Update I updated the video in November 2017 to include lyrics. Original post Rounding off 2015 with a new song, very short and sweet. Earlier in the year I had a daily practice of writing for 10 minutes each morning, just to accumulate ideas. Most of it was unusable, but this emerged one morning and … Read more
The Wolf Who Snared The Moon (2015 package) by Norman Lamont The Wolf was the title track of my first proper album, in 2004. It was the most ambitious recording I’d tried then, and has always been one of my favourite recordings. So why tinker with it again in 2015? Just ten years of learning … Read more
This is one for all the performers among my friends. Tonight I wrote a song. The first time in a year, during which I thought I either couldn’t, or didn’t need to, write another. So I’ve written one, and I think it’s good. Big deal. Why is that such a bitter sweet feeling? The myth … Read more
Sometimes when something’s difficult you can manage it by making it a different kind of difficult. I’ve been confounded for most of the year by a big ‘ol baddie that sits on my shoulder saying ‘ You can’t write anything, certainly nothing as good as you used to, nothing as good as <name anyone>, and … Read more
Some thoughts on songwriting, from the first blog I kept, written in 1997, but I’m still behind most of this. Magic It’s just magic! It feels that way anyway. Writers may disagree about the proportions of inspiration and perspiration that go into making a song, but everyone recognises that leap of the heart when you … Read more
I wrote this in 1997 when it was still fresh in my mind! I was there at the start. Well, not quite the first session, but back in 1993 in the Gallery Bar (now the Car Wash) at the top of the Mound – near enough to count as an elder of the ESS. … Read more