Pagan Wanderer Lu - The Independent Blogs Pt. 6 - Nos Da
Posted by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
paganwanderer
paganwanderer
And so the week comes to an end.
I hope you've all been pondering all week long about what my name could mean? Because I'll be honest, I've changed my mind about telling you. There is no explanation you could have come up with which could possibly be less interesting than the real reason. So sorry.
Still I hope you've enjoyed reading my self-centred ramblings as much as I've enjoyed writing them. Actually I hope you've enjoyed it more, because I find the process of daily self-examination somewhat tortuous. Like being on Big Brother, except the cameras are inside you, and you don't really know who's watching...
Anyway, if you want to know more about me and download some more songs then go to my website, where you can also purchase 'Fight My Battles For Me' and other quality recordings.
Here's one last video, another Dreamtrak session featuring all the same folks as before with a swap-round of instruments, and joined by Will from Stairs to Korea on trumpet. It's for another song about nationalist nastiness 'The Gentlemen's Game'.
See you around the place maybe? Don't forget you can keep reading at my regular blog and follow me on twitter.
Nos da pawb.
pwl.x
I hope you've all been pondering all week long about what my name could mean? Because I'll be honest, I've changed my mind about telling you. There is no explanation you could have come up with which could possibly be less interesting than the real reason. So sorry.
Still I hope you've enjoyed reading my self-centred ramblings as much as I've enjoyed writing them. Actually I hope you've enjoyed it more, because I find the process of daily self-examination somewhat tortuous. Like being on Big Brother, except the cameras are inside you, and you don't really know who's watching...
Anyway, if you want to know more about me and download some more songs then go to my website, where you can also purchase 'Fight My Battles For Me' and other quality recordings.
Here's one last video, another Dreamtrak session featuring all the same folks as before with a swap-round of instruments, and joined by Will from Stairs to Korea on trumpet. It's for another song about nationalist nastiness 'The Gentlemen's Game'.
See you around the place maybe? Don't forget you can keep reading at my regular blog and follow me on twitter.
Nos da pawb.
pwl.x
This blog is about The Future. Aside from the enticing possibility of us all living in space inside a laserbeam there will also, I hope, be a few more Pagan Wanderer Lu records.
Ever since I finished making ‘Fight My Battles For Me’ last year I’ve been working on new songs and new approaches to recording them. I’ve basically written another album’s worth in that time and I’m hoping to fly in the face of received music industry wisdom and get it released as soon as possible. We shall see.
Used to be that David Bowie and the Beatles would release two albums a year. Now you’re lucky if your favourite band can churn out one patchy album every two to three years. I have literally no idea why this should be. I blame Gordon Brown, seems to work for everything else…
See? anyone can be a satirical cartoonist!
Anyway in a bid to whet your appetites for my future works here’s one last free song. A new track called ‘The Great British Public Becomes Self-Aware’. This was actually written and intended to be a track on ‘Fight My Battles For Me’ but I didn’t get a version I was happy with in time.
Lyrically it concerns the way people can inadvertently make bad decisions by paying too much attention to the wrong information. Everyone knows the media distort things to suit their own ends and sell more papers, yet very few people actually take the trouble to investigate for themselves. And who can blame them? Life’s complicated enough without having to check every reference – especially when the most hate-filled newspapers don’t even bother to provide any references. Anyway ho hum….
Musically the song’s quite different from anything I’ve done before. It’s got a sort of dark funk feel to it, this isn’t really indicative of a ‘new direction’ or anything because I always tend to go in several directions at the same time. Generally I’m trying to make the new stuff sound a bit less ‘lo-fi’, going for a fuller richer sound. Making efficiency savings. That sort of things.
MP3: The Great British Public Becomes Self Aware
I pass this every day on my way home, delightful….
It feels timely to get this song out now in the immediate aftermath of the BNP getting elected. I’ve already written about this on my regular blog. Suffice to say, if you voted BNP thinking you were making a reasonable statement about economic migration you should ask for your vote back.
