unexpected bowtie

no more bowtie?

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 08:51:12 +0100

Hello.

Life has overtaken all of my time and zeal to keep going just now. I’m sure it’ll come back at some point… just not sure when. I have a whole album sitting ready to go minus one song, but can’t quite seem to get it right.

Thanks for keeping in touch though. The bowtie shall live on.

FOE - The Black Lodge (cover) So here we have it, a totally unnecessary chiprock cover of the Black...

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 18:01:16 +0100

FOE - The Black Lodge (cover)

So here we have it, a totally unnecessary chiprock cover of the Black Lodge by FOE.

I promise to keep my hands off of other band’s songs for a while.

FOE - The Black Lodge Just to prove I am actually doing something. Here’s the current state of...

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 15:06:56 +0100

FOE - The Black Lodge

Just to prove I am actually doing something. Here’s the current state of my ~~recording studio~~ bedroom.

I’m ~~butchering~~ covering a track from the wonderful FOE called the Black Lodge.

Have a listen to the original below.

snore support If it wasn’t for Toby Hayes aka Shoes and Socks Off, this whole musical...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 11:23:55 +0100

snore support

If it wasn’t for Toby Hayes aka Shoes and Socks Off, this whole musical adventure wouldn’t exist. He’s been in all sorts of amazing bands, and I’d probably have burned all of my instruments in a fire on Glasgow’s High Street if our paths hadn’t crossed. You have him to blame.

Here’s a light-hearted track with guitar from the man himself, which will be on the next album.

An 8-bit only version of ‘vital signs’ from...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 09:19:50 +0100

An 8-bit only version of ‘vital signs’ from Pulco’s ‘Man of Lists’ album.

So bizarre to see your music on Amazon.

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 08:26:29 +0100

So bizarre to see your music on Amazon.

Man of Lists Review A nice feature on the collaborative effort that the bowtie contributed a couple...

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:18:19 +0100

Man of Lists Review

A nice feature on the collaborative effort that the bowtie contributed a couple of chiptune tracks to recently.

Also, ‘the man of lists’ is on Spotify, which is rather cool. Have a look.

I have a new laptop. I have a new condenser mic arriving shortly. Hopefully I’ll be finished...

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 23:19:51 +0100

I have a new laptop.

I have a new condenser mic arriving shortly.

Hopefully I’ll be finished this bloody album that has become a rock round my neck within the next couple of months, and then it can be consigned to history.

Man of Lists Profile - PulcoMusic.com A while back my good friend Pulco aka Ash Cooke asked me to...

Mon, 14 May 2012 09:50:28 +0100

Man of Lists Profile - PulcoMusic.com

A while back my good friend Pulco aka Ash Cooke asked me to take a couple of poems that he’d recorded and destroy them.

This I did, and they’re appearing on an album along with the far more musical efforts by other people soon. Have a click through to read a wee feature on me, and more about the album itself.

It’s good; I’ve heard it.

why won’t you call me?! I would like you to call me. That’s right… except...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:56:00 +0000

why won’t you call me?!

I would like you to call me.

That’s right… except I’m not going to speak. Instead, I want you to phone up and leave me a voicemail message. Pretend to be a long lost girlfriend… an Indian take-away… whatever. Make up a role and have a story.

It can be as interesting or witty or bizarre as you like. Just make sure you’ve got something ready to say that doesn’t make it obvious that this is all staged.

I’m going to then cut up and mash together lots of the messages into some screwed up track at some point. By leaving the message you give me permission to do so. You have been warned!

Fire me a message on here, by email or on Twitter @expectthebowtie and I’ll send you the number.

Two of my favourite musical folks, in the one place, in the one...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:37:20 +0000

Two of my favourite musical folks, in the one place, in the one song.

Hello. Here’s a wee quickie b-side of a track for a new Monday, and a new week. You can...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:14:20 +0000

Hello.

Here’s a wee quickie b-side of a track for a new Monday, and a new week.

You can download this one right away too.

Bubye.

HELLO. The track that I posted up the other day has been picked up by Central Station - a...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:50:17 +0000

HELLO.

The track that I posted up the other day has been picked up by Central Station - a ‘creative social network’ who are featuring an artist for the first 50 days of their re-launch. Their site is a fairly involved, gritty little community that highlights stuff that would slide under the radar otherwise… both opportunities for collaboration as well as unusual exhibitions and projects.

