Listen/subscribe to my Sleazy, Sad Songs of 2011 Spotify Playlist

As I’ve been “doing other shit instead” I haven’t exactly had my ear to the ground this year in terms of cutting edge new music, so this is resolutely populist for the most part, and the vast majority will be familiar. But hey, it’s what I listened to this year.

A few also might have been overplayed, but I’m not letting that take away from the fact they’re great tracks. However I don’t know many other people who like both Jonnie Common and Britney Spears, so maybe this is quite an unusual playlist?

And I think it all ties together quite nicely in this order and is actually bloody amazing. But then it is my fave songs of 2011 after all.

Also bear in mind that quite a few songs I liked this year are not on Spotify so could not be included (e.g. Conquering Animal Sound & Rob St John).

I’m discovering loads of stuff I missed through everyone else’s playlists of course – and I may well add a few more over the next wee while, so GO ON, SUBSCRIBE. Give it a chance. You never know you might like Drake’s creepy confessional R’n'B/hip hop (or you might be offended by certain words he uses, you have been warned).

Tracklisting:

1. SBTRKT – Never Never (feat. Sampha)
2. The Shivers – Love is in the Air
3. Metronomy – The Look
4. Found – Johnny I Can’t Walk The Line
5. Wild Beasts – Loop The Loop
6. Jonnie Common – Summer is for Going Places
7. PS I Love You – Subtle & Majestic
8. Little Dragon – Ritual Union
9. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Bubble
10. Slow Club – Two Cousins
11. Britney Spears – Inside Out
12. Drake – Marvin’s Room
13. Kurt Vile – Baby’s Arms
14. David Guetta – Little Bad Girl (feat Taio Cruz)
15. Battles – Ice Cream
16. Bill Wells & Aidan John Moffat – The Copper Top
17. St Vincent – Northern Lights
18. Wale – Focused (feat Kid Cudi)
19. Foster the People – Pumped Up Kicks

Other lists worth checking out which will no doubt have numerous gems I’ve missed (in no particular order):

Drowned in Sound

The List

The Skinny

Peenko

Dougie Anderson

The Tidal Wave of Indifference (currently counting down)

Song by Toad reader’s top 5 (he will have more lists soon)

Aye Tunes

Glasgow Podcart

Pitchfork

And of course, VICE

(note: my favourite is always Said the Gramophone but their list isn’t up yet)

Phew. That was a busy week, in which blogging just hasn’t been near the top of my list of priorities, so sorry about the lack of posts recently. As well as doing some decorating (yawn), I went to see Grizzly Bear/Beach House (which was an excellent excellent gig – see Evil Stu’s review for more details), played my first gig as ‘Famous Drunk’ with my friends Iain, formerly of Private Jackson and Chris, formerly bassist for Arab Strap and currently playing with the Gothenburg Address. It was a total shambles of course,  but I was very grateful to them both for helping me play some of my songs, and I think we’re all keen to do something again in the future but with more than one rehearsal next time, which I am delighted about.

All the other people who performed were brilliant, especially the poet Paul Birtill who possibly has the most bleakly brilliant sense of humour ever (he is John Cooper Clarke’s favourite poet) and a fair bit of cash was raised for the charity Great Little Libraries.

Then it was off to Anstruther in the east neuk of Fife (or Anster as it is known to the locals) for the annual Fence Homegame festival. As with last year, it was a brilliant laugh, with highlights being the Friday and Saturday nights in Legends where Findo Gask and the Silver Columns (as well as DJ sets by On The Fly and John Maclean from the Beta Band/Aliens) got everyone whipped up into a pulsating frenzy of boogying with a little help from the crazy dancing Frenchmen from Francois and the Atlas Mountains. Other stand-outs were a rare and compelling live set by the Lone Pigeon alongside the Pictish Trail, Withered Hand, and a wonderful fireside performance by King Creosote on accordion in the Smuggler’s Inn (as well as witnessing the recording of his 8th bit of strange which was very special indeed).  Anyway I will probably write more on both Homegame and the Grizzly Bear/Beach House gig for the next issue of the zine, if not for the blog in the next wee while.

Worth checking out is this great Homegame slideshow done by Billy and Su of Under The Radar which has a great atmospheric soundtrack too – though steel yourself for the photo of Mel and I watching an impromptu live performance by Men Diamler outside the Anster Town Hall, as we were pretty hungover at that point on Sunday afternoon!

And the dry part..

