What I’m doing now
Updated Nov 2023, Lexious, Portugal
(This is a /now page, inspired by Derek Sivers. If you have a website, I recommend making one too).
Funded entirely by my loyal Patreon subscribers, I released an album on 9 September 2022. I want to get back to releaseing music but I have so much other work keeping me busy. It's all music work though, so that makle sme very happy.
I am working with choreographer Joseph Poulton on a ballet adaptation of a famous piece of literature (it's covered in NDAs, but will be public soon).
Collaborative dance work is a deliciously slow process (mostly because all the workshop performers and creatives are on national tours with other fantastic shows) but I’m enjoying the revelation of each section being created, workshopped and filmed. It’s by far the biggest thing I’ve ever written and it’s very different than anything I've done before. When I'm allowed to reveal it, you'll know.
I travel the world performing my piano-vocal shows on stunning cruise ships (docked in Portugal today) thanks to having the best agent in the world, who not only signed me mid-pandemic, but filled my diary with incredible gigs through to 2024. I worked hard to get to here, but it taught me that everything happens at the right time and not before. I have to rememebr that as I worry aboput next year's contracts. They come flooding in all at once though, so I have to stay strong until they do.
I'm starting to see some fairly big names in my inbox, all requesting charts and music track for their shows. The feeling I get from hearing other people perform my work is unbelievable. I have started to charge more closely to industry standard prices, now that I've gained a lot oconfidnece in the field, but I still wait for payment until the performer has used the music in a sho for the first time. It's a team effort and we get there together.
I’ve been chipping away at a song-cycle work that’s been in my head for months. It’s an artistic response to the climate emergency and involves a lot of musical forces. I have a few funding applications on the juggle (not my favourite task) but it will reveal itself when the time is right.
The Child Eater by Rachel Pollack - look her up, she's a fascinating author
The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson
25 years in Brighton and I still adore the place. Eight years ago, I bought a gigantic doer-upper right in town, which I share with two wonderful friends and an elderly cat. There’s plenty of space - I'm lucky to have a whole music room to myself - and we've built a beautiful space to live, work and create.
My logical family and I follow a druidic pagan calendar. Samhain (Halloween) takes us into Winter. This is the time of hibernation and backstage work for me: promotion work for upcoming music projects, planning, applying for funding, getting my house in order, germinating the seeds so I'm ready to create anew come Springtime.
My father passed away just over a year ago. I still find a bit of him in everything I do but the pain is less severe. Sometimes even funny. I get those spam emails that look like they're from somebody in your address book but the bots have just replaced the sender name. Occasionally I get one from “dad” and it makes me chuckle. I'm like, hi dad.