If you care about original music — whether you write it or simply love listening to it — this is worth putting in your diary. Songwriter Evening returns on Saturday 9th May, bringing another night focused entirely on one thing:songs, written and performed by the people on stage. So — before anything else — make […]

Yes, I’m doing it again. My own album Present Tense is Vinyl Album of the Week for a second week running. Shameless? Possibly. Fair? Absolutely. The truth is, if you make music you love, and you’ve gone to the trouble of getting it pressed onto vinyl, you’re allowed a little enthusiasm. In fact, I’d say […]

Over the past few years, I’ve released music in the ways most independent musicians do. My songs are on streaming platforms. I’ve released albums on CD. People have listened. Some have bought physical copies. By most measures, it’s gone reasonably well. There have been a good number of streams — not enough to generate meaningful […]

It’s been over a year since I last recorded anything new. Not tweaked. Not revisited. Not “almost started.” Recorded. For someone who thinks of themselves as a musician, that’s a strange sentence to write. Because there’s an expectation — sometimes spoken, often not — that if you’re serious about making music, you should always be […]

After a brilliant last session, we’re back with another night of original music, properly listened to. This isn’t your typical open mic. Every song performed is an original — and the room is there to hear it. 🎤 Are you a songwriter? Come and share your work in front of a genuinely attentive audience 👂 […]

In recognition of the launch of the vinyl version of my album Present Tense I’ve changed the Five Songs playlist to be just songs from Present Tense. So if you haven’t got time to sit and listen to the whole album today enjoy Five Songs from it. Go on, you know you want to……..

Utterly shameless self promotion time. And why not? If I’m not going to promote my music then who is? Present Tense was the first collection of songs I grouped together and called an album, way back in 2021. I even got CDs pressed, including rather nifty lyric booklets. And to be honest I was as […]

There’s a question that sits quietly in the background of being an independent musician: Who is this actually for? Not in a marketing sense. Not in terms of target audience or streaming strategy. Something more fundamental than that. Because if I’m honest, most of the music I’ve made exists for a simple reason: No-one asked […]

There are some moments in music that feel bigger than others. Releasing songs. Finishing albums. Holding a CD of your own work for the first time. All of those have meant a lot to me over the years. But this one feels different. I’m incredibly proud to say that my album Present Tense is now […]

So what do they have in common? These people are all songwriters. They all performed at Songwriter Evening last Saturday. The audience had come to actually listen to their songs. Imagine writing a song and then performing that song to people who actually listened to you and appreciated the time, effort, skill and nerves it […]