The Free [EP]

'The Free [EP]': Every single one of this year's 'Wou-Wou & The Wormling' instrumentals, totally free to download from SoundCloud!

- The Wormling

Lack Of Sleep

- The Wormling

Sunday Post

I'm officially back from my pre-festive break, meaning I'll be crawling back to my pencil (if it'll have me) and doodling non-stop until Christmas shakes things up again.

To fill the hole 'till the doodles come along, I've been busy preparing December's musical effort - 'Lack Of Sleep' - which'll be freely available to stream and download from tomorrow.

Happy thoughts,

- The Wormling

Sunday Post

At the beginning of the week I began to roll out a slightly revamped group of oddballs. Nameless nobodies, who bare all in a slightly less obvious way. Where intimate quirks, habits and insecurities replace body-hair, freckles and flesh.

'Enjoys licking stamps'

'Reveals secrets in her sleep'

'In love with infatuation'

'Practices smiling in the bathroom mirror'

More to come from tomorrow over on Instagram... 'till then.

Happy thoughts,

- The Wormling

The Hopeless Aurelian

- The Wormling

Sunday Post

Just between you and me, I was feeling creatively drained this time last week. It wasn't so much that I'd run out of ideas, more that they were being filtered through my shit-tinted point-of-view. So I turned the pressure off and stepped away for a few days. Turned my concentration onto something else. Something that didn't revolve around being completed. 

I played with old recordings, faffed with watercolours and inks. I dipped into T. S. Eliot, I played computer games and watched old comedy. I took an early morning walk and met up with good friends. I escaped... A week later, and I feel a little better about it all. Fresh ears, eyes and all that.

Anyway, next week will be a totally different story, what with my new instrumental track 'The Hopeless Aurelian' coming out tomorrow and a new, more observational/introspective take on my daily doodles starting on Tuesday, things are looking positive once more.

And to top it off, new work on my collaborative project, 'Major Gubbins', has begun!... It's going to be a beautiful mess.

Happy thoughts,


- The Wormling

24-Bit Multimedia Monster

- The Wormling

Sunday Post

Warfare in the London Underground, an indecisive djembe instructor and a whole lotta cassette manipulation found its way into tomorrow's new 'Wou-Wou...' release, '24-Bit Multimedia Monster'.

But it's not the first time my dictaphone snippets have been sprinkled into the mix. In fact the thought of taking a recording of say, bird song from 2011, a drum pattern tapped on a table in 2007, and then mashing it all together with something I'm working on now, is so exciting to me. It feels like magic. 

But it's only over the last few months that I've learnt to take these snippets and play with them properly. Morphing them into instruments and stretching them to make oddball rhythms. And it's with '24-Bit Multimedia Monster' that I share my first example of this sort of creativity with found sounds, however crude.

Have you ever found a sound? Or know where to find a juicy one? If you're not feeling precious over it throw it my way (wouwouandthewormling@gmail.com), I'm always on the look out for 'em. 

Happy thoughts,

- The Wormling

Sunday Post

On top of giving away one of my illustrations and getting played on the radio for the second time! I have also being delving back into my little red book of chance this week.

Behind its mock leather cover lays a composers nightmare: 45 pieces of music, mapped out by the indifferent hand of fate. A plethora of awkward chord progressions, sewn together by breakneck tempos and irregular time signatures are crying out to be realised. And did I mention that 'The Furry Gamble' gets a look in too!

Thanks to modern music making software, everything is achievable, even if it's not pleasant to listen to. Any composition that isn't too physically demanding will feature at least one live instrument, and all the tracks will manipulate found sounds and ambient recordings, which I will use to craft sample based instruments, broadening my audio palette and grounding these strange tracks in some sort of reality... if reality is needed that is. 

So far I've chipped away at the first 9 tracks, which will make up the first 3 EP's. There will be 15 EP's in total, each housing 3 tracks. 

Each EP focuses on a certain number of rules and restrictions. For example the music in the first EP only uses major chords, the music in the second uses only minor, and by the time I get to the last EP everything from the mood to the number of bars and sections will be decided by chance.

The plan is to release one EP a month starting January 2015, but the exact date hasn't been set yet.

Course, this chance malarky doesn't stop at music... but I'll quit now before I get into detail about my little navy blue book of prompts, for another Sunday maybe.

Happy thoughts,


- The Wormling

The Wou-Wou & The Wormling Wednesday Giveaway - Ground Rules

The premise is simple enough. Every Wednesday I'll give you the chance to win one of my original  doodles from my bloated back catalogue. No hidden agendas or costs, just my way of showing my appreciation.

