This time I’ve made my update an audio one, for a change, so you can listen to me ramble on how about I’m doing with the challenge. It could help if you are having trouble sleeping if nothing else…

So…. I’m a week into the RPM Challenge of making an album in just one month. Up to now I have three tracks complete, “Twice Nightly Richard Whitely” (previewed in the last blog post) and an instrumental called “Spilsby”, which you can listen to below or at SoundCloud, and a song called “I Knew You”

I’ve also got a backing track for another song that is quite near to completion,  I’m not sure if it will be an instrumental or vocal yet, I’ll probably work on this tonight. I also have a small fragment of an idea, just a few loops & chords really, that I’m not sure what to do with as yet. I often start on something then put it down, try working on something else and go back to it. Often I have 3 or more songs or fragments on the go and I find this ‘rotational’ method helps if I get a bit stuck or short of ideas.

I had a cold this weekend which slowed me down a bit but I think by mid-week I should have at least 4 finished tracks, which is almost half way, so I reckon I’m on schedule!

As you may have read in a previous post I’m attempting the RPM Challenge this year, which involves creating an album in just the 29 days of February, so here is my first update. I’ll be posting regular updates here, that’s the plan anyway, of course I could find I don’t have time!

The challenge has started well as I have a song more or less complete and it was achieved surprisingly quickly, you can listen to it using the player below or at SoundCloud.

Before starting this endeavour I was assuming that the direction of the album would most likely be instrumental and electronic, with few guitars, electric bass etc., simply because I find this type of music quicker to get going on and quicker to make – time is of short supply of course! However I’ve confounded this on the very first “session” by making a mostly guitar based vocal song. I don’t know why, it just seemed to flow that way, so I’ve created a nice little whimsical short song called “Twice Nightly Richard Whiteley”. Listeners of a certain age with a knowledge of British TV might be able to make sense of the lyrics which are reproduced below.

The backing track came about quite quickly, however vocals as usual took a lot longer and I’m still not sure about them. I’d forgotten that it takes me quite a long time to get vocals down, perhaps because I’m not a great or confident singer. So as time is limited I’m not sure there will be many vocal tracks on this album. But you never know…

Usually my songwriting process goes thus: Create chords and backing track, scat sing over and over the music until I come up with a melody and then usually a phrase or two comes out of this singing to build the lyrics on. For some unknown reason the phrase “Twice Nightly Richard Whiteley” popped into my head!

Richard Whiteley was a popular TV presenter here in the UK, he’s now sadly deceased. “Twice Nightly Richard Whiteley” was his nickname and it’s ended up being a song about nostalgia. If all of the songs on this album come about this quickly then I’ll be very glad. Something tells me it’s not going to be that straightforward though…

Onwards.

It’s twice nightly Richard Whiteley
The Calendar guy with Countdown Carol
I smile so sweetly at nostalgia creeping
Up on me like a lost friend

Flashing fingers Ted Rogers lingers
Rattles my head like a coin in a tin
Maybe I’m crazy, the past it haunts me
Cart me off inside Dusty Bin

The truth is clear
The past is dear
To us it’s home

Nancy it’s true, I can paint along with you
The past it seems a different colour
Mr. Men are my brethren
The Clangers are still on the moon

OK. So the gauntlet has been thrown down and Mister Fusty is up for the challenge.

Record a whole album in just the 28 days of February of either 10 songs or 35 minutes+

Crikey.

I’m going to give this a go, for the fun of it and also because I’m curious how it will affect my creativity, music making skills, songwriting, well being etc. I’m going to be posting regular updates of how I’m doing on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and on the RPM Blog,  so “follow“, “like” and keep checking, if only to see if I’m still ok. If you hear nothing for a while assume either I’ve declared, “CAN”T BE ARSED!!” and given up or I’ve gone mental.

Wish me luck.

Hi there! The first post of 2012 is a new track called “Sunrise (It’s a Good Start)” which you can download FOR FREE using the player below or on the Soundcloud page. My vague plan this year is to try and release a track a month (roughly) and if they hang together well, and I have enough songs, gather them up like marbles and release an album of them. So far I’m on track! Although it is only January…

Sunrise (It’s a Good Start) by Mister Fusty

Greetings. Remember the incredibly corny Christmas tune I released last year? Well, it’s back! I’ve made it available again for this years festive season, including it’s instrumental version as the “b-side” (which IMO is the better version). Listen or download below or at Bandcamp.

