'Walking With Mae' Paperback

So , back on the subject of technology this week , a lot in the news recently about the use of AI in music , is it a good thing or a bad thing ? but its not just in music , the use of technology is everywhere. This is just my take , not just as someone who makes music , those of you who know me personally are aware i have a former life assessing the economic implications of these things , but those economic implications are really only part of the story .

Technology obviously has great benefits used in the right way but we don't always use things in the best way , in terms of history we are still evolving from the Industrial revolution , machines invented to do the work of humans first started originating roughly 200 years ago on a grand scale and that has obviously had benefits and drawbacks in terms of greater overall economic prosperity but on the other hand individual jobs are replaced by machines in what have been largely manual tasks . The big difference i see now is that we are at a stage where computers can effectively replace cognitive tasks , you can get AI to write a song , point your phone at a plant and it will tell you what that plant is without having to know the answer , and whilst that seems very attractive , in terms of “hey that's made my life easier” there are downsides to that , and not just the replacement of labour , although it has to be said that a person merely keeping an eye on a machine doing the work can be paid less than a person who used to do that task . In my opinion the problem is bigger than that , we give up the ability to think for ourselves , our phone will have the answer , we give up our originality and creativity , its very much like physical exercise if you don't use it you lose it , do you really want to live in a world where we celebrate something that is effectively a facsimile of something else or do you want to live in a world where we still celebrate originality ? The beauty of life is that we are all individuals , similar may be agreeable for a while but eventually it becomes boring .

Tech giants they may be now , but they walk a fine line between creating tools that assist humankind whilst on the other hand potentially devaluing humankind and ultimately the hand that feeds them .Who's going to paint a picture , when we've forgotten how to paint ?

Most people know the story of the three wise men , following the star of Bethlehem , but did you know there is no star of Bethlehem ? Astronomers have various theories that it may have been a planet , or a conjunction of different planets , but no real physical explanation exists . Astrologers on the other hand would tell you that the three wise men were members of a Persian group of Astrologers called Magi , and that the story has a different metaphorical meaning . So does Astrology work ? Can it lead you to where you need to be ? Can it depict the future ? In my opinion , yes , but probably not in the way you might expect , you see , we tend to see things of the past through our eyes of today , Pennies from Heaven we see in the financial sense , but originally and spiritually its not necessarily financial , the word ‘money’ is thought to be derived from Juno Moneta a Greek Goddess in mythology , she was a Goddess of Love and Marriage . So back to Astrology , can it predict , guide us ? i think so yes but maybe more in an emotional sense , a kind of emotional weather forecast , it can tell you when the best time to sail your boat  as the wind is blowing in the right direction , it can also tell you when you're likely to experience waves , but it can't really tell you where to sail your boat to , that decision really rests with us .

In other news back on dry land , i've been recording more music this week , which will form a second album and i look forward to sharing it with you all in the future .

Anyone who knows me will tell you i'm fascinated by the concept esoteric wisdom , the idea that there is a hidden secret truth in all things , a universal key to happiness that anyone can access , if we look beyond the obvious .

I've always been interested in things like alchemy , is it possible can you turn lead into gold ? and was that ever what is was about or was it metaphor for something else , opinions differ . As it happens you can now turn physical lead into gold , you just need to build a particle collider and get some lead , but the electricity you will use will cost you far more than any gold you produce ! maybe the clue was never in lead and gold but in philosophy , you see i'm a great believer in the fact that we're all alchemists , we turn lead into gold everyday and we turn gold into lead ! Lead and gold are really how we view life , we think we've been dealt a bad hand or a good hand but really good and bad are interchangeable , its all about changing perception , one persons lead is another persons gold and vice versa , the people living in remote civilisations who have avoided the modern world ,then gold is a meal and staring at a sunset , to those of us in what we call the developed world , that is lead , and even when we have material gold if we think we need more , well that's lead too , you can't win ! But maybe you can win if we see that lead and gold are actually the same thing ! and that we find gold by accepting lead and we lose that gold by wishing that we had more of it .

Happiness is not really what you have , its how you perceive what you have , and most of what we think we're lacking is actually just what other people tell us we're lacking .

