Tuesday, December 13, 2022

State of the satan 2022

I do one of these every year, so here it is for 2022: a rather dispassionate list of everything I've released this year, just in case you want to pick something up that you might've missed! A lot are pay-what-you-want, whereas others are just priced pretty cheaply. 

 

As worriedaboutsatan:

Sigourney Weaver Fanclub President (Single, This Is It Forever)

Bloodsport (Album, This Is It Forever) 

Celebrity Bloodsport: The Remixes (Remix album, This Is It Forever)

Glass Infinites (Album, This Is It Forever)

0207 (EP, self released)

Patterns (feat. The Anchoress) [Single, This Is It Forever]

Dude, You Might Wanna Put A Vest On (Single, This Is It Forever)

Live 2022 (Live album, self released)

 

As Marta Mist: 

I've Not Blinked Enough / Midnight Solitaire (Single, This Is It Forever)

Eyes Like Pools (Album, Sound in Silence)


As Gavin Miller:

Slumbertones #1 (EP, self released)


Remixes! All done as satan this year:

Message to Bears - Daylight Goodbye (worriedaboutsatan remix)

Arms & Sleepers - Come With Me (worriedaboutsatan remix)

Gallops - Death Square (worriedaboutsatan remix)


Also, a big shout out to Catherine aka The Anchoress, for making Bloodsport her album of the year in Prog Magazine!



Monday, December 5, 2022

2022 favourites

Time again, I suppose, to list some records that I've really enjoyed over the past 12 months. For reasons that I'm not particularly interested in going into on here, my music consumption sort of stopped for a little while, so this list is a little light, but hopefully someone gets a kick out of it.

The Broadcast 3 album mega-deal (Maida Vale Sessions, Microtronics 1&2, Mother Is the Milky Way) 




Andy Stott - The Slow Ribbon

HEALTH - Disco pt.4 II

Sunshine Life Emulator - Hatch Dream

Kuedo - Infinite Window

Can - Live in Cuxhaven 1976

Stereolab - Pulse of the Early Brain (Switched on Volume 5)

Moin - Paste

Oiseaux-Tempete - What On Earth

 Cryalot - Icarus

Vaal - Love Reversed

Backxwash -  HIS HAPPINESS SHALL COME FIRST EVEN THOUGH WE ARE SUFFERING

Monday, November 21, 2022

Falling But Not Alone, album #11

Finally, *finally* we have lift off on FBNA.

For those who've listened to me prattle on about the worriedaboutsatan mystery album pipeline, you'll have caught wind of me mentioning this 'lost' album, that was submitted about 2 years ago and was never seen again, due to a combination of Covid, mega schedules, and people being involved in accidents who were supposed to master it.

Well, all that is finally behind us now, as that album, which is called Falling But Not Alone, will be out early next year via Wolves & Vibrancy. Pre-orders will be open on December 2nd.

I'd told Fabian from the label that I'd love to work with him again after 2018's 'Shift' EP, but alas, events conspired to get in the way. I mean, first of all, the band's makeup changed somewhat, then I had schedules, then he had schedules, etc. so this whole thing goes back quite some time.

The record is itself a sort of half a compilation of tracks that got missed from various releases, and half a brand new thing (which obviously isn't brand new anymore!) The first two tracks, 'All's Lost' and 'Hours Pass' were tracks I already had lying around - All's Lost, by the way, had at one point about 5 vocalists attached to it, but it was only when I contacted Manchester's She The Throne, that a vocal ever got put on it. So props to them for that. That's also the oldest track here, which I think comes from around 2017/18, but got left on the cutting room floor for reasons unknown. It's a banger! 

'Hours Pass' was actually a late addition to Time Lapse, but got cut for timing reasons when n5MD put the album out in May 2020. 

The other two were late additions themselves, but ideas that I finally got around to finishing up when I moved into my current house in Saltaire. That was early 2020. So yes, this has been one hell of a journey, and I'm so glad it's finally coming out!

Go say hi to W&V (and follow them on Bancamp) here: wolvesandvibrancyrecords.bandcamp.com


 

Friday, November 11, 2022

big

Back when the band first started, I'd like to think I was very driven to try and propel satan forward as much as humanely possible - we'd constantly be playing live, always hustling and forever trying to get 'big' - get a label, get an agent, get a manager. I have to admit, those habits die very hard, but one thing that age brings is a sort of sobering brutality that 'big' isn't really the be all and end all of being in a band, or making music in general. If it's taken the arse to completely fall out of the music industry to realise it, then at least some good has come of it.

It's enough to just keep on making something. Sure, it might not sell as well as something else, or you can't get that big gig you want, but it doesn't matter. Those things have never really mattered. It's enough to just sit at a laptop and think 'what am I going to make this time?'

And I've had labels, agents, etc. and none of it ever really propelled me into being 'famous' - good labels find you, good people find you, you just have to trust that. 

If everything's burning around us in 'the biz', then at least take yourself out for dinner and have some fun. Book a show yourself, put a record out yourself, do something silly, I don't know. You might as well, because doing things 'the right way' has never looked or felt so alien and ludicrous. You've got a lot of technology at your fingertips - might as well use it, fuck it.

