S*T*U*F*F* Reloaded

Last year during the Air tour in the USA, I was discussing with JB & Nico the fact that Moon Safari was 10 years old in 2008. Its always easy to look at something like that and feel melancholy, retrospective, maybe slightly negative? For them, they’ve gone on to produce other great work; but Moon [...]

Apple’s policy of not replacing dud machines really winds me up. Its a joke. I got a LEMON of a MacBook Pro to start with, and I just knew it. It cost a fortune, but apparently that does not entitle you to a computer that works without causing constant headaches.
I played ball with them all [...]

Its been pretty full on. Sometimes things just go mental, and you have to try and keep up. I’ve just finished typing a comedy email in French, as my little boutique web design agency G-RAFF has been commissioned to do a website for AIR. I’m so chuffed about it… it was in the same week [...]

I’ve just finished a recording session up at our studio with Jules Maxwell - he’s producing my new album. We got really stuck in this week, digging out the sessions from last year and trying to make sense of what’s been done and what had to be done. Jules is just amazing - with such [...]

We had a manic week of friends last week - fantastic! Some pals came over from Belgium (photo of beers attached), then the mighty Martyn James Brooks came to stay with us during a week-long shoot for Time Out.
Friday night was the big one… Nico (Nicolas Godin) from Air told me one night during the [...]

I like the writer Haruki Marakami a lot - well, not so much recently, as I think his novels have become a little less intriguing than they were. When I lived in Japan, I was delighted to find a collection of small, palm-sized versions of Murakami novels which were unpublished in Europe at that time [...]

Is there any other sport apart from snooker where the winner can just keep going when they’ve already won?

I’m up late, waiting for an emergency gas engineer to come round. I called them at midnight, supposedly to have someone round within one hour, but calling them again at 2am, I was told it wasn’t in the system. If the house explodes, someone sue them please.
I hope it doesn’t come to that. But there [...]

So am I the only one who was disappointed by the MacWorld keynote speech by Steve Jobs of Apple? Well, I suppose its not every year you can release the iPhone, but seriously, releasing the MacBook Air, something that is thinner, smaller and lighter than anything else is more like average Japanese manufacturer marketing material. [...]

I am starting to record some guitars. I couldn’t find a pick anywhere… until I remembered my friend Richie brought me a little present from Paisley Park… he snaffled it off Prince’s music stand in the studio!!

No wonder they sound funky.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but we’re all led to believe that this symbol means “recyclable” - am I right?

Well, it doesn’t. And I was shocked to find that out. Check this out - from the site Valpak which controls the “Green Dot” symbol in the UK:
“The UK Green Dot® is not a recycling symbol [...]

I hate the whole concept of social networking, the building block of “Web 2.0″ - the way we use the internet now. Actually, while we’re at it, the whole “Web 2.0″ thing is starting to get a bit dull, but I’ll post about that on my company blog (G-RAFF BLOG) in due course. I don’t [...]

The Flow is what happens when your creativity starts to work. Take for example a little tiny piece of music that I wrote in Australia four years ago, maybe more. Just a high acoustic guitar thing with a foot tapping. I kept coming back to it as I liked the groove and the chord sequence, [...]

It makes me laugh that people still look at the feature list on the iPhone and say that its just not as chock-full of goodies as some other Nokia or Sony Ericsson device… if you have tried one, you’ll realise that this completely misses the point - its the interface and the way it reacts [...]

I have always enjoyed writing complaint letters. In fact, if the truth be told, I think I have a real penchant for this activity. There are few occasions in life when one gets a chance to use grammatically complex English to convey a simple point, but when those chances arise, I believe it is our [...]

No, I’m not trying to get search engine hits with the post title… I am just getting increasingly upset with the tendency of reporters to throw a horrific or shocking statement into their pieces on television.
*** Please don’t read the next bit if you don’t want to be disturbed in the way I was [...]

Saturday morning, and a right stormy one it is too. I love these northern skies, especially with the view from my mum’s house where you can look right out over the town and the sea… Christmas is over, and I always feel a bit weird in the days that follow - like no-one quite knows [...]

Now, I am an Apple fan - not one of the obsessives, but I’ve used their computers and software for a long time now. And I will never go to that slice of ugliness known as Windows. But I have a problem - the new hardware sucks. I’m now into my 4th day of sitting [...]

Back in London after what was really a most excellent tour. What a year - touring with Air… it sounds almost surreal to me to write that. Their music has been a massive inspiration and I’m now keen to get some more music going, having realised a few home truths about where I am happiest [...]

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE MOLE!!! My brother just had his first baby!! Baby Crista was born to Michael and Dasha in Cyprus this-morning, which is just the best news. For those that know the Mole, this may come as something of a shock, but there you go… He is ecstatic beyond anything I’ve ever known. Magic!
Some [...]