The empty bottle of whisky pictured at the top of this post was a special blend made for this year’s Homegame, and very nice it was too. But it is also special because it is the last drink I will be having for a while. I’ll be taking it one day at a time, and my first aim is to give up for a month. But ideally (and perhaps over-ambitiously) I’d like to stay off it until next year’s Homegame which will be closely followed by our wedding. That could be extremely tricky though so let’s just see how I get on this month – the most difficult occasion to be sober in the near future is likely to be the Hinterland Festival, but I am determined to at least last the first month out.

I know it may seem an extremely antisocial goal to have, but in actual fact I’m hoping it helps me develop my social skills better, as I have in the past been quite reliant on the booze for socialising. I actually relate to the very first part of this extremely sobering account of being an alcoholic in terms of how drinking brought me out of myself to begin with at school but then led to me basically being a bit of a dick and making some terrible decisions at college, though luckily things have never got as bad as described here.

Anyway, that’s what I meant by Home and Dry. And I will be blogging a bit more regularly again so please subscribe so you don’t miss my blather.

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Seeing as I’ve not had a chance to properly research a ‘Gaseous Brainstorm’ post this week, and am off to Aberdeen for a stag weekend tomorrow morning (weather and liver permitting) I thought I’d delve back into the archives.

Those of you who’ve been reading a while and have particularly good memories might remember I started this series about my (mostly ill-fated) creative efforts but never got round to finishing it.

So far I’ve covered up to around 1999, so there’s a decade still to cover. I couldn’t quite keep it as brief as I’d hoped though, and I’d already written a lengthy series that covered around 1999 to 2004 called ‘I Was a Swivel Chair’ which covers a fair few misspent years in shit jobs, behaving like an utter twat and trying to get a comedy band off the ground (and failing spectacularly). Given that it doesn’t particularly paint me in the best light I was reluctant to revisit it. However I’ve decided to put it up here for a short time so anyone who cares can have a read before it is deleted from the internet forever!

Anyway here’s what’s come so far, and what is still to come, as a reminder or for anyone who wasn’t around at the time.

Next: I Was a Swivel Chair

After I made the pledge on Monday, Fabian from the Friendly Anarchist rightly called me out for being obtuse about what I was actually going to be doing each day, so on day 1 I decided to make it more ‘measurable’ and amended the pledge to ‘will get my shit together and document my progress in a daily journal’. I thought this might at least ensure I am doing something specific each day to progress.

If you are interested in becoming more productive yourself then what follows may be of use as it has taken me quite a bit of research to work out this system.

If you only come here to read about music and couldn’t give a flying rat’s anus about productivity systems then you’ll probably want to ignore the rest of this post as it gets fairly detailed!

Day 1: My Journal Set-Up

I’m adding the journal entries to the native notes app on the iPhone as this automatically adds a date stamp to each entry. The iPhone’s chief weakness is it’s not a lot of fun for typing at length, but I intend to keep the journal entries very short anyway – I am basically inputting what I managed to achieve each day, and what didn’t go to plan so that I can improve in those areas in the future.

This works well as I actually use Simplenote (as championed by John Gruber of Daring Fireball) for all my other random notes, such as ideas for blog posts or stuff I want to be able to find in future (the equivalent of what Charlie Gilkey calls his ‘Idea Garden’).

It syncs to a brilliantly basic and fast web app meaning all my notes are automatically backed up online for future use, and which I can access both on my home and work computers.

Day 2: Deciding What ‘To Do’

I knew the first thing I have to do was come up with a system for managing what I had to do and stick to it. Luckily I’ve already been looking into this before I started the 100 days challenge, so it was just a case of revisiting it briefly.

If you’re anything like me you probably need a to-do list to remind you to do your to do list

As you can tell I’m a big fan of the iPhone and have tried pretty much every to-do app there is. A lot of people swear by Things which syncs with a paid for desktop app (mac only) or for a web app Remember The Milk is probably the leader in its field but you need to be a pro user to access the iPhone app.

For me Appigo’s To Do has the best features of any iPhone productivity app, however although it will sync with Toodledo’s web app or iCal, it would really need its own web-based app for it to cover all my needs.

If it’s simply reminders you’re after, a really good new service is Task.fm which sends you email reminders and is very easy to update.

Let’s face it thought, all that time I wasted trying out the various to do apps I could have been actually achieving something. Testing productivity tools can become a way of procrastinating in itself. Which is why I’ve now given up on technology-based productivity systems all together.

