Let that be a lesson to all of you who are smug enough to think you’ve avoided one of life’s necessities. As you can see, there is me at the top wearing my Offspring T-Shirt, with long hair back in 2007. Below is me at work yesterday wearing my uniform. Let it be known that I learnt my lesson.

Ok, I admit it, it’s taken me a while to write this, but at least it’s here now! My fourth studio album “Unlucky For Some” is now available for purchase, on both CD and iTunes (Amazon MP3 should be selling it soon, too, but I haven’t seen any evidence of this yet). As this album was always intended to be released on multiple platforms, I’ve done something a bit different with this album and released a bonus track that’s only available via either of the methods. On the CD, you get the bonus track “Unrequited“, which is a rocky love song that wasn’t included officially on the album due to similarities of it to a song belonging to Jimmi (Who voiced his displeasure at this). The other track, which is available with the iTunes download, is a remix of “Prepare for the Attack” by the Fall of Industry (check out Industry’s Myspace for more details – they’re really good!). Personally, I love it and I’m rather jealous I couldn’t do something like it on the actual album.

Like most music, there’s not much I can do to testify this album through words. I could always try writing it through the use of “DUN DUN DUN”s but you might not get the right idea. I mean, “DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN, DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN, DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN, DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN” is meant to be “Just Because You Can, It Doesn’t Mean You Should“, but I bet you don’t know what it sounds like. So here’s the “Making Of” video with the song “Red Letter Day” as it’s soundtrack. I didn’t actually record any of this while making the album, but it just about shows what happened; lots of lonely nights in my room spent pretending I’m a rock star.

Unlike my last albums, this album was created on my shiny new iMac. One of the big differences between the two processes was that, with the computer, I could do a lot more in terms of sounds, editing and automation. Whereas before I was limited to using the instruments in my possession, on this album I could conduct a whole orchestra without lifting much more than a finger. For me, I feel this helped me experiment and create a much more gratifying sound. In many ways, if you’re not a fan of this album, you’ll probably be a fan of the next as the novelty of MIDI instruments will have worn off by then. I think the only track on the album without any MIDI instruments is “Getting Over You“.

Out of all the tracks on the album, though, my favourite has to be “Red Letter Day“. I think this is because I believed for so long that this song was going to cut from the album, yet has actually turned out pretty impressive by my standards. The only time I felt truly happy about it was about a week before the album’s finalisation, where I added the lead guitar part to it (the main one you hear when the song kicks in). So I think I’m just relieved that I got it to sound great in the end. That, and my voice sounds sexy when I woman-ify it (Yes, you weren’t imagining that).

The last real thing I can say about this album, I guess, is that it’s the first album I’ve really tried to push out there. Maybe it’s the first album I’m truly proud of. Maybe it’s because I’ve gigged since I worked on my last albums. Maybe I just feel more inspired by my older age, knowing that I’ve not got much youth left. Who knows? But all I know is that I want anyone and everyone to get their mitts on it, even if I have to pry into their cold, dead hands.

In OS X Snow Leopard, Apple renovated the age old Quicktime interface, replacing it with a newer version aimed at making the player more screen-estate conscious. Like all major changes there are many people who are unhappy with this. Here’s a shot of the new and old interfaces:

The new Quicktime X

The old Quicktime 7

Now, people are complaining about this that and the other in regards to the new interface. Personally, I like it, but I came up with this simple idea (used in other parts of OS X) to solve the issues people are having with the new interface:

Tah Dah. A tic tac in the top right hand corner; solver of everything and still rather minimalist. Appeals to those who need it, is easily ignored by those who don’t. Finder has it, Mail has it, and so do a large number of other Mac OS applications. In most cases, however, it just hides the app’s main menu bar. Nothing intuitive. In this instance, however, it would bring up this…

Quicktime X-7! Bringing back the older interface with a click of a button, so fans of the “controls underneath” look still get their fix. I think this would be a reasonable solution for most?

This is my video based on a tragic event that happened. For more information on the event, keep reading…

I love my Offspring jacket. I bought it online from America in 2008 after seeing “The Offspring” live at Download Festival. Because of some stupid reason, I had to pay about £40 in import fees, so it ended up being an expensive jacket. I wore it constantly and treated it with love and care, as if it was my own child.

However, a couple of months ago it was stolen from me. I let my girlfriend borrow it one evening because it was cold outside. The next morning it was gone. Her sister stole it. Then her sister’s friend stole it. Never did I believe this item to be so desireable by the ladies; never did I believe my fashion to be so desirable. Evidently, I was a wrong. Anyway, for months it was gone from me. I would look back at pictures of me wearing it and feel sorrowful. I would shed a silent tear, longing for my dear Offspring jumper to be returned… then one fateful day, it was. I was over the moon!

But it was different. Inexplicably different… in the same way your lover is different after cheating on you; they’re the same person on the outside, but on the inside… They’re just not the same. That was the case with my jumper. The neck was looser, it wasn’t as fluffy and it didn’t smell the same. Gone was my beloved Offspring jumper, only to be replaced with a jumper that claimed to be once mine. Sigh. Alas, at least it is now in my possession. Hopefully like a married couple with children we’ll work through this and come out stronger.

Over the past few weeks I’ve released two new videos. These are as follows:

The Park

An informative, public service style short film slash documentary about parks.

The Making Of Unlucky For Some

The “making of” my new studio album “Unlucky For Some”.