In 2019, 96% of royalties went to the top 4% of musicians. The pandemic has destroyed the live incomes of musicians, but even before it hit, the music industry wasn’t working for the millions of independent musicians and music enthusiasts who aren’t stadium-tour artists or passive consumers. Dark present, bright future It’s an incredibly…

Live looping has been coming in and out of modern music’s favour since the 60s. It’s been adopted by composers like Steve Reich, beatboxers like Beardyman and singer/songwriters like KT Tunstall. It’s had another renaissance recently with Ed Sheeran and Marc Ribellet. Whatever you feel about their music, it’s a…

A decade ago I was an artist pursuing an aesthetic dream. Then I ran into problems I wanted to fix. That was the beginning of my dual life as an artist/entrepreneur. I started writing this on the plane back from Eurosonic, a festival and conference in the Netherlands where music…

We’re building a new platform for making music in the moment. Here’s the story so far. Today is a very exciting day. I’m thrilled to announce Endlesss.fm — a new platform for music-making inspired by my most enjoyable experiences as a producer, performer and improvisor. Over the last couple of…

Last week I asked Facebook a simple question — “Why do you make music?”. The answers were pretty surprising. — See the Facebook post The biggest surprise was the huge number of people who said alleviating mental health issues was their main reason for making music. Triple heart leap right there: leap 1 — it’s such a shame so many suffer from mental illness leap 2 — it’s so wonderful…

5 years ago I gave up making records to focus on improvising electronic music. I wanted to be a one man live-jamming revolution and transform the music industry. Hopelessly naive! But in discovering my naïveté I discovered a new way to think about music — as a game. I came…

On retreat the tiny becomes huge. Awareness zooms in while big shifts happen deep in the psyche. The surrounding environment becomes intensely vivid. Here are a few small moments I scribbled down in my journal during the 2 week mostly silent retreat I’ve just come back from. Lounge We sit silently…

The last few years I’ve gone on a Buddhist retreat over the winter holiday season. It’s a perfect time of year to reflect, relax and recuperate. but it’s more than that for me. Here are 6 reasons why. To challenge my views 2016 has shown how strong views can be, how easily they can…

Sampling and post-modernism have been the most epic bedfellows since the technology arrived in the 80s. The art of creating something new by lifting a sound from one context and placing it in another has given us some of the most iconic music. Until now sampling has been part of…