i can't get the temperature right in this flat. one minute i'm too hot, the next i'm cold. i think i have to be a bit cold to write a song, coz i'll get an idea then i'll pace up and down and around my front room getting warm. i just got an idea about 2 hours ago and i've written a song. i don't know why, but the first lyric came at exactly same time as the first few chords. i'm now a few songs behind with lyrics though. i need some inspiration. who should i listen to, what should i read? what movie should i watch? i'm in the middle of a japanese film called 'ping pong' actually which is quite sweet and funny. i'm going to finish that tonight and select a book and some cds to listen to tomorrow. it's important that my imagination is fuelled. right now i'm running out of petrol.
my friend paul showed me some new guitar moves. my problem is that i've never tried to learn too much on guitar. okay, essentially i'm lazy. but recently i've had time on my hands and i've been putting it off for so long (i never did get around to learning harmonica, shame on me) so now is the time. he taught me a very basic new picking style that i can't really get right, but i kind of do my own variation on it and i've written two songs since he showed me last weekend. tonight's kind of reminds me of devandra banhart who plays these low-fi acoustic songs with a crackly, high-pitched slightly nasally voice. i'm not sure if ANY of these songs are any good though. we'll see. i hope so though.
it's strange also coz i've had a lot of free time yet i get less good stuff done maybe. that's cruel. i need some urgency, but then a lot of it isn't my fault. it's a waiting game. i feel like the guy at the end of the film 'ghost world' who waits for the bus that'll never come. i liked that film a lot.
okay, i'm too hot now. i'll go turn off the heating. i'm just burning money anyway, right?
i realised that the cover of the cd single for sale in japan (the sore feet song) is a bit autumnal...
it looks really great i think and is for sale at all good record shops in japan:) it also includes the really lovely end theme music done by a famous japanese composer called toshio masuda. if you're in japan then i wonder if you've seen mushishi? oh, in case i've not explained properly, 'the sore feet song' (from my album) is this animation's (mushishi) theme tune.
anyway, i've read a bit of feedback about mushishi right across the internet and it seems to be getting rave reviews and it's seen by many as being really quite special. it felt like nothing i've ever seen before when i watched the first episode which was just beautiful and stunning with a real sense of melancholy. it's hard to explain, but it had an otherworldliness (is there such a word?)..... a cultural and kind of spiritual feel.
if you've seen 'spirited away' then you might be able to understand what i'm talking about. i'm really proud to have been involved in this.
