I was born the last day of 1976, and began releasing music in 1994. Ever since then I've had several bands and projects on the go at any one time, each one hoping to be experimental or progressive to some degree, be it in a dark/ambient fashion right through to harsh noise, or in the bands going from improvised, progressive to extreme and technical metal (grindcore, black metal, hardcore, doom/sludge, post metal).
The Owl began in Autumn 2018, with a view to making a combination of electronic and bass guitar driven sounds ranging the entire spectrum of sound, loud to quiet, riffs to noise, fast to slow, with each release pushing me to try something new in ways of producing the sound or in composition, compiling everything I had learned from all the previous bands and projects, and everything I had learned from a lifetime of being an absolutely obsessive music listener.
It has expanded even beyond those broad initial ideas, and has become a project full of experimenting that helps me understand sound, has led to learning more about production, video making, aesthetics and concepts, as well as being masses of fun to try and find new sounds and ideas to play with, pushing my own knowledge of what sound is and can be made from it.
Regarding the mental health compilation and my own links to it, I have also suffered with severe depression and anxieties ever since I can remember, and in the last few years, after working hard to change all aspects of the situational things that added to the weight of the chemical disarray in my brain, I can say I am in a much better and stronger mental state. The illness never goes away but it can be managed, controlled, and recovery from any episodes can be made much quicker with practice and finding some inner resolve and desire to want to fix things. I am trying to incorporate more about mental health in some of The Owl works, the knowledge, information and reassurance that things can be better, and that you can say any word to anyone at all about not doing well, and it opens up possibilities that we can all help each other through that little bit more.
I feel absolutely honoured to be a part of this compilation, alongside some (already known to me) excellent musicians, and the idea and concept behind it was something I jumped at the chance to be involved with.
All my sounds are at
theowl.bandcamp.com
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
Made with voice, bass, piano and a bundle of manipulations during June until July 5th, 2021.
This tells a story of dealing with mental health issues over the course of a lifetime. Imagine this being told from the perspective of someone who is 92 years old, and each minute represents a decade. The piece plots the sanity levels and the control that the person has on their own brain at each stage.
After 30 seconds, the awareness to life and surroundings was 'switched on', and that's when the madness really begins. During the first 4 minutes / decades, all manner of strangeness, intensity, confusion, barrages of information and brain noise are thrown at the subject.
Once reaching 40 years of age though, a better ability to slow things down and recognise all the situations in life that were wrong or causing mental illness to expand is learned, and with it the knowledge and energy to then make situational changes accordingly. The more consistent calm that comes with this recognition then has the snowball effect so each time there is a challenge to the mental health, it can be dealt with and pain alleviated much quicker.
The long fade between the noise and the piano represents the long knock on effect that decisions or troubles or illnesses have had, but the long fade in is almost like the thick fogs clearing slowly to reveal brighter, calmer times are on their way, serving as a reminder to keep on going in the new direction once you make the decision to unravel things from the past that have caused (and added to the chemical aspects of) depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, despair.
The ending can be interpreted in a few ways, depending on your own mindset and thoughts about the story and length of life. I like to think of it as being something that is a change in the concept of time and that the clarity of mind feeling at that stage can continue as long as the body and brain allow.
