Breaking News! / Buddhism, Espresso, Isolation and Cagefighting…

Over the last month there have been some seriously, brain meltingly exciting developments concerning the album and its release.

Most of these I will share closer to the time.  It is impossible to overstate how excited I am about this.

There are however a few things I can tell you RIGHT NOW… The first is:  I will be releasing this album in a way that, (as far as I can tell) has never been tried before.  It is a pretty badass and cutting edge concept which we at:  ‘JamesRadcliffe Inc’ are very fucking excited about.

And the second is:  I have settled on an image for the cover / front art of my album!  I’m not including it here yet but, do not fear, you will beholden it soon enough.

All this last week I have been back in the harness.

I work in a very organic way, which keeps the process alive for me.  I play the seed parts of the pieces most days, sometimes for hours at a time, and let them develop by themselves.  They go wherever they want.  I am both led, and ruled by intuition.  Arrangements arise naturally and the endpoint is a perpetual mystery to me.  I am looking forward to hearing this album as much as anybody.

I have started to isolate again.  For me, this seems to go hand in hand with doing good work.  Even my cat is banished.  There are a bunch of potential pitfalls in working and making your living as an independent artist; the side effects of isolation are one of these.  In truth, it doesn’t bother me so much.  I was an only child growing up, and it’s part of the price that I pay for doing good work.  Connection comes from taking the work out and giving it to people.

I am reading:  a bunch of really old Buddhist texts, (You have a lot of time for reading when you see zero people;-), 2 different translations of the Tao Te Ching, (I have read, like, 15 different translations of this book and it remains ever-new) and I am re-reading ‘The Wind Up Bird Chronicle’ by Murakami, (because: fucking Murakami).  In other news, I am drinking a lot of coffee, espresso, green tea and Mate (south american green tea) and watching a bunch of cagefighting.  And listening to music.  Always, always music.

For the moment at least, I have stopped doing live shows.  Playing live uses a whole different set of muscles to the ones I am using at the moment.  And I work best if I have one primary focus.  It’s not totally out of the question but, realistically, the only way I can see me doing more live stuff this year is: if any of the pieces that I am working on need to go out into the world as part of their development.

So, there is my life laid bare: Music, Buddhism, Espresso, Isolation and Cagefighting.

Until next time:

“Go forth, and be an Epic Force of Awesome.”

My name is James Radcliffe and I am a 100% audience supported independent artist.  If you like what I do (and can afford it) then please consider buying some of my music.  Each purchase really makes a big difference to me and 10% of every sale goes to a charity which: houses, feeds, clothes, and educates orphaned children in Nepal.

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And lastly, if you’d like to find out what I’m up to on a more day-to-day basis then here is my brain on Twitter:

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