January 7
Happy New Year! I've put up a new instrumental on mp3.com.au.

December 7
The thought page has been updated.

November 27
A month goes by just like that. Sorry about that. No news. You may have trouble getting to this site via imaginaryband.com for a short while.

October 26
Imaginary Band is number 19 on the mp3.com.au pop charts this week. Previous weeks it was (haven't we done this before) 28 50 13.

Queens of the Stone Age's new single rocks! Other fav' music at the moment (though I am not getting to hear much) - MisDynamite "It Takes More", LL Cool J "Love You Better"...

October 1
Imaginary Band is number 13 on the mp3.com.au pop charts this week. Previous weeks it was (because of a lack of news) 8, 11, 21, 18. Space Invaders has popped up to number 8.

I heard one or two of Radiohead's new songs from some probably not-so-quiet little European shows (wish I'd been there) and excited about the new album which has the directive "music you can shag to" - good so far! Cheers for now...

September 9
Imaginary Band is number 19 on the mp3.com.au pop charts. The Fable is number 13 (pop).

August 26
Imaginary Band is number 18 on the mp3.com.au pop charts. Also, I am being compelled to report that, as we speak, I have been taken by aliens to their spaceship to be force-fed strawberry smoothies. Strangely, they asked me to preview The Matrix Reloaded, after which, they transported me home. I have no idea what the movie was like because they wiped my memory. That's all folks.

I leave you today with the (abbreviated I think, though apparently his speech was a mere 183 words long) words of Fidel Castro at the 1992 RIO Earth Summit:

Consumer societies are fundamentally responsible for the brutal destruction of the environment. With only 20% of the worldÃÔ population, these societies consume 2/3 of the metals and 3/4 of the energy produced in the world. They have poisoned the seas and rivers, polluted the air, weakened the ozone layer, saturated the atmosphere with gases which are catastrophically changing weather conditions. It is not possible to blame the third world countries for this. Yesterday, they were colonies; today, they are nations exploited and pillaged by an unjust international economic order. If we want to save mankind from this self-destruction,we have to better distribute the wealth and technologies in the world.

August 13
Hello there. The gallery page has been updated and now includes a groovey downloadable screen pic . Also another nice new pic is up there.

On the news side of things, not much to report lately, being away from the studio... but the older news pages from 2002 and late 2001 have been updated as have the ones from earlier still, if you have too much spare time...

August 1
This week, Imaginary Band is the number 17 artist on the mp3.com.au pop charts. Imaginary Band has a website with mp3.com as well.

July 20
Hullo and apologies for the long delay in updating! This week, Imaginary Band is the number 15 artist on the mp3.com.au pop charts. Space Invaders has risen to number 24. The Fable is number 27. Not much other news to report at present - or is there? ;)

June 26
Hello! What is happening? Is Osama dead, is he alive? Is he a lost little soul? The Beyond the Gift Medley has risen to number 34 on the mp3.com.au pop charts. The Fable is number 29, but it smells real real bad.

June 19
Imaginary Band has risen to be the 11th most downloaded mp3.com.au pop artist this week. Space Invaders has shot to number 13 on the mp3.com.au pop charts, but The Fable has dropped to number 51 while the Beyond the Gift medley has risen to number 52.

Saw Mulholland Dr last night - was very good. Thought-provoking, still thinking :)

June 17
The song The Fable is up two places to number 40 on the mp3.com.au pop charts The lyrics page has been updated with lyrics for Closer to the Moment, and u xd da line, a track from the album Beyond the Gift.

June 4
The gallery page has been updated again, with two new pictures. The lyrics page has been updated with lyrics for The Fable, which is number 42 on the mp3.com.au pop charts this week. Space Invaders has dropped to number 29 this week, but Imaginary Band has risen one spot to be the 14th most downloaded pop artist this week.

May 30
There's been a long break (since March) since mp3.com.au charts were working. They are now working again, and Imaginary Band has continued where it left off, this week residing at the number 15 ('th most downloaded) artist spot on the mp3.com.au pop charts. The song Space Invaders is number 24 on the pop charts. Back here on imaginaryband.com there is now a lyrics page, and there's one song up there so far - Space Invaders:)

May 24
The gallery page has been updated. The guitarist I worked with earlier came around again and finished off some work on a couple of tracks. Lovely stuff. I'm looking forward to piecing it together in the mixes. This will have to wait for now though as busy times are here!

May 20
Well, since my last report (roger roger) there is a fair bit to tell...Spoke to the producer of the Tasmanian film project with the working title "Life" - a kind of freestyle dramatic doco short film which he reckons may turn up at film festivals, and possibly be a pilot for a series about Tasmanian arts and music. Sounds like a great idea, and a good opportunity for exposure of Imaginary Band's music if the film reaches those arenas. Imaginary Band will be contributing a heap of music, including the theme. Currently I'm working on snipping bits and pieces...

I was very blessed to have a recording session with a fantastic local guitarist who played on some of my tracks, enhancing them beautifully. We expect to get a bit more work done later in the week - I'm really looking forward to it as it's exciting to be able to work with someone so skilled and, to boot, in-tune with the music. You know you're working with someone good when the music seems to miss something without their playing.

Had a listen to the most recent guitar based song mentioned below. It's not ready, but it's not far off either. Also, listened to the rough rework of All in Me - didn't sound too bad. There's some nice syncopated rhythms going on now, it's a little less straight-ahead. Looks like I could get back into remixing this one after all :)

May 13
Hello. Today this little tune was going around in my head...I was wondering - that sounds familiar - is it something i've heard lately ? Nice little tune - I'll have to use it if no one else has... then I realised it was one of mine. COOL! I've been called a geek for less...

