A long time ago I released an album. (I play guitar, you know.) It was recorded with the limited equipment I had at the time, and with the limited skill and patience I had at the time.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of Earthman. I’m proud that it got made at all, and thankful to the backers who chipped in to get the CDs pressed and who I never did manage to pay back.

I’m proud that I can hold up a shrinkwrapped CD with a barcode on it and say, “That’s my album. I wrote that.” Very proud, and very grateful to all those who helped it happen.

But, that was 2002. Since then the home recording landscape has transformed unimaginably, and during a profitable period of work I availed myself of non-pirated decent recording software (Logic) and all the plugins I could eat. I even bought a decent bass.

And? Well. I’ve been promising a second album for well over a decade now, but you know what? As always, life gets in the way. In that time I changed jobs many times, got married, left London, had a child, joined and formed many bands, bought a house, and... well... aged 20 years. I also stopped playing for long periods of time.

But at the start of 2020 (before the lockdowns) I started a regular music night. A regular slot, ringfenced and sacred in the calendar, that is for working on music projects. And so, once the Indigo Down video and EP were out, my focus shifted back to one of the projects on the shelf, namely album 2.

To spur me on and motivate me, I decided to create a small website which shows the progress I’m making on it. I’m not sure why – perhaps if my progress is visible, then there’s more impetus to keep making visible progress? Something like that.

Anyway. It’s going to be called Love & Painkillers, and it’s 47% complete. I am very much hoping to get it released some time in 2022, time and... gestures wildly all this... allowing.

Peace and love, and good happiness stuff. 🙏