So tomorrow will be my last blog. In which I will finally discuss the issue of my name. It’s been fun writing for you all. If you want to continue reading my esoteric wafflings make sure you go to my regular blog and follow my twitter.
Until tomorrow then, got some stuff to do...
Ever since I finished making ‘Fight My Battles For Me’ last year I’ve been working on new songs and new approaches to recording them. I’ve basically written another album’s worth in that time and I’m hoping to fly in the face of received music industry wisdom and get it released as soon as possible. We shall see.
Used to be that David Bowie and the Beatles would release two albums a year. Now you’re lucky if your favourite band can churn out one patchy album every two to three years. I have literally no idea why this should be. I blame Gordon Brown, seems to work for everything else…
See? anyone can be a satirical cartoonist!
Anyway in a bid to whet your appetites for my future works here’s one last free song. A new track called ‘The Great British Public Becomes Self-Aware’. This was actually written and intended to be a track on ‘Fight My Battles For Me’ but I didn’t get a version I was happy with in time.
Lyrically it concerns the way people can inadvertently make bad decisions by paying too much attention to the wrong information. Everyone knows the media distort things to suit their own ends and sell more papers, yet very few people actually take the trouble to investigate for themselves. And who can blame them? Life’s complicated enough without having to check every reference – especially when the most hate-filled newspapers don’t even bother to provide any references. Anyway ho hum….
Musically the song’s quite different from anything I’ve done before. It’s got a sort of dark funk feel to it, this isn’t really indicative of a ‘new direction’ or anything because I always tend to go in several directions at the same time. Generally I’m trying to make the new stuff sound a bit less ‘lo-fi’, going for a fuller richer sound. Making efficiency savings. That sort of things.
MP3: The Great British Public Becomes Self Aware
I pass this every day on my way home, delightful….
It feels timely to get this song out now in the immediate aftermath of the BNP getting elected. I’ve already written about this on my regular blog. Suffice to say, if you voted BNP thinking you were making a reasonable statement about economic migration you should ask for your vote back.
So tomorrow will be my last blog. In which I will finally discuss the issue of my name. It’s been fun writing for you all. If you want to continue reading my esoteric wafflings make sure you go to my regular blog and follow my twitter.
Until tomorrow then, got some stuff to do...
Today PWL gives us a tour of his home studio, and talks about shining up his recordings and doing live takes at London's famous Dreamtrak Studio.
My friends Keyboard Choir did a blog like this last week and went into a pleasantly geeky amount of detail about their gear. I don’t have as much stuff as them – I’m generally limited to what I can carry to a gig in a bag on a train – but I have a few fun gadgets to tell you about.
Here’s a little video of my studio at home showing off a few of the toys I use:
I record all my stuff myself at home, as I nearly always have. However for added pop sheen I’ve taken most of my recent stuff to Dreamtrak in London. This a great little studio run by Oli Horton of electro-pop titans Trademark.
He also runs live sessions there. Here’s one I did with some friends:
This is a jammed-out version of ‘England Expects’ from my album. The people in the video are Oli (piano), John Brainlove (tape loop vocals), plus Laura Wolf (synth/shaky egg), and Chris Alcxxk (drums/fire extinguisher) of Internet Forever. I’m playing an omnichord through a Korg Kaoss Pad.
The omnichord is an instrument that regularly incites cries of ‘what the hell is that?’ when I whip it out at gigs. The basic principle is that it’s an electronic version of an autoharp. You press buttons for each chord (annoyingly there’s no F#) creating a pleasant hum, and then strum your fingers on a touch-sensitive metal plate which creates a twinkling ‘harp’ sound around that chord.
Despite only making two different sounds it’s really versatile, especially when coupled with various effects. I’ve played it backwards, through a distortion pedal, through a sampler, re-sliced it using a monome, taken it apart and circuit bent it using my hands to play the connections… great fun.