I suppose this all links into the current social media death spiral we're seeing, and as much as things like twitter and OG facebook have helped me, and the band, it's also oddly liberating to see these places disappear and wonder what will happen next. Are you up for another social site? or do you want to just run into the woods and never log onto a website ever again? Either way is perfectly valid, there's no wrong answer. I quite like the idea of being a little less online, but I'm also not naieve enough to think I won't be able to work without it, so it'll be interesting to see how people reset themselves. 

But yeah, anyway - just keep making stuff, because there's enough shit in the world, you might as well fight the good fight.

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Live set 2022

This year's been a strange one for live stuff. In March I set out on my own for the first time as satan, and did a few dates up and down the UK. They were hard work, I'll not lie. Really fun, and was great to meet some friendly faces old and new, but having to book shows yourself, and in 99% of cases, having to promote the shows yourself (that means being the band, the promoter, the tour manager, the door guy, the sound tech, the driver, poster designer, PR guy, etc.) is a hell of a lot of work for one person with a full time job to take on. 

So after that, and having seen the changing landscape of live shows in the UK first hand, I thought I'd give it a rest and just do the few bits I had after that and call it a day for a little bit. I did a show for the Endless Hum in my hometown of Shipley, a slot at ArcTanGent festival, and a support slot with my dudes Gallops down in London. After those I was fucking tired. I'm old now you know! *Adam Curtis voice* but then, something happened. Well, it's not as dramatic as that, but I was offered a chance to support Mono in Leeds at City Varieties, to which I obviously said yes, and then finally was asked to step in last minute to a mini Endless Hum upstairs at The Triangle in Shipley, supporting French EBM act Leroy Se Muert.

Just before that last minute step in, I recorded the live set, as I realised I'd not done that yet, and with the fragility of booking things yourself and being the ultimate one man band, I figured it was in danger of being lost forever as I'd no doubt either move on to a new live set for next year, or just not play for a little bit.

SO... here it is, in all it's glory. A practice session recorded before that Triangle show, set to various shots of my studio or live photos from my escapades all year. Enjoy!

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Spring/ summer photo dump

I just got some film developed from around spring and summer this year, and some of it turned out pretty great. Thought I'd bang it on here, for my sake more than anyone elses:

Saltaire houses in the sun always look 10/10

Robert's Park in Saltaire during a particularly sunny day

Me enjoying said park

Me, pointing to the monitor during my Endless Hum gig in Shipley

Me enjoying the monitors at the Endless Hum in Shipley

Sophie in her KoRn t-shirt, enjoying Robert's park again

The car park at ArcTanGent festival near Bristol

"Get a picture of me giving the car a thumb's up!" - at ATG

Me outside the backstage area of the ATG stage I was playing

Onstage at ATG

Playing ATG. Was absolutely boiling...

...until it pissed it down. Sheltering from the elements in the car

Lutterworth (nr. Leicester) Travelodge, en route to London

Me looking smug in London. When in Rome, I suppose

Onstage at Leeds City Varieties, supporting Mono

Sophie laying some violin down on some new satan tracks

She's dead good at that!

Monday, October 24, 2022

EP1 re-press

Back in 2006, when EP1 first came out, it was nothing more than a scrappy little collection of stuff I had been making on my computer. In fact, I'm pretty sure up until I put the thing on the satan Bandcamp back in 2014, you couldn't even get wavs of it - just shitty mp3s that had been passed around various websites.

Because of that, and the fact I've had physical pressings of a lot of satan records, but never the first one, I decided to do something about it. 

So I put together the very first EP1 CD version. A handstamped card envelope, as a little nod to those 2006 days when I'd burn whatever tunes I'd finished onto a CD before giving it out at gigs, containing a professionally pressed CD, and a neat little tracklisting (also printed all professional, like). It's pretty cool, right?



The CD also contains 3 tracks that were never on the original EP1 (I'll let you decide why that might be lol), including a demo of Noise 1 and two little doodles I put together when I first started expanding the gear I had at the time.

I've a lot of time for EP1 - it wasn't really a finished, slick record, more just a collection of demos, scraps, demos, doodles and all sorts. One was even a college project from my time at Leeds College of Music (now re-named Leeds Conservatoire), and one was a cover for a message board. So not the real statement of intent debut releases usually are, but this was 2006, and this was me putting things together by myself and testing the waters to see if anyone actually liked the idea of 4 minute post rock songs with drum machines.

Anyway, you can pick up a copy here:

https://worriedaboutsatan.bandcamp.com/album/ep1-remastered

Very much hope you enjoy it!

Friday, October 14, 2022

DYMWPAVO

It's that time again... new release day!

This time, a little bit like last time, it's a single. It's called Dude, You Might Wanna Put A Vest On, and it's out now everywhere (but PWYW on Bandcamp if you're feeling generous)


It's a gnarly little techno stomper thing, made earlier this year. When you've no real 'investment' in the music biz (ie. no manager, label, agent, etc) you can sort of do whatever you want, which is why I've been experimenting with different release methods and stuff lately. Sort of like how I made two albums worth of material, but sequenced them as two really long tracks when I did Circles 1 & 2, or how I can easily just make up some tapes and have them out a week later. It's fun, but obviously not without its drawbacks.

