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Lets Start The Revolution Now

2023

Studio Creatures become political with a movie in a song.
There comes a point where, after 13 years of being lied to, and seeing the potential replacement doing much the same, that you realise you’ve had enough.
The song was inspired by the downward spiral of politics to become a shabby way to get power and enrich you and your mates quickly without interference, particularly if you’re supported by the media, owned by a few billionaires you spend your time courting. The fact the same billionaires are opposed to any actions to deal with climate change adds to the song’s rant.
The French have the right idea, they know how and when to protest, and haven’t been infected by the supine malaise that infects the UK.
In this song I tried to recreate an unfolding of events, aided by my memories of what I’d hear at night whilst growing up in Belfast in the 1970s.
In my head this is John Lennon meets Heaven 17 meets 1970’s Blaxploitation soundtracks.
Thanks to Auntie Vicki for reading the news to come.
Let’s testify, brothers and sisters.

 

Our Rock & Roll Thing

2023

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin, etc.
This song is a series of musical vignettes which tell the story of my mate Ross and me.
it starts with Ross starting to gig, moves into our meeting and beginning a lot of songwriting before eventually drifting apart.
But there’s good news, kids, as we renew our partnership over 30 years later, picking up where we left off, written rock classics the like of which the world has never heard, and is now unlikely to. The ‘Dream On’ mid section is a salute to the fact that I get all my best ideas when falling asleep.
The song ends with an old man, slumped over a piano, threatening the world that he isn’t done yet.
And hopefully we aren’t.

 
 

 

Human Heart

2023

Another complete left swerve inspired by Ross’s lyrics.
Started off in a different lyrical vein, I realised how much we use the word heart in many contexts, and in exploring this the song is a celebration of that in an uplifting and joyful anthem that I really needed to bring colour to my world.
Beginning as a simple two chord rhythm before I realised the syncopation was giving me an African vibe, so off I went to source Western African rhythms, which hit the spot. I could hear the guitar riff in my head and had to sit down to learn it and note pull offs that previously weren’t in my style at all. The mid section was problematic- I tried about 4 options before it came fully formed into my head one night when I was almost asleep. I jumped up, sang it into my phone before realising it should really be acapella harmonies. Added to the verse African style harmonies it’s one of the most vocal tracks I’ve ever done.
It was hard to sit still whilst recording it, and it’s one of the best yet- if not the best that T3A have done. Ross’s excellent bass work on this is pivotal……

Dedicated to Partson Mukonoweshuro, my friend from Zimbabwe. I think of him when I hear this song, his gentleness and big, big heart.

 
 
 

 

Live At The Mustard Seed

2023

A story of loss of faith. He could have been a young guy called Ross who has started to play bass and ended up playing in small Belfast gospel halls and whilst on stage decides the whole religion thing isn’t for him.
Or he could have been another young guy called Eamonn who decides it’s all nonsense and tells his shocked and angry family. Or not.
No moving mountains or walking mulberry trees were harmed during the making of this song.

Thoughts About You

2023

Originally written by Ross Mc Clelland and me around 1982. Only finished and recorded some 33 years later in 2015. With bass guitar by Ross and backing vocals by Maggie Thorpe and Jenn Jones, I’m guilty of the rest of the musical input and programming.
I’ve just remixed and remastered the original as of March 2019, as it badly needed it, having been recorded on budget equipment at the time, so expect more bottom end, which was needed to give Ross’s excellent bass work the prominence it deserved.

Wishing We Were Here

2023

Musings on Death and just what happens when you’re going and when you’re gone. Do we still exist as shadowy figures, looking on impotently on life, or have we had our chips forever, vanishing as the light goes out?
I dunno, but here’s a song Ross and I wrote about it to cover all the bases before we too shuffle off this excuse for a planet.

