A New Hope

The BBC news reports of the Obamajubilation this evening featured an American man in London expressing his delight at the election results. "Now I won't have to pretend I'm Canadian when I travel abroad" he exclaimed.

Growing up as a Canadian I have always resented Americans. For the fear they made me feel - as they threatened to test their nuclear weapons over our country, and for the Gulf War that unfolded before our eyes on our television sets. For their ignorance of us - even though we were such close neighbours, and for their imperialism over our culture.

As I left home to see the world I wore my flag, as all Canadians do, to avoid being thought of as American. 

Last night - for the first time - I felt that things could be different. That America could actually become all those things it prides itself on being. For this is the most exciting and inspiring political change in my lifetime - bar the fall of the Berlin Wall. To have a true leader who has the potential to unite and change the world. 

Maybe Obama got in at the right time - as a different choice for a nation on the brink of collapse and fatigued under the incompetence of Bush's administration. But for now, lets assume that America is reaching its tipping point.

Perhaps fittingly it is bonfire night in London. Grey and misty, with fireworks exploding through the night - a bizarre celebration and reminder of a revolutionary from the British past. But maybe tonight it is in honour of a new revolution - a new hope for everyone.

Who Will Save Us When We Fall?

It is fascinating to watch men in suits panic while the house of cards that they built falls around them ...

I am by no means an economist. But I have a strong interest in politics, and am developing  an even deeper curiosity into the relationship between how our society governs itself and the economic systems we create.

And as a devout liberal social democrat, I should be overjoyed at seeing the events unfold over the past few weeks in the western world markets. Institutions exposed for their ineptitude and greed, resorting to calling for a lifeline from the very governments that habitually shun regulation. Administrations rushing to reach into the coffers to bail out the financial system that has fed them. Unfortunately, the governments in charge of fixing the problems are no better than the ones who caused them in the first place.

Have we not learned from these mistakes before?

Apparently not.

This is Revolutions - the perpetual cycle of history.

Image by Hobo

Time

This week is feeling a bit overwhelming - too much to do, and too little time to get things done. Thus I feel I have broken the subtle vows of blogging by slacking off the past week and not writing. What would Jerry say?

Just returned from a great trip to Stockholm - to visit with Sara and get a bit of headspace before the release of the album. This has been a bit of a crazy year for us - with not a lot of time to see each other.  So it was fantastic to be back in Sweden and enjoy the autumn.

Revolutions is out now on iTunes as a bit of a pre-release. We aren't shouting about it ... there are quite a few things in store over the next 2 months to promote the album.  Including the limited edition CD version (which can already be preordered at the Gaymonkey Shop).

The limited edition disc comes in a numbered double gatefold vinyl sleeve. Its our way of giving an acknowledgment to the ultimate album format, which sadly we have never been able to release. But also to make CD packaging more sustainable, by making a collectable format rather than a disposable plastic jewel case.

There are only 1000 copies - once they are gone, the CD format will be deleted.

"Revolutions EP" by Melnyk

Today is the official worldwide release date of the new single. Pleased to be able to finally release "Revolutions "to the world.

Having my first new material out in over a year is quite an interesting feeling. I've worked so hard for this album, just as I did for Silence - only this time I suppose we have so much more experience of the music industry and how all the pieces of the puzzle fit around a release. Still, I feel like we are moving yet again into new territory - the business has changed so much in the past 3 years, that anything could happen with this record. 

"Revolutions" was about the third track that I wrote when I started putting songs together for my second album.  I knew I wanted to do something with more of a traditional pop song form, which Silence had touched on but never fully explored. 

One night, shortly after I started working on the instrumental, I was out with Fonteyn, and he took me to a bizarre basement members club off Regent Street to see this new band he was in love with.  The group were Heartbreak, fronted by this charismatic moustachioed Argentinian. They delivered a dark set of original italo inspired electro, fitting for the odd surroundings. And his voice stood out to me to be something entirely special. I knew he would be the one to collaborate with on this new track.

Last summer Sebastian came to my studio to try out some vocals.  We actually started with "Want It Now" - which I invited him to write the lyrics for and used as a bit of a test to see how well we would work together.  He was brilliant - I knew straight away that he was the one for "Revolutions". 