For these two recent singles (Patterns and Dude... were both made at the same time-ish), I thought I'd have a bit of fun and get out of my comfort zone a bit. Try a few new things, step out of my little ambient bubble and get a bit sweaty in the techno world again, and in the case of Patterns - try melding ambient spoken word dreaminess to frenetic breakbeats. All part and parcel of being/ doing worriedaboutsatan I suppose. I did toy with the idea of doing Dude under a pseudonym, but seriously, who has the time for shit like that anymore? Not me, I'm old, lazy and cantankerous, so just thought I'd subject you lot to it instead ;) 

Anyway, I hope you like it. It was a lot of fun putting it all together, and if you know where the title's from, drop me a line and I'll give you a download code to something off the satan store gratis.

Enjoy, and I'll see you soon for another ambient album lol

Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Track breakdown: An Absolute Living Hell, pt.1

Afternoon!

Did another one of those track breakdown things, now up on my youtube. This time I'm talking you though what was the sort-of lynchpin for Bloodsport: An Absolute Living Hell, pt.1.


This was one of the central tracks to Bloodsport, and the rest of it fit really neatly into place after I finished this one off. I can't remember if I talked about it in the video, but this one only really came about because I got myself a drum machine for live stuff, and a distortion pedal shaped like a can of Irn Bru, and wanted to put them together to see what would happen. And would you believe it, this happened, lol.

Anyway, hope you enjoy it!

Saturday, October 1, 2022

RIP Prins Polo

So sad hearing about the news of Prins Polo's passing.

Back in the pre-satan days, we're talking maybe 2001-2005ish, I was fairly active on a few message boards and newsgroups online about Icelandic music - like a lot of people my age and with my music taste, when Sigur Rós blew up, they opened a lot of doors for other bands and artists from the country. Alongside the bigger stuff like múm, Björk, etc. there was a real burgeoning underground DIY scene too. I'd log on and find out about really weird punk stuff from the 80s, or some kid in his bedroom making pretty folk records, or a hip hop group from the countryside, and all sorts of mental stuff. It was great, although absolute hell trying to import some of these CDs, let alone vinyl or anything else. A lot of us had to either make do with what few mp3s record labels and shops would put online (12 Tónar and Bad Taste were amazing at that), or trade in *ahem* not so legal mp3s. In our defence, this was a looooong time before Bandcamp, Spotify, Youtube, Soundcloud, etc. but yes, not exactly proud of doing that... 

Anyway, Prins Polo was always part of that scene, along with stuff like Seabear, Kimono, Mugison, Siggi Ármann, 7oi, Gavin Portland, SkeSkátar, Skytturnar and loads, loads more. I have a Siggi Ármann CD somewhere still - he was a PE teacher that made the most melancholic downbeat acoustic folk you can imagine. Sigur Rós even took him on tour for a little bit I seem to remember. Anyway, Prins Polo had a band called Skakkamanage, who were really great - on one of my first pilgrimages to Iceland, the only musical thing I could afford was a 7" of Hold Your Heart, a scrappy little indie EP they put out on their own label. I somehow managed to hold onto it for all this time, as I'm known for losing things like that fairly easily.

Truth be told, I should've kept up with Prins' solo work, and Skakkamanage a bit more, but it was just so hard to get that music over here, and by the time I'd gotten a bit older, I guess I just moved away from a lot of that stuff. The newsgroups and forums I'd frequented all started shutting down, and the industry sort of moved on, and so did I, which is a real shame as some of this music is absolutely wonderful, and I fear a lot of it has just been lost or forgotten about. I'll do a mix or something soon with some of my favourites.

It's not as if I'd ever met him, or religiously followed his musical output, but his passing really hit home. It's a stark reminder to check in with older groups and artists that you haven't thought about in a while. It's a proper 'that was a real moment in time' , remembering those early days of the internet and unearthing all this music you'd never have a chance of hearing otherwise. 

So yes, check in with those old boys and girls and see how they're doing - none of this lasts forever.



Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Gallops remix

I did a really cool flashy 80s synthwavey sort of remix for the boys in Gallops, and it's out today! Had a lot of fun with this one, made all the better by the amazing sounds they gave me to work with.


And if you need remixing btw, I'm always here! I really enjoy delving into other people's work and having a good old root around, so hit me up if you need owt doing.

Monday, September 12, 2022

Patterns

New satan!

Funny, thinking back to the gap between albums no.1 (Arrivals) and 2 (Even Temper) was like 6 years or so. 6 YEARS! Imagine that. These days there's a good chance 12+ albums would arrive in that time. Which brings me onto today's topic: release number six of the year - an 11+ minute monster called Patterns, and featuring the awesome Anchoress on some spoken word duties at the end:


I've had this in the tank for a while now, and whilst Bloodsport, Glass Infinites, 0207, and the few other bits and bobs around those releases, have all been and gone this year, I'd put Patterns back to the arse end of the year, trying to juggle two more prospective albums (one stuck in vinyl pressing hell for at least 3 years at this point), and at least one more single too. To hell with it! I thought, what could possibly happen that'll screw up this release? Let's just crack on and bang it out now!

