15th March 2004: Mixing new track 'Battlezone' that has strangely turned into a cross between 60s band The Zombies and The Strokes,but i'm really pleased with the way it's sounding..

17th March: Starting doing vocals for 2nd Special Needs album

1st September 2004: Reedited this page for first time in 6 months lol,am just about finishing a new track called 'Lou Reed' which i'll put up on Garageband in a week or so's time.

2nd September: Harper (Stephens) just heard 'Lou Reed' and said it was too bland,so i'm gonna change the distorted bass for a real fuzz bass and redo the vocals too.

12th September: Start workin' on a new track called 'Springtime'..Its a VERY happy song which i'm ..well..er happy about i guess.

20th September: My friend Liz Rawls just put some Trumpet on 'Springtime'...Rosa sez she thinks it sounds cool.

29th September: Harper Stephens' just played me some of his new songs-Damn they're good..but then again so's 'Springtime' too.Least i think so...and Rosa...Need to write some words for it...Am falling way behind in my plan to upload one song a month to GB.

1st October: My online mate Yomp has asked if i can include 'Scenes From Palacio' on a compilation he's making for his new project 'Yomp Records'..It sounds great..

11th October: Start recording new song for October..'Sunlight On The Windshield'..Its sunny and sorta 60s and at the moment i love it.. Harper Stephens helped me out with writing the middle 8(which isn't really a middle 8-just an instrumental break)..I want to have cello's and strings on it,so god knows when it'll be finished.

I'm determined to keep to the 'record one new song every month' policy,but there's no way they'll get uploaded on their rightful months lol

26th October: Add ultra fuzz bass to Lou Reed-it sounds really exciting at the moment! Tho i'm liable to change my mind very quickly on that sort of thing.

Better news is that my online mate Yomp has started a record label and i'm gonna be part of the first compilation! Dunno when its gonna be out at the moment.

November 1st: Add doowap B/Vs to 'Lou Reed' and my new toy -an Autoharp-on 'Springtime'

November 8th: Spend all day mixing 'Lou Reed' at the M.A.C(where i work) and upload it onto Garageband..Am really happy with it,sounds like a dead cool pop song from the 70s!...'Course if YOU think 70s pop like T.Rex and Partridge Family ISN'T cool,then you might disagree... OK then,well you gotta agree T.Rex were cool at least.

Dec 10th: Special Needs played our BEST EVER GIG in a double headliner with the recently reformed brilliant WORLD SERVICE at The Roadhouse..About 200 people there too...

Dec 15th: Start recording 2 new songs 'Tourist' and 'S and G' with Paul Carroll,who kindly agreed to lend his drumming skills and his engineering skills to actually record them on his machine..........OK,that makes 5 songs since my vow to record a new one every month since August..The vow to UPLOAD a new one every month isn't happening tho lol...At the moment only 'Lou Reed'(August)has been uploaded..'Springtime'(September) is musically completed 'cept i've still gotta write most of the words....'Sunlight On The Windshield'(October) is still awaiting lyrics and alot of music... 'Tourist' (November)and 'S and G' (December)have a drum track...So..I'm still on track...Just...But the fact the punch in buttons knackered on my recorder is a real problem......In the 60s bands used to record 2 albums a year!!..But they didn't get scuppered by punch in buttons knackering then..and had engineers to do all the leg work for 'em then too...hmmm.

Dec 18th: Went round to Darshan Davies' and mixed all our songs we've done together over the last 2 months and uploaded them to Garageband..The Davies Ison Project ..We both delighted with the glorious lofi results and its been amazing fun to do..

Jan 1st 2005: 'Sunshine' by The Davies Ison Project is Track Of The Day at Garageband and thru to Round 3! The generosity of Indie Rock reviewers there is amazing! lol Upload 4 songs to my Soundclick site.Girl On The Train,Train Of Thought ,Big Wheels and Circles.Havn't decided if i'm gonna upload them into the Garageband competition yet..

Jan 17th: Becoming obsessed with Indieradiolive and getting ready eye and little kip from hangin' out in the chatroom with the live DJs and other artists..Do a few jingles for one of the DJs there Dealio..Have uploaded one of 'em onto my soundclick site.

Jan 20th: Upload Girl On The Train and Train Of Thought into GB competition as they've been getting good reviews there which has made me have a little more faith in them lol

Feb 9th: Started a new joint songwriting project on Jan 26th with a garageband artist called Steve April from California.I mentioned in a message to him that i found it easier to write tunes than words..So he sent a few sets of lyrics over and i wrote some tunes for them.

Originally,the idea was to just make acoustic demo's to (hopefully)interest other artists,but i've decided to try and realise as many of them as i can as full Steve Ison productions For me its an incredible challenge and i don't know if it can be pulled off,but i'll do my best..Have written tunes for 20 sets of lyrics so far..The difficulty is recording them tho,which takes time.

The challenge is to make every song worth listening to and NOT repeat myself musically,which is difficult and makes me aware of bad habits/creative limitations... I've had some great lyrics generally to work with tho that helps.
I'm totally inspired by the kinda 'pressure cooker' way bands like The Beatles and The Kinks had to work in the 60s and (hopefully) pushing myself like this will really improve my songwriting along the way...Its a great adventure anyways.

May 17th: Well,its a long time since i've written,but a few things've been happening...Firstly Special Needs have probarbly finished..Pulling apart as people,apathy and the fact that Bingo's pregnant again have all meant we havn't got together or spoken really since before Christmas..In the words of the late great Roy Orbison..ITS OVER..

I've become pretty obsessed and musically busy with the songs i'm writing from Steve Aprils lyrics.He's kept sending over great words and all my creative energy has been focussed on making songs from them..
At the moment i've written 49 tunes to 49 sets of lyrics he's sent..4 rough mixes of ones i've written music for and performed/produced you can hear at the Ison/April Songs page i've set up for them at soundclick..Producing them takes time tho and i've got 16 others in various stages of development.

The other main musical thing i've been doing is working on songs with with Darshan Davies for the 'Davies/Ison Project..We've got alot of songs now-and ideally want to have an album out of those by the end of the year..

July 16th: Upload 2 new songs 'Watching The Birds Fly' and 'It Feels Like You' by the DAVIES ISON PROJECT....We've got all the songs(13) ready for the album,so i'm trying to get a cover together for it at the moment.

July 18th: Still working hard on producing songs from Steve Aprils lyrics i've received....I've sent off a few tunes to him too,so maybe we'll hear some tracks from him on his page soon.

Here's the FULL LIST of songs i'm recording from Steve Aprils words (Some really complete,some not so):

Identity Theif A Beautiful Day For Falling In Love, Mockingbird California Late Bloomer Gypsy Annie Stand Tall Borderline Sandras Face My Dark Hours Weather Report The Price Of Freedom The Hilton Sisters Love's Dangerous The Escape(Tijuana Mojo) Funny Hair Song For Your Love I Opened The Door The Good Knight Sailors On The River Don't Apologise The Wardens Wife Peko (like Riding) A Rockinghorse A Long Way Home Dance Me To The Edge.. Natalee Heart On Ice Don't Knock The Rock Tip Of My Tongue Step By StepBeautiful Dreamer

August 8th: Looks like its gonna be the end of December(minimum) before all the tracks are ready to be listened to.Still adding bits of guitar and b/vs at the moment..Then its a matter of getting some friends/other musicians in to add Piano,Trumpet,Girly B/Vs,Violins and Cello.

August 30th: Steve April's generously entered one of the Ison/April songs i've recorded and produced onto the April Ison Project page he's set up specifically on Garageband..And its thru to the 2nd round!

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