I then went off traveling for a few weeks to India, and actually wrote the lyrics in the back of a car somewhere between Delhi and Agra. Its funny where inspiration takes you! The melody had been firmly planted in my head for weeks - I just didn't know what the song was really about. Perhaps it was all that rich colonial history ... or maybe Ghandi? 

On my return Sebastian came back to the studio and we finished the recording in the afternoon.

There are so many meanings to the song - I explored a bit of them in a previous post. Just as the word has many connotations, so does the track itself. But I guess I can leave it up to the listener to decipher for themselves.

"Revolutions EP" is out now via all the best download merchants.

Including, of course, iTunes.

Thugfucking

I'm not even sure where it was that I first heard Thugfucker.

I think I had been bouncing aimlessly around MySpace, and simply stumbled across their page. If I hear something I like, I tend to add the band as a favourite to check back with later. You couldn't forget their name - definitely memorable.  

Since then I have been loving their work immensely.  They have done one of my favourite mixes for the brilliant Dirty Dancing label (Compuphonic - Analog Sparkles) and with each new track they produce, they gain respect. Theirs is a special take on electrodisco - one that makes no apologies for use of melody (so rare in the electro genre!).  All wrapped up with an impressive splash of funk.

So it is with great pleasure that we can reveal their remix of "Revolutions". Sensitive to the original, but with its own joy - this is one of my favourite commissions since Gaymonkey was launched.

Check out Thugfucker on Myspace - and look out for their debut album ...

Melnyk - "Revolutions (Thugfucker Remix)"

taken from Revolutions EP

out 1st September

Gaymonkey (GAY26)

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Revolutions - The Artwork

The sleeve for the new album - "Revolutions by Melnyk" - is finally complete.  

The artwork was done by our favourite photographer - Boyarde - who did all the work for my last album, as well as the video for "Sound of Falling".  She is an amazing talent, and really great to work with.  

We met through a mutual friend just before "Silence" was finished early 2005.  I had a few ideas for what I wanted to do with the sleeve, but really wanted to give up control.  (Mark Farrow had offered to do some work on it, but other projects came up ... one day, he will be mine ...)

I had seen some of Boyarde's portfolio work where she combined fantasy elements with her photography - in a pop art style that felt really fresh.  After meeting her I knew she would be great to work with, and I was really pleased that she had time to do "Revolutions" as well.

With this piece we wanted to explore some of the themes from the album - revolution, falling from grace, this strange biblical concept that keeps coming up in my work (for an atheist, very bizarre ...).  I wanted to steer clear of any military connotations - no tanks, russian propaganda, or Guevara. 

I think her choice suits the album perfectly, and am honoured to be able to use the piece for the sleeve.  Thanks again Boyarde!

Shocking Independence

Happy Independence Day, America.

Today is a day of observance for all Americans – to celebrate their independence from the British Empire, and the creation of a nation built on a foundation of democracy and human rights.  One of the most defining moments in western history – a revolution remembered around the world.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- Declaration of Independence

It has been over 230 years since the Declaration was signed, and how ashamed would its authors be to see the degree to which the great nation they were determined to build has eroded human rights – not only within its own borders, but in nations across the globe.

Over my slow travel I started reading Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine - which should be made compulsory reading in every American school (if not worldwide). Klein dissects the past sixty years of history – for the most part, the untold story of  American and western capitalist imperialism.  A meaty, well researched and compelling exposé of how nations around the world have been subjugated using economic shock tactics, with the primary aim of opening up the free market economy. Klein answers questions I have had for years, giving insight into the subversive invasions and meddlings by the CIA and US government in South America, Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa.

The economic shocks – designed to eradicate the economic structure of a country to replace it with a free market – are compared to electric shock torture – a technique now widely known to be used by American troops on prisoners in Iraq. The invasion of Iraq by US and UK forces is described in terms of economic motivation, with Klein revealing the economic, cultural and psychological eradication of a nation for corporate means.

Clearly this is unacceptable – but what is even more unforgiving is that we, as the public who have elected our governments who rule on our behalf, simply sit back and let it happen. Americans continue to put individuals in office who create administrations that support these policies, while politicians mislead the public to earn support for conflicts in the name of “democracy”.  

