January 13/25 Stealing Creators Work

   

  It's really hard to write an original song of piece of music which is why there are so many cover versions around, rip offs and lawsuits of people claiming their work was stolen.  Stealing is nothing new but now the new so called AI programs that are really just complex copy alter paste algorithms, have taken stealing to a whole new level.  Here is a video on it.  No talent, practice, creativity or hard work needed.  Just let a computer program do everything for you.  It's a shame the way the world has gone but this is life in 2025.

   

 January 13/25 Cold Harsh Reality

   

  An elder in my religious community (JW.org) was mocking my lack of status as a musician (as if he could play an instrument or write a song) and belittling me.  It's not just me it happens to though.  I overheard another elder saying about some 'useless duo' he went to see 'there's actually a fault in their brains which makes them think they are excellent'  I've no idea who he was on about, if they were confidant enough to play live in front of people they probably weren't that bad but the cold harsh reality is that unless you've had multiple top 40 hits over several decades and play the biggest venues, people will always haughtily look down their noses at you.

   

 January 13/25 Paying The Gatekeepers

   

 One lady scoffed at me when I said fame and chart success is basically paid for but another gentleman said 'of course they pay to be on the radio' when I had a similar conversation.  I'm not saying there aren't some great artists/singers/musicians/songs about or that I would be able to compete if it was a fair fight but I done a bit more research.  Here is an article on the BBC dated 2001 where the cost of a top ten hit was £113,700 minimum (link) while in this video Billy Hume talks about 'paying the people that need to be paid'.  I'm just not that rich.

     

 October 10/24 Flawless

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 You have to be almost flawless to perform in front of an audience.  I've met two professional musicians in my life and they were amazing players.  I just can't reach that level but I still enjoy doing music.  And your mistakes in life live with you.  You can see Bernard Sumner (New Order) mucked up the intro to Age of Consent .  (Link)  I just appreciate the efforts and talent of others but I just have to accept I'm not good enough and haven't the confidence to play live.  New EP out, My Last Goodbye and several new Lethoscorpia track now out too.  I'm really pleased with them.  Songwriting something new and interesting is really hard and lots of professional bands go years without realising new material. 

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 July 20/24 Fault Finding

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 I get a lot of pleasure out of music.  Writing my own songs and also listening to others.  It's a shame music can generate such hostility though.  Some just want to find fault constantly and just put people down all the time.  Some people really don't have anything good to say about me at all.  It's not just me it happens to though.  This gentleman has produced a video on some of the treatment of Elise Trouw I found quite interesting.  In truth she's a very talented young lady.  True she's never charted but most artists never do.  Does she deserve all that people say about her?  Definitely not.  Should she 'stay in the kitchen'?  Pathetic.

 

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 July 19/24 Musical Tastes

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 Common sense should tell you there is no one style of music that can guarantee you will have a large following, make enough to live off or have chart success.  Came across this young lady on you tube with a very similar taste in music as me.  Shows music is a very personal thing and there is no demographic that can determine what someone will enjoy or will chart.  I certainly wouldn't tell her to change her style of music because she's not popular enough.  Record labels want songs instantly catchy that people will play again and again and that radio stations are happy to play over and over.  We all just get on with our own lives.  Working on a new four track EP.

  

  

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 March 29/24 Songwriting v 'Artificial Intelligence'

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 There’s no such thing as artificial intelligence, the term is banded about so easily now but in reality computers just analyse pre-existing songs and churn out variations based on programming that can alter chords/melodies/lyrics etc.  Voice changing software can mimic vocalists and change your vocal into a copy of a famous singer.  It’s not intelligence.  Software can analyse a song to give you a percentage chance of it being a hit but that doesn’t guarantee it will be one.  I personally don’t use ‘AI’ myself.  Slowly working on some new songs but fresh ideas elude me.

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 March 27/24 Music Payments

     

 I made £151.69 in 2023 from 92043 streams, nowhere near enough to live off.  Fair play to anyone who actually makes a living from their music it’s usually bands who have fantastic live shows that people would pay to see that can actually earn enough to concentrate fully on their music.  Sadly there are all sorts of vile people who constantly look for new ways not to pay musicians for their efforts.  Now Spotify have joined that list. You can see a detailed explanation here.

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 March 26/24 Singing

      

 I see Eric Cantona is getting a lot of comments about how terrible his singing is.  To be honest I doubt he would have got signed to a record label if it wasn’t for his football career but if people like him all well and good.  It’s not the worst I’ve ever witnessed.  I sang at an amateur ‘talent’ show once, a few of the acts were good, most pretty lousy, but by far the worst part of the evening was when one of the ladies who organised it ended the evening by miming to a Tina Turner CD.  Embarrassingly useless.  Singing definitely has a lot of personal preference involved but you have to accept Jehovah when he designed us purposely gave some people an unfair advantage by giving them amazing voices, some average while most lousy ones.

