Music Planet

Guitar as Talisman – the Pterodactyl Prophylactic

I`ve had my second stratocaster awhile maybe 15 years or more and unfortunately Kurt from Hennessy Love Machine asked me to borrow it for their recording session over the weekend.

What a fantastic engineering job from Beermaster Ben Edwards at The Sitting room – he sure knows how to get his separation, compression and mix up to scratch – delicious. Anyway…..

Now man that`s a tough question, like asking to borrow someone`s woman…I felt bad saying “NO.” But then again, I bought that guitar off an old friend, the man who named me Jake; it always haad a beautiful and unique tone, but the fish oil in the case ate through the neck lacquer; he took it back to the retailer and a new neck was fitted. Everytime I played the thing it just whispered softly to me and the noise and tone that emanated from my hands just told me that one day it would pass to me. Anyway from New York, California, London and New Zealand I never let that guitar out of my sight where possible. I borrowed the name Edwards from a man who didn`t need it anymore just like I took the guitar from a long lost friend and summoned the licks up fro out of the ground. YOu know what I`m saying.

Paranormal Blues

Well things have been so fucking bluesy it`s off the hook but as I flew out , to my house with my guitar, a rucksack and a pair of pliers, to try and fix the plumbing before getting on another flight towards ennui, aggravation, cramped seating and lonliness I couldn`t help but wonder if that`s exactly what Bob Dylan had on his mind when he dropped in to shoot the cover for Subterranean Homesick Blues -= The heat pipes just cough….and I had to cough up for an engineer. Now that`s altogether too goddamned bluesy for me. 80 Bucks.

My Space II.

Kurt, I appreciate your reply – the intertron is nothing short of becoming the orwellian nightmare everyone fears; perhaps. And where once the Kings of the Wild Frontier roamed the plains, a sea of tarmac, cameras and traffic signals becomes realised in the hostile Wasteland. In some songs that I`ll feature here later, e.g. The architecture of destiny, the concept of participatory panopticon and other architectural metaphors feature. Your own customised tree is nothing short of a camera, an Orwellian two way “telescreen”. A city of glass…mirrors

Rakaia River

These lyrics are about the real world. Emancipation through pantheism, emancipation through struggle. About difficult choices, about life, death and religion. A native song. It isn`t a murder song it`s a song about your land, think about how it can save your people; think about liberation through immersion in history, nature and understanding. No-one can justify what`s happening in this world. If your daughter cried it’s because she understands it better than you.

Guns and Money

Cheers Mondo.

Rakaia River First demo Mix

Hi Robb, yeah! unfortunately that`s one of the perils of tracking a 20 buck guitar as opposed to a Martin, in a hot recording studio. I had a constant battle trying to get that old plank to stay in tune and I could hear it losing accuracy through each take. Have a look at some of the pictures earlier in the blog. One of my songs is about 8 minutes long and the old thing suer didnt like that kind of pressure. We`re not precious though these are just the first demo takes so we can consider the song foundations like tempo and arrangement.

Architecture of Destiny

“London Bridge is falling Down.”

One theory of origin is that the rhyme relates to the destruction of London Bridge by Olaf II of Norway in 1014 (alternatively cited as 1009[1]). Reportedly Olaf I of Norway also burned the bridge during raids in England during the 980s, the bridge was also destroyed by a tornado in 1091 and burned in 1136. The rhyme is said to derive from a Old Norse original by Óttarr svarti, quoted in Heimskringla. The Online Medieval & Classical Library gives this translation for the section 12. The Sixth Battle of Saga of Olaf Haraldson: Part I in Heimskringla:[2]