S*T*U*F*F* Reloaded

I had a nice time doing a couple of events for Apple last week, demonstrating Logic Studio - which, and I must promise this is not a partisan or promotion-led comment - is an amazing piece of software for the money. I had to rebuild one of my tracks (Happytown) using only Logic’s software instruments and effects. I feared the worst, thinking I would be left with a “preset” sounding track - but it came out sounding really cool, and digging deep into some of the features was extremely rewarding. Its got me fired up and ready to get on with the next record, which will be a refinement of tracks and ideas we were going to put into the “audacious playout” for Sayonara Deadweight before Jules decided it was not appropriate for the album, despite the fact that it was his idea in the first place. Which is why I love Jules… he is led by the spirit of work as it is created, always willing to change.

Reactions to Sayonara Deadweight have continued to come in - and are very favourable. Stars and Satellites has been a consistent favourite, but other than that, people have been picking different tracks as their top tunes, which for me is the key. I’ve just enjoyed the process so much I can’t tell you.

Normally I leave the political comment and analysis to my grandfather’s blog, but I just have to say that its been an incredible time in the world of late. It got so insane it almost made me laugh - is THIS what life has come down to after all these millions of years of evolution? We’re unable to deal with the forces of nature that killed our ancestors - hurricanes, floods and sickness - turning a blind eye as our governments keep their focus firmly fixed on our ludicrous, fragile monetary systems as they fall to pieces.

I watched in excited awe as the towering institutions of American mega-finance came crashing down, victims of their own irresponsibility and greed - not to mention some of their employees’ willingness to gamble ever-increasing amounts of (non-existent) money to feed their egos, their lifestyles and ruthless self-obsession without a single thought for anyone else. The only depressing thing is that most of these reprehensible city scumbags have made their money and got out - the big houses, Ferraris and helicopter commuting is safe, and its some other poor sod’s job to clean up the mess. Looks more and more likely that poor sod will be me and every other taxpayer who hasn’t a clue how this all began, how it will end, or why it was allowed to get this far in the first place.

It also strikes me as extraordinary that in the final analysis, this reckless gambling in the hope of outrageous profits gets propped up by the government when it all goes wrong. A good friend of mine in Hong Kong has been sending me interesting (but complex) articles on economics, as I am trying to get to grips with how the system functions at a deep level. The more I read, the more I realise that financial engineering is the true, modern day answer to alchemy - except its not just turning lead into gold, its actually turning NOTHING into gold. The entire model of the western economy is built on nothing, on the vacuum that exists between mathematics and risk… the idea of “notional dollars” - where, using the mortgage example, vast debts are bought with great big IOUs in the hope that they can be traded easily, pocketing the difference as property values go up.

People have been asking the question “how did anyone think this was sustainable?” - a laughable question that implies some ethical or strategic thinking by the short-selling traders at the end of the deals… forget it. These guys knew all along that when the music stopped in this risky game of “pass the parcel” where every layer was wrapped in cash hiding the bomb beneath, that they would just chuck the parcel over the wall and make a run for it.

So now we’re left with people whingeing about how the government in the UK should step in to help people hit by the “credit crunch”. For the citizens of this country who genuinely need the help, I can see why a proper system of establishing how much money they need to live on, and delivering it in a timely manner is essential… but for almost everyone else, I have very little sympathy. A lot of people knowingly bought houses they knew they couldn’t really afford when it was boom time, and now things are getting tough, they realise their mistake. In other words, stretching yourself to the limit when interest rates are low and house prices are going up is abject lunacy, and I don’t think you should rely on the government to step in and save your ass. Enough said.

My personal approach to getting through this will be to trust ever more in my freelancer’s mentality of believing that somehow things will be OK. I’ve been this way since I was 21, and guess I always will be. And, at a deeper level, I know that while I have friends and family around us, we will be fine.