tag:gideonfoster.com,2005:/blogs/news?p=2News2023-08-18T16:30:31+01:00Gideon Fosterfalsetag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/72582822023-08-18T16:30:31+01:002023-10-16T15:53:47+01:00AI and the big eye in the sky <p>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 .</p><p>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 .</p><p>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 ?</p><p> </p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/72557292023-08-11T18:11:56+01:002023-08-17T11:35:43+01:00Christmas Come Early .<p>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 .</p><p>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 .</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/72521512023-08-04T20:34:16+01:002023-08-04T20:34:17+01:00Lead , Gold and Philosophers Stone .<p>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 .</p><p>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 .</p><p>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 .</p><p>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 ! </p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/72484102023-07-27T19:43:08+01:002023-07-27T19:43:08+01:00News<p>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 ….</p><p>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 .</p><p>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 ?</p><p>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 .</p><p>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 ….</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/71777452023-03-24T06:32:11+00:002023-05-11T11:12:14+01:00Album<p>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 .</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/71609712023-02-26T15:16:50+00:002023-03-09T09:08:46+00:00Prophecy<p>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 .</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/70641302022-09-20T09:54:12+01:002022-12-05T05:02:25+00:00Days of Gold <p>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 -</p>
<p>https://youtu.be/6pHIBupldD8</p>
<p> </p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/70288742022-08-02T11:44:16+01:002023-12-10T16:56:35+00:00Album<p>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 .</p>
<p>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 .</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/68831822022-01-29T20:01:55+00:002022-07-27T13:27:06+01:00Hello <p>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 .</p>
<p>Stay tuned ..</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/67238262021-08-22T15:51:37+01:002022-04-05T01:03:53+01:00New Music<p>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 :)</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/66846892021-07-11T09:21:01+01:002022-06-01T06:15:00+01:00Miles and Miles <p>Hey guys , i've just released an EP called "Miles and Miles" you can listen to the title track on here or go listen to all the tracks on most streaming platforms . In other news , watch this space , more coming soon ....</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/65154252021-01-07T11:11:32+00:002023-12-10T18:34:34+00:002021<p>Happy New Year to everyone hopefully and despite the early outlook 2021 will be a bit better than the year which shall remain unmentioned !</p>
<p>I released another song just at the end of the year called "Money Don't Lie" , you can listen above or at the usual places , to follow up the last single "Gone"</p>
<p>working on loads of new songs and currently recording an albums worth of new songs which i will release as they are done so keep checking back for new stuff .</p>
<p> </p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/64506592020-10-07T06:06:38+01:002023-12-10T16:33:28+00:00Clouds<p>I've been asked by a promoter to explain the lyrics to "Clouds" which i released recently so here goes ...</p>
<p>A few years ago i had a spiritual awakening , i didn't know i had at the time , i didn't know what the hell was happening to me , it leads to you questioning every thing you once believed in , including yourself . Eventually i got help , from a Psychologist who it turns out had experienced the same thing when she was younger , so having drawn a few pictures with a box of crayons , she knew the help i needed wasn't conventional and put me in touch with a soul reader who has written several books about the process , i discovered that i was Clairsentient which basically is a heightened sensitivity to people and surroundings , picking up on the energy of situations and trusting your intuition rather than your thinking , i guess going with what you feel rather than what you think .</p>
<p>Clouds is about letting go of the need to think things , which took me a long time as the world thinks you're weak if you don't know but really the bravest thing you can do sometimes is admit you don't know , stop trying to make sense of everything in your life and just accept it , even if you cannot explain it , things happen for good reasons even if we cannot see that at the time , so out of this came my music , which has really been my love all of my life and the realisation that i had the ability to write songs and share those with people . So i stopped questioning and just decided "to be" sometimes the best way of making sense of things is letting go of the need to make sense of them , why do butterflies fly , they just do ...... these are the lyrics below , i hope you enjoy and thanks for reading .</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I wander lonely skies </p>
<p>Walk through a cloud of dreams </p>
<p>I wander crowded streets </p>
<p>No one knows where i've been </p>
<p>I walk through showers of rain </p>
<p>Way to and back again </p>
<p>I walk through a sea of words </p>
<p>With nothing to be heard </p>
<p>Why nothing ain't right , why nothing ain't right , why nothing ain't right , why nothing ain't right , why nothing ain't right , why nothing ain't right </p>
<p>Bye bye oh so long , bye bye , bye bye </p>
<p>Bye bye oh so long , bye bye , bye bye </p>
<p>Butterflies fly , why do butterflies fly , why do butterflies fly , fly fly fly </p>
<p>I swim along this stream , in colour coded dreams </p>
<p>I see that you see me </p>
<p>Set free eternally </p>
<p>Where no one dares to be </p>
<p>Why nothing ain't right , why nothing ain't right , why nothing ain't right , why nothing ain't right , why nothing ain't right , why nothing ain't right </p>
<p>Bye bye oh so long , bye bye , bye bye </p>
<p>Bye bye oh so long , bye bye , bye bye </p>
<p>Butterflies fly , why do butterflies fly , why do butterflies fly , fly fly fly , fly fly fly </p>
<p>Aaah , aaah , aah , aah </p>
<p>Bye bye , bye bye </p>
