The You Essay (2020)

So down in London, back in the 80’s I was in a band and we all enjoyed doing the usual band like things, writing songs, rehearsing, drinking and the odd gig.  At some stage I think our real lives caught up to us and for me this was the time I moved to Gloucestershire and got into IT,  I think I always had a plan to learn the piano when I retired but, of course, that was always way off in the distance.  Now finding myself on the cusp of my 60th birthday I thought about what I would like to do with my retirement and music seemed to be a great thing to step back in to.  Music Technology has come on so far in the last 40 years and if nothing else, I knew I would enjoy playing with some new music gadgets – I now understand the difference between a  Sequencer and a DAW but have a long way to go before I am going to feel knowledgeable enough to do my new hobby justice.  With this in mind I thought I should challenge myself a little and my plan is to spend this “birthday year” putting together an album of songs.  Now before you say something like “that doesn’t sound very ambitious” I am pretty sure that I will attempt to write many more than 12 – but my hope is that the best 12 – before my 61st birthday – will be good enough to make an album of songs worthwhile.  My plan, which I may or not see through, is to release a demo of the best song I come up with every month and hopefully learn enough in the next year to re-record and improve on the best ones for inclusion in the album, provisionally called “Ian sings the blues”**

** not really