It’s a bit of a shock, as I had absentmindedly subscribed to their channel over on Soundcloud, and didn’t really expect anything of it. The funny thing is that unexpected bowtie isn’t something that I’ve ever actively pushed in any way, or really something that I speak much about outside of these four virtual walls; it’s more of a personal experimentation with random sounds (which are often chaotic and messy). If people pick up on it and like it then that’s cool, but I’m not going to chase it in anyway… It’s for that reason alone that I’m quite chuffed/flattered/stunned that CenSta have deemed it worthy of including…

You can check out the page here, as well as all the other awesome artists that will be appearing. There’s still time to submit your own things too, so fire them in…

no more villagers Here’s a spaced out new track which is made up primarily from bits sent...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:16:49 +0000

no more villagers

Here’s a spaced out new track which is made up primarily from bits sent through courtesy of Calamateur (pictured below), as well as some completely mashed up guitar from Reading’s Yer Beauties (pictured above), and some crazy distortion donated by Lee from Everyone an Army (not pictured).

Calamateur When I was about 16 I went on a rather screwed up weekend that I had at the Greenbelt...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:31:00 +0000

Calamateur

When I was about 16 I went on a rather screwed up weekend that I had at the Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham, as I travelled along with a band called Poor Old Ben.

Out of the several vivid memories I have from those few days, seeing an acoustic guitarist with a particularly amazing voice by the name of Andy Howie aka Calamateur play in a wee room up the top of the racecourse stands out on its own. I even remember the way he slung his guitar carelessly over his back and disappeared down the stairs in front of us afterwards.

Calamateur takes a whole host of strange sounds and bits and pieces and moulds them into some haunting, beautiful tracks. He’s been good enough to record some things for me to butcher apart, and has detailed exactly what over on his blog.

You can check out the rest of his stuff (most, if not all of it for free) via that link too, but I’d suggest starting with the ‘Son of Everyone EP’, as that’s the one I remember from that weekend at Greenbelt.

Life has crashed in and taken over just now… slowing everything down to an almost complete stop, but hopefully we’ll have something to show in the new year.

Hello. Over a year after I embarked on this musical project, with two albums, a collaborative EP...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:07:07 +0000

Hello.

Over a year after I embarked on this musical project, with two albums, a collaborative EP and a few terrible covers under the belt, it’s come time to attempt to play some of this stuff live.

Given the schizophrenic nature of the tracks, it’s going to take a bit of time to work out exactly how they will sound in person. As much as I’d love to play the guitar, musical saw, banjo, keyboard, gameboy…. etc all at once and by myself, it poses a bit of a logistical challenge, as I’m sure you can imagine.

Either way, February looks most likely.

Be warned.

Things have hit a bit of a slow patch with the collab project. I have a few tracks that I need to...

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:32:00 +0000

Things have hit a bit of a slow patch with the collab project. I have a few tracks that I need to finish (and start in some cases… ahem), but just can’t work out what to do with them.

In the meantime, I’ve discovered the sheer joy of writing up some chiptune on the Gameboy. Have cut up some of Pulco’s poetry for one of his upcoming releases and thrown it like confetti down onto a lovely base of 8-bit. He told me to destroy it, so I did… and it sounds awesome. It’ll be online at somepoint soon, although I might cheat and throw it in the collab release as well.

I’m off to Alabama over the Christmas/Hogmanay period, and with so much time to spend on a plane or six, I’m tempted to see how many chip songs I can write in that period, then tidy them up and release them as a package when I get back. We’ll see how it goes…

I may be forgotten, but not gone.

I don’t do covers very often. Infact, it’s probably one of the main reasons why my...

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 02:52:30 +0100

I don’t do covers very often. Infact, it’s probably one of the main reasons why my guitar playing is nowhere near as good as it should be given the length of time I’ve actually been doing it. Reproducing other people’s songs just isn’t something that comes naturally.

Anyway, sometimes these things just happen.

Back in another life and another band I shared a stage with these chaps, and it struck a chord tonight for a whole set of reasons, and I thought I’d have a bash.

Check out my massacre of ‘Moving to New York’ by the Wombats below.

moving to ny by unexpectedbowtie

A glimpse into recording drums with Keith. aka ‘a lot of...

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:44:09 +0100

A glimpse into recording drums with Keith.

aka ‘a lot of fucking around’

degrading into a party, and nothing respectable This is the face of Lee, aka Citizen Tank, aka...

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:13:36 +0100

degrading into a party, and nothing respectable

This is the face of Lee, aka Citizen Tank, aka noise-maker in Everyone an Army. Not only is he a fine musician, but he also let me (along with a pile of others) crash on his couch whilst on tour. Not just that, he even cooked breakfast in the morning.

What a guy.

It is him that came up with the beautiful piano playing on the most recent track to be finished from the whole collaborative ditty. You can listen below.

degrading into a party, and nothing respectable by unexpectedbowtie