<p>Aaah aah aah aah , aah aah aah aah , aah aah aah aah</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/62703122020-04-03T12:13:02+01:002023-12-10T17:19:51+00:00High<p>"High" was a song I wrote back in December whilst looking at the sunrise , its about the fact that we all spend much of our lives rushing around caught up in the madness of modern life that we forget to just breathe and appreciate it all . Little did I know that four months later we would be facing a situation where the modern world has come to a halt. So its not really about this song today , its about the people grieving , those working selflessly to save others and those facing difficult times , my heart goes out to you all .</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/61364512020-01-20T19:55:17+00:002022-07-17T19:45:24+01:00Blue Monday<p>Quick update on the music , I am currently recording new material , its heavy grungy with a sprinkling of punk , and I think its the real me . Looking back I was very lucky to witness a transformational time in music with bands like The Clash and Sex Pistols through to what became the numerous indie bands of the 90's it gave music a raw emotion that makes you feel alive . The first of this should be available soon so stay tuned ….</p>
<p>On another note ( no pun intended ) today is Blue Monday supposedly the most depressing day of the year , I've done a lot of contemplating of things like this , I was lucky enough to receive a jolt up the backside from the Universe that leads to long periods of reflection and looking within oneself , and the problem isn't unhappiness in my humble opinion , the problem is that we expect to be happy all the time , to live a perfect life , to not make mistakes and the pressure is even greater nowadays with a plethora of people offering positivity advice everywhere you look and I've come to the conclusion that's its all utter bullshit , being overly positive is just as out of touch with reality as being overly negative , so here's my advice , its ok to be unhappy sometimes we only become happy again by going through it , nobody lives a perfect life they just like you to think they do , normally so they can sell you something ! and finally its quite ok to make mistakes , I should know ! laugh about it ! because none of it matters . Live , Love and Laugh that's all you need , sometimes it hurts but the good times always make up for the bad .</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/60281612019-12-18T05:23:27+00:002023-12-10T17:20:52+00:0018th December<p>Festive greetings ! The first of some new tracks is released today called "Fly" , thank you so much to everyone who has listened to my music this year , I hope everyone has a Happy Christmas and a peaceful and love filled New Year .</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/59480792019-11-03T16:36:49+00:002021-11-17T17:26:31+00:00Sunday 3rd November <p>Hello ! and a special hello to my namesake who it turns out lives nearby , small world ! </p>
<p>What have I been up to ? well I am currently recording a new single which is going really well , I wrote the words to it four years ago along with some rough melody , but it never quite felt right until recently , at the time of writing it doesn't have a title and I am trying out different choruses but then as the old saying goes "Bradford wasn't built in a day " so hopefully we will stumble across the answers by trial and error and then proudly claim it was deliberate !</p>
<p>Away from Music , I can proudly announce I have just eaten a mince pie and its only November ! I love this time of year , so much colour as the trees change , crisp air and dark nights , nature is very much representative of our own lives , in the same way that we wouldn't know summer without winter you cannot experience happiness without also tasting sadness , contrast is what makes it interesting .</p>
<p>Huge thanks , once again to all the people who have listened to the songs and to those who have been my inspiration , I love you all .</p>
<p>Stay tuned ……… </p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/59088762019-09-28T20:56:56+01:002022-08-27T13:57:38+01:00Saturday 28th September<p>Sorry its been a while , but sometimes life just gets the better of us .</p>
<p>After a very difficult last couple of years , I've taken some time out this summer , from time to time you've just got to sit and breathe and reconnect with what you are , so i have spent some time in the South of France and Corsica with my son , who is now taller than me ! and it seems quite capable of drinking me under the table ! it doesn't seem two minutes since i was carrying him around , it just goes to show sometimes minutes pass like years and at other times years pass like minutes , but for all we know we only get one chance at this thing so you've got to make the most of the ride , so live , love , forgive but most of all laugh often and trust what you feel , because what we feel is far more relevant than what we think as most of the shit we think is put there by other people and its not the truth its only what they want you to believe is the truth , sometimes we just need to sit quietly and remember that .</p>
<p>I have a new single called " My My My " out , available to stream on all the usual platforms , the song was one of those that arrived out of the blue 5am one morning as seems to be the case with me , it actually took about an hour to write but recording it has been quite an ordeal but eventually we arrived at the destination.</p>
<p>I would like to wish a heartfelt thankyou to all you amazing people who have taken the time to listen to my music , especially in the United States , I really have been overwhlemed by the response and would love to come and play some shows if there are any friendly promoters / venues out there ;)</p>
<p>In the UK i will be playing at the Northern Quarter , Huddersfield as support for the amazing "Snapping Twigs " on Friday 18th October so come along if you get chance .</p>
<p>Anyhow , i am back , good as new and working on new stuff in the studio , which I will keep you updated with together with more live gigs and a session for Youtube , so watch this space ……...</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/57687692019-05-26T18:49:35+01:002023-12-10T17:04:49+00:00Sunday 26th may<p>The single "Butterfly Dreams " is now available on most streaming services , thanks to Si for all your hard work with Production </p>
<p>and ipicgr @ pixabay for the fabulous neon Butterfly .</p>Gideon Fostertag:gideonfoster.com,2005:Post/57592632019-05-18T16:21:07+01:002022-05-29T20:35:43+01:0018th May<p>Finished recording my first album , just awaiting mastering before release sometime soon , time for a break ! </p>
<p>The first two singles "Chaos and Disorder " and " Favourite Friend " available on most streaming services.</p>
<p>I'm currently working on new songs with a new producer and rerecorded one old track called "Butterfly Dreams " which will be out soon </p>
<p>and is a little different ……….</p>
<p>Hopefully more live shows coming soon , I will post news of gigs on here .</p>
<p>Thanks for listening .</p>Gideon Foster