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Feb 28, 2002
Hi! Since I last spoke I've done some nice work on the "simple song", breaking the rhythm tracks down some more and really getting close to a drum track I'm happy with. Nice development of the song into something unique. It is gentle, but also rocks ass. It has an important message. The vocals are getting closer - more work on them soon. Good feelings about this song now.

Looking forward to posting some music up soon. MP3s!

Feb 25
The thought and links pages have been updated.

Feb 22
Work on the new song (that I will now call E-W) continued over the last couple of nights, with some good progress, and some not so good. It’s one of two old ones that I recently revisited. I overexposed myself to it spending a great deal of time moving it towards what I want it to be, and because I got lost in the trees and couldn’t see the forest, it is not there yet. The flow is getting there, but there are times when my computer and software are becoming cumbersome and I can’t help but think that with newer equipment things would be so much easier. But necessity does produce some innovative solutions from time to time. Also, it does give me time and incentive to think about things before I do them. Though the down side is there is less free-flowing thought, and this is something that I’m trying to reverse more and more, and get back to the system I used to have on the old four-track, when I was overdubbing and bouncing down ideas ad-nauseum. The simplicity of the set-up is a great inducer of creative freedom and the optimisation of the impact of what parts there are in an arrangement.

Expect some new updates (maybe even a new mp3 song here or there) soon!

Feb 13
Work continued on LFE – fixing up a few errors, adding an end harmony that got lost or wiped out somewhere in the (often annoying) digital realm, Mr. Anderson… Ah, a lozenge, can talk more freely now. It’s amazing the perspective you develop towards life when you sit on a giant blue ball.

Continued work on one of the two new songs that was an old song, but now could be called a new song really. Again, I lost a bunch of sound files (very frustrating) and had to redo a couple, but sometimes often that works out for the better in the long run. I tell you what, the process of natural selection occurs quite a lot on my computer, which is getting old! So the song is coming together gradually, slowly, like a jigsaw puzzle that can be neither rushed nor left alone completely, because pieces and snippets of lyrics, rhythms and melodies that come into my head during the day or at night must be recorded while I’m in the spirit of the song. And at the moment there’s so many more ideas popping around for other songs that I feel once this one’s done I can pop the rest out with a good concentrated run.

Feb 6
Did some work on a song called Loving Feeling Everywhere yesterday. It's a pretty slicky produced little number and it chops and changes but has an ongoing pulsing beat and bass. I enhanced the intro and worked on some additional new lyrics for one spot that wasn't quite working up to now, and I think it's definitely improved from that. It has interesting lyrics and sound, a catchy melody, and I think overall is one of the most final tracks overall and production-wise.

Jan 29
An audience tasting session once again - and this tasteful audience took a listen to 23 (!) new and older demo songs. It seems the newer ones they weren't so sure about at first have grown on them which is great and very encouraging for me!

All need work of course, being demos. One of the highlight songs (in my mind too) will see guitar bits fixed up and most likely also the addition of falsetto voices if I add anything at all (I may not, because I think it's about right as is - maybe something subtle in second verse to develop it a bit).

Another one is a folk-rock style piece that I think needs to be kept very simple. I don't want to do anything at all to change too much, and I've have been waiting for the right moment to fix that song up as I'm a bit scared of it because I don't want to stuff it up - the simplest ones are easiest to stuff up!

Currently working on vocals for two old songs - one, written around 1997, is very poppy and quite different-sounding with a unique arrangement, and has been completely rewritten in the vocals area - lyrics and melodies. The other is still using some of the same lyrics as back in 1997 (ish) when I wrote it, plus some new ones, and the same melody.

Jan 22
Hello. Well I took a bite into some older songs recently. The two songs in question sound fresher than ever. Hope to have more to say soon. Somewhat spurred on by innocent standers-by, now the juices are flowing quite well. If only these diary entries reflected that.

Want to send some feedback on this diary or other stuff? Click imaginaryband@hotmail.com.

Jan 17
Continued work on the vocals for an old song (on a controversial subject) this week. Over a period of two years I am still barely any closer to getting the vocal take I want for the song. I have a lot of vocals to choose from though, plus some newer ones. This one's got to be done just right, well they all do really, just that I know it will fail miserably if it's not, as opposed to just failing a bit, which is also not good, but sometimes cannot be helped...

Feeling inspired and a little more focussed at the moment, though nothing really to report on except vagueries. I hope to have something interesting to say over the next few weeks. I certainly do have interesting things going on, but they don't always translate to good songs! Sorry, sorry about the vagueness, once again. Meanwhile I might take a page from this guy's book for a song or two: "Write the melodies, live with them for a while, then write the words." - Paul Simon

Jan 8
The thought page has been updated.

Jan 7
Hello. Sorry about the lack of updates. Been in a place where it's hard to do such things. Aw, alright I admit I had too much fun over Christmas to update, and I had not much to report on anyway! Hopefully, you have been doing the same and so haven't had time to surf the web and notice my slackness.

Well, I might point out that I've moved older 2001 news from this page to the early2001news page. In there, there is also a link to the 2000 news.

I did some work on a new song using only sampled material plus a guitar sequence that started off sounding country. Now it sounds more James Brown. Hah!! I am gathering thoughts on what to do next. So many songs, so little idea...

