Following the release of my CD, “Aestas”, I suspect that most people expected me to continue churning out EDM tracks. While I haven’t excluded the possibility of future EDM singles – in fact it’s more of a probability – I have taken a wee break to do other stuff. That began with my Christmas single “Rainbow’s End” which was geared towards children. On Friday my latest release “Jukebox In My Head” sees me venture into the world of novelty music.

Where this track is concerned, I have to give a shout out to my wife, Roberta, who not only came up with the concept, but also wrote the original lyric and designed the art for the cover. Initially I only wrote the music but, as the track developed, the lyric changed quite a bit. It also gave me the opportunity to sing. I’m no Frank Sinatra but I reckon I can match Joe Dolce, Sheb Woolley and Napoleon XIV for vocal ability. “Who?”, you might ask; then check out their novelty hits “Shaddap You Face”, “The Purple People Eater” and “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa” and you will see what I mean.

The great thing about being an indie artist, whose life doesn’t depend on musical success, is that you can choose whichever direction you wish to take. I am currently working on a Bowie-style song about outer space, an orchestral piece which flirts with EDM, a show song which could be from a children’s musical, and a traditional Scottish melody which currently sounds like loads of others. We’ll see where these songs take me.

What actually excites me most is the creation of new sounds and the use of synthesizers. I particularly like the use of MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) and have a ROLI Seaboard RISE 2 keyboard and a ROLI Lightpad Block and my synths include ROLI Equator 2, Native Instruments’ MASSIVE X (as part of Kontakt 8), and Arturia’s CS-80. I’m hoping that 2025 is the year when I stumble on an entirely new sound but guess that I am far from alone in this quest.

We shall see.