You can hear it twinkling away on these songs:
MP3: Repetition 1
MP3: Knight -> King 4
These recordings are unusual in that they’re from the only EP I’ve made which I didn’t record myself. They were done with my friend and labelmate Napoleon IIIrd at his studio in Leeds. He plays the brass instruments, plus some guitar and bass on the second one. They came out on ‘The Independent Scrutineer’ EP in 2006. This was the first ‘proper’ release I did with Brainlove.
This is a video John shot a while back of me playing ‘Knight -> King 4’ at Abney Park in Stoke Newington, on the omnichord, alone:
That’s all for today. Those of you who now want an omnichord, try eBay.
Happy bidding!
My friends Keyboard Choir did a blog like this last week and went into a pleasantly geeky amount of detail about their gear. I don’t have as much stuff as them – I’m generally limited to what I can carry to a gig in a bag on a train – but I have a few fun gadgets to tell you about.
Here’s a little video of my studio at home showing off a few of the toys I use:
I record all my stuff myself at home, as I nearly always have. However for added pop sheen I’ve taken most of my recent stuff to Dreamtrak in London. This a great little studio run by Oli Horton of electro-pop titans Trademark.
He also runs live sessions there. Here’s one I did with some friends:
This is a jammed-out version of ‘England Expects’ from my album. The people in the video are Oli (piano), John Brainlove (tape loop vocals), plus Laura Wolf (synth/shaky egg), and Chris Alcxxk (drums/fire extinguisher) of Internet Forever. I’m playing an omnichord through a Korg Kaoss Pad.
The omnichord is an instrument that regularly incites cries of ‘what the hell is that?’ when I whip it out at gigs. The basic principle is that it’s an electronic version of an autoharp. You press buttons for each chord (annoyingly there’s no F#) creating a pleasant hum, and then strum your fingers on a touch-sensitive metal plate which creates a twinkling ‘harp’ sound around that chord.
Despite only making two different sounds it’s really versatile, especially when coupled with various effects. I’ve played it backwards, through a distortion pedal, through a sampler, re-sliced it using a monome, taken it apart and circuit bent it using my hands to play the connections… great fun.
You can hear it twinkling away on these songs:
MP3: Repetition 1
MP3: Knight -> King 4
These recordings are unusual in that they’re from the only EP I’ve made which I didn’t record myself. They were done with my friend and labelmate Napoleon IIIrd at his studio in Leeds. He plays the brass instruments, plus some guitar and bass on the second one. They came out on ‘The Independent Scrutineer’ EP in 2006. This was the first ‘proper’ release I did with Brainlove.
This is a video John shot a while back of me playing ‘Knight -> King 4’ at Abney Park in Stoke Newington, on the omnichord, alone:
That’s all for today. Those of you who now want an omnichord, try eBay.
Happy bidding!
PWL talks about his new album 'Fight My Battles For Me', out this week.
So let's make no bones about it, this blog business is aimed at promoting yours truly. I am a salesman and I have a product.
Don't feel betrayed.
Maybe you thought we were getting close? Perhaps we could go out for a beer sometime? Talk about visiting some european cities together? More fool you. Life is a lie.
The product I am flogging is a record called 'Fight My Battles For Me' which you could reasonably say has been nine years in the making. There are songs on it I wrote as long ago as 2003, and some I wrote right before I went into the studio to mix it. I've always vaguely understood what people mean when they say their records are like their children. If that's so this one is my designer baby. I learned from all the mistakes of my other offspring and tried to make sure this one kid grew up right.
Of course I suppose now it's done whatever the CD equivalent of flying the nest is, and I can only watch as hordes of people prod it and judge it and give it marks out of ten, and.... there the already overworked metaphor breaks down.
This is the cover. It was photographed and designed by a friend of mine called Kirsten McTernan, a very talented photographer from Cardiff.
