had and what could be had. At any rate, I’ve learned many interesting skills regarding analogue equipments: for example mixers, excellent microphones, reel-tape player and recorders. I get to train my ears every day.

Wage jobs are certainly not something I recommend to people for following their true dreams and aspirations. But when you are starting with nothing, no capital, few skills, in a limiting location then it may be best to choose a line of work that will help you both skill-up and not make your life a misery in the process. This can be hard, but opportunities are out there if you look. I have no certificate or degree in audio engineering (I do have a Arts/Teaching Degree though). To the contrary I did a large amount of volunteer production and presenting work with 2Bob Radio and I did song production at home for years. Those experiences gave me eligibility for applying for the job I have now. I’d much rather work here than deny my interests by working as something like a high school teacher, or as a general dog’s body.

Now I’ve got time and money: alternatively I can move-up or get out. Obviously I prefer to get out in a sustainable way. I must admit it has taken me a while to realise just what the next step may be in terms best following my creative aspirations – but now I do. Next year you will see those steps being taken…

I thought it important that I should talk about myspace here, as in one form or another it becoming unavoidable.

I’ve had a page up for a while (out of curiosity): and the dxu555 project has had one up for a while http://www.myspace.com/dxu555 which is maintained by VJ555.

Now that I’ve researched the extent of the network and it’s subsequent media penetration I have mixed thoughts about it. I feel pressured to conform and participate in it, perhaps vainly thinking that the myspace system will find a receptive audience for my work. On the other hand I really have problems with the restrictive layout, the inane comments, the slow load time, the advertisements, the emphasis on having the most ‘friends’ (what if, for example, I do not want to be friends with my audience?) and no doubt other aspects that have yet to irk me. In terms of web development it seems a backward step, but its high traffic is not be under estimated.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a ‘myspace hater’, I’ve already received warm feelings about European composer-acquaintances finding me through the network and downloading my songs as a result. On a simple level it may just simply serve as a network porthole for directing traffic to my main site – and that is innocent enough in of itself. However, I’d like to track the commercial, corporate and social aspects of the network to see how deeply it becomes central to artists’ online existence. Homogenisation of any sort is fraught with peril and has tendency to restrict consciousness development collectively.

Of course, watch this space.

It is worthwhile to blog some of the projects that I will be busying myself with over the next few months.

Throughout this website and the [tqr] website much work needs to be done to tidy things up that I currently regard as being rough or incomplete. There is a larger degree of certainty of what I want to present with them. This contrasts to when I made them where I was ‘hacking the ideas as I was going along’, which makes for slightly messy design and presentation. Much will be the same, although [tqr] will come to represent itself as a document of history and association, while this site will be expanded and equipped.

One thing I will be looking into is a gallery system for a new sub-tqr website for my Mother’s textile art. She has a growing collection of exciting works that I will be trying to help get out there.

Also, the spring cleaning will give me a good excuse to tidy up my own mp3s. The existing mp3s will be renamed (to make them web-friendly) and comprehensively tagged. If you have any permanent links to these files then be prepared for an update. Lots of new stuff to come.

This leads me to another growing project I have: restorations. Last year I indicated that I was going to re-master the mp3s from the ‘Greatest Hits’ collection – and I’ve made plans to do the easy work in FastTracker II to finish those. Having recently listen to some old cassette tapes made in 1997 of my earliest techno songs (with colourings of progressive, acid and rock mind you) I heard it all with fresh ears and actually liked what I heard. So, I am going to restore all those tracks as well – all the way up to the Puddles record. I’m sure that’s over 50 songs. The restoration will be fairly easy in that I will only correct a few minor things like instrument tuning, high-hats being too loud, tightening the bass, and a light mastering for high quality mp3. Seeing that the songs are not commercially viable I will release them for free in a gradual podcast next year. Expect a good amount of reminiscing about ‘the good old days’ with each release. It will allow me to leave that period behind and focus on getting the albums since 2000 (specifically Corporate Nonsenses, the two Dream Diagrams albums, and whatever new ones I complete) to finally be offered commercially online.

As stated in the last post, a healthy amount of new song writing is taking place…