Well, the queen died. That's a pretty big thing to get in the way, I suppose.

Anyway, if you've not heard it yet, Patterns is out now, and pay-what-you-want to boot. Good, eh?

Friday, September 2, 2022

Slumbertones #1

Released today, not specifically for Bandcamp Friday, but thought I might as well put it out on said day as it's a good time to do it, is this little ambient guitar EP I made recently called Slumbertones #1.

It's a little thing I made to help my mum get some sleep, as she's found it pretty hard recently, due to a pretty intense operation on her heart she had to have as she had an arrhythmia. the operation was all good, and she's fine now, but bless her - she kept me updated on her sleep schedule whenever I asked her how she was afterwards. Thinking I could maybe help, I dusted off my delay pedals and wanted to at least give it a shot, to see if I could make something that could help her drift off.

Me being me though, I sort of made some of them a bit busier than I probably should have, so not sure if there's too much going on in some of the tracks to really help someone drift off, but it's the thought that counts, right?! 

Anyway, hope you all enjoy it. It's pay what you like too, so if you can't chip in, don't feel pressured to. 

There'll be some new satan dropping very soon btw - I was thinking of doing this EP as a satan thing, but thought it actually suited my solo project a lot more, so popped it on there instead.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

13

It's 10 years since the whole Ghosting Season thing, which is very scary, as it definitely only feels like it was 30 minutes since that whole time.

Anyway, I was rifling around on my laptop the other day, looking for some interesting things to put up, or out, or just to have a listen to and get all nostalgic, and I came across the old demo for '13', which was the last track on the album, but (I think) one of the first I sat down and wrote. It came out of a nice little guitar riff I did, based on a very old tune of mine, but with the chords shifted down a step or two (or three). I digress, because the demo still sounded pretty good, if a little empty and a bit all over the place - the mixing was dreadful, because it was only intended as a demo to be worked on later, so there wasn't much effort put in.

I sat and thought 'could I clean this up?' - thinking the original session file would be long gone, I tried my best to add a bit of bass, or master it cleanly, but the wav was too far gone for any of that. I searched my computer, just on the off chance I had the session somewhere, and after some detective work (I'm utterly dreadful at naming things, so they're always a variation of 'idea' or 'thing' or something like that) I found it! There it was, in all its glory, a beautiful session that hadn't been loaded up since 2010! Incredible. So I fixed the mixing a little, and unmuted the bass channel (there was a bassline in there after all) and cleaned it up a bit.

It sounds a lot more hypnotic and trippy than the final version, and I suppose that's what I was aiming for with it - I think the whole Ghosting Season thing was supposed to be an extension of worriedaboutsatan, but just with a different name. In fact, the GS album was basically supposed to be the follow up to Arrivals, and there was artwork, videos and loads more with this album credited to satan instead. I even have the files somewhere with all the ID3 tags as a worriedaboutsatan album. The fact the GS album starts on a lot of digital distortion (it's called 'bitcrushing') and opens out into the first track is a nod to the way Arrivals ends, with the bitcrushing slowly engulfing the last track. Anyway...

I really love these little demo versions - they have a little something about them, which perhaps gets tuned down in the production process on their way to being on a record. The 'Far End Of The Graveyard (3am Version)' is actually just the demo, and there are a few more pinging around somewhere - I'll have to dig them all up. Anyhoo, here's the newly cleaned up '13' demo, with vocals from Birds of Passage:


Hope you enjoy.


Friday, August 5, 2022

Slur They Words track breakdown

If you've ever wondered how to meld a grime acapella with post-rock electronica, fear not! I've done another 'in the studio' type video thing on my youtube here:


Friday, July 29, 2022

0207

Well well well, what a week it's been eh?

At the start of it, I made any record I had any involvement in pay-what-you-want to try and raise some funds to go play a festival next month. But why do that? I hear you cry, well it's sort of complicated, and sort of not at the same time. Y'see, to play festivals (and gigs in general tbh) it costs quite a bit of money - petrol, food, hotels, etc. and normally I'd be ok with shouldering that cost, but this year's been fairly tough financially, and so I had to take a warm-up gig nearby the day before my slot to offset some of the costs involved.

And then you can guess what happend next.

The gig ended up getting pulled, and my fee for it evaporated. It wasn't a lot, but it would've covered a few bits, and I didn't mind singing for my supper. So then what do you do in that situation? For me, I had little option but to do the world's saddest flash sale, which brings us to today.

The bandcamp pages have been mostly free since Monday, and my god have you guys absolutely smashed it out of the park. I was only hoping to cover that small-ish fee, but I've somehow ended up with over 5 times that amount, as you all chipped in and were so generous with your donations. I absolutely, 100% cannot thank you all enough for that, and it's genuinely heartwarming to know that this little community based around my silly little tapes can do something as crazy and as awesome as that. So to show my gratitude, and to say a massive thank you again, today I put together an EP called 0207 and shoved it on my Bandcamp for you all:

It's pay-what-you-want, and will remain so after the flash sale ends on Monday, but please don't feel like you have to pay anything more if you've already chipped in! It's just a simple thank you, and I hope you enjoy it. 