If you struggle to stick to a to-do list, I heartily recommend you check out the Todoodlist system (affiliate link). It will probably help you have some prior experience with mindmaps, but all in all it’s a very simple system and I’m using a separate page for work and home.

I admit I am still reliant on technology for reminders though – I add them to my iPhone’s native calendar app because it allows me to set two reminders for each event to ensure I can’t ignore or miss it.

Day 3 – Goal Setting

Fabian also mentioned I might want to try top productivity blogger Leo Babauta’s Zen To Done system (also an affiliate link), funnily enough as I had started re-reading his book The Power of Less that very day.

Both have a lot of great info but Zen to Done is perhaps an easier system to integrate as it’s pretty much laid out step by step. Leo’s key message is one of simplicity and focus – both things I am much in need of in my life which has become a mess of trying to do much at the same time.

Focusing on one key goal and ignoring all others until it’s achieved is probably my main challenge as I am usually all over the place.

The World’s Strongest Librarian probably put it best:

Whatever goals you have made, this one must come first: The goal is to keep the goal the goal.

Read that again: The goal is to keep the goal the goal.

An unnecessary translation: quit bouncing around. Pick a goal then measure all your actions against it. Does what I’m doing help me reach my goal? If not, eliminate it. Do not spend your time doing things that don’t get you closer to your goal. Avoid distractions at all costs.

So that’s what I decided to do. Now I just needed to know what my one key goal was.

Day 4 – Hmmmm

Day 4 I achieved very little except for getting massively drunk as I had my work’s Christmas lunch, which was an obscenely boozy affair, followed by the Found/Mersault/Panda Su gig. However one of my friends told me to stop being so hard on myself, I’m not going to berate myself too much.

Day 5 – Focus Pocus

I did some more work on my goals this day. I wrote down all the things I want to do, which included:

1. Getting a new job and saving up money
2. Improving this blog and increasing the number of subscribers
3. Getting better at the guitar and playing live now and again (despite reading this reality check from Feeding the Black Dog earlier in the week: 5 Reasons You Probably Won’t Be a Rock Star)
4. Starting to earn money from my writing
5. Moving flat/getting married
6. Running a 5k in January

And there are more but you can see that even this is a lot to try and do. I still couldn’t make myself choose one to focus my full attention on, so clearly it’s going to take longer than a day to sort my head out.

Day 6 – You’re reading it.

That’s today, right? Well, I’ve written this blog post. That is progress on goal number 2. I’ve also included two affiliate links for the first time (both are products I genuinely recommend). This might help me with goal no.4, and is at least a step in that direction and is helping me get over my mental blocks about earning money from my creativity. Either that or it might cause a massive backlash from my regular readers

And er, I’m off to write my journal for the last three days.. or I suppose in a way I have already done that right here.

Any tips on how to get my shit together? Are you taking part in the 100 Days project? Please let me know in the comments.

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For a while now, I’ve been trying to get my shit together. 

I’ve been reading up on time management and decluttering and personal development and other stuff aimed at,  you know – helping you get your shit together. I’ve also been trying to improve this blog and post more regularly.

I’ve been making slow progress. Some things in my life are improving. But it’s bloody hard. There’s just not enough hours in the day etc etc (insert your favourite excuse here). 

Well now it’s time to get bloody serious.

As you may already know, stand up comedian (I don’t think anyone says comedienne these days) Josie Long has started up a new project called ‘One Hundred Days To Make Me A Better Person’.

I found out about it via Fence’s Johnny Lynch, aka The Pictish Trail who has given himself the massive challenge of writing a song every day. And he’s written about it in characteristically hilarious style – check out what he had to say over on his blog.

I admire this goal and am in fact jealous. I’d love to be in a position to do something as productive and creative as this. But I’m just not ready. I’ve got a backlog of shit to get together. 

So it’s a pretty vague goal, and a lot of it is behind the scenes personal stuff, but I’m going to ramp up my efforts to get myself sorted, and take one piece of simple, positive, concrete action each day towards the goal of being more organised, productive, creative and generally not a walking talking disaster waiting to happen car-crash of a human being And I may even provide updates of how I’m doing here (if I have my shit together enough).

Fellow blogger Mr Portis Wasp has also signed up, and has even posted a brand new interview with Mr Trail.

If you’d like to join us it starts tomorrow, December 1st. I know this isn’t much notice, but you probably already know what you need to do anyway and like me, just need to get your arse in gear.  

