Over the last few months I’ve been busy working on my latest album. As many of you know, one of the main reasons I started up my own label, Beating Drum, was so I could experiment freely with my music and find new ways to communicate. For the last year or so, I’ve been mulling over how to bring my new songs together and create a different way of sharing them with you. It’ll be my sixth solo album and I’d like to try something a little different this time round.

Traditionally, the way of doing things is for artists to disappear until their new albums are ready for release. At which point, if the album pleases journalists and music fans alike, their songs hitch a ride via the promotional airwaves and are channelled through various media outlets. But much has happened over the last few years to challenge that standard approach and I’ve decided not to disappear. Instead, for those of you willing to spend a few minutes with me from time to time, I’m going to be sharing posts online from now until the album’s release date this coming autumn.

I’ve written a lot of songs recently. I’ve kept some, thrown a lot more away and put others to one side for later. I’ve read, researched, day-dreamed and made offerings to the muse for inspiration. Over the next few months, I’d like you to imagine this blog as a kind of work in progress. In fact, think of it as a kind of sketchbook that has been deliberately left open for you to see as I write and record the songs that make up the album.

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