Gavin

Friday, July 8, 2022

Glass Infinites

ALBUM NO. 10 IS OUT NOW!

Glass Infinites, my little modular synth/ ambient baby, is out in the world now:


Very much hope you all enjoy it. Here's some quickfire background on some track titles: 'Choppers' is a nickname I had as a child, as apparently I would make a mad chomping motion with my mouth everytime food was near. Yes, I was a portly child lol. 'Say No To Yes' is from this poster that does the rounds on twitter every now and then. Almost called it 'Say Pizza To Drugs', but thought better of it. 'Öxlinni' is Icelandic for 'shoulder', and I just love how the word looks so used it. 'How Does It Feel, What Do You Think? Are You Happy?' is a line from this HEALTH song. 'Boomkat Industrial Complex' was just a funny phrase to poke fun at their seemingly vice like grip they have on any underground music. I was gonna do a big graph, like the one on the back of Yanqui UXO by Godspeed, with all these labels and blogs pointing to Boomkat, but just couldn't be arsed in the end. 'Zyklus' is perhaps the most badass word in the world, and is German for 'cycle'. 'Rejected Ambient Works' is, obviously, a bit of fun with an Aphex record.

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Endless Hum 2 pics

Not often I get nice live photos of me, or reviews for that matter, so here are both from Saturday's exploits in Shipley:

That sea of cables and plugs on the floor was very stressful

Look at that grip! holding onto that keyboard for dear life lol

Looking very serious - probably stressing about pedals

 And there's a great review of the night over at Louder Than War here:

https://louderthanwar.com/the-endless-hum-2-the-kirkgate-centre-shipley-live-review/

Monday, July 4, 2022

Community (it's important)

At the weekend I played for The Endless Hum's night at the Kirkgate Centre in Shipley, and it was really, really nice. I mean, the gig itself was class and the fact there's a cool night like this literally walking distance from my house, is worth shouting about if nothing else, but there's always something very important about getting involved in a community.

Me, onstage in Shipley

Like, when I was young, and growing up next door to Shipley in the Tory toy town of Baildon, I would've laughed if you'd have told me that Saltaire and Shipley were gonna be a hive of musical community, but that's sort of what's happening, and it's really really great. 

In the early satan days, we'd make a habit of turning up to nights we wanted to play, CDs in hand, and collaring the promoter to give us a shot. It didn't always work, but it got us out and about, and we met people in and around the scene in Leeds, which obviously helped get our name out there.

That's a very under-rated and still very important thing to be doing as a band, I think. Find your scene and get into it. The internet is all well and good, but there's still no substitute for turning up to a gig with some like minded people and just enjoying a night of music. 

I'll never understand why people don't do this more. Back in the day, I knew so many bands and artists that ran off down to London only to get swallowed up and they ended up quitting all together. If you live somewhere with a community hall, or a bar that does events, fucking get in there. You aren't retired yet! A community these days is probably the best thing you can wrap your music around.

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Öxlinni video

 Hi all, 

Just a quick one... I've unleashed another slice of Glass Infinites for your listening (and in this case, viewing) pleasure. It's a track called Öxlinni, which means 'shoulder' in Icelandic. Just thought the word looked really nice. Anyway, the video is here:


and the album comes out on July 8th. I've also realised I absolutely did not need a 3 week pre-order-to-release window at all, and this will be reflected in up-coming releases lol.

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Discography sale

I know, I know... I make a lot of music. It never used to be like this, I swear. The gap between Arrivals and Even Temper, albums 1 and 2 in the satan discography, was 6 years! SIX! YEARS! that's absolutely insane when you come to think of it, especially now you know how much I put out in any given year these days.

I suppose the landscape has changed a lot since then, and now I'm older and (hopefully) a bit wiser, it doesn't take me as long to finish stuff off and just put it out there. Albums aren't the big things they once were, after all.

Anyway, all this waffling brings me onto the subject of the digital discography option on Bandcamp. They have this neat feature, where instead of buying everything one by one and paying like £70+ for it, you can bundle it and offer a discount for the big spenders. Seeing as how I'm putting a lot of stuff out these days, I thought it'd be a nice thing to do to let some non-big spenders catch up with everything, so you don't have to go and stream it on Spotify or torrent it- both options would leave me with about £0.00000001p, and £0 respectively. Please don't torrent my stuff! I deliberately keep things as cheap as I can on my Bandcamp for that reason. 

Right, so the whole satan discography on Bandcamp right now is £22.74, which is 70% cheaper than it should be. And that's for (pretty much) everything the band has released since 2006 - that's sixteen fucking years, so quite the deal I think.

Go to any album on worriedaboutsatan.bandcamp.com and it'll pop up with the entire discography option if this sounds like a plan.

