It’s an irregular life, although it has habits and rituals like any other.

For example, every day when I’m home, after the children are asleep, it’s rare evening that I don’t go to my studio, crank up the computer, listen to music, browse YouTube, catch up on emails, news, etc.  Sometimes I write music.  I am excellent at imagining a song in my head and then battling to get some semblance of it down on tape before I forget it.  Unfortunately, the simple series of notes plucked out on an acoustic guitar rarely seem to convey the mammoth-sized roar of energy I hear in my head. I promptly forget it!   I have literally thousands of these snippets scattered in boxes through all kinds of formats – cassettes, CDs, DATs, cameras, Dictaphones, pieces of paper, and even reel-to-reel tapes.   Without being too modest, approximately almost exactly roughly about 97.8% of these ideas are rubbish.   Obviously, what I heard in my head could not be replicated, or at least I couldn’t do it.  I listen to some and wonder where on earth my head was at when I pressed ‘record’!   Of course, there’s the odd one that actually does turn into a song, but I have this notion that photographers take hundreds of shots to get the perfect one, artists paint over their mistakes, and so I have to write enormous amounts of crap to get one decent idea.   One such snippet was on my last solo album.  Box Of Tricks, as I’ve mentioned previously, started out as a very rough, and I do mean rough, idea for a riff, lasting less than a minute.  I’ve no idea from when it dates but it must have been many years ago.  I stumbled upon it by accident.  That’s if you believe in accidents.

And what triggers creativity?  It can be anything – the moon, the stars, the opposite sex, what’s in the newspapers, having a shower, going for a walk, having a shower with someone of the opposite sex…. what’s in the newspapers?  But usually it’s what I hear on the radio, Internet radio that is.   I flirt with this station or that but I always return to Radio Paradise.  No top forty, no hardcore metal, some classics, blues, reggae, singer-songwriters, rare album tracks, and a variety of styles.  Minimal talk.  It is run by a couple that was in professional radio back then.  Some might say it’s rather ‘smooth’ and maybe that’s true, but it pleases me most of the time.  Great playlist.  It reminds me of radio in the 70s in America – I spent a lot of time there, tour after tour, and it was such a revelation after the BBC.  Not only did it sound great but you heard all the stuff you couldn’t hear in the UK, great bands, complete album sides, and pretty much anything the DJ wanted to play; it was all very free.    Music played more of a role in peoples’ lives then, as opposed to these days where it’s merely another leisure choice, or a backdrop to some other activity.  (Apart, naturally, from all you good souls who are reading this; you obviously value the place music has in your lives.)

I have the concert with Tolo Marton in Venice next week followed quickly with a writing session with my old band in May.   I’m looking forward to both but I’m home now and thought that from time to time, I’d pick out a song, album or artist to talk about.

Los Lobos.  A vastly underrated band. I’ll choose the album called Good Morning Aztlán, released in 2002.  I’m a fan anyway but I think this is one of their best albums.  In particular, I love the production (John Leckie and Los Lobos) – a master-class in how to get a dirty, dusty, gritty, rattling mesh of a mix that pleases on many levels – volume levels that is.  The songwriting is superb, adventurous without losing the core identity of the band, rootsy, groovy and muscular.  This is a band that PLAYS.  It has EXPERIENCE and you feel it.

Let me pick out a couple of tracks.

Done Gone Blue is pure hard rock.  Essentially a blues song, the thundering, distorted bass of Conrad Lozano (or is it David Hidalgo?) drives the track along, powered by an irresistible drum groove.  The cool vocal just rides it effortlessly as the guitars churn in support.  A great jamming song.  But it’s the mix that gets me.

Round and Round has a super slinky riff on which the song easily rests.  It might be slow and dreamy but the underlying groove reminds you that it’s hard rock at heart.  I love his voice.  An unusual composition and another superb mix.

The entire album is filled with gems and if you haven’t heard it, do so, get it.  And there are many others.

OK, got to go, I’ve just had an idea for a song.

Good luck,

RG