Check out the website and sign up! 

And check the inspirational flickr group

Related Articles

p.s. don’t forget Fence Homegame tickets go on sale on Tuesday 1st Dec at noon at www.fencerecords.com That’s either tomorrow or today depending on when you’re reading this!

p.p.s. you can catch The Pictish Trail live at Leith Tape Club this Thursday

In the previous installment I talked about what I got up to while I was at college (in between pub crawls). I had also managed to secure a decent bit of work experience with a radio production company called Unique. The course itself made no provision for this, but I was lucky enough to have a cousin who lived in London who could pull a few strings (though he also insisted on getting me paralytically drunk each evening in order to fully demonstrate the ‘work hard play hard’ mentality of the Big City media fraternity). 

 The company produced the Pepsi Chart Show which was networked out to 100+ local radio stations, as well as a number of BBC Radio programmes. The Pepsi Chart Show was presented by Dr Fox, a colourful character who later became a judge on Pop Idol, the precursor to X Factor (and also infamously appeared on a certain controversial episode of Brass Eye, with some dubious facts about crab genetics).

 I got some great experience sitting in on the Richard Allinson show on Radio BBC2, editing sound for a BBC World Service show (the old fashioned razorblade way, as digital editing was not yet widespread), and er.. filing demo CDs (the best of which I was allowed to keep – I came home with a bunch of Super Furry Animals singles). the only contact i had with Dr Fox though, was on one occasion when I forgot to lock the door on the toilet cubicle and he barged in on me.

From this taste of the real world of media work, I wasn’t convinced that I could cope with moving to London and fighting for short-term contracted work, plus the likelihood of a lengthy commute each day to whichever suburb I could afford to rent a room. In retrospect it would probably have been preferable to the rubbish jobs i did end up doing for the last decade, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

 Before I left I did have a chat with the boss of the company who was very friendly and helpful, and gave me a lot of good info for my planned dissertation topic on the possible future of the music charts and industry as a whole. He told me to get in touch anytime if I needed anything else. I figured this was a great contact for my future career, and that the dissertation, done well, might really put me on the map.

 When I returned to college however, I was told that my dissertation topic of choice was “not academic” enough for whoever decides on these type of things. I felt gutted, as I had no back-up plan in place. Finally, I decided on the topic of music fanzines. This was apparently academic enough, and actually a very interesting subject as it dealt with issues of fan empowerment and DIY culture which are close to my heart – but in terms of leading to a lucrative media career it seemed like a nail in the coffin.

As it turned out I was one of the first people to write an academic paper on the topic – and my tutor, who was incredibly helpful and supportive, suggested I might be able to get it published, and offered to help me with it. This would have been an amazing opportunity. But where was my head at the time, dear reader? Right up my own arse as it turned out. I, like many others, struggled to discipline myself to write that dissertation and left it to the very last minute. In the end, a couple of nights of jack daniels and coke fuelled typing got it done, and it wasn’t utterly bad – but I never pursued the opportunity to take it any further. I have bolded that sentence, dear reader, because that, in a nutshell, as you might be beginning to work out, is the story of my life.

Next: The world of work = a world of pain (don’t worry, just a couple more installments left!)

This is part 2 of the exclusive serialisation of my unwritten creative memoirs (it might make a bit more sense if you read part one)

FILM OPENINGS

At school in Donegal I was exempt from attending the otherwise compulsory daily Irish Gaelic class due to being born in England. So was a bloke called Mike Deery, who had returned to the school after getting injured whilst on trial at Liverpool FC.

 This was a brilliant opportunity to catch up on homework for any classes later the same day, or more likely doss about in the corridor with the older, more experienced Deery who delighted in repeatedly giving me a dead arm.

 On one such occasion we were sitting about outside the careers office at school and I casually picked up a prospectus featuring an attractive girl with a video camera. This spoke directly to both of my frustrated teenage desires, sex and video cameras, which and sold me on the course instantly. I did very little further research, but a speculative trip to Edinburgh was enough to convince me to move (plus I noticed there were regular gigs by great bands, though they were mainly in Glasgow).  So, I moved here, aged 16 (I turned 17 a couple of weeks after I began my degree).