Friday, June 17, 2022

Glass Infinites

Remember when I said I wanted to get a bit quicker with releasing stuff after making it? Yes, well here we are already. Say hi to album number ten (TEN!) Glass Infinites. It's a collection of woozy, meandering synth and ambient guitar stuff, so actually something of a new sound from me, as there aren't any beats on it - just these zippy little synth lines and some classic ambient guitar stuff.

Anyway, the pre-order went up today, and that's here-


I did mention a little while ago that it'd be nice to get a bit quicker with releasing stuff, so this is the first of those experiments. I usually sit around for months on end, plotting who to send it to, and what formats cost what, and all that stuff - it takes me *ages* to actually get something out, which is ironic, because I'm probably the most impatient person in the world when it comes to actually making the music itself.

I had these recordings sat around for a little while, but it was only after I came back from tour in March, and had my nose cauterised that I endeavoured to finish it all off and get it released. I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with cauterisation, but it's basically burning the blood vessels in your nose with silver nitrate, so it stops them bleeding so much. Me and my brother have always had nose bleeds, and it wasn't until I asked my mum about them that I found out that her dad had them too, so I'm guessing it runs in the family, sadly. Anyway, they're really horrible and annoying, so I wanted to try this cauterisation, and fucking hell it hurt! But it was for the best I suppose. Anyway, when I came home from having it done, I felt pretty awful - think I caught a cold at the same time or something, as I felt utterly wiped out. Weirdly, listening to these synth recordings was the only thing I could stand to do, as anything more just wrecked my head. So as I was recovering, I finished them off, added some new ones, and voila - Glass Infinites was born!

Very much hope you all like it. It's out July 8th on tape and digital via my own This Is It Forever label.

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Marta Mist

In 2010, I was sitting in my room at satan HQ in Leeds late one night, just listening to some guitar loops tinkle over themselves and I thought about doing something with them. They weren't quite right for satan, but didn't want to just ditch them. Not really wanting to go solo or anything, I thought a good idea would be to finish it off as a new project, but keep it quiet. I liked the idea of it 1) not getting in the way of anything satan related, and 2) letting the music do the talking, so it would live and die by how good it was, and not because of the attached people involved.

Sophie, my girlfriend, also thought it would be a cool idea, so she played violin over those guitar loops, and we submitted it to various labels before the now- named Distance/ Skeletal/ Union came out on Hibernate in 2010. 

Anyway, we did various little bits here and there - self released singles, a quick 3" CD on now long defunct labels, a few remixes, etc. we kept it fairly lo-fi and enjoyed just bobbing stuff out as and when. This all culminated in Scavengers, a record we did for the awesome Time Released Sound label back in 2016. It went pretty well, and there were a few more attempts after that to get other records signed, but life sort of got in the way, and we put the band on the back burner whilst we moved around a lot.

Until last year, when I was a bit bored in the studio, and started playing with piano loops this time. I figured these would be amazing as new Marta Mist material, so I roped Sophie in to record violin over them, and viola! A new two track single, which came out on Friday:


We've been recording some new stuff too, so MM is basically back now, and obviously with me telling you all this, we thought we might as well ditch the anonymous thing, as we're not that fussed about that sort of thing anymore, and we're also too old for shenanigans. Well, I am anyway, Sophie's but a spring chicken.

So anyway, there you go! Some more satan-adjacent stuff to get involved with.

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

New shirts

Continuing my theme of 'not taking myself too seriously these days', which we all saw when I spent a fortune making football shirts with the satan crest on them, not to mention the fever dream-esque song titles I keep coming up with, I've now had the brainwave to make a new satan shirt up with the typical tour list on the back, with a tongue firmly placed in cheek.

Coming to a 50 cap metal venue near you, it's worriedaboutsatan...


Head to Mercht to pick one up. I'll need at least 10 of you to do it, otherwise they won't go to print. Help me and my stupid ideas continue to thrive by grabbing one! https://www.mercht.com/c/satantourshirt


Thursday, May 19, 2022

Labels - wtf

Browsing my immediate circle of influence for labels to send a new record to, I came across a few instances of something I thought was long since dead: labels being arseholes about demos.

Now, I really think that labels are very important, and play a huge part in the biz at every level, so I don't want to be too critical, BUUUUT... I mean, c'mon man - if I click your demo section that you've kindly put on your website, you must be aware that people might want to get in touch with stuff you might want to work with. It's not fucking rocket science, but the amount of passive aggressive nonsense on these things is amazing.

Phrases like "if you must send something to us", or having reams and reams of stuff to read before they'll let you have an email address, which is usually not even looked at anyway (quite a few just have memory hole email addresses that go nowhere). Like, what's the point? If you don't want people to send you stuff, just fucking say. Just a quick note, to make sure any would-be demo sender gets the idea beforehand. That's fine, and I saw a lot of good labels do this - fair play, I thought, I'm a big boy, I can handle it. 

It's the sort of 'yeah, but I want to keep that option open just in case something ace comes in' bullshit that really does my head in. Either you want demos or you don't, you can't write a TED talk on how someone sent you a demo that was slightly out of your preferred genre back in 2004 and since then you've had to make them sit through this drivel before allowing them a shot. Come on, just deal with it - it's part of being a label I'm afraid. Just chill.