European nations endorse the policies, either for their own capitalist gain, or out of fear to stand up to US dominance.  Klein even touches on indiscretions by the Canadian government – who I have feared for some time had been beginning to stray from the pillars of social democracy that we have always held dear (and that set us apart from our southern neighbours ...)

The result has been the destruction of nations, cultures and lives – all to line the pockets of big business, all in the name of democracy.

So happy birthday, America.   

Give yourself a gift this year and read The Shock Doctrine.  

Giving Birth

One of the girls at our mastering studio was absent this week when I went in to get Revolutions polished and finished off.  She is off on maternity leave with her first child.  

Dave - who does our mastering - remarked that while the first one is exhilarating and exciting, and everything is new, your second one is planned meticulously - having learned the tribulations from your first child.

I couldn't help but ponder this on a different level.  With this new LP finally mastered - my second born - things did feel differently.  I wasn't experiencing the same nervous excitement that I recall from my first time in that studio four years ago.  The awe that comes with finally realising that you have created something which you will inevitably allow to be set free to the world.  A world that will then tear it apart.  Love it, or hate it.  

It is this sense of attachment that often stops people from creating at all.  The fear of putting something out there into the world, opening oneself to criticism, sharing the fragility that holds art together.  It takes strength to give birth.

But in the end we do it - because we have to.  Because something in our nature drives us to.  And when at last we can sit back and enjoy what we have done we realise that our struggle has lead us to create something we can truly be proud of.

Revolution(ary)

I sent a copy of the new single "Revolutions" to a musical colleague of mine last week. His critical (and unsolicited, as it usually tends to be) response was that it was "nice, although not so spectacular as the title hints".

Perhaps he has misinterpreted the meaning of the song -  it is not titled "Revolutionary". There is quite a difference between the two words. Indeed "revolutions" holds several different interpretations. The sentiment behind the track is referenced in the lyrics --

"Will our history come around again

Another era in a time of men"

Over and over we repeat ourselves. A continuous cycle of cause and effect, invention and reinvention. Conflict and resolve. The cycle gets faster - yet we seem to be further from the epiphany that will set us free. 

"Revolutions" is a simple pop song. It does not need to be more than that - and in creating it I certainly did not try to be revolutionary. To set out to do so is almost inevitably to fail musically - I believe it is more important to create something that is emotionally successful than to make it the Next Big Thing. To me the track is everything I intended it to be.

What is revolutionary in music? At a glance we could maintain that the past century has seen more creative revolutions than ever before. Musique concrète. Jazz. Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring". Minimalism. Rock'n'roll, pop, house, punk. Erm - nu rave? Perhaps not.

I feel that there have only been two significant revolutionary moments. Without them the musical world as we know it today would not be the same - and the impact of which will lead us to the next (whenever that might be - in the current musical climate this might not be in our lifetime ...)

John Cage - 4'33" (1952)

By composing a piece where not a single note is actually played, liberating the performer and allowing chance to conduct the experience, Cage brought philosophy to music and pushed the boundaries of what we accept as art. He paved the way for generations of composers who finally had permission to let freedom of sound into their work. Electronic music would not have been the same without him.

The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show (1964)

Before appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles were relatively unknown in the US. With television becoming a force in mass media, the marriage of rock'n'roll with the excitement of live performance broadcast simultaneously to millions heralded in the British Invasion and the beginning of pop culture as we know it. 

Of course there have been other milestones since these two events, and indeed many new forms of popular music - but they all relate back to these important moments. It will take some time to go beyond this - as a musician today, all we can hope for is to add to our collective musical history.

Unsubscribe Me

Amnesty has released the lastest in its series of promotional films for their Unsubscribe campaign, which calls for an end to human rights abuses under the banner of the "war on terror".  It is a cause that I support wholeheartedly - I find it unbelievable that our governments are getting away with these practices.  What is even more shocking is that we sit back and do not demand that it stops immediately.

The title track from "Revolutions" is a response to this complacency.  We are locked in a cycle of history where we are not learning from our mistakes.  With every step we took in the 20th century to reach a more advanced state of humanity, the formative years of our current decade seem to have set us back.  The baby boomer generation that campaigned for peace and prosperity are now the ones perpetuating the cycle.  

The "war on terror" certainly does not provide us with an excuse for the disregard for human rights that our governments have allowed.