 Myself and my flatmate did film a great wee video of the Prince of Pain, a masochistic cabaret artist who did unspeakable things to himself on stage, and shared a flat with a large dog and a dwarf called Powertool who lifted weights with his penis. They spoke eloquently and genuinely about their line of work and gave a real insight into their bizarre lives but unfortunately we neglected to plug in a mic so the sound left a lot to be desired.

Also the video tutor was mainly absent due to his involvement in some local TV project and I lacked the “focus and drive” to take advantage of the ageing equipment (computer editing was then a brand new thing – I think we got to see the tutor demonstrate it once). However I did inexplicably receive a good grade for the classic alien abduction short film ‘Abduction Granton’ with its spectacular special effects (actually it was rubbish as you can see below – some of the effects were added several years later but as they say, you can’t polish a turd).

 In my third year of my four year degree I was overcome with desperation and fear at what might befall me once my student days were over. I turned back to writing in earnest and took on the role of film editor for the college magazine (as you can see above, a photo of a very skinny me under the Hollywood sign headed up my first column) and also did some music reviews and at least one interview with a short-lived indie band of the time called Jocasta who I roundly slated in the mag.

 The editor of the college magazine is now a political journalist for a major Scottish newspaper but I wouldn’t want to mention his name here in case it embarrassed him.. Anyway, with dissertations and stuff coming up I had to pack it in after a few issues but it was good experience. Would it help me when I found myself unemployed after college though?

 Next: Desperate times, double measures..

Part 3 

Part 4

To be honest, if I could come up with a better name I would change it immediately but original names are hard to come by.  I suppose in hindsight the name reflects a creative mind that is overflowing with ideas and desires and unable to settle on a direct route through life. Or just simply, full of a load of old nonsense.

 Now I’ve read that clarity of purpose is the essential ingredient of success. But for years I have struggled to find this clarity (and therefore success). Ok, I know the general ballpark where my strengths lie – creativity, particularly writing.  In fact I’ve always been very creative but never seem to have mastered a particular skill enough or been focused enough on one area to make a real go of it. And my interests are very wide – music is probably my main love but there are plenty of other things that I get excited about such as books, films and technology. 

 What follows is a very brief history of my creative efforts. Maybe by the end of writing this I’ll have a clearer idea of what I should do next. And maybe you’ll have a better idea of where I’m coming from. I’ve been inspired by lastyear’sgirl who has been doing some retrospective blogging recently so over the next wee while I will also be revisiting some of the writing and other stuff I’ve produced over the years – just for the record you understand.

I have never been a very confident a person but I did show a knack for writing quite early on. My mum being an English teacher no doubt helped as she taught me to read and write before I started school, and my Primary school teacher Irene Bliss was massively encouraging about my creative writing and I still credit her for giving me enough confidence that I felt I could to go back to writing later on after having given up. She would have me read my stories out to the class and let me skip out on P.E. which I was rubbish at so I could do creative stuff.

COMICAL

 I was a fanatical fan of The Beano as a child living in Coventry, inspiring me to make my own comics and sell them to my neighbours (I included my neighbour’s cats as some of the main characters to encourage them to purchase). I was also obsessed with pigs for some reason and had a fondness for the comic Oink. But by the time I got to about 12 I started realising my drawing skills weren’t up to scratch and after a rejection letter from Acne (the kid’s version of Viz) describing me as “utterly mad” I gave up on the goal of being a professional comic strip artist. I also produced a photo story called ‘Dare Bear’ featuring one of my soft toys dressed in superhero garb battling various star wars vehicles which was a substantial hit within family circles but failed to set the publishing world alight. Around this time I also made my first attempts at recorded sound by forming The Eejits with my cousin Lucy, though the results are unlistenable to anyone but the most masochistic.

LUVVIES

At school I had a terrible English teacher more concerned with punishing non-conformity and minor grammar and spelling mistakes than encouraging talent, so I naturally looked elsewhere for support. I won an award for ‘most promising newcomer’ as part of a Donegal-wide acting competition when playing the part of the convict in the Bishop’s Candlesticks, which I believe was an extract from Les Miserables. This led to very enthusiastic encouragement from my drama teacher, who even loudly proclaimed my talent to the director of a visiting production of As You Like It starring Sylvestor McCoy. 

 To advance my fledgling theatre career he suggested I perform a mime of myself shaving in the mirror (I wasn’t yet old enough to actually shave) as part of another acting competition at Derry’s Guildhall. I was marked poorly by the judges though I do remember one of them remarked I was “very brave” – which I read between the lines as ‘what were you thinking?’

