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ABOUT THE POLAROID SERIES



UNPLANNED & UNEDITED



the Polaroid series of recordings and releases are performed solo with multiple instruments,
on location, without rehearsal or prior composition. Completely spontaneous, entirely improvised.



Multi instrumental





I love collaborating with other musicians. And I do it on a regular basis.


But there is something profoundly different and unique about being the sole performer of a musical work, with all aspects of the arrangement and delivery resting on you. It is at once incredibly liberating and terrifying.


Every part has to be perfect...or as close to perfect as I can get. And if it isn't, the fault rests entirely on me. There is no band to cover for me, no other musicians to bounce off. Just as the creation is a product of my head and hands, so are all the imperfections.



UNPLANNED





Every song released under this project is unplanned. That is to say, before I press the record button, I have no idea what I am going to play. I draw inspiration from the moment, from the environment, from my thoughts, but I have no idea where the song will go, or how it will end.


There is no way to overstate just how different a process this is. As a producer in the studio, I'm always working with a map in mind - maybe a demo recording, or a score, chord chart. At the very least a set of lyrics and an artist sitting on the studio couch singing through once or twice.


But with this project, I record with an entirely blank canvas. Just as whilst listening, you were discovering these songs for the first time, so it was that I discovered them for the first time in the very moment that they were being recorded.



INDEPENDENT





I've been witness to many unfortunate consultations between artist and record label, where those who are perceived as the gatekeepers of the industry have vetoed incredible music, and derailed the careers of extraordinary talent - sometimes inadvertently, sometimes not.


This project is the antithesis of the record label process. There is no A&R to give the green light. There is no endless mix reviews with everyone weighing in their opinion. There is no market testing, no PR department to brief.


This is, very deliberately, as close to it gets to taking raw, unprocessed, unfiltered music from my head and putting it out into the world.



STUDIOLESS





I've spent 12 years in recording studios. Amazing studios like Engine Audio in New York City, Studio 301 in Sydney, and Abbey Road in London. But regardless of which studio in which corner of the world, they all have the same studio feel in common. It's a place where I'm very much at home, a place I love to work, a place where I'm at my most creative.


But for this project, I wanted to completely change the process. No more control rooms, no iso booths, no acoustically treated rooms with their airtight doors. Every song is captured on location. The parlour of an old London mansion; on stage at a legendary live music venue; on the ramshackle runway of an abandoned WW2 airbase.



FLAWED





Despite my best efforts, this music is not perfect. I'm not yet proficient enough to switch between 8 or 9 instruments mid song, with all their differing techniques and idiosyncratic peculiarities, and not hit a wrong note here and there.


But that's is precisely the point.

I don't want to present perfect music.

I want to present honest music.


I think it was Beethoven that said "...to play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable." That doesn't give me a free pass when I hit that major third when it clearly should be a minor...but it does serve as the inspiration behind the desire to create what I hope to be truly honest, authentic, passionate music.





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