How it works:

At approximately 9:00am GMT I will post a photo via Instagram, Facebook and Twitter advertising which doodle will be up-for-grabs. Gathering you want it, you then have a 12 hour window in which to leave the comment "the early bird catches the wormling". I will allow spelling mistakes, but it has to be that sentence or your name won't go into the hat, and you won't be in with the chance of winning. The hat pull will happen that same night once the results have been gathered, and if your name gets picked I will hastily contact you for your delivery address of choice. 

No postage and packaging cost will be necessary, but a donation to my paypal 'donate button' to the right would be kind. Better still, I will attach my address so you can send me one of your doodles, poems, stories, favourite recipes... if you so wish.

In the event that no-one bids for the doodle I will still place it into a sealed envelope, but instead of sending it off to someone, I'll leave it around and about for a stranger to "hopefully" find and enjoy.

Happy thoughts,

- The Wormling

Pixel Envy

- The Wormling

Sunday Post

Call it indecisive, call it generous, call it whatever you will... because there will be not one, but two new homemade tracks for 'Music Monthly' this October!

The first track is called 'Pixel Envy' and will be available to stream and/or buy from tomorrow, the second, '24Bit Multimedia Monster', will be unleashed on the 20th. Both will be dressed in the accidental artwork of my partner-in-crime Chelsea (purposeandform) Ellis.

But wait, I've more good news, especially for those of you who favour the artsy side of 'Wou-Wou...'. Starting this Wednesday (and continuing every Wednesday thereafter if all goes to plan) I'll be giving away some of my original artwork, for free! No hidden agendas, no "Share This Photo..." malarky, just honest clean giving. More info Tuesday!

Happy thoughts,


- The Wormling

Sunday Post

Doodling... I have done little else this week. Sketching knobbly naked nobodies with misplaced limbs, odd hairstyles and crooked hands... now that's what I'm talking about! There's something so tremendously satisfying creating a new person from scratch, without thought, just letting them appear through your pencil.

As much fun as all this is, it doesn't leave me with much to write about. So instead of trying to pluck something interesting to say from the ether, I'm going to let my six favourite (thus far) doodled oddments do the talking...

 

 

If you like 'em, jump ship to my Instagram, Facebook or Twitter accounts, where nudie folk are uploaded daily. 

There'll also be more 'Compact Discovery' and society6 uploads throughout the week.

Happy thoughts, 

- The Wormling

Sunday Post

It’s been a balanced old week here at ‘Wou-Wou...’ HQ. On Wednesday (my fun day) nothing seemed to go quite right. I finished the odd job off, but when it came to anything creative I turned to pot. 

Par exemple, top of my list of things to achieve was the fettling of the first instrumental, whose chords, tempo and time-signature were all decided by chance, using a system I’ve coined ‘The Buskers’ Bamboozle’ - an elaborate creative randomiser, that utilises dice, coins, and hats to make those all important creative decisions.

The track in question is called ‘The Moist Go Between’ and is the first of 45 tracks created using ‘The Buskers’ Bamboozle’ to varying degrees. Recording it was a total joy, but mixing it has been a total nightmare, and I don’t feel as if I've got any closer to the sound I want for it. 

Nothing I’m sure a bit of swatting up and time won’t fix, but by the end of Wednesday I was feeling flat and woozy from staring at the computer for hours.

Thursday evening I had the idea to bring back the short-lived Major Gubbins fixture ‘Compact Discovery’ for my latest instrumental ‘King Skirmish’. I’m rather happy with how the paper CD cases look, especially as they're done using my cheap-o printer...

The same can’t be said for the CD’s...

But it’s only meant to be a bit of fun, so until I find a cost-effective way of printing onto CD’s, I’m not going to sweat over it.

Yesterday was possibly the best day in ‘Wou-Wou’s...’ short history, as not only did the ‘Make It Ugly’ paintings go up on the ‘Wou-Wou...’ society6 page, but ‘King Skirmish’ was played on BBC Sheffield Introducing! I’ve never been played on the radio before, so it was a massive high, especially considering that I uploaded the track on a whim.

Well that’s about it. More daily doodles, ‘Compact Discovery’ and society6 uploads over next week.

Happy thoughts, 

- The Wormling

Music Monthly - King Skirmish

All hail 'King Skirmish', the very first track in what I'm aiming to be a long standing monthly music making commitment. A fun little challenge to blow the cobwebs off if you will.



Enjoy!