      

 Nov 11/23 Outdoing Others

     

 There's a phenomenal pressure on musicians to outdo each other, you can't escape it.  I was chatting to a non musician who felt fame was far more important than doing music you like.  Music gets really tedious if it's not the sort of thing you personally enjoy and that is ten times worse for musicians.  I pointed him to the example of Matthieu Hartley who left successful band The Cure saying 'I realised the group were heading towards suicidal, sombre music, the sort of thing that didn't interest me at all.'  True Jesus Christ called some 'more distinguished' than others but I'd much rather be happy than have fame and status as my goal. I love artists like Errunhrd or KayZen rather than Drake (biggest seller in the world) or Taylor Swift (current number one on Spotify)  

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 July 04/23 New Material

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 Had a lovely three week holiday recently (I'm not a professional musician) finishing off a whopping 19 new songs most of which are out now.  A new Stateotronic album, Nefastous (meaning wretched or miserable), an EP, Orchestrated, and several new Lethoscorpia tracks.  Personal favorites include Unspoken, Unpleasable and Machina Sinea.  Check them out if you like on Spotify, iTunes, Dezer etc.  I'm finding it harder to find ideas for new songs, a lot were old ideas I finished off.  I suppose it's a mixture of growing old and having written so many already.  May be a while before any new material, in the meantime I can always do covers. 

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 July 03/23 Popularity

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 All musicians are judged by their popularity.  People instantly look at how many views you have, how many followers, monthly listeners etc.  The irony is the that no-one actually puts a song in their playlist, buys a CD or watches a video just because a song is popular.  It's a very personal thing music.  I get a lot of pleasure out of writing my own music but all my life I've been mocked, belittled and systematically degraded for my lack of popularity.  But to think you can try and sound like what is currently popular or simply change your style of music and then suddenly everyone will love you is very mistaken.  Just be yourself and enjoy what you do.

 

 April 14/23 Slagging Me Off

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 You can slag off my live fake video's honestly that's ok.  I've had some lovely comments saying how good they look.  I would loved to have been a professional musician and I've always wanted to do a live concert of my own music with a video wall and live band like the New Order one opposite.  It's a huge outlay putting together a concert of that size so you have to be very confident you can sell enough tickets to cover the costs even if you don't make a profit.  I'm just not that rich or well known enough.  I'm not poor but I don't have nowhere near the financial resources to put together a concert like that.  Fair play to New Order and their success over the years to put together a concert of that level.  Even some signed acts who have charted don't do shows anywhere near that quality.  As you can see from my video's page I hired a venue and played along to a backing track but really people want to see a live band with a light show at the very least.  My video's cost me next to nothing to do and I just enjoy putting the video wall graphics together. it's really just something to do as I live out my days.  As well as New Order I've also posted a video showing the set up of a Muse concert and that doesn't even include a video wall.  It may open your eyes as to how much work and staff go into performing a concert.  It's not just someone on the mixing desk and someone to set up the lights, there is so much more involved...  Of course, if rather than slagging me off, you'd prefer to foot the bill for a venue, videowall, musicians, support staff and rehearsal time that would be great.

   

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 DEC 26/22 A Bit Thick 

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 All artists get abuse, it's a shame but sadly true.  A more unusual abuse I thought I'd share was when working with a regular pioneer and I had a trance compilation playing in the car as we drove round.  After a while he said to me ‘you’d have to be a bit thick to listen to music like this’ then said he only really listens to classical music.  Yeah right, like that’s a real sign of intelligence.  I actually enjoy a variety of music including some classical, my Spotify stats surprised me when they said I'd listened to 46 different genres of music this year.  People all around the world enjoy listening to and writing trance music, just like they do all other styles, they're all a bit thick are they?   I just pray I never become that deluded or abusive myself. 

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 SEPT 06/22 Another New Colour

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 You may have noticed a new colour for my Lethoscorpia artwork, yellow.  This is for trance choir remixes of my music.  They've already had a good reaction so I'm working on doing more.  Also I'm working on a new Stateotronic album as well as Stateotronic Orchestrated but it has been slow going so I'm not expecting a release date any time soon.

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 JUNE 21/22 Cheating

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 I see Kate Bush made number one with her song Running Up That Hill.  Love that song, bought the album when it was released (showing my age) but what gets me is they changed the sales ratio for the song so it could be number one.  Link here.  Why does she get special treatment?  The Beatles claim 500 – 600 million sales yet their certified sales is 289.3 (at time of me posting this) A huge difference.   Counting certified sales only puts Drake as the biggest selling artist of all time not the Beatles.  Link here.  Makes you wonder what other nefarious dealings go on in the music business. 