Worked on a new song, based on some guitar strumming I did recently. Will listen and go back to it tonight... more thoughts later. Other work: revisited All in Me - one of my fav's - with a view to making it simpler/less fussy - I did something fairly straightforward, altering the rhythm section into a classic dance-type beat - all pretty standard, so I'm not sure I'm into revisiting it anymore... maybe I should just concentrate on writing songs as others would no doubt do a much better job of remixing my stuff. Having said that, I do like remixing things. Just maybe not this one.

Imaginary Band's music is to appear in an independent Tasmanian film project which will begin filming in June. More news on that as it comes to hand!

May 5
The song "Born on the 29th", the vocal-based tune mentioned first on March 8, has evolved somewhat since last time I spoke. Which was a long long time ago. The instrumental arrangement is starting to gel together, now it develops quite nicely, but some of the dreaminess is lost: I think that may more of a mixing and EQ levels problem though. Meanwhile, little bits of touching up other songs, and putting down a couple of new ideas, though little time yet to develop them. This week should be better!

April 17
A nice productive little run on remixing/re-arranging a recent song into a more accessible format. Also worked on an old instrumental from back in 1996-97 and made some improvements there. The piece is now almost acceptable to be heard by people other than me! Some serious URL redirection problems once again. I must apologise for that. I hope that when you finally do get back through to this site via the imaginaryband.com URL, you will be pleased with the changes!

April 9
It's now possible to become a member of the Imaginary Band e-list using the "subscribe" button to the left (type in your email address and then write "subscribe" in your subject header). New e-list members will receive key Imaginary Band news updates, and will go into the draw for an Imaginary Band prize, each month (I think). Feel free to drop a line making suggestions. This month's prize will be a copy of the debut EP "The Fable".

April 5
Imaginary Band has a new website up here.

Mar 25
Worked on a song that had a few holes and needed connecting up a bit. I wrote this one late last year and it has a dark alternative kind of pop feel to it, quite heavily vocal-based. I attempted to link the parts a bit. Added two breaks - the first a cool sounding bit which was originally guitar and which I then flanged and effected and chopped up a bit rhythmically. The second is an ethereal wah-guitar melody line so soft on your ears. The parts sound lovely, but they don't really fit into the song, and don't link it up! They've done the opposite - taken it somewhere else - I think there's two songs in there fighting to be split. This is always fun, cutting bits apart and getting the essence of each song and part! My next project.

Complete trust is a wonderful thing, and rare in this world. When you find people you can trust, it is a gift for the well-being of your soul and the ease of your mind.

Mar 19
mp3.com. au is back up and I’ve uploaded one of the new songs – LFE (Loving Feeling Everywhere). It’s not album quality – but it’s a good quality demo, and while I wouldn’t exactly say it gives a clear idea of the type of stuff I’ve been working on the past year or so (!) perhaps it’s a taste. You can download LFE here.

Since last post, I had a good little run on about 3 or 4 songs. The simple one (small production changes – still needs work, but probably the most final song now, I like the feel of it), a little messing around with vocal levels on Loving Feeling Everywhere (now ALL the levels need revisiting), and the song I’ve called E-W, on which I made the most progress. It still needs heaps of work though especially to maintain some sort of consistency, but I need a break from it right now. Also the “sweet song” I mentioned is slowly growing – added a couple of vocals to it and changed a couple of sounds, but it needs a more consolidated sound and flow, it is a little too much like pieces that need linking together. But it’s one of those that needs to have bits added only that feel exactly right. Having listened to the whole thing again a day or two afterwards, I need to go back and remove a bit of stuff before I can go on again.

Mar 15
Hello there. Had a fairly productive session though my computer keyboard appears broken after I spilled water on it (dried it up immediately afterwards though). It's doing funny things when I try and type and certain commands are coming through wrongly. Sometimes I press return and the rain outside stops. Stuff like that. Working on the E-W song. Adding real drums and I'm phasing out the non-essential bits of the fake drums. To my complete surprise it started to feel like it was getting somewhere last night. The intro works much better, building up now. I should have a demo standard version after a few more hours work!

Also worked on LFE , dropping vocal levels a fair bit, lifting the treble so that a master can highlight other parts of the instrumentation - now it's sounding much more integrated.

Mar 8
Have written a new song - over the last few months it’s been brewing in my head and on the occasional guitar strum - finally I approached it in the right frame of mind, and did an all-day session on it a little while ago. It’s a vocal-based tune. The instrumental arrangement needs some work, but the lyrics, song structure and vocal arrangements are close. Recently I revisited it after a couple of weeks' absence, and the drums sounded very out of place, so I cut them and used the quieter percussion I had for one section of the song. Now the gentle, dreamy feel I was reaching for is entirely there, but the gaps need filling and the melody developing a bit. It’s quite different from anything I have heard on the radio for a long time, and has a haunting lyrical theme and melody.

When mp3.com.au starts accepting new song uploads again (March 12’ish) there will be a new song up there. Not this one, but another new one perhaps, and maybe unmastered.

Now for the "simple song" - well, that's going really well too! It just wasn't punching in like the intro' when the vocals kicked in, so I resung them in a different octave, hardened up the voice a bit. Also I've cut back the arrangement to the parts which are effective, and it now flows much better. I added a couple of new vocal lines following an existing string melody towards the second half and it sounds almost complete. I was thrilled after a listening session with two great listeners. Thanks to some very practical critiquing this one's exciting me right now and is going to continue to be honed.


For earlier news from 2002 and late 2001 go here.