- The Wormling

Sunday Post

This week I decided enough is enough, it’s time to knuckle down, sit up straight, pull that finger out and wash it in hot soapy water. Cos things have gotten a little slack and stale around here, and so have I. 

I’ve set myself some goals. A little contrived maybe I know, but I’m coming to learn that in my current state of mind I’m more inclined to stare at my guitar instead of play it and chew a pencil instead of running it around a piece of A4. So something had to change, cos not being creative feels so very numbing.

At the beginning of the month I started my "daily doodling" which is slowly helping me and my pencil establish a better, more rounded relationship. And starting tomorrow I’m hoping to rekindle with music in a similar fashion, with ‘Music Monthly’ - a new experimental track using various found sounds, samples, stabs, beats, licks and homemade instruments every first Monday of the month.

Hang on, what about all that stuff to do with chance?...

It’s coming, but I’ve decided not to rush it, so I’ll be working on it regularly and methodically in the background until the new year is upon us. It’s around that time I see the first examples being ready to share. But with that said, I do plan to write a weekly ‘Sunday Post’, much like this one, sharing a little about the week I’ve had and what I've been working on. So I imagine that more light will be shed on my fumbles with chance then.

On top of monthly music and chance based creativity, I’ve also been busy smartening up my ‘Make It Ugly’ cat paintings and a small number of my doodled portraits ready to put up for sale on society6. The upload date is set for Saturday (and continuing most Saturday’s thereafter), but I’ll be sure to do a special post once something’s been added to my shop.

So to recap: new music coming tomorrow, with the first stock going into the ‘Wou-Wou & The Wormling’ society6 store Saturday, and updates of my chance experiments (along with everything else) every Sunday... lets see how long I can keep this up ‘ey!

Happy thoughts, 

- The Wormling

Progress

Progress is slow, painfully so, but that’s okay, I didn’t set out to bolt through these experiments at lighting speed, nor was I naive enough to think that there’d be no challenge involved in their execution. So I plod along, doing what I can, when I can, which for the last few weeks hasn’t equated to much. But July’s commitments are behind me now, and my full focus can float back over to chance once again.

I'm now over halfway through the "chance phase" of these experiments, I can say with great hopeful glee, that chancy music, lino-prints, poems, short stories, collages (etc. etc.), are soon to be crafted and fettled.

Till then, I'll do my best to keep this underused space a bit more occupied.


- The Wormling

Q&A

I'm guessing you're here for the experimental Q&A? Well, take a seat and make yourself comfortable.

All I need you to do is answer the twenty questions below with as much panache as you can possibly muster. Once you've done that, you're done! Your answers will be kept safe until Wednesday 9th July, when the actual experiment will take place (the full details of which I'm keeping under my hat for now).

The more creative your answers are, the better the experiment will work. So don’t hold anything back; let your inner poet out. This is your excuse (like you need one) to be as vulgar, exuberant or as silly as you like. Even telling the truth doesn’t matter. There are no right or wrong answers, only your own interpretation of what they should be. And no one will be directly linked to their answers, so you really can say whatever you like.

Right then, ready? Lets begin.

Question Set A.) - (Using no more than a sentence for each) 

What do each one of these words represent to you?

Love:

Money:

Nature:

Sex:

Meat:

Home:

Friends:

Technology:

Nostalgia:

Question Set B.) - (Using no more than a sentence for each) 

Now for memories. You don’t have to be detailed, a vague description’ll do just fine...

Your First:

Your Happiest:

Your Saddest:

Your Proudest:

Your Most Vivid:

Your Dimmest:

Your Darkest:

Your Most Rose-Tinted:

Your Most Recent (that isn’t answering this question):

Question Set C.) - (In any order) 

List

Which three words do you find the most putrid?: 

Which three words make you giddy?:

So if you wish to take part, please send your answers to: ‘wouwouandthewormling@gmail.com’ or private message me via the ‘Wou-Wou..’ facebook page, before Monday 7th July.

Happy thoughts and many thanks,

- The Wormling

The Furry Gamble - Part Two

In order for these ramblings to make any sense, you'll probably have to go to the first 'Furry Gamble' post here. But if you've already read that... 

Make it pretty:



I have to admit, I was hoping for make it ugly when it came to this one. I could hear it: detuned guitars and feedback all the way to buggery... But that didn't happen, I got make it pretty instead.

Oof, how was I going to do something interesting with this chord progression, and make it pretty?

I spent hours fiddling around with my delay pedal, hoping there'd be some magic setting that would make the I-V-vi-IV progression twinkly and new, but it was to no avail, it still sounded bland.

