My great grandmother was a pianist for silent films.
I’ve been told music skipped generations and landed in me, but I don’t believe that stuff. You don’t need a family background to have an innate calling. Still, I have always been into music – I started singing before I could speak properly and formed my first band at 16 after hearing Republica’s Ready To Go.
At 18, I moved to London and joined a band.
We had a record deal, but it wasn’t my band. When it all went awful and ended, I didn’t lose a catalogue of songs; the others did. That was a baptism of fire about how brutal the industry can be. Having music tied up with other people’s interests didn’t appeal, which is why I decided to be an indie for my own work from the start.
I don’t work for nothing and don’t expect others to.
That’s why I do so much myself. So you’ll always know what I create is authentically me… but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this approach, because it’s exhausting and you can’t be brilliant at everything. However, I do believe you can be good enough at enough things to create your own world.
DIY doesn’t mean doing everything alone.
I got that from the artist formerly known as Kim Boekbinder. But since becoming fully fan-funded in 2019, I have become muchmore careful about what I spend. I feel it’s my fans’ money and I can’t waste it on spurious costs like a radio plugger. This works because there’s only one of me and I’ve learned to do my own graphics. What I don’t spend there can be used to pay for illustrators, mixing engineers and mastering.
I don’t use AI and I worry it’s making people stupider.
You’re giving a non-sentient ‘thing’ access to your inner thoughts and expecting it to tell you what to do. That’s a dangerous path. I’ll never use AI for music, because I want to make stuff. So often I hear people say they only use AI to do what they can’t – does no part of them think, “I’d really like to try doing that myself”? I’m not a great illustrator, but if I couldn’t afford to hire someone, I’d make something, because otherwise what’s the point? Maybe some people have a fear of trying something new, or being rejected.
The best tech I own is Voice Memos on my iPhone.
I used to carry a dictaphone around – and sometimes still use it for recording, because it sounds weird. But without my phone, a lot of songs wouldn’t exist because I wouldn’t remember them five minutes later. I also recently bought a Telepathic Orchid ORC-1 synth. It’s constantly plugged into Logic on my Mac, recording, so I don’t miss anything!
I’m a photographer but awkward in front of a camera myself.
I don’t want to put others through that so I shoot my own photos and videos. The Canon EOS R6 is my ‘posh’ camera, but I love my DJI Osmo Nano and Osmo Pocket 4 too. I’m awful for buying cameras, though, and try to keep a limit on it. It’s very easy and fun to buy something new when I already have everything I could possibly need.
Social media is becoming less useful.
I joined Twitter in 2007 and gained 5000 followers by the time I put out my first album on Bandcamp. On day one I’d paid for the CD printing, which was a real achievement… especially since I’d spent all my savings on making the album. Very silly. Don’t do that! But all the social media platforms now have diminishing returns. It’s frustrating, but I’m still online to share things I’m proud of.
I don’t know where the music industry will go.
I just know I need to survive the platforms. I lost £8000 (around $10,590) from my last crowdfunded album when PledgeMusic folded, taking any profits with it. But I survived. I do think physical media is a wonderful thing and will stick around, though. You can’t replace how we’ve communicated over countless years with streaming. My songs will always be available online, but I’m creating a world of music and objects and experiences for people. It’s not ‘a product’ to me – it’s the life I’ve created. So making real things is very important.
It’s amazing how many people really value art and want to support it.
I’ve been able to crowdfund albums and build bundles of cool things, like lyrics books and CDs of rarities. I’m not a fancy person with a big pop persona and always just wanted to make stuff I knew I would love.
My album Exotic Monsters hit #24 in the UK charts.
And Obey Robots – a collab with Rat from Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – topped the indie charts. So I can legitimately call myself a Top 40 record producer! I’m so proud I did all this independently – even if some people thought I’d lied. I can’t do that – I’m a shit liar. It’s all just me, but maybe some people are jealous… I get jealous too but I choose to turn the computer off and do something productive.
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