By this time I had started to develop some friendships with other musicians in online music forums. This helped me to feel that my music had greater relevance. I felt that this album came out well overall.
In hindsight, though I am not so convinced as it feels more like frustration in sound to me now 13 years later. It is a record of my time though and important for that alone. I feel like you can hear me trying to break out of something but still ultimately being trapped in that place.
I know at that time the Forum I was chatting in with other musicians was pretty good in that mostly we were more positive & helpful with each other than not, but I think that I felt too much pressure to conform to the “sound” everyone was raving about which in many ways was absolutely not where I wanted to be.
Hold Me Fast Tonight is typical of the two minute passing pieces I used to end up with one or two of on every album. They were not intended to be short but the ideas would never develop past the initial stage. Often I still really like them as they are little visions of something passing.
Morning Of Gold is very unusual for me as it is made of other people’s samples. Morning started as a competition where a set of disparate samples were provided and the idea was to make a piece of music. Normally I don’t do these things but this time I did and I was really pleased with the results. I don’t recall winning but I know a few others were impressed with my track. I was the only person who didn’t take the ‘crush, kill, destroy’ approach with the samples and made something pretty instead. I’d be pleased if I made that track today.