She also took lots of other pictures of me like this one....
So, here are two songs from the album:
MP3: You & Me & Winston Churchill
This first one is a song inspired by a Brighton bus. I spent a while living there after uni and, for reasons mostly to do with money and call centres, ended up going slightly mental with depression. This song is about reconciling feelings of depression with your character as a whole. Some people just are depressed, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Without these feelings I probably wouldn't write the way I do.
I've never taken drugs for depression as Winston does in the song, but the imagined idea that you could magically 'switch off' depression with a pill was as scary to me as the idea of never being happy again. So the cartoony little story in this song explores that. Someone once interpreted this song as having some strongly pro-vegetarian message. Others seem to just take it at face value as a daft little story. Which is fine. Death of the author and all that....
MP3: The Memorial Hall
This remains my favourite song I've written. A place it has occupied since I wrote it in 2005. I can't actually explain the song any better than I already have in this video...
...so I'll let you watch that instead. You might need to pause it a bit.
Both of these songs are taken from the album I’m releasing this week which is called ‘Fight My Battles For Me’. They feature my friends David and Laura on drums/violin and singing. The three of us also play in Silence at Sea who I can happily say are a great indie-folk band from Cardiff. I can say this because I don’t write any of the songs so deserve none of the credit.
David also makes music videos. Here’s one he did for me:
See y'all tomorrow.
So let's make no bones about it, this blog business is aimed at promoting yours truly. I am a salesman and I have a product.
Don't feel betrayed.
Maybe you thought we were getting close? Perhaps we could go out for a beer sometime? Talk about visiting some european cities together? More fool you. Life is a lie.
The product I am flogging is a record called 'Fight My Battles For Me' which you could reasonably say has been nine years in the making. There are songs on it I wrote as long ago as 2003, and some I wrote right before I went into the studio to mix it. I've always vaguely understood what people mean when they say their records are like their children. If that's so this one is my designer baby. I learned from all the mistakes of my other offspring and tried to make sure this one kid grew up right.
Of course I suppose now it's done whatever the CD equivalent of flying the nest is, and I can only watch as hordes of people prod it and judge it and give it marks out of ten, and.... there the already overworked metaphor breaks down.
This is the cover. It was photographed and designed by a friend of mine called Kirsten McTernan, a very talented photographer from Cardiff.
She also took lots of other pictures of me like this one....
So, here are two songs from the album:
MP3: You & Me & Winston Churchill
This first one is a song inspired by a Brighton bus. I spent a while living there after uni and, for reasons mostly to do with money and call centres, ended up going slightly mental with depression. This song is about reconciling feelings of depression with your character as a whole. Some people just are depressed, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Without these feelings I probably wouldn't write the way I do.
I've never taken drugs for depression as Winston does in the song, but the imagined idea that you could magically 'switch off' depression with a pill was as scary to me as the idea of never being happy again. So the cartoony little story in this song explores that. Someone once interpreted this song as having some strongly pro-vegetarian message. Others seem to just take it at face value as a daft little story. Which is fine. Death of the author and all that....
MP3: The Memorial Hall
This remains my favourite song I've written. A place it has occupied since I wrote it in 2005. I can't actually explain the song any better than I already have in this video...
...so I'll let you watch that instead. You might need to pause it a bit.
Both of these songs are taken from the album I’m releasing this week which is called ‘Fight My Battles For Me’. They feature my friends David and Laura on drums/violin and singing. The three of us also play in Silence at Sea who I can happily say are a great indie-folk band from Cardiff. I can say this because I don’t write any of the songs so deserve none of the credit.
David also makes music videos. Here’s one he did for me:
See y'all tomorrow.
Today Pagan Wanderer Lu talks about starting out, home recording, the lo-fi explosion and his wealth of short run hand-made releases.
Hello Independent readers, you look very nice today. Have you lost weight?
