Music - 2025 Diary Page

05/06/25 - Eclectic Wilderness - Update: I've put up the finished video for, 'Dad'. Thanks to Heather for her beautiful piano arrangement and Kev for his great work in the studio. My narration style was inspired by Vivian Stanshall, with a slight leaning towards Noël Coward.

01/06/25 - Eclectic Wilderness - Update: After much though and prevarication, I've gone for a new running order. I like the way the six songs evolve (get louder and busier).

25/05/25 - Eclectic Wilderness - Dad: I've put up a video, featuring just the bridge, with a few snaps of dad and me. The music is Heather on piano and ad-lib BVs.

23/05/25 - Eclectic Wilderness - Update: Kev sent over the finished version of, 'Dad', which sounds great. Kev has given, 'Celeb' a remix and it's sounding cleaner and punchy. The remix version will feature on the EP, whilst the original version was released as a single on 24/03/23 and features in the video. Kev has also done some work on, 'Fade away'. It's still the original GarageBand recording, but we separated the vocals, from the music, allowing him to give them a tweak making them cleaner. The original version features on the video, whilst the updated audio will feature on the EP.

14/05/25 - Eclectic Wilderness - Session 6: I'd written a song about my dad, who past-away in January. After much work, I decided to record it with Heather on piano and with a semi-narrated vocal from me. We recorded Heather's piano, my vocal and Heather added some BVs. Kev is going to add some bass and a bit more BV and give it a polish. We also did some detail work on, 'All of the time'. A great session and I think I’m happy with my dad song, which has been a challenging song to write and record. I hope the family and his friends approve of it.

19/03/25 - Eclectic Wilderness - Update: I have two songs, 'Electric blues and me' and '10-years in the wilderness', which I've decided to put on the backburner for a future project. I'm going with 6-songs for this release. 'Acoustic blues and me', 'Hair' and 'Celeb' are finished and ready for release. 'All of the time' needs a couple of vocal tweaks on the chorus and a feature instrument (hopefully, a sax part from Simon). 'Fade away' was recorded in GarageBand on my iPad and the music is in Dorian mode, whilst the lyric is about Dorian Gray. I've written a song about my dad, who passed away in January and plan to get in the studio and record it soon. Hopefully, the EP should be ready for release this summer.

31/12/24 - Eclectic Wilderness - Update: Another year flown past and only one more song recorded. New Year's Resolution: Get them finished in 2025.

03/07/24 - Eclectic Wilderness - Session 5: After a very long gap, I was back in the studio. I wanted to revisit my song, 'All of the time', which I'd originally recorded on the, 'Stories to be told' album back in 2013. I laid down the guitar and lead vocal. Kevin is going to add an acoustic bass and some BVs. It was great being back in the studio, always a buzz.

31/12/23 - Eclectic Wilderness - Update: The year rolled on and I never got back into the studio to record the last two songs. New Year's Resolution: Get them done.

22/09/23 - Eclectic Wilderness - Update: I had a bit of fun making the video for, Hair. I will now look at the two unfinished songs that remain on the drawing board to complete the project. 'Electric blues and me' and 'Ten years in the Wilderness'

24/07/23 - Eclectic Wilderness - Update: I’ve taken a break from recording, whilst I work on other things, including non-music stuff that needs my attention. I made a video for, Acoustic blues and me last week and intend to finish writing the last two songs for the project quite soon and then head back into the studio.

18/04/23 - Eclectic Wilderness: I had asked my friend, John (in France) to do some electric guitar parts for, 'Hair' and he'd sent them over. Kevin added some more instrumental details and BVs and then mixed and mastered the song. I will now make a video to go with the song. Next up, is to get the other two songs ready for the studio.

24/03/23 - Eclectic Wilderness: Celeb is released as a single on Spotify, Apple Music and other platforms and the official You Tube video went up on 19/03/23. I'm planning on remixing it for the album version.

13/03/23 - Eclectic Wilderness: After a lot of chat and thought, Kev mixed and mastered, 'Celeb' and I've decided to release it as a single on all the major platforms and I'll make a video featuring the song for You Tube.

28/02/23 - Eclectic Wilderness - Session 4: Kev had done various bits of work since I was last in the studio. I'd had a few strange ideas to modify my latest weird song, 'Celeb', which required my presence in the studio. Kev was very patient with me and we worked through it and hopefully got it done - he wasn't sure, but will now mix it and we'll see if it works. Some of these ideas had been keeping me awake at night, so at least now I can sleep, until the next crazy idea takes over my brain.

05/01/23 - Eclectic Wilderness - Session 3: A new year and I'm hard at work on the new EP. We recorded the acoustic lead guitar and finished vocal for, 'Acoustic blues and me.' We then recorded a basic guitar part and vocal for my latest new song, 'Hair'. As ever, Kevin will do some work on both songs before I return for the next session. I have two other new songs that are still in writing stage, but the ideas are pretty well formed inside my head - I'm really enjoying it.

15/12/22 - Eclectic Wilderness - Session 2: I've had a bit of a gap since my previous session, but am now ready with new songs and some crazy ideas. We put the vocal down on, 'Celeb' and built the basic track for, 'Acoustic blues and me'. A really good session. Kevin will do some work on both songs before I return to the studio in the New Year.

22/09/22 - Eclectic Wilderness - Session 1: Back in the studio with Kevin Jones. My mantra is to keep on pushing the envelope and see where I can go with it all. I had an idea to take an old recording of mine (Always there) from 1993 and make a new song out of it called, 'Celeb'. We chopped up the original song and I took it away to work on the lyric and other ideas.