Also, it's 2022: I am not sending you a physical demo. It's not only terrible for the environment, but also a complete waste of time, money and effort - I'd much rather you just say 'no demos thanks'. Imagine sending a white top CDr in the year of our lord 2022 in the fucking post to a PO box in America, just for it to be ignored (which it will be). I remember doing that in the very early satan days, and I'm not about to recreate it 15+ years on.

One final whinge I'll leave you with, was that this little tale reminded me of a time back in the day, when small labels would pop up all the time, and people latched onto them a lot. One such label had a contact button, and a thing about demos, to which they thought writing, then posting a fictional argument with someone trying to send a demo which wasn't their preferred genre, was a good idea. It ended up being really salty and really nasty sounding - proper snobby. Far from it being endearing, or funny, or both, it was just irritating and left me with the distinct impression these guys were complete pricks. Oh well.

Thursday, May 12, 2022

Tour snaps

Just had a roll of film come back with some snaps from the recent Bloodsport tour back in March...

Was an unusually beautiful day in Shipley for the gig at The Triangle

Here's basically all the gear I use for the live show

Quite proud of this one lol

Round the back of Wharf Chambers in Leeds.

Trying to look cool, but just look tired

Above the random buildings at Tebay services, en route to Glasgow

The only shot I managed to get in Glasgow: after the gig, in the car park

On the way home, somewhere outside of Skipton, stuck in mad traffic

Loading the car up in less than ideal conditions, on the way to London

Saltaire with some spring snow (as you do)

The always reliable Servant Jazz Quarters in London

The last copy of Bloodsport, on display downstairs at SJQ in London

Me, looking a bit worse for wear (no idea what my hair is doing) once back from London

Thursday, May 5, 2022

Will this be on vinyl?

9 times out of 10, anything satan related probably won't be on vinyl. Why? Is it some kind of protest, some sort of ethical choice? No, not really- it just costs a fucking fortune and takes an age to get sorted, so I don't really bother.

So here I wanted to be as transparent as possible about it all, as a lot of you ask me why certain albums aren't on the format and how it's a shame. Agreed, it's a real shame, but unless major labels suddenly stop pressing up copies of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (that's not happening any time soon, trust me), a lot of satan records will be CD/ tape/ download only. Well, the ones I release myself will be, anyway.

So first off, once I've decided on a record - I've finished the recording and mixing, I've arranged, sequenced and pre-mastered it all, I sit there and figure out if it's worth contacting some labels about it, or if I'd like to do it myself through This Is It Forever. Sometimes the former is better, sometimes the latter - it's a fairly fluid thing, and I'm not militant about it. Say I decide, like Bloodsport for example, that my own label is a better fit this time around, so I'd better start thinking about how it'll come out. So let's say, hypothetically, that this album will be on vinyl - what does that entail and how much will it cost me?

Straight from the get go, I know there's a good 6-12 month wait at pressing plants for vinyl (with thanks to Fleetwood Mac), so that'll push the release date back a lot from my initial impulse (I'm very impatient when it comes to these things), which is to get it out as soon as possible. But before all that fun starts, what do I need to do to make sure this thing will end up on wax?

Well, there's mastering for a start - that's not cheap, and unless you're au-fait with vinyl mastering (that's different from normal mastering) and confident the finished product will sound up to scratch, you'll have to pay someone to do it. Cheap out on it, and it could be crap, pay mega bucks and you're already down a good few hundred quid. So what do you do? Try and find a balance? Ask around for some favours? It's up to you really, but lets say we try and strike a balance and I pay someone £20 a track to do it (that's still very cheap by the way) - that's instantly £200 on an album that's 10 songs long. And this is only vinyl mastering too btw - if you want to go the whole hog, you'll have to get someone to do a CD/ download master on top of that. That could be anywhere between £100-300 depending on where you go. 

So anyway, you've paid the money and you've got yourself a master. So what next? well my friend, you'll have to find a broker/ intermediary to handle the pressing side of things. There are also a few things you have to take into consideration in this next part: do you want a quality product? Or do you just want any old shit, as long as it's on vinyl? Obviously quality costs more, so it's always about what you can afford to do. Do you want a gatefold cover? Fancy artwork? Do you want a colour varient? Will it fit on one slab of the stuff, or is it a triple vinyl monster? All things you have to consider.

So say we have a nice 10 track album, which is easily split between two 20-or so minute sides. That in and of itself is pretty rare too: you'll have to edit tracks down so they fit on the format more often than not, and that can be tiresome/ effort/ irritating before you've even sent the files off. There is a near-legendary test press of the Ghosting Season album on vinyl stored away at a mastering place somewhere, with some of the tracks sped up so they'd finish quicker and could fit on the album. The label didn't have the money to press it in the end, but the master is still around I think.