Hopefully you've spent the last 24 hours humming my lo-fi tunes to yourselves and are now ready for more. Read on learned visitors.
There's a lot of talk these days about where the music industry's going. Will labels survive? Will people stop buying CDs? The fact that this gets so much coverage says a lot about who dictates the content of the mainstream music press. Who honestly gives a shit? People who work for major labels possibly, people who haven't genuinely enjoyed a new record in a long time for sure...
It's always been possible to make a brilliant record with absolutely no money. Whether there have ever been any true rags-to-riches DIY success stories, or whether they've all been fabrications to sell a band on the basis that you're not being sold a band, I don't know...
(^look another 'satirical cartoon' - how I love them!)
What I do know is that I've always been impressed with people who just got on with things. For quite a while I did just this. The first time I took to stage as Pagan Wanderer Lu was in December of the year 2000. Playing a few folky 'she hurt my feelings' type songs at a university bar. I got a sufficiently warm response to do a few more gigs, make some tapes, then later cd-r's and pass them around.
This^ is me at my third ever gig in 2001 at Po Na Na's in Aberystwyth.
By 2005 I'd made about nine EPs and about three albums (depending how you count). These days this is somewhat glamorously referred to as 'self-releasing' but at the time it was just what you did when you wanted to make a record and didn't have any help. Here is a selection of my old handmade cds...
I'm not trying to write myself some glorious history. I just pretty much just got on with making these old records. I never sent copies to anyone in the industry. It was just something I did for fun, though I did increasingly feel like I was doing something people would like. Most of the 'records' didn't exceed runs of 30 copies - mostly because of the lavish sleeves I made for them, often with individual photographic prints stuck on the front. Assembling one copy could take about half an hour. I think the fewest copies I made of anything was five.
There's a newfound interest in 'lo-fi' - bands like Times New Viking making deliberately horrible sounding records. I've started doing it again myself of late, it's quite liberating. Back then I always thought my recordings sounded just fine, listening back now with a more technical ear I wince a little. But I've passed on the chance to re-record too many of them. I think of the records I love by Will Oldham and Daniel Johnston - these spirit-of-the-moment affairs that couldn't be made more perfect by removing the imperfections.
So I'm quite proud to present, on behalf of my younger self, a couple of songs from an album I made in 2004-05 called 'Build Library Here (or else!)':
MP3: Show Me Your Knuckles
MP3: At The Hairdressers
The first was an enthusiastic homage to Pavement, long a favourite band of mine. The wonky guitars are fairly obvious I think. The second is actually the last song in a trilogy I wrote about a prostitute called Molly who fell in love with a punter called Victor. The first two songs are called 'Molly's Lips' and 'My Victor' - I don't think you need to have heard them to enjoy this one, but I could be wrong.
These days they make my albums in a big factory. I'm going to talk more about Brainlove Records later on, but one of the things I liked about them when we met back in 2006 was that they were promoting cds in hand-made print runs of about 50 copies. They didn't tell anyone how few copies there were, they just sent them out as if they were 'proper' records and got lots of good reviews for all the bands. I liked the just 'getting on with it'.
You don't need anyone's permission to make a record. This is even more true these days. Home recording equipment isn't expensive and anyone with an internet connection can share a song with the whole world. If all you want to do is make music and enjoy it then there's never been a better time.
Of course if you want to get rich doing so that's another story. But as I've always said, if all you want is to be rich and famous then just sleep with a footballer and write a book about it....
Tune in tomorrow for the next installment, a look into the new album 'Fight My Battles For Me'.
Hello Independent readers, you look very nice today. Have you lost weight?
Hopefully you've spent the last 24 hours humming my lo-fi tunes to yourselves and are now ready for more. Read on learned visitors.
There's a lot of talk these days about where the music industry's going. Will labels survive? Will people stop buying CDs? The fact that this gets so much coverage says a lot about who dictates the content of the mainstream music press. Who honestly gives a shit? People who work for major labels possibly, people who haven't genuinely enjoyed a new record in a long time for sure...
