This is my newish video, Sapphire 2, for my newish album “Unlucky For Some”. As of today, it is now available on my site to view and download. Enjoy!

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.

Because no-one cares about me or my music enough to interview me about my album, I have been forced to interview myself about this album. I like to think that there is someone willing to read it out there, but again, if no-one wants to interview me then who wants to read an interview? Oh well. Just like all the “Frequently Asked Questions” pages before (which, coincidentally, consisted of questions that I assumed people would ask me if they were to ask me anything), this epic show-stopper of interviewation is brought to you by the Blak Tornado corporation – because nothing says loner like someone who talks to themselves. Right, here goes.

Well, firstly, how long have you been recording music?

I’ve been making music for about five years now… and I still feel like I’m the shallow end of the pool. I recently bought Logic Express (coincidentally right after I submitted the new album for cataloging on the iTunes Store and Amazon MP3) and when reading through the manual, I was stumped by all the complex audio procedures, like channeling sounds through busses and so on. It’s like I’m a little fish in a big pond but I’ve been here a while… at least that’s some small mercy!

How long did it take you, and how did you record this music?

Well this album is coming out literally two years and a day after the last, so I’d say two years.

You didn’t answer my whole question; how did you record it?

Oh, sorry (Hey, I’m allowed to forget parts of questions I just asked myself!). I used Apple Garageband to do the most of it (recording, mixing, etc.) but used Sibelius for writing scores, especially in orchestral tracks like “Substiture”. But I also used it to write the synth parts in “Just Because You Can, It Doesn’t Mean You Should”, “Not Lust” and “Prepare For The Attack”.

Speaking of synths and orchestras…

Yes! Haha. This album is a bit, well, different from the last. “An Unnecessary Biography” was literally just a guitar, bass and drum album (with a few bits of subtle keyboard here and there), whereas this album is more… well, varied. Take the first track “Humble”. It starts of with a very mellow piano sequence, which then explodes with guitars, drums and vocals. Compared to “Why Don’t You See?”, it’s a very stark contrast. This album was basically what I would have done if I could have done. Thanks to digital recording, I’ve literally got every instrument and sound imaginable at my finger tips.

My first introduction to playing music was very classical as I played the cello, and I think this album shows a fair amount of that. Back in the days of Weather Report (help me, God), I remember trying to rig my cello up to my 12-track, but the sound wasn’t that great and I couldn’t really tune it, so I decided to ditch it for An Unnecessary Biography. I think this time round, I was given a lot more freedom with what I could do (while still sounding pretty good)… And that’s how tracks like “Substiture” came to be. I also had another track of similar nature that was originally going to be on the album, but it just didn’t sound right. I think Substiture managed to get away with it somehow… maybe we’ll see this track again in the future?

What’s your favourite track from the album?

Well, that’s a hard one. In all honesty, I like them all (obviously), but the one that really shone through at the end was “Red Letter Day”. When I was reviewing which tracks I wanted to keep on the album, I listened to them all and at the time, the previous version didn’t rank very highly. I was actually really close to cutting it… but then a voice inside me said “Hey, this track could be really good. Re-record it.” So I did… But it still didn’t sound right. It felt like there was something missing. At the very last minute, I was jamming along to another band when I thought “I wonder what would happen if I try to play Red Letter Day like this”… and that was it. That was what the track needed. So I added a the extra guitar part and needless to say, I’m really pleased with how it came out, and I’m glad I kept it in the end.

Finally, if there was one track you could go back and redo again, which one would it be?

Hmm… I’m not sure. I think there were a couple I recorded and never did anything with seriously, but overall I’m happy with the way they’ve all come out. In all honest, I would have liked to have sent them all through the Logic machine before releasing them, but everything else is good! I think the biggest thing I would change is the bloody drums. I only had about 5 different Apple loops that sounded good and had to use them all the way through the album. (The Software drums were a little lame and I don’t have a drum kit in my abode)

Thank you for your time

No, thank you!

No, thank you!

I think I might go and cut myself now…

You heard it here, folks! Album 4’s got a name, and it’s “Unlucky For Some“. The album has 12 tracks and will be available on at least CD format from 11/10/09 (which in American format is the 11th November 2009). No word on pricing yet, but there will be a number of options, including that to bundle both Unlucky For Some with An Unnecessary Biography. I’ll keep you updated! After these long two years, it’s nice to finally be able to call it done. Thank you all for your support and I hope you all manage to get copies! In the mean time, you can listen to 30 second previews of the songs on the Unlucky For Some page.