Those of you who read this blog regularly ( when I get round to writing stuff on here...) know that before I dedicated my life to writing stories I poured all of my energies into writing and performing songs, have done most my life. I was a lead guitarist and songwriter in many bands , but most successfully, (hmm, one could argue other wise) with my band Adventure Club. We put out an album, a labour of love really, called "Wilderness Music" back in 2007. One of the many problems we had back then was that we could never keep a line up together, it always ended up just the two of us, just me and the singer playing and performing the songs to our small but dedicated following. Eventually it all got a bit too much and we ended up amicably, calling it a day. As traumatic as some of those days were I met some life long friends and it has to be said, many genuine crazies. I learnt a lot from that time, not just about music but about people and well, life. So much so that I wrote my first novel "27", about that world.
The process of writing "27" helped me not only understand the inner workings of "The Novel", but it also somehow acted as a psychic cleaning service washing away any of those souring thoughts about the world I had rejected.
This also meant that I could start new writing projects (click this to see what I'm talking about) and not only pick up the guitar again, but sing lead for the first time in my life.
My new band is called Ryland and The Bird and this time it's a very conscious decision to be a two piece.
It' raw pop with a hint of scuzzy blues and I love it. I thrash away at my guitar and whoop into the mike and my good friend Mr T- Bird Jones pounds the skins. We have both been in bands since we could grow facial hair and the whole process of making music now of is one of ease and joy. We're even thinking of getting an album together. But before you get your ears around that, here's a funky little film, directed by Gary Wood of Radar Industries, for a song called "Coming Around Again." Enjoy.