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 JUNE 03/22 Comparisons

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 It’s not just me that gets negative comparisons.  I watched an interviewer compare Matt Belamy/Muse negatively to Chris Martin/Coldplay.  If he was interviewing Chris Martin he would have found someone to compare him negatively to.  I’ve seen the same with other artists.  What they are really saying is ‘well I can’t outdo you myself, so to tell you you're not enough, to put you down and try and belittle you I’ll find someone to compare you negatively to'.   Much easier than saying wow that’s much better than anything I could ever do.  Someone once told me I compare myself too much to others.  Not true, it's the people around me that do.  I'd much rather be happy doing music I enjoy rather than worrying that other musicians are more popular than me.

 

 MAY 09/22 Fact Checking

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 An elder in the Riverside Park congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses once started his item by saying Frank Sinatra was the greatest singer ever and even all the other singers said he was the greatest.  Sinatra is nowhere near the top selling artists of all time and I’ve never yet come across a singing poll he has won.  In reality Frank Sinatra didn’t even make the Rolling Stone magazine top 100.  Singers are so competitive they very rarely say someone else is greater than them let alone all agree on a supposed greatest of all time.  Probably not a deliberate attempt to mislead, just incredibly poor research only he knows but it just simply isn’t true. (Link)

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 JAN 24/22 Zara Taylor

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 Lots of new Lethoscorpia songs out including a couple with the vocals of trance legend Zara Taylor.  She's provided the voice for loads of huge tracks by artists such as Sunlounger, Roger Shah and Alex M.O.R.P.H. to name a few. 

 

 Impatient, Perfected, Why do I feel so lost?, Unknown intentions and All right.  Several different versions of some tracks so something for all to enjoy.  Hopefully some of her success will rub off on me and bring some new listeners.

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 JAN 14/22 New Album Out - Lassitude

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 My new Stateotronic album is out now.  Lassitude.  Really pleased with how it turned out.  Some guest female vocals on three tracks I haven't given up singing but felt a couple of songs didn't really suit my voice but weren't really in my typical Lethoscorpia EDM/trance style so ended up on this album.  Some beautiful hard guitar moments, pounding beats and emotive lyrics.  Personal favorites include Lost in your deception, Step into the unknown and Cascade of untreated post traumatic events.  Enjoy.  PS.  Someone in France streamed Case Closed 180 times last month, that's an average of six times per day.  Thanks superfan, appreciate it. 

     

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 JAN 01/22 500000 Streams/Downloads/CD's

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 Updated my lifetime sales report, I've passed half a million streams, downloads and CD sales.  Mainly streams lets be honest.  People rarely download or buy my CD's anymore.  Spotify is my main source of streams.  500,098 on all platforms to be exact.  Always nice to see when people enjoy your music.  I reached 51 countries around the world with my music.  New Stateotronic album and several Lethoscorpia tracks being uploaded to my distribution company today.  Should be out soon.

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 NOVEMBER 12/21 Contrasts

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 Had a lovely compliment recently, someone said my guitar playing and songwriting skills were 'on fire'.  They did say my vocals weren't brilliant which is fair enough.  There's only so much you can do to enhance  a vocal performance.  Contrast that with an elder who said you'd have to be taking drugs to enjoy my music.  What motivates someone to come out with such vile abuse?  Oh well, no matter what you spit in my face, no matter what lies are thrown at me, no matter what disrespect or negative comparisons to others, I won't be changing my style of music.  Seriously get over yourself.  Plenty on the way,  a new Stateotronic album, Lassitude is almost finished while three new Lethoscorpia tracks are well on the way too.

                

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 AUGUST 31/21 New Colour

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 My Lethoscorpia songs/instrumental releases are all colour coded.  White, main version, blue, piano/piano trance mix, black, dance/trap remix, red, definitive mix and now I've added green, trance strings remix.  With almost 120 releases now, it should help people find something new to listen to.  First up, Passacaglia and a trance stings remix of Turn Back Time, one of my most popular songs.  Enjoy.

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 AUGUST 24/21 Eye Opener

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 I found this video on you tube, it was a real eye opener.  I'm always impressed by musicians who hit a professional standard.  It takes an amazing amount of effort and practice.  Drum machines, sequencers, grooveboxes always keep perfect time.  In the studio, you can keep re recording until you are happy with the results and choose the best take, or mix takes to get the best result.  I don't know why but I always assumed classical musicians were in a totally different league.  It was nice to find out they are only human and edit their music too.

