TL;DR: I like writing songs, mainly for my own amusement, about things that I’m familiar with, which usually means web development, security, and interacting with people. I have a long affection for electronic music technology. You can buy my music.
My songs
I’ve organised my songs into two albums (so far):
Developer Music
This album is about various aspects of software development and life as a developer.
- “The Good Ship Laravel” – a post-COVID sea shanty about the wonderful Laravel PHP framework, and its accompanying community and ecosystem.
- “Tailwind” – Yes, it’s a song about a CSS framework.
- “Blue Team” – A song for the unsung heroes of the blue team.
- “You’re on mute” – For anyone that’s ever left themselves on mute during a conference call.
- “Federation” – A tribute to the fediverse, and my entry for the 2024 Fedivision song contest, in which I placed 11th out of 76.
- “Dependency” – All about software, and other dependencies.
- “AI girlfriend” – What if an AI girlfriend didn’t want to go out with you?
- “PHP ain’t dead” – PHP developers know this, but everyone else seems to need to keep being told.
- “Pair programming” – Romance is in the air for this development duet.
People Music
This album is all about personal interactions of one kind or another, both good and bad.
- “I’ve only met you once” – A song for all those lovely people you meet fleetingly, and wonder what could have been. Also included on the compilation album “The Four Seasons of Bonk Wave: Bonks of Spring 1”.
- “Something good” – A bitchy, optimistic break-up song, my tribute to Olivia Rodrigo.
- “Uncomfortable” – A working woman shakes off unwanted attention.
- “Setting sail, coming home” – A cover version of a great song from the Bastion game soundtrack, with some vocals by my elder daughter.
- “Dancing by myself” – A straightforward, full-on dance track about enjoying dancing. Also included on the “The Four Seasons of Bonk Wave: A Midsummer Bonk’s Dream 1” compilation.
- “Sign of affection” – A dark electronic take on fading love.
Other songs
- “Mud vs Sheep vs Bike” – A song for a gathering of mountain biking friends.
- “God speed (Student union remix)” – A remix of Erin LeCount’s song.
I have many other songs that are not up to par or are incomplete; one day I might get around to finishing them off. I try to experiment across genres, whether folk, techno, rock, funk, dubstep, electronica, sea shanties, or country; I’m not picky!
My musical history
I’ve been into music, especially the electronic variety, for a very long time. It all started with irreverent 70s punk — Sex Pistols, The Clash, Ramones — but then I fell headlong for the whole new wave era of Duran Duran, Eurythmics, The Human League, New Order, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Tangerine Dream. I wasn’t much good at making it myself; I played trumpet for several years, but someone stole my trumpet and I gave up. I then had fun in a school band “Out of Bounds” as a keyboard player (more a “presser of keys”) and occasional bassist, which led to doing a few studio sessions, for which I acted (learning as I went) as sound engineer and producer. With the advent of the PC revolution, I developed an obsession with electronic music and devices, buying my first synth – a Yamaha FB-01 with a KX-5 “keytar” (I’m not shy!), having a great time messing with a school friend’s Sequential Circuits Pro One, and learning guitar from a rather unpleasant older kid.
After school I got an early pirated version of Steinberg’s Pro24 to run on my Atari ST, and started making my own sequenced songs with the aid of a Yamaha TG550 module and Akai MX73 controller, later upgrading to Cubase. My degree was half computer science, half digital electronics, for which I had to design and build microprocessor systems based on Intel 8086 (yuk), Motorola 68000 (lovely), and a Texas Instruments TMS320C25 DSP (very different), but always with a tilt towards the musical. The 68k project had four 6581 SID chips (from the Commodore 64) and MIDI, and the DSP system had stereo audio in and out to do sampling, effects, and synthesis. At one point Apple actually paid me to write some music to use during a trade show demo! I took up buying old, damaged synths, repairing them, and selling them, and this introduced me to the joys of the Korg DW-8000, N264, & DS-8, Roland D-70 & JV-80, and Yamaha SY77. After this I pitched an idea for a book on operating systems for musical instruments, and applied for a job at Solid State Logic, but neither went anywhere – what might have been!
At no point have I had any music theory lessons that helped much. I know that notes, chords, and keys exist and have names, some of which I know on guitar, but I really don’t know how they work, so I do everything by ear.
After using Cubase for many years I “switched teams” to Apple’s Logic Pro, the descendant of Emagic Logic, Cubase’s long-time rival. Modern music software is amazing, and it really doesn’t limit me at all – my lack of musical knowledge is more frustrating.
I built a couple of electronic drum kits based on Roland TD-5 and Millennium drum controllers, had a few lessons, and really enjoy playing drums, but I find it’s not a very practical or sociable instrument.
My guitar playing is passable, and I got a lovely Sire Marcus Miller M2 bass for my 50th, which I really enjoy playing with Rocksmith, especially Pink Floyd’s “Money”. I absolutely cannot play and sing at the same time. Mind you, I can’t sing very well when I’m not playing either, but I get by, and nobody else seems up for singing for me. Fortunately, Logic’s Flex Pitch editor can work wonders. A new remedy for this has surfaced in the form of Dreamtonics Synthesizer V Studio Pro, a synthesised vocal instrument that is utterly convincing, and I’ve been using this a lot. I’ve also discovered that I love making backing vocals, whether sung or synthetic; they just add so much! The shortfalls in my guitar playing are also being helped out by UJAM’s Amber2 virtual guitarist. I’m keen to support independent musicians when I can, which has led me to commission work from musicians on fiverr, and my involvement with the entertaining #BonkWave anti-genre in the fediverse.
Buy my music
You can buy my music on Bandcamp, or if you’d like to help me out in general, sponsor me on GitHub or Patreon.