Anyway, these companies will handle shit with the pressing plants, which is good for you - but also they'll charge for their time (obviously). When satan did Even Temper, it was roughly £1k for 250 pieces in pretty rudimentary sleeves, with no inserts or any fancy shit. That was in 2014, so the prices will no doubt have gone up considerably since then. When we did Blank Tape on CD a year later, we decided against vinyl as the album was too long to comfortably fit on one record, and to be honest, doing a double vinyl album didn't really appeal. I talked to the distro, and they wanted a few hundred of these things, so I had to press up a lot more than I normally would. Bloodsport was 100 tins, Blank Tape ended up being 500 digifiles, all shrinkwrapped at a later date, because someone at the distro didn't tell me it needed wrapping, so there went my profit margin. Anyway, they got a few hundred copies and they went into the marketplace. A few years later, I got an email from the distro asking if I'd like to have the remaining copies (I think at this point, it was 150 or so) destroyed as it was cheaper to do that then send them back to me. Thankfully I got them sent back and we eventually sold off the remaining lot. Lol.

Anyway, we did 250 pieces of Even Temper because that's the lowest amount the broker/ plant would let us do in one go - it's the cheapest option, basically. It's not viable for them to do like 50 pieces so you can be assured you'll sell out and you won't have endless boxes of the things under your bed for years. So 250 it is. If you want to get more in, it's more money. If you want to work with a distributor, so they can stock stores all over the world with your latest masterpiece - that's more money. You can't just walk into stores and ask them to stock your album - that would take absolutely fucking years to do, and they just wouldn't.

So let's say you've decided on your broker of choice, you've set some money aside for that, and you have an idea of how many you want, if you're working with any distro (obviously that's massively recommended unless you think you can shift these copies on your own), and you've edited down your album so it fits.

Next up: artwork. Who's gonna do that then? You? Someone else? Let's say you can do it yourself as you know your way around Photoshop pretty well, and it's not that hard. Cool, so that's front and back covers, inlays/ inserts/ and stickers for the actual records themselves. Are the distro cool about that arty cover that doesn't mention the album or band name? Or are you cool with shrinkwrapping every piece and putting a sticker on the front? Because yes, you've guessed it-  that's more money. Oh, and don't forget barcodes! You'll need one if you're working with distro. Thankfully it's fairly easy and not too expensive to get one. 

Right, so artwork now done after a few back and forths with the broker and the distro, and you're set. You've the album, the artwork, and the metadata. Yes, you'll have to tell them how long each track is, and what time the track ends before the next one starts, so the pressing plant can insert the groove, so punters know where song breaks are when they look at your lovely wax disc.

All that done, you send it off and wait. And there's a lot of waiting. Months and months later, you get your boxes, but not before you've approved of the pressing with a test press - if you've paid for one, that is. If you're doing it on the cheap, forget that - your first pressing is exactly that, and there's no going back. If you've paid for a test press, that needs to be approved, and any faults ironed out. I know of some pretty big artists that whip through tens of these things before they're happy. That's a lot of money for nothing.

Anyway, you have all your boxes of your lovely vinyl. Hopefully it's all survived the shipping and the packing process, as you'll now have to send some to your distro. So you'll have to fire up UPS or DHL or Parcel Force or something, and arrange movement of stock that you have to their warehouse(s). Again, that's a pain in the arse and another cost.

Once all that's done, you have to sell some of these things. Did you hire a PR to help with that? Or are you betting on your fanbase to instantly pick one of these things up? Because the price point to break even is now roughly about £20 a throw. Not all your fans will have the money or the time to invest in that, so you might end up doing bundles, or incentives to get them to part with cash - special colour editions, signed copies, t-shirt bundles, etc. Oh, and postage now is also ridiculous. That on it's own is a serious reason why I don't bother with vinyl much these days. It's an absolute fucking fortune, and on top of that, you have to pack it correctly, lest it arrive damaged. That's heavy duty mailers, bubble wrap, etc. for each unit sold. Again, more cost and more headaches. Oh, and where are you keeping these things? I live in a terrace in Saltaire, not exactly known for their lavish amounts of free space to store boxes of vinyl records. You could stash them at your parents' house, or a mates garage, or whatever, but that's a lot of hassle and maybe in some cases: more money.

Yeah, so PR isn't cheap either, and doesn't always click - sometimes a PR won't be able to swing everything they want, sometimes the timing just isn't right, or sometimes the stars don't align, and you don't get things you thought you would: interviews, reviews, features, etc. Oh, and what if you get a shit review for this album too? That's just added to the amount of unsold units leftover after all this madness calms down. Having said that, a lot of the time it's ok and you'll be able to gather together at least some decent stuff.

So get out on tour and sell some, right? OK cool - where you playing and how you getting there? A few local shows are always good, but if you can't rope in a promoter to do it, you guessed it - you have to do it yourself, which is more money. And time. And effort. And the rest. If you don't have an agent, you won't be playing large shows, which means you have to do a lot of smaller ones - that's more time, effort and money driving, playing, promoting, etc. 

So after all this, you sit down and you take stock, and realise you've finally done something that not a lot of people actually do, so that's well worth a pat on the back and a celebratory pint: this shit is not easy, so if you manage to get through all that unscathed - fucking congrats, and I mean that wholeheartedly: don't forget to big yourself up. But, oh shit - that's just the first album of the year, and you have another 3 releases planned for the rest of it. So... will those be on vinyl?