It's always been possible to make a brilliant record with absolutely no money. Whether there have ever been any true rags-to-riches DIY success stories, or whether they've all been fabrications to sell a band on the basis that you're not being sold a band, I don't know...
(^look another 'satirical cartoon' - how I love them!)
What I do know is that I've always been impressed with people who just got on with things. For quite a while I did just this. The first time I took to stage as Pagan Wanderer Lu was in December of the year 2000. Playing a few folky 'she hurt my feelings' type songs at a university bar. I got a sufficiently warm response to do a few more gigs, make some tapes, then later cd-r's and pass them around.
This^ is me at my third ever gig in 2001 at Po Na Na's in Aberystwyth.
By 2005 I'd made about nine EPs and about three albums (depending how you count). These days this is somewhat glamorously referred to as 'self-releasing' but at the time it was just what you did when you wanted to make a record and didn't have any help. Here is a selection of my old handmade cds...
I'm not trying to write myself some glorious history. I just pretty much just got on with making these old records. I never sent copies to anyone in the industry. It was just something I did for fun, though I did increasingly feel like I was doing something people would like. Most of the 'records' didn't exceed runs of 30 copies - mostly because of the lavish sleeves I made for them, often with individual photographic prints stuck on the front. Assembling one copy could take about half an hour. I think the fewest copies I made of anything was five.
There's a newfound interest in 'lo-fi' - bands like Times New Viking making deliberately horrible sounding records. I've started doing it again myself of late, it's quite liberating. Back then I always thought my recordings sounded just fine, listening back now with a more technical ear I wince a little. But I've passed on the chance to re-record too many of them. I think of the records I love by Will Oldham and Daniel Johnston - these spirit-of-the-moment affairs that couldn't be made more perfect by removing the imperfections.
So I'm quite proud to present, on behalf of my younger self, a couple of songs from an album I made in 2004-05 called 'Build Library Here (or else!)':
MP3: Show Me Your Knuckles
MP3: At The Hairdressers
The first was an enthusiastic homage to Pavement, long a favourite band of mine. The wonky guitars are fairly obvious I think. The second is actually the last song in a trilogy I wrote about a prostitute called Molly who fell in love with a punter called Victor. The first two songs are called 'Molly's Lips' and 'My Victor' - I don't think you need to have heard them to enjoy this one, but I could be wrong.
These days they make my albums in a big factory. I'm going to talk more about Brainlove Records later on, but one of the things I liked about them when we met back in 2006 was that they were promoting cds in hand-made print runs of about 50 copies. They didn't tell anyone how few copies there were, they just sent them out as if they were 'proper' records and got lots of good reviews for all the bands. I liked the just 'getting on with it'.
You don't need anyone's permission to make a record. This is even more true these days. Home recording equipment isn't expensive and anyone with an internet connection can share a song with the whole world. If all you want to do is make music and enjoy it then there's never been a better time.
Of course if you want to get rich doing so that's another story. But as I've always said, if all you want is to be rich and famous then just sleep with a footballer and write a book about it....
Tune in tomorrow for the next installment, a look into the new album 'Fight My Battles For Me'.
Welcome to the first installment of Pagan Wanderer Lu's blog, brought to you by Brainlove Records and the Independent Minds blog network. This week sees the release of the album "Fight My Battles For Me" (available now), and each day Pagan Wanderer Lu, aka Andy Regan, will post a new entry here. The series will offer insight into the processes and ideas that inform his music, as well as links to videos and free MP3s from his prolific output to date.
Okay, I know what you're thinking:
'What the hell kind of name is Pagan Wanderer Lu?'
What's a lu? Is this guy a real pagan? Does he have a beard and walk in the woods making love to trees? Is his music whimsical folk peppered with that awful 'inside a soapy fish tank' synth effect used on every new age cd ever? The answer, sadly, is no. Though I am currently sporting a beard.
