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