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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.

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What a time it has been since the release of the “Aestas” album exactly one month ago. A two-page write-up in the Alloa Advertiser was followed by my first UK radio play on Forth Valley Radio and a guest appearance on a show on that station. Not to mention the streams on the various platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music and the sales of the CDs on the website and on Bandcamp.

Thanks are due to Rajmund Bakonyi at the Alloa Advertiser for a very accurate report based on a phone interview that lasted for almost half-an-hour. The article appeared on pages 12-13 of the newspaper on Wednesday 21st August. This was followed by a text from Bovs (Brian Ovens) at Forth Valley Radio who wanted to play one of the album tracks on his “Millennium Music Show” which can be heard every second Friday from 4pm until 6pm. “Rebirth of Venus” was duly played on Friday 6th September. My first radio play had been “The Alchemist” on the Japanese station, Sound Street Radio, in 2023, but this was the first time that I actually heard my track being played on the radio.

Bovs followed this up by inviting me to be a guest on his other show “”Old Records Never Die with Bovs” from 8pm until 10 pm on Wednesday 11th September. I had to choose five songs from the 60s, 70s, and 80s which I liked or had influenced me. I chose: “So Sad” – Everly Brothers; “Waterloo Sunset” – Kinks; “Reflections of My Life” – Marmalade; “The Hungry Years” – Neil Sedaka; “West End Girls” – Pet Shop Boys. I had to explain why I chose these particular records and we also chatted about the other records that he played. It was a brilliant experience which I won’t forget.

The sales of the CD are moving along nicely and are now well into double figures. With a limited edition of 100, I am pleased with the progress. Thank you to Roberta for handling the dispatch of the CDs. Streams on the various platforms are well into three figures and, on Spotify alone, are over 300 and on their way to the 1000 plays you need to get paid these days. It fascinates me that I am getting streams in places like Fukuoka and Tokyo in Japan and Stone Mountain and Grand Rapids in the USA.

I now feel that it’s time to move away from promotion, publicity and social media and get back to performing and creating music and audio-visuals. You can find out more about that in my next blog.