The name? Come up with a theory yourself, I'll reveal the real reason for it at the end of the blogging week.
Let me introduce myself properly. My name's Andy Regan (this is not a secret), I'm a 26 year old songwriter born in Bolton and currently living in Cardiff. This week I released what is, from the outside world's point of view, my first album. It's called 'Fight My Battles For Me' and is, in reality, my third or possibly fourth album - depending how you count. Over the next week I'm going to give you a short guided tour of the past nine years of my life and give you a few songs to listen to for free.
Here's a cake I made to celebrate the album release:
I'm always at a complete loss when someone asks me to describe what I do. But for you, kind readers of the Independent Online, I will try. I write songs which are basically indie-pop with a hint of folk, then I cover them with electronic sounds. Cheap, character-filled drum beats from old keyboards. Obsolete electronic instruments like omnichords and stylophones. Modern and old skool synthesizers. I re-write the structures so things don't go as expected. I sabotage things so they don't sound quite right. All in the name of trying to make something which meets halfway between the classic British pop songwriting which I love and which got me into music (we're talking Jarvis Cocker, Stuart Murdoch and all who came before them), and the electronica which I immersed myself in later.
Lyrically I try to be honest. I write about whatever I'm currently interested in. Often this gets me tagged as a 'political' songwriter. Though I always resist this because the moment I see 'political songwriter' I think 'boring' and click onto the next page. It's more important to me to write a good song than to make a political point. When I write a political song it's because something has caught my interest enough to write about it. Because I hope I have something interesting to say on the subject.
Here's the best example of how I try and go about writing. This song is 'Our New Hospital Sucks'. It's the song that caught the attention of Brainlove Records, the label I now work with, and it's based on a chapter in the book 'Captive State' by George Monbiot. The book is about Private Finance Initiatives, which are a really cool and innovative way for the government to hand vast amounts of taxpayers' money to private companies in the name of making savings, fobbing off responsibility for new infrastructure, and appearing to be making investments in public services.
This is my attempt at a 'satirical cartoonist' style decrying of PFI.
Satirical cartoonists are crap, aren't they?
PFI is a blight on the economic landscape, a black hole into which increasing millions of pounds are needlessly shat year in year out. They are also incredibly boring to explain - a fact Monbiot acknowledges in his book. I thought to myself 'what's a way of making PFI matter to 'The Kids'? Write a pop song about them!'.
Actually I thought no such thing, I just wrote the song and this occurred to me later. The lyrics are self-explanatory, and hopefully amusing. There's always a point where something becomes so spectacularly awful that you can't help but laugh. My lyrics aim to occupy this space.
MP3: Our New Hospital Sucks
However, not all my songs are about politics. Far from it... This is a song I released in 2007. This song is about a recurring dream my mother has in which she has murdered someone - perhaps in a previous life. She's been having the dream for years. One day when workmen were digging up our back garden she was overcome with this really strong feeling that 'oh my god they're going to find the bodies...'. Thankfully they didn't.
The song also touches on ideas about karma, and how best to live a good life. Is it best to shoot for your dreams at all costs? Or better to allow yourself to settle into a rut, as long as it's a happy rut? This is one of many recurring themes for me.
MP3: Perfection Or A Simple Life
Hopefully by being honest about what I'm trying to do with my songs I can leave it to others to decide whether I've succeeded? Rather than being all coy and artistic. Then I can just get on with writing the next song, always the most exciting thing.
That's enough for today. I'll leave you with a video I made myself at home for my single '2.0///The Bridge of Sighs'. Go easy on my film making skillz, at least I got some kittens in there.
You can buy 'Fight My Battles For Me' here. And see you tomorrow for the next installment!
Okay, I know what you're thinking:
'What the hell kind of name is Pagan Wanderer Lu?'
