Category: Monthly Notes

Well, that’s the Dry July social experiment done for another year. What a stupid idea! (this year). “Dry July” + “COVID Lockdown” = Bad Situation.

Especially since, I did not feel better, did not lose any weight, and STILL had a few mornings of hangovers! Crazy!

Anyhow, this is meant to be all about the Pottz music, so I should talk about that. Plenty of new tunes out this month with my weekly releases to BandCamp:

Check out the R.A.W. 21 – Techpah (Live Mix), it’s going to be part of a compilation being put out by Music for Change. With the “first release, raising funds for 1800RESPECT and their partners”, check in with them for the release date for a worthy cause and plenty of great music from local producers.

Also I have some more live (streaming) gigs coming up. The 1st weekend of August I’ll be playing in the latest SYNTHFEST.online (a free monthly international interactive electronic live music streaming event) event. Details will follow on the socials. Plenty of great live electronic music from around the world to tune into.

And of course the daily (weekdays) streams will continue on Facebook, Twitch and Youtube, connect on any of those platforms to notified whenever I am live.

Hope to catch you online at one of these events.

So, it’s time for some live music. I’m pretty excited to be playing alongside a couple of Sydney’s great live electronic music performers at the next This is Living event:

I’ve been working hard at incorporating some of my very recent tracks into my set and looking forward to giving them a whirl in the live environment. Hope to catch any Sydney supporters on Saturday 6 April. Also joining me on the gig is Funkytronic who I have been collaborating with on some new music that we will be releasing soon….watch this space!

March was a great month for new tracks with 6 new original tracks + 2 collaborations being wrapped up. I’ll get them out on SoundCloud once I get the live gig sorted. In the meantime, you can take a listen to Find Yourself (this one will feature in my live set at This is Living).

A year ago, I started changing how I produce music and it’s really great to have the vision finally come the full cycle with this track. It’s life cycle is:

1) do couple of hours creative splurge (this was done when I was in Berlin last Summer)

2) jam track live in Facebook Live post (by jamming it real time)

3) produce ‘finished’ track

4) perform track live – real-time improvisation…and it becomes something else….in the moment (happening 6 April)!

5) release a version of the track that incorporates some of the live improvisations

I’m hoping to get more opportunities to play live and have this approach to music showcased.

So, 2019 is already steaming away from us.

A new release out in the first month of the year – a 2 track jazzy house EP called Scat & Hum. It’s available on all the usual outlets and of course, free to supporters on Bandcamp.

Here’s a little video of the title track – Scat & Hum.

Only 2 new tracks this month, with Cycles Abound and Beautiful Place. They’re both in this month’s Music Incubator on SoundCloud where you can grab my early unmastered versions.

So. I’m a little off my target of 8 tracks a month, but I will make it up in the next few months. I’ve been prioritising a party I have coming up in early February, so expect some feedback from than in the next few weeks.

Well, that was fun.  2 months in Berlin soaking up the creative vibes and general open-minded free thinking craziness that abounds here (there!).

I’ve been busy the last 2 months with a creative tool that I called #20TracksIn20.  What is #20TracksIn20 all about? Well, every (week) day for the months of May and June I spent a short while, usually 3 to 4 hours, writing a new track and then did a live feed of me performing the track. It’s a bit of an improvised jam as I seldom have worked out much of an arrangement and generally just have a few key parts established. At the end of the 2 months I will select the top tracks to “finish” (whatever “finished” means – most likely creative structures I can then repeat the live performances).  Click here for the link to the 2 Facebook video playlists.

So now, it’s back to Sydney and fully focused on playing live.  I have tons of new material (40 tracks) from which to select some new material, so a big update to the show is being prepared.

It’s that time of the month again when I shoot you some new music, except….well, there’s nothing this month.

BUT, I have been busy…very busy! You will know I’ve had an intention to play my music LIVE for some time now, but have never quite managed to get the momentum with that, as I have in the production space. Well 2018 is going to be different. It’s all about LIVE this year.

And to achieve that, I’ve turned my whole production approach on its head. Why would I do that, after so many years honing an approach? Well, I kicked off the year with JAMuary a daily live Facebook feed of me jamming tracks… LIVE. I realised during that process that I was doing things backwards…write a new track, mix and master it, then get the mix down…and then rip it apart again into the key elements for a live rendition, by which time the track was a bit too locked in to allow the level of manipulation and improvisation.

So….now it’s all done at my LIVE rig with all the toys and controllers I use for the live show. New tracks take shape within live jams. My thinking…

• If the aim is to play the tracks LIVE, produce them LIVE
• If recording a finished track removes so much of the flexibility, don’t do it
• Electronic music controllers combined with keyboards, is like a whole new instrument, produce music intended for that instrument
• Every LIVE jam is recorded, all those happy mistakes and weird discoveries are there for reuse.
• And probably the best reason…Making music by doing what I have always done (live improvisation), is FUN (perhaps a bit too much fun, I often have to stop myself 20 minutes into a jam…”get back to work”!)

Here’s a sample of that work in progress (also the name of a new series of live feeds I’m doing Pottz: WIP):

So, I think I have turned the learning curve (too many mixed metaphors maybe?), and March should be packed with plenty of new production, all prepared  LIVE, so keep a look out for some updates throughout the month.

Whew 2018 has started with quite a rush….in a good way!

I have one goal for 2018 and that’s to play my music LIVE!

It’s something I have always had, as a musician, the thrill of playing live to an audience, But things got a little distracted when taking my music to the techno space. I found myself going down a rabbit hole of production.

And so, for the last month I embarked on a completely new thing. I played live every day to the internet with a daily live feed in JAMuary (sic) get it??

This resulted in many lessons learned (still to be implemented), but I think the ultimate post for JAMuary 2018, does capture where I am going:

There will be plenty more of these live feeds in February.  Check out Facebook for all the feeds from JAMuary.