This is a very unusual music review, it is a visual one. I am synaesthetic a neurological trait that means I “see” sound. I have drawn what I see when I listen to the first three singles for Muse’s album Simulation Theory. Dig Down, Thought Contagion and Something Human . As a Muse fan, there is always that moment before you listen to a new song where you wonder “What’s next, what are they going…
This is a very unusual album review, and I’m willing to bet it is the only review of it’s kind. Ghost are a Swedish rock/metal band. I will be exploring their new album Prequelle visually through my synaesthesia. I want to show you the detail I see in this album so you can listen as you have never listened before. Who are Ghost? They are a Swedish eight-piece rock/metal band whose schtick on first impressions…
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with time-lapse photography while I draw music. You will have seen my Iron Maiden drawings in my last post. This series of bassist portraits stems from my live art project with solo bass player Steve Lawson. I wanted to find a little of what happens in those live shows in my daily studio practice in a form I could readily share with you. The dynamic and subjective nature of synaesthesia is…
I thought I’d do something a bit different this week, I’ve been experimenting with time-lapse photography while I draw music. It adds a whole new dimension to the work to be able to see it appear as if by magic as I sketch. Plus it is enjoyable and allows me to share the dynamic nature of synaesthesia with you. Here’s a set I worked up yesterday while listening to Iron Maiden. I was listening to…
BBC 6 Music visited my studio this week. My studio is at Guildford indie venue and arts hub The Boileroom and, as part of 6 Music’s Independent Venue Week the Steve Lamacq show was on tour, and they broadcast from there. An especially exciting event for me as Steve Lamacq is pretty much responsible for my taste in music and my love of radio, as a medium, it is still my favourite way to hear…
I’m not one of those people who is going to disparage my time at art school as unproductive, I learnt loads while I was studying, nothing in education is ever wasted but what I do now has taken eleven years to master, and I didn’t start it at art school. I did copious amounts of drawing at art school, of course, I did. I studied everything of any interest to any project visually through my…
Do you listen to music when you are making jewellery? I’m answering a question asked by a customer today about my process for making jewellery: “I was wondering if you listen to music when you shape the silver, or just follow your drawing’s vibes? I got wondering, if there was a metaphysical and energetic influence of the music on the shape the silver takes, because of the physical sound wave of music, I am very…
Nobody wants to fail, am I right? That hideous feeling you get when something you are trying to create starts to crumble, come apart at the seams and collapse on you. That awful moment when you feel powerless to stop it from happening. A mass of hard work goes south, and you feel like you’ve just wasted a part of your life with nothing to show for it. What if you invited that chaos into…
I’m standing at the edge of a stage, to my left is Steve Lawson one of the most renown solo-bassists in the UK if not the world. He is in his self-described “Happy Place” he is a musician, a performer. He is calmly making a few pre-flight checks on his equipment. I am not a performer. I am a maker, a jewellery designer. What am I doing here? I am also synaesthetic and am about…
I was a huge Cure fan back in the late ’80s, big black and white poster of Robert Smith on my bedroom wall, had all their albums but never went to see them live. The closest I got was going round a friends house to watch “The Cure in Orange” on video. Then 1992 and the Manic Street Preachers happened and stole me away from The Cure. Not much other than occasional listening until my…