You can be an alchemist right now , be it being creative and expressing the lead life has dealt you with art or simply enjoying the sunset , watch it turn into gold ! 

Firstly my news , thank you to everyone of you who has listened to Prophecy and for the kind feedback , i'm out and about playing songs from it as much as possible at the moment , so check my Social Media pages for gigs . I'm also recording a second album , so expect news ….

Secondly ‘The News’ this is not really music related but has a bearing on all of us , i read a comment on Twitter today which summarised was “I've never known things as bad as this , the state of the World , the climate , disease , corruption ” etc etc , you get the message ! and it always gets me thinking , so i thought i'd write a blog about it .

Are things really much worse ? or are things just the way they have always been and the way we read about them is much worse . You see the thing is (showing my age ) once upon a time the news arrived in a Newspaper once a day and you maybe watched a bulletin on the TV , you took it in reflected and got on with living your life . Nowadays the news is constantly at your side , its on the internet , its on your smartphone , its everywhere you look , and not just once a day , its broadcast , repeated , repeated and repeated by Social Media , and yes we should be aware of the risks in life and be cautious with those risks , but are those risks now greater or do we just read about them more ? Have we merely lost rational perception due to the use of technology ?

The planet we live on is estimated to be 4.5 Billion Years old , although recently scientists have discovered that could be an underestimation it may be actually more , but we'll stick with that , that is 4,500.000,000 years , very early forms of human life originated around 6,000,000 years ago its estimated and modern humans around 300,000 years ago . Our existence is a drop in the ocean of the time the planet has existed , and yet here we are emerging from what was nothing , which is an incredible thing , will we return to nothing , probably not in my opinion we've overcome incredible adversity , to reach this point .

Fear is contagious , but fear now has the biggest platform it has ever had , the guy who used to walk round with a notice saying “the end is nigh” has now gone digital , and fear is a business , it will gain you many like minded followers , you can even begin selling them the solutions to all the problems we face , take away freedom and liberty in the name of the greater good , or we could turn away from all of that and discover it was never the problem we were told in the first place ….

My first album ‘Prophecy’ is now out together with the short story and lyrics book called ‘Walking with Mae’ , click the links to streaming platforms to listen or visit the store on here for the book .

After 53 years of preparation i am delighted to announce my debut album Prophecy will be out on the 24th March. A journey through life , change and the winds that bring it and the mysterious tale of Walking with Mae … stay tuned .

Days of Gold is out now its the second single from the album. The song signifies a journey through life , a faith in tomorrow , when really the only certainty we have is yesterday. The future becomes what we make of the past . You can stream in the usual places or download free from the website or watch the lyric video here -

https://youtu.be/6pHIBupldD8

Since the release of Fatal Kiss , which was the first song we recorded for the album i've been busy in the studio creating other tracks for an upcoming album titled "Prophecy" its a collection of 13 songs including Fatal Kiss which are very personal to me , its really been a journey through memories and the story of my life , set to music . Our hopes and fears and how they shape the course of our lives and what all of it means , if anything at all .

The album will be released later in the year , in the meantime i will be releasing a second single from it called "Days of Gold" on the 9th September , its a song which is really a nostalgic look at life as we come to terms with who we are .You can find it on the usual streaming platforms etc or follow me on social media for more updates .

Sorry i've not updated on here for a while , i've been busy creating new music , i hope things are getting a little easier for everyone after the last couple of years .I am currently part way through recording an album of songs , i released a single called "Fatal Kiss " from it recently for you to have a listen and a taste of things to come , all being well should have some new songs for you in the not too distant future . In the meantime we did a remix version of "High" which you can listen to here or on streaming platforms , complete with artwork created by my inner child .

Stay tuned ..

Following on from the "Miles & Miles" EP i've released some other songs Utopian Dystopian and Out of your window which you can find on the usual streaming platforms . I've also uploaded a couple of tracks on here we made recently called Run and Hide and Three Card Trick . In other news , i'm playing at the Thirsty Scholar in Manchester on the 4th September and playing at Langworthy Live Festival in Salford on the 10th September . I will post further details on my social media :)