A fair while since I wrote anything here so an update is due.
Well, I don’t want to sound like a whining privileged white boy, but these last few months have been emotionally challenging, tough and at several points broken my resolve. There is something endlessly uneasy and grinding about undesirable unemployment that constantly feeds doubt and confuses your aim and goals. We’ve had good support though and no real disasters like bankruptcy have come about. My partner’s job offer fell through and she has been forced to start looking and applying for work elsewhere, and I’m still unemployed – so the total mood is pretty low. Yes, we know so many people are way worse off, but still that uneasiness remains. And Brisbane’s humidity is plain unforgiving sometimes. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean nothing has been happening! Far from it…
I’ve been busy earning new qualifications. In January I attended a 2 week intensive training course at Carson Australiasia to get a Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment. It was a lot of fun going into the city every day up 23 floors in the old Lennon’s Plaza building. Met some interesting people studying the course as well as enjoying Margaret the trainer help us work through all the material in a really positive way. I dragged out the post-course project much longer than I have ought to, but it’s now all submitted and I’m awaiting the result. If successful, I’ll receive my certificate and I’ll then be eligible to apply for a much larger range of jobs in the training sector. While on the theme of learning new things I thought I might as well follow through get a really serious qualification in a long-time interest area: a specialisation in literacy teaching. So I’ve enrolled with Southbank Institute of Technology in a Graduate Vocational Certificate in Adult Literacy and Numeracy Teaching, which is year-long, part time and online. This coupled with my Cert IV and teaching experience means that I’ll be able to try out some work with helping people with these sorts of problems, both adults and teenagers. It’s been a while since I’ve studied formally, but some old ideas and ways of thinking are floating back to me from my university days. I’ll keep you all posted if I finally get some work.
In a somewhat hopeless attempt to get at least some income happening I’ve been doing some mixing and mastering work for clients. Despite achieving a lot already and helping some people make some solid ground with their productions, I’ve not really earned much money. It’s a concern, but given that I’ve got time on my hands I’m really enjoying seeing people happy with the end results. A few to mention: An EP by Helvetikone (Taktik of the Renoise devs) – some really unique electronic dance music with a junky textual edge. That one ended up being a straight digital master! We went for a very precise digital sound due to the tape just not being transparent enough for the style of music… Another artist from France with a few tracks with a synthy early-Cure sort of sound… And lastly: working with local artist Distaudio very closely to co-produce, co-mix and master his debut album project. It’s been really exciting working on a project with vocals and I’m drawing a lot from my own production ideas as well as the experience with Hunz last year. It’s also involved me getting my head around Ableton Live to mix the songs. Lots of good ideas in that program, but surprising with how buggy it is! I guess I’m spoilt with how good Renoise is.
I’d take some photos of my tiny little room where I have my make-shift studio set up, but we still can’t find the card reader for the camera. I tried to buy another one, but of course when I got home I realised that it was the wrong reader. I may just cave in and try and buy yet another one.
I’ve not really done much on my own music due to being in a share environment, and not really feeling that comfortable to get into the required mental space to either create songs or record stuff to finish existing ones. I’ve laid down a few ideas, mostly so I don’t forget them. I’ve had itches to work with Alex Strain again and make some really out there stuff. And Mick Rippon has been very keen to continue our collaborations in a more serious and dedicated way. As usual I’m bursting at the seams with ideas but I feel a little muddled about where to put my energy. The spread on the toast is thin, so the toast doesn’t taste like much. I guess once I get a job, move out and have a private setup again with a routine the production will start to flow again.
Saw Porcupine Tree at the Tivoli last week – which was awesome! Some other gigs lined up too in March: Devin Townsend at the Tivoli again; and Massive Attack at the Riverstage. That’s one benefit of living in a city: just so easy to see gigs. I’m keen to check out more of local stuff though as the year goes on, especially anything arty, different, and special.
Ok, well I think that’s all for now. Sorry for the negative mood in this post, I guess this is this is the way it is right now in this transition. If you’d like more up-to-the-minute updates on all things MMD I’m still very active on Twitter. Like always, stay tuned – more to share later.
Oh one last little thing: Suva, A Renoise friend was joking about my production work with a lot of Renoise community artists and my sometimes overly-opinionatedness regarding production approaches. He made up a little sticker for albums I’ve worked on, and I had a good laugh:
