It's Cold!!!
Wednesday 17 December 2008
Tuesday 16 September 2008
Tuesday 3 June 2008
STUDIO TOUR
Hello and welcome to my studio. I’d like to give you a tour of my creative environment. I live and work in a turn of the century Victorian warehouse in East London. I am very fortunate to have space to really spread out. There are 3 main areas 2 studios and a study. As a Graphic Audio artist, I work with a mixture of media. Music, digital photography, video and other visual manifestations. Enough of the introductions, into the studio....
My Desk is actually two desks facing each other. I am a very tidy person overall and can’t start the day's work unless everything is in order. Still most of the time my desk still manages to fill up with piles of paper and crap, but it’s always gone by the morning. Each desk has a computer one Mac and one PC. I use the Mac for digital photography and artwork. The very old PC is for the Internet mainly but I also have started writing articles on it.....
This is the view from my Mac desk. My niece Olivia drew Stewie on the whiteboard I never use.....
I never listen to music when I'm not working on something. It feels too much like I'm work than pleasure . I'm currently listening to Aretha Franklin live album 'Amazing Grace'. It's a great Album and I'm using as research for another project....
This is where I sit when I'm looking thinking about projects. I use a small shorthand notebook for brainstorming ideas (one idea per page) and use lots of books.....
This is the view from my piano, I keep moving it around. It's been in 4 different locations in the last 18 months alone. I like this position as I can concentrate better than when I was facing the window. I love my old piano, I've had it for years and refuse to get rid of it. It's like a second hand car that has had one careful owner. An old lady owned it for years before me and had it completely restrung. It never seems to need tuning. A couple of weeks ago, I was offered a 6 foot 7 grand piano for FREE! I still said no. I've written some of my best material at this piano, so it's not going anywhere.....
I try to spend as much time here as possible. The projects I’m working on at the moment are just piano and vocals. There needs to be rawness to complement the subject matter which makes you concentrate on the story being told in the song.....
My work process doesn't start at the piano. By the time I'm working here, I already know the melody and in most cases I've written the Lyrics. I always do the music last. It forces me not to gravitate towards familiar chords. The pencils on the cabinet are not for show. The worst thing that can happen to you if you are writing, is having to break your chain of thought because you've misplaced a pen or pencil. By the end of the day there are pens and pencils all over the place. It's very handy to be able to just grab a pencil and write. I use my old tape machine (which records) to sketch out ideas. The white cabinet is full of taped musical ideas one idea per tape. So I can come back and develope them into a song later. I finally record live, to my trusted VS1680 (ie; the grey machine) sitting on the workbench......
This is my Butsudan. As a practising Nichiren Buddhist, this is the most important area of my studio. Like a spiritual corner. I sit and chant twice a day, morning and evening. It's great for focusing before you start work. Sometimes there are up to 30 people sitting here chanting here with me. The voices create some great harmonics and can sound beautiful.....
This is my study. It is a computer free zone. I don't like working with computers, so I recently created this corner for just writing. I wanted to write longhand, so ideas could just flow. Sometime computers can be a hinderance to creativity. The files on the desk are for projects, songs and articles I'm currently working on. The old style Bt phone works and it makes you jump out of your skin every time it rings. It's a great corner. There are no distractions not even a window to gaze out.....
These were my dad's pens, which he bought in 1972. I've got the order form and receipt , how retro am I? The shell is from Robin Island in South Africa where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.
This is the good book shelf. Very posh, I put my nice books in here.....
More books and my vinyl records.....
This is where I edit music and where I edited the 'Junkie' video. There's a very impersonal feel to this room so when I'm here it's all about the work. I don't even think in this room, I'm on auto pilot and try and get out as fast as possible.....
That's all folks, I hope you enjoyed the tour.
My Desk is actually two desks facing each other. I am a very tidy person overall and can’t start the day's work unless everything is in order. Still most of the time my desk still manages to fill up with piles of paper and crap, but it’s always gone by the morning. Each desk has a computer one Mac and one PC. I use the Mac for digital photography and artwork. The very old PC is for the Internet mainly but I also have started writing articles on it.....
This is the view from my Mac desk. My niece Olivia drew Stewie on the whiteboard I never use.....
I never listen to music when I'm not working on something. It feels too much like I'm work than pleasure . I'm currently listening to Aretha Franklin live album 'Amazing Grace'. It's a great Album and I'm using as research for another project....
This is where I sit when I'm looking thinking about projects. I use a small shorthand notebook for brainstorming ideas (one idea per page) and use lots of books.....
This is the view from my piano, I keep moving it around. It's been in 4 different locations in the last 18 months alone. I like this position as I can concentrate better than when I was facing the window. I love my old piano, I've had it for years and refuse to get rid of it. It's like a second hand car that has had one careful owner. An old lady owned it for years before me and had it completely restrung. It never seems to need tuning. A couple of weeks ago, I was offered a 6 foot 7 grand piano for FREE! I still said no. I've written some of my best material at this piano, so it's not going anywhere.....
I try to spend as much time here as possible. The projects I’m working on at the moment are just piano and vocals. There needs to be rawness to complement the subject matter which makes you concentrate on the story being told in the song.....
My work process doesn't start at the piano. By the time I'm working here, I already know the melody and in most cases I've written the Lyrics. I always do the music last. It forces me not to gravitate towards familiar chords. The pencils on the cabinet are not for show. The worst thing that can happen to you if you are writing, is having to break your chain of thought because you've misplaced a pen or pencil. By the end of the day there are pens and pencils all over the place. It's very handy to be able to just grab a pencil and write. I use my old tape machine (which records) to sketch out ideas. The white cabinet is full of taped musical ideas one idea per tape. So I can come back and develope them into a song later. I finally record live, to my trusted VS1680 (ie; the grey machine) sitting on the workbench......
This is my Butsudan. As a practising Nichiren Buddhist, this is the most important area of my studio. Like a spiritual corner. I sit and chant twice a day, morning and evening. It's great for focusing before you start work. Sometimes there are up to 30 people sitting here chanting here with me. The voices create some great harmonics and can sound beautiful.....
This is my study. It is a computer free zone. I don't like working with computers, so I recently created this corner for just writing. I wanted to write longhand, so ideas could just flow. Sometime computers can be a hinderance to creativity. The files on the desk are for projects, songs and articles I'm currently working on. The old style Bt phone works and it makes you jump out of your skin every time it rings. It's a great corner. There are no distractions not even a window to gaze out.....
These were my dad's pens, which he bought in 1972. I've got the order form and receipt , how retro am I? The shell is from Robin Island in South Africa where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.
This is the good book shelf. Very posh, I put my nice books in here.....
More books and my vinyl records.....
This is where I edit music and where I edited the 'Junkie' video. There's a very impersonal feel to this room so when I'm here it's all about the work. I don't even think in this room, I'm on auto pilot and try and get out as fast as possible.....
That's all folks, I hope you enjoyed the tour.
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