Dec 1, 2001
Anyone in need of a bit of breakfast cereal philosophy? This one's for the muso's: Just because your song wasn't picked doesn't mean it wasn't a good song, it just means it wasn't what the judges at that time were looking for. Remember that this process is subjective, which means that everyone has their own tastes, and A&R's are no different..... Don't cry. Don't quit. Never give up. Submit the song again. Quitters never win, and winners never quit!

Same goes for anything. Ahh, so it's cheesy, oh well. It's Christmas.

Need a hug?


Dec 13
Hello. Well, I realised I do have some progress to report. The untitled song mentioned on Nov. 28, which was stripped apart a bit rhythm-wise, has had the wonderful benefit of allowing me to focus on the melody, harmonies, and instrumentation. This is a method I like and I'm very happy with the result. Also, last time I was not happy with the main vocals and words, so I rewrote them completely to say more through emotion what I was kind of technically pointing out before, and to say it with a melody and vocal sound that fitted the song better, which I think it now does! I demo'ed the song to a highly tasteful audience :) with a very positive result. The thought page has been updated.

Dec 6
New art up in the The Gallery .

Dec 5
I can't believe how fast the days are slipping by! Some more work on the aforementioned song, still no lyrical change, but musically growing a bit. I put down a little nice acoustic guitar plucking on a new song to be called "Born on the 29th" or similar. It has a nice feel, but I want to incorporate all the melody and harmony ideas I originally had for it this time, instead of going with the flow, and hopefully capture both the feel, sound and the structure I had when I started playing with it on the guitar.

Nov 28
Work is rolling along on the song mentioned last time. Taking out the drum section and piecing the rhythm together is turning out interesting results, while the vocals keep improving a bit at a time. I think the lyrics need work and the song needs a direction - "where are you taking me?" - I hear myself critiquing! So, if in the short time it lasts I can clear this up, I'll be a lot happier about it. At least I know what I'm trying to say.

Nov 23
Did a little bit of music last night for first time in ages - was good to be back. Some weird shit going down! Played some bass to copy a new midi-bass idea I had done earlier in a spare moment, and added a rough beat to it. Don't know where it will go. Also played some poppy bass and some string melodies to one of the previously mentioned but unnamed songs, and worked on the arrangement, including messing up the drums somewhat - that's the bit that's introduced some interesting rhythm possibilities that I will develop soon. But the original plot and feel of the song is of course lost once again, oh well, it'll be more interesting this way! Who wants a straight ahead pop/rock song anyway? Well it'd be nice for me to write one I liked as originally intended for once. There are others done like that though, so I won't go on bemoaning this too long...

Nov 14
Imaginary Band has another new site up at mp3.com. The song Space Invaders, from the EP of the same name, can be found up there.

For folks after the continuing adventures of Jarvis in The Jarvis Nebulae Files, it starts right back here and you can follow it through to the next episode, and so on...

Nov 9
Hello. Imaginary Band (i.e. me!) was a guest on 92.1 THE FM in Hobart yesterday evening. Was heaps of fun - wish all announcers were as nice! We played a few of my favourite songs: Radiohead? ?irbag? Lauryn Hill? ?verything is Everything?and Bob Dylan? ?ay Lady Lay?(NOT the live version) interspersing them with some of my song demos - ?t? All Wrong? ?ottery? ? Just felt like singing that to you.

Nov 1
Pinch and a punch. A quiet patch music-wise because of that luxury of time, but there's almost always time to listen - that is, if your stereo isn't packed away in boxes. Thanks to an educated friend I've been listening to more Frank Zappa - a CD of instrumental/classical stuff - and it's amazingly good. "Of course!", I hear a chorus of voices reply! Well I'm a bit slow off the mark, and I'm starting to realise why he is so revered. Not much music news from me, though. Lovely stuff - "Symphony for Sorrowful Songs" by Gorecki.

Oct 26
After hearing a fair bit of radio, web music (highlights being SOAD's Chop Suey, the new D12 song, a new Charlatans song, some Strokes (great, focussed stuff)) and John Spencer Blues Explosion (doesn't do it for me) and a bit of Frank Zappa (makes me smile even if I don't always like the music) for the last few days today I spotted an old tape of demos I hadn't seen for some time whilst clearing out some stuff. I listened to two songs I recorded demos of in 1998, and it inspired me to get back onto them, to get back into making music a bit more than I have been. There is quite some variety of style, and the more old stuff I listen to I realise how much it depends on the mindframe I'm in at the time of writing and recording. Both these songs were very different from each other. One was originally written two years earlier still and then later I went into the studio and recorded some vocals and live drums, then a bit later came back to add piano and chimes (yep!). The other song was entirely recorded in my home studio, and the lyrical theme although humorous was a little prescient! It struck me as something I should get to a release quality soon. Anyway, want to get back to work on music more of the time. Things are really busy right now so I'll have to hold that thought, but I was pleasantly surprised and felt glad and really lucky to be doing this.

Oct 18
The work on two songs I have not previously mentioned (which will remain unnamed) is simmering along okay I guess. It’s on and off a bit. I recently did some vocal harmonies for one of them, which I started about a month ago, and had a listen back the other day – was not as good as I first thought. But the song is steady, really needs an influx of ideas and focus, but it has the makings…The other song is a slow creeper (and a little creepy) that will have to be developed carefully as well so that the thing I liked about it at the start is not diluted. I’m definitely getting to a stage where I have so many songs backlogged that I have the “luxury” of seeing which ones stick and developing them further when the time comes. When that time is, I don’t know. Any record companies out there listening? He he – you guys check out Imaginary Band on mp3.com.au.

For news from earlier in 2001, click here.