Where do you find the time?

Time is a very precious thing, there is not enough of it and you could always do with more to get all the things done that you want to do. 

A friend of mine once asked me 'Where do you find the time to do ATP?'
My answer was - 'I make time'.

I am not fortunate enough to be a full time musician, I work and have a family.  My time is limited.

I try to make the most of little moments during the day to make melodies, practice playing live, do networking/research and try to generally progress what I do.

I spend 40 minutes a day on the train and have a small break for lunch during the day.  I use both of these times to work on new songs.

Then very late in the evening I spend about an hour most nights doing ATP stuff.  All of this comes at a sacrifice and thankfully I have a very understanding and supportive wife.

Yes, I'd like to have music and ATP as my full time career - but I know that will never be achievable, instead I do this because I enjoy it and more than that because I need to.

Music is a very large part of who I am, the process of making music, releasing records and doing live shows is what keeps me sane and grounded.

(The subject of sanity is something I will be writing about more in the summer).

I honestly can't ever picture a future where I don't make music in some form or another.  If you are a fellow musician reading this you will know what I mean.

It's something inside of us, it drives us and allows us to find those little moments that don't really exist.

I'm allowed to change my mind...

When I first started doing Amongst The Pigeons I always had a vision of it being a trilogy of albums and then bringing it all to an end.  I actually thought that the music I make would not give itself to more than that and people would get bored.

In 2009 I released 'Music to brush your teeth to' and then 'Get Amongst It' followed in 2012, with various EPs in between.

I had for a long time always expected to release a third and final album called 'Spread Your Wings' most likely in 2014/5.

But - this morning I had a revelation, a change of heart and realised that there is still a LOT I want to achieve as ATP and I can keep this going for quite sometime yet.  So today I decided that there is at least another 3 albums worth of material yet to come. 

The final album I make will still be called 'Spread Your Wings' and in my head I know exactly how I want that to sound from start to finish. The thing is, I know that I am not capable of making that album yet, which is another reason I want to make more music before the final album comes out.

I think the next proper ATP album will be rather different - can't quite say how yet - but I want it to be mad .... more way out there than anything I have done to date. 

Someone actually described one of the new songs as 'mad space jazz, hectic and fun' which I really liked.

This post is probably of no interest to anyone other than me - but sometimes I just like to share.

Speaking of which ... here is a video of me playing live at last weekends Lexapalooza show, an exclusive of two new songs.