The Third Age

2023

The final complete version that I could put under our new project name of T3A. T3A features long-term musical collaborator Ross Mc Clelland and myself. Ross provides lyrics, bass and additional input into the songs which I largely produce. We’ve called ourselves T3A because of this song, The Third Age. We’re both at that stage, so it seemed appropriate……Update: now called Studio Creatures….
The Third Age is the point where you’ve lived the first two, the first as a child, the second as an parent. With the third, the kids are going and you’ve time to live life again. But the clock is ticking down. Looking at the average UK lifespan of 80, it’s about reaching 55, and realising there are maybe only 25 years left. It’s a bittersweet time, with failing physical ability and more time to reflect on perhaps what you should have done. Great idea from Ross McClelland on lyrics kicked this one off. Bass guitar and major input by Ross, I play the rest of the stuff.

Bass For Life

2023

When you find an instrument you want to play and start that long road of learning, the pleasure it brings is immense. New worlds open, you discover yourself as never before, and boundaries vanish. Ross wrote the lyrics as usual, and being a bass player, they speak about his own experience. Meeting that special someone can be a similar experience, and the song makes an analogy of one for the other, where your partner becomes your bass for life. I’ve done it as a 70s funk tribute, with a nod to the Average White Band in ‘that’ chord, but with a spacey, psychedelic mid section. And a Barry White backing vocal. So there’s a retro tongue in cheek element too, although the groove is pretty intense, thanks to Ross’s bass playing.

Coming Back To Music

2023

The latest one from Ross n’me.
Again, Ross’s personal lyric resonates with my own experiences and I came up with this tune pretty much right away.
It’s unashamedly a pop song and a hymn to music all at the same time, reflecting Ross’s coming back to music after many years away and celebrating our own return as a songwriting duo.

Remixed and remastered in March 2019 to try to upgrade the sonic quality of the original track, given it was recorded using budget equipment.

Love Story

2023

Another interesting Ross lyric.
We’re used to having our love songs written by teens and twenty somethings who talk about love which has just arrived.
But what about love from the perspective of a couple 30 years on, who’ve seen hard times and good times, and who are looking back and still in love? This is the premise of the song. Saying that kids, this is what real love is, and what can be.
It falls in perfectly with our oeuvre -no-genre pop music for older folk.

Turn Left

2023

A song about big choices. Swerving your life off its path and into the unknown, where nothing is certain and things can go very, very wrong.
But you simply have to do it.
Uncannily, Ross’s word again were saying everything about my life as well. I was uprooting my life for the fourth time in six years, and moving up to Orkney.
Across Caithness to the sea, where I turned left at John O Groats to catch the Gills Bay ferry to a new life in Kirkwall, where I knew nobody, andwhere I didn’t know if it’d be ok. And I was all alone……
This song captured everything for me, the feelings, the uncertainty and the confusion…

 
 

 

Dance As Old As Time

2023

Another one of Ross’s lyrics which sat around for a while before my brain dinged and produced the musical goods. This time we’ve ended up in a Dance/Rock hybrid, setting the scene for a rainy Saturday night in Belfast in Autumn. As night falls everyone is getting ready for a good night out, looking for who knows what, and it will all cumulate in the Dance As Old As Time as the weekend moves towards Monday. The Belfast hills are all name checked, as they , along with our writers, look down over the pulse and interactions of a Belfast Saturday Night. A real musical departure, and possibly one of our best works as it was so unexpected, and so damn catchy. Georgio Moroder eat your heart out.

Times Like These

2023

Second song in the ongoing COVID-19 series.
Inspired by a helpless world going mad, the utter failure of those leaders charged with our protection, trading lives for popularity points, and the appearance of the crazy tin-foil hatters batting for the virus as a bizarre expression of ‘freedom’.
We have only each other to turn to, in times like these

Peace Of Mind

2023

Trying to talk yourself out of stresses using the medium of music, having a look at what your life has become and trying to work the real priorities in.
It’s a train of thought track, trippy, and with additional keyboards from Kathy Touin, an excellent singer/songwriter/producer living in Orkney.
Catch her at www.kathietouin.com
A free biscuit to whoever guesses what The Green Man signifies.

 
 

 

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