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 JUNE 01/21 Making Money From Music

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 I came across this video on you tube and decided to share it, may make you appreciate music/musicians more.  Four new Lethoscorpia tracks about to hit the music sites.  What You Hide Behind a Smile, Apprehension, Thank You and Downhearted.  All very different from each other musically.  As always, I encourage the use of legal sites.  Enjoy

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 APRIL 06/21 Mechanomorphic

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 Unless you’re the biggest selling artist in the world and remain the biggest, nothing you do is enough.  You can always then be compared negatively to others.  It’s a phenomenal pressure.  All I do is enjoy writing my own songs.   Not exactly a sin.  Whatever, new album out today, Mechanomorphic, enjoy or not I won’t be changing my style of music.

               

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 FEBRUARY 05/21 Influencers/Music Promotion

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 Someone was encouraging me to spend more time promoting my music.  I watched a video on music promotion techniques for 2021 and turned off once they talked about paying influencers to put you on their playlists.  I tried promoting my song Scorpion a few years ago now in a variety of ways but ended up not recuperating no-where near enough to make it worthwhile.  The cheapest way is doing cover versions.  I release mine legally via Soundrop.  This gentleman does a whole channel on music promotion if you are interested but you can see he loses money each time.  

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 JULY 12/20 New Songs

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 A new batch of Lethoscorpia songs/instrumentals coming your way over the next couple of weeks.  Fifteen in all.  Working with a new singer, Malwina, who has a lovely voice.  I especially liked the high notes she produced, sounds amazing.  Some trap remixes again, along with piano versions I feel there is quite a musical diversity to my new work.  Also have a lot of new ideas I'm working on for my next Stateotronic album so plenty in the pipeline.

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 JUNE 16/20 New Gear

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 New gear for 2020.  My first semi-hollow guitar.  It’s a Squier Affinity Starcaster. Beautiful full sound.  Also I bought a Berhringer TD-3, their TB303 clone, authentic or what.  A Korg Monologue, and the Genesis Pro soft synth.  Bit of a colour theme going on!  With the Covid pandemic  I’ve had more time to write so working on lots of new material.

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 JUNE 15/20 Critique 

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 I had the misfortune to listen to three tedious, talentless, dreary men slagging off U2, Dido and Joe Bonamassa and realised most criticism is just people disgruntled with their own inadequacies rather that a genuine assessment of someone’s work.  Oh well, here’s U2 in action with an orchestra.  Awesome.  I like a lot of U2’s songs, also Dido.  Not a fan of blues music but fair play to JB. He’s had considerable success.

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 JANUARY 22/20 New Album

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 Huge amount of songs/tracks/remixes coming your way over the next couple of weeks.  I've written new songs Eternal, Fears and Torment featuring Silvia on vocals.  Some instrumentals coming your way too and Help Me with a new singer Margaret on the mike.  Also a new Stateotronic album 'Scaturient' will be out next week sometime.  Tracks I'm really pleased with include Consumed, Lasting Damage and the drums on Dehumanising are raw power.  Twenty two tracks all ready with a couple more instrumentals in the pipeline.  Enjoy.

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 SEPTEMBER 16/19 Forty Three Countries

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 Wow, my music was played in a whopping 43 different countries last month.  Obviously the more songs you have out there, the more likely people will come across you but I was really pleased with my distribution reports this month.  Lots in the pipeline, I'm releasing an EP of acoustic versions featuring Lylah on vocals, of two of my Stateotronic songs, Scorpion and Remembering No More.  Plus a new song, True.  And I have 5 new Lethoscorpia songs near completion. Also, I'm starting a 'definitive mix' series of some of my older Lethoscorpia songs, remixes of my favorite songs I've done.  I have much better studio equipment now and wanted to redo some old stuff.

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 APRIL 28/19 One Hundred Tracks

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 One hundred songs!  I've reached 100 tracks released.  In 2013 I released Dismantled.  Since then I've really enjoyed working with different singers with my Lethoscorpia project and completed four albums of my own Stateotronic music plus 7 singles.  New songs featuring Silvia are out now on all major platforms, Compelled, Don't Leave Me Here Alone and Time We Can Belong.  Plus remixes and instrumentals Atmosphere and Scenography.  Thanks for all the nice comments, constructive criticism and helpful advice.

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 APRIL 02/19 Bunsen Burner

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 I hate winter, I just curl up on the sofa and do nothing.  So glad it's over.  I heard this amazing piece of music.  It's called Bunsen Burner by Cuts.  It has been used in film and tv.  I was so impressed at the unusualness of it and the atmosphere it created, I decided to do my own version.  It's in two pieces really, the moody atmospheric beginning then into a trance version.  Hope you enjoy it.  I have several vocal trance tracks on the way, and an instrumental too so keep checking back...