Another few hours and a computer malfunction later, I had reached some sort of compromise.  By reversing the chord progression I had this roomy backdrop to work with. It wasn't pretty per-say, but added an eeriness that sounded sort of beautiful, to me at least. And after that was down, I just noodled around with it for a bit, adding things, taking them away. So on and so forth.

Overall, I wouldn't say it turned out that pretty, but it's been a fun challenge, and I learnt a few lessons on the way... most importantly: save, save, save.

Make it ugly:

This had to be easy. Do an ugly portrait of my cats. My inability to paint has that one covered already. It wasn't 'til I sat down and gave it some "proper thought" that I realised that I had absolutely no ideas. Zilch. Nowt... 

Then after a ruminate:

"Oh hang on, I'll just draw my face on my cats bodies. Yeah, that sounds ugly enough. I could have it so I'm licking my arsehole! Hohoho..."

 

 

...Erm, no. 

I have this knack of going with the first, daft idea I have. Take the easy way out for a cheap laugh that never comes. So I pulled myself together and went back to the drawing board, and these are what came out.

These monochrome fighting felines where partly inspired by Georg Baselitz's simple but energetic silhouettes, and 'Two Fighting Insects' by Tadek Beutlich, which we're lucky enough to have in our dining room. The ugly experience of my own brawling moggys also acted as inspiration I'm sure.

Y'know, they're messy, they're inaccurate, some of the cats look like dogs, some like blobs, but the more I live with them the more I enjoy them being stuck on the wall. And it's because of 'The Furry Gamble' that they exist.

All-in-all, 'The Furry Gamble' works! However it still gives me a lot of creative freedom. What if that was diminished, or even removed all together? What if I had no control over the outcome?

Hmmm...

- The Wormling

The Furry Gamble - Part One

Over the coming months I plan to elaborate on a number of experiments that play with the idea of chance (or aleatoricism, if you like) and its role in the creative process. Usually when starting a creative endeavour, be it doing a doodle, writing a story, or putting together a piece of music, I'd begin with a fixed idea on how something is going to be, or a concept in which to work up from, rarely is something left to chance. But what if these decisions were already decided by the throw of a dice or a pick out of a hat?

My first experiment draws from Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies - a set of cards with artistic directions, that encourage lateral thinking towards creative dilemmas - and The Wasp Factory from the novel of the same name by Iain Banks - a crude future telling device, in which a wasp is placed and forced to choose one of twelve trapdoors. Behind each trapdoor there's a deadly end for the wasp (fire, spider, being pissed on, etc.) and the way it dies has significant meaning to the Factory's maker, Frank.

Before you start, I don't intend to wizz on any wasps, but the thought of a creature making choices for me, well that could work couldn't it?

So without further ado here are the felines that are going to aid me in my first test, and the undisputed stars of this post: Bootsy Mann (Left) & Mousey Brown (Right)...

Yes they've got surnames, what of it?

Anyway, by merging the theme of the Oblique Strategies and running with the idea of my cats giving me creative direction, I came up with The Furry Gamble: A creative problem solving exercise which puts creative direction in the hands, or should I say, paws, of animals. The process involves placing a handful of treat enclosed envelopes, each with its own creative direction, in front of a co-operative critter and waiting to see which envelope it chooses.

The directions I picked for my first test are: make it ugly, make it pretty, make it simple, and make it complex. Why? Because they feel both broad enough to work with and specific enough to be constrained by.

As for the all important creative "dilemmas":

Dilemma a.) I plumped for the I-V-vi-IV chord progression, in a attempt to do something interesting with a common musical formula.

As my cats are helping me out, I figured for dilemma b.) I'd do a portrait of them. Which if I'm honest, doesn't sit easy as I personally find the idea of it a little too cute, and dare I say it, naff. But "Wou-Wou..." is about pushing myself into uneasy territory, so I guess it's the right thing to do.

And to prove chivalry isn't dead, the direction of dilemma a.) will be determined by Mouse, and dilemma b.) Bootsy. 

Right then, enough blather, it's experimentin' time...

That's that then. Do something pretty with the ol' I-V-vi-IV and do an ugly animal portrait... that shouldn't be too hard. 

Come back next week for the results, if you like.


- The Wormling

P.S. In case you enjoyed it, 'Sassafras' (the track on the vid) is now available as a free download from the 'Wou-Wou & The Wormling' SoundCloud page here, or if you're feeling lazy, at the bottom of this blog.