What's a lu? Is this guy a real pagan? Does he have a beard and walk in the woods making love to trees? Is his music whimsical folk peppered with that awful 'inside a soapy fish tank' synth effect used on every new age cd ever? The answer, sadly, is no. Though I am currently sporting a beard.
The name? Come up with a theory yourself, I'll reveal the real reason for it at the end of the blogging week.
Let me introduce myself properly. My name's Andy Regan (this is not a secret), I'm a 26 year old songwriter born in Bolton and currently living in Cardiff. This week I released what is, from the outside world's point of view, my first album. It's called 'Fight My Battles For Me' and is, in reality, my third or possibly fourth album - depending how you count. Over the next week I'm going to give you a short guided tour of the past nine years of my life and give you a few songs to listen to for free.
Here's a cake I made to celebrate the album release:
I'm always at a complete loss when someone asks me to describe what I do. But for you, kind readers of the Independent Online, I will try. I write songs which are basically indie-pop with a hint of folk, then I cover them with electronic sounds. Cheap, character-filled drum beats from old keyboards. Obsolete electronic instruments like omnichords and stylophones. Modern and old skool synthesizers. I re-write the structures so things don't go as expected. I sabotage things so they don't sound quite right. All in the name of trying to make something which meets halfway between the classic British pop songwriting which I love and which got me into music (we're talking Jarvis Cocker, Stuart Murdoch and all who came before them), and the electronica which I immersed myself in later.
Lyrically I try to be honest. I write about whatever I'm currently interested in. Often this gets me tagged as a 'political' songwriter. Though I always resist this because the moment I see 'political songwriter' I think 'boring' and click onto the next page. It's more important to me to write a good song than to make a political point. When I write a political song it's because something has caught my interest enough to write about it. Because I hope I have something interesting to say on the subject.
Here's the best example of how I try and go about writing. This song is 'Our New Hospital Sucks'. It's the song that caught the attention of Brainlove Records, the label I now work with, and it's based on a chapter in the book 'Captive State' by George Monbiot. The book is about Private Finance Initiatives, which are a really cool and innovative way for the government to hand vast amounts of taxpayers' money to private companies in the name of making savings, fobbing off responsibility for new infrastructure, and appearing to be making investments in public services.
This is my attempt at a 'satirical cartoonist' style decrying of PFI.
Satirical cartoonists are crap, aren't they?
PFI is a blight on the economic landscape, a black hole into which increasing millions of pounds are needlessly shat year in year out. They are also incredibly boring to explain - a fact Monbiot acknowledges in his book. I thought to myself 'what's a way of making PFI matter to 'The Kids'? Write a pop song about them!'.
Actually I thought no such thing, I just wrote the song and this occurred to me later. The lyrics are self-explanatory, and hopefully amusing. There's always a point where something becomes so spectacularly awful that you can't help but laugh. My lyrics aim to occupy this space.
MP3: Our New Hospital Sucks
However, not all my songs are about politics. Far from it... This is a song I released in 2007. This song is about a recurring dream my mother has in which she has murdered someone - perhaps in a previous life. She's been having the dream for years. One day when workmen were digging up our back garden she was overcome with this really strong feeling that 'oh my god they're going to find the bodies...'. Thankfully they didn't.
The song also touches on ideas about karma, and how best to live a good life. Is it best to shoot for your dreams at all costs? Or better to allow yourself to settle into a rut, as long as it's a happy rut? This is one of many recurring themes for me.
MP3: Perfection Or A Simple Life
Hopefully by being honest about what I'm trying to do with my songs I can leave it to others to decide whether I've succeeded? Rather than being all coy and artistic. Then I can just get on with writing the next song, always the most exciting thing.
That's enough for today. I'll leave you with a video I made myself at home for my single '2.0///The Bridge of Sighs'. Go easy on my film making skillz, at least I got some kittens in there.
You can buy 'Fight My Battles For Me' here. And see you tomorrow for the next installment!
Syndicate