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 DECEMBER 28/18 Bathed in Light

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 New Stateotronic album is finished and will be available on all the usual stores hopefully some time next week.  Plenty of indie guitars, pulsating rhythms and a good mix of slow and fast tracks.  Some really harsh sounds as well as more softer moments on the album, I feel it's my best album yet.

 Personal favorites are 'Case Closed' and 'Release' while the massive strings at the end of the title track, 'Bathed in Light' I was also really pleased with.

 Been  my most productive year yet musically, with 21 new Lethoscorpia releases while also writing and recording a new Stateotronic album that's almost 2 1/2 tracks per month.  Already have two new songs in the pipeline for next year...

    

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​ OCTOBER 02/18 You Tube Music

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 My entire catalogue of Lethoscorpia tracks are now available on You Tube Music via Soundrop who I use to distribute my songs.  They are excellent to work with I've found, as there are many distribution companies to choose from and now they've added another major company, It's even easier to put your music out there.  Spotify is still the most popular for music lovers, with iTunes

not far behind.  As ever I encourage people to use legal sites... 

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 JUNE 01/18 When I Could See

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 New Lethoscorpia single finished and on it's way to download/streaming sites.  A new session singer done the vocals for me, Kristina, lovely voice, it's a trance track but has an almost Jazzy feel to it at the beginning.  She done a fantastic job on the vocal.  Links on the music page.

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​ AUGUST 31/18 I Live This Life

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 Some new Lethoscorpia songs and remixes out now.  A new song with Heather on the vocals, plus some remixes of older songs including a couple of ventures into the world of Trap music.  Also spent a lot of time working on my next Stateotronic album.  Hopefully out early next year.  Check out the new tracks/remixes on all the usual sites.

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​ JANUARY 09/18 Senescence

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 New album released today.  On it's way to all the usual stores.  I added two new effects from izotope (Trash 2 and Ozone Elements) to my sonic arsenal for this album, really make as difference.  The guitars sound superb.  Takes my sound to a new level not too far off professional studios. My personal favorite tracks are Remembering no more and Selfish Nature.  Someone told me 'all Coldplay songs sound the same' once, (not that I agree with that), but no-one will throw that at me I feel.  A real diversity in my songwriting/sound on this album (with the usual one cover included).

     

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​  NOVEMBER 15/17 OMD 

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 I love going to concerts and I don't post something here every time I do but I went to see Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark this week and I thought they put on a really brilliant show.  One of my favorite bands growing up and a real inspiration to me.  The light show was amazing and I loved the new songs they played to as well as their classic songs.  Playing 'Of All The Things We've Made' as I post.  Superb

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​ JUNE 13/17 New single out today

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 Just released a single from Scopophobia, Leech.  I wanted to give it a bit more depth, shorten it, and have a harder 'edge' to the track.  It's being played on internet radio so I'm hoping it gets a good response. 

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​ JULY 20/17 Chester Bennington

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 Was really shocked to find out Chester Bennington committed suicide.  All artists get abuse no matter who you are but the new album/change in direction seemed to attract more than usual.  I know from his Wikipedia page he was abused as a child and didn't tell anyone because he didn't want people to think he was gay but I always felt he was such a strong man who could rise above all trials life throws at us.  It does make me wonder if someone with all that in his life, still wasn't enough, or couldn't find meaning or joy in life, who can?  RIP Chester.

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​ APRIL 17/17 New album out today

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 My new album, Scopophobia, is out today.  Really enjoyed putting it together, and a couple of songs came out really well.  Center Stage and Love's the Reason.are my personal favorites.  Find it on Spotify, Amazon, iTunes, Play Store and more...

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 APRIL 03/17 Working with a new singer

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 Been working with a new session singer, Inbal.  I've been really impressed with the effort she puts into her singing.  Three songs should be out soon.  I'm Broken Jehovah, Scared and My Life Matters.  Check out my Lethoscorpia page.

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 MARCH 24/17 Lene Marlin

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 Really sad to read an article about Lene Marlin's suicide attempt.  One of my favorite artists.  Unless you've ever written a song and stood up in front of an audience, you'll never understand what's involved, or the constant battle between loving what you do and the pressure to be successful with the constant negative comparisons to others.

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 You can read about it here.  Several of my favorite artists have committed suicide over the years.  Some examples, Ian Curtis, Chester Bennington, (added this in) Jon Lee, Billy McKenzie. 

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