Now on to Mister Fusty’s future…

Recently I have been pondering what to do with old Fusty. Options I have considered include: abandoning him in a forest, changing his name or putting him in a cupboard for a few years. Any of these things may still happen! However next year, instead of recording a collection of songs for months on end (rather like a squirrel gathering nuts for the winter) and then releasing an album, I’m going to release one song at a time . So whenever I finish a song, and decide it’s good enough to enter the wild, it will magically appear for you to download free here and on the Facebook page, Soundcloud  etc. Hopefully this will happen at fairly regular intervals during 2012/13. If I have a decent number of tracks that I’m happy with I might add some spit & polish and make it an album. It’s a vague plan, and I am prone to change my mind, but I’m trying a different approach anyway.

Thanks for listening. Have a great festive season – cheers!

It’s that time of year again where I declare my favourite albums from the last 12 months, it’s not been a vintage year but there’s still been some great stuff around. For those with Spotify I’ve created a list of all the albums (apart from the two that aren’t on there*) HERE. I’ve also made a shorter playlist featuring a track from each album HERE

Here’s the list in no particular order..

PJ Harvey – “Let England Shake”

Iron & Wine – “Kiss Each Other Clean”

Gruff Rhys – “Hotel Shampoo”

Pugwash – “The Olympus Sound”

The Horrors – “Skying”

Treefight for Sunlight – “Treefight for Sunlight”

Jonathan Wilson – “Gentle Spirit”

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi – “Rome”

Jonny – “Jonny”

Fionn Regan – “100 Acres of Sycamore”

Wilco – “The Whole Love”

Jay Z & Kanye West – “Watch the Throne”

The Jayhawks – “Mockingbird Time”

White Denim – “D”

Ryan Adams – “Ashes & Fire”

The Silver Seas – “Chateau Revenge”

Ron Sexsmith – “Long Player Late Bloomer”

Real Estate – “Days”

*The High Llamas – “Talahomi Way”

*Gillian Welsh -“The Harrow & The Harvest”

The Beach Boys -”The SMiLE Sessions” (Technically a re-issue but as The Beach Boys version of SMiLE hasn’t been officially released before I’m counting it as new)

Mister Fusty – “The Waiting Room” (Oh ok, that last one was a plug!)

Athen's Finest

REM have been one of my favourite bands since I was about 16 (many years ago) so I was quite sad to hear that they’d called it a day. However they have created a body of work most bands would kill for. The music critics have been desperate to write them off for a while, probably since Bill Berry left, but they’ve still (mostly) come up with great music. Even a fan like me would admit their last couple of albums have felt that perhaps they were losing their fire a little bit.

Although initially Berry’s departure seemed to invigorate them, their first album afterwards ,”Up”, is one of my favourites and seemed to give them a new sound from their previous records before that. Perhaps “Up” wasn’t successful enough and so the albums that followed returned to type – still pretty good but it’s almost like they decided to sound atypical REM. They never really made a bad album, (although “Around the Sun” comes close!) and were one of the most consistent bands I knew. Favourites? Pretty hard but I’ll always have a soft spot for “Green” which was the first album I heard and the one that got me into them.

So adieu R.E.M. and thank you. I’ll leave you with the first R.E.M. song I heard, “Stand”, which I distinctly remember dancing to at a youthful age at the Sleaford Rugby Club 6th form disco. It didn’t impress any girls…

Take a listen using the player below, you can also download it for free.

Chemistry (Desert mix) by Mister Fusty

I’ve decided to make the new Mister Fusty album, “The Waiting Room”, free to download at Soundcloud. I enjoy making music and I’d love as many people to hear it as possible. If they like it- even better! Previously you could stream the whole album free there and at Bandcamp anyway, so I figured that I’d make it available for mp3 download too. If you really like it and want to support the artist it’s available to buy at iTunes, Bandcamp (if you want lossless go there) and many other places. If you download it and can’t afford to buy it then that’s ok. As I mentioned before I love messing around making music, I don’t do it for financial gain. I’m actually not sure it is possible to gain anything financially from music anymore anyway!

Unfortunately I think you have to download each track individually but don’t let that put you off, download away me hearties!

The Waiting Room by Mister Fusty