 Following that I was involved in an excruciatingly embarrassing attempt at street drama as part of Derry Youth Theatre, which included running down the city’s Shipquay Street banging drums and yelling in order to attact people to a small square. Once there we performed a mainly silent piece that centred around two tribes on either side of a wall. However the wall was an unstable structure made mostly out of bits of wood and fabric and half way through the performance it was blown down. I had purposely neglected to publicise the event in the hope no-one I knew would ever find out, but to my horror, on the other side of  the wall I could see my piano/keyboard teacher watching proceedings with amusement -  no doubt payback for all the times I had turned up without having practiced since the last lesson.

 These further forays into theatre did not focus on my strengths of performing dialogue/character acting, and I lost the will to continue. I have gone to an acting class since in which I received encouragement from Ewen Bremner aka Spud in Trainspotting for my improvisational skills, but again I found the warming up exercises rather unpleasant due to an overabundance of ‘pretend you’re a tree’ like exercises and as I was doing my radio show at the time it was an excuse to drop out. Anyway I’m pretty introverted so I don’t know if I would ever have fit into the often brash and super-confident acting world.

Next: Moving to Edinburgh and experiments in film and music

Part 2 

Part 3 

Part 4

I should have been in Kendal right now visiting my cousin Lucy and her fella and generally enjoying the lovely Lake District scenery, but instead I’m sitting in bed typing this because I’ve got some kind of bug and felt too shit to make the journey down.

I don’t want to become one of these sporadic bloggers whose only regular posts seem to be the ones which apologise for not posting often enough, but thought I’d better explain the lack of a weekly round-up post this week. I’ve applied for a couple of jobs recently and this week I had an interview for one of them which involved doing a 5 minute presentation on how to improve a Govt website, so I spent the whole of last weekend preparing for that – alas although I got a great response to the presentation I gave, the job went to a more experienced applicant. I also didn’t get one of the other jobs I applied for, but they were both long-shots, and  I’ve got a couple of good offers as a result so I should be able to expand my current job into something a bit more interesting. I do feel quite knackered though after all the effort involved.

Anyway, there’s quite a few good links and stuff over on my Tumblr in the meantime, and I’ve got a few good things coming on this blog soon – I’ve been trying to clarify the purpose of the blog and my creative output in general and I’m part of the way through an explanation of what the name Products of a Gaseous Brain is all about. The title of this post is also relevant to that I guess. I think it’s a sentiment that runs through some of the music I like, as well as my the music I make to some extent. If you’re not feeling at your best, it’s  nice to know that other people sometimes feel the way you do too. Hey, we’re all fucked up in our own way, right? I don’t think we should have to hide the fact. I think a lot of society’s ills come because we’re not supposed to admit we’re all deeply flawed in one way or another. Maybe it’s just the fact I’m ill that my mind is focusing on such things!

Also coming soon as previously promised, I’m planning a wee video about the iPhone apps I use- I know that will fill a lot of you with either inertia or rage, but a few people have asked me about what apps I use, so I thought I’d do a wee video about the ones I like. And finally, maybe it’s time to get back into writing about a few choice gigs and albums again!

So please stay tuned. I really appreciate those of you who’ve made the effort to subscribe to the blog either by RSS or email, it means a hell of a lot that I’ve got some regular readers at this early stage in the blog, and I hope I can bring you some good content to make it worth your while. As always, your feedback is a big part of why I’m doing this so please leave a comment if you have any suggestions for future content!

I leave you with – Hitler finds out about Michael Jackson’s death. Funny, though tails off a bit at the end

At the weekend we went over to visit my dad and relatives over in Derry in Northern Ireland. We also visited the cottage where I lived for 3 years (between 11 and 14) in a very small village called Culoort or Killourt (depending on how you want to spell it) which is in Malin Head in Inishowen, Co. Donegal. This video shows what it’s like – very picturesque but it wasn’t always a great place to be a teenager, especially one who was used to living in the city and whose English accent made him stick out like a sore thumb!

As it’s a traditional Irish thatched cottage it needs to be rethatched approx every 7 years – the one next door which I also filmed shows how quickly these 200+ old buildings can fall into disrepair. 

I recorded the music on my dad’s out of tune mandolin using the iTalk app on the iPhone. I also made a rough demo using the same recording which you can hear over at myspace (if you’re brave).

Blur – This is a Low- because it mentions Malin Head – but only because it is one of the places mentioned in the shipping forecast..