It is now August. I feel that if I had been told at the beginning of lockdown in March, that it would be this way for five months, I would have wept. There is part of me that is thoroughly fucked off by the whole sorry state and how it has changed our way of living, knowing selfishly that I could have produced so much more music in that time, given the time.
However, things to be thankful for:
seeing my immediate family once a week for our socially distanced walking adventures
spending time home schooling my 7 year old son
growing closer to my wife
actually writing a new song
keeping myself together
Under normal circumstances I know I would not have changed for the better as a person, but maybe lockdown has helped me really see all of the good things in life (to quote from my song "We Are Beautiful People". I feel that I have made the best out of a terrible situation.
And despite the setbacks, the Rockets in the Trees project has progressed. As it stands we have a fully mixed and ready to release acoustic version of the seven original songs, courtesy of the magic performed by BurnerFriends (visit: http://www.burnerfriends.co.uk/ ). Martin has made my vocal and guitar tracks sound massive with his post-production and mixing.
I am also working on my separate arrangements of all the songs, and Kevan is working on his. I have written the new song "Kite In A Tree" and Kevan has written his new song "Dancing In the Fields" with vocals from Kirsty Guy.
Kevan and I had a socially distanced meeting last week to recharge our creative batteries having last met up physically in March, just before lockdown. I can't overstate how important it is to be in the same space when producing music; email and zoom meetings just don't have the same impact.
And where do we go from here...? Well there is still so much to do before any of our music is officially released but I had an idea about not releasing the tracks as an album, but as a set of eps/short albums a month apart, with each release containing one of the songs and all of the different mixes, with a history of how each song was created... but realistically this won't be until 2021. I guess the issue for me is that previously I have released music that was not perfect, believing I could live with the mistakes in them, but with this project I want everything to be spot on... and that takes time and is possibly the reason why there will be different arrangements.
Anyway take care out there and stay in touch.
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