The very idea that you can fight a clean and sterile war where everybody holds dear to the Geneva Convention is nothing but a myth. Exercises that we’re spoon-fed so that we can turn a blind eye to the true horrors afflicted in the names of peace, freedom and liberty. Collateral damage, regrettable civilian casualties. These are phrases that we all hear smoothly delivered at press conferences without fully grasping the meanings. They translate into children without arms or legs, mass destruction of private property and the devastation of families and life styles. Every war has these casualties and in every war there is somebody hanging from their thumbs in a dark room with a bag over their head for our safety.
Accept the cost and fight a total war using any necessary means or don’t go to war at all. There is no nice way to occupy another country. The ancients knew this and their solution was simple. Enslave the population, burn their cities to the ground and kill on mass anybody who even looks like raising a fist against you.
Make peace with and understand those you are at odds with. A successful alternative is too horrifying for a truly civilised society to contemplate.
I managed to enjoy a fairly carefree childhood and was one of these kids that actually enjoyed school. When I look back I think that nowadays I would have been classed in with the nerds. Awkward round girls and I think really the last kid in school to get kissed.
The summer of my 17th year changed all that. Four things happened…Sex, Drugs, playing in a band and my father dying. Life was never the same again. For starters I flunked out of school and could not be in the same room as my mother for 5 minutes without a fight starting. Within six months I had moved out and into my first shared house and swapped the synthy electro duo I was in for a slot in a four-piece psychedelic rock band playing keyboards. We lived all together; we smoked together from morning noon and night and we toured. Carefree times in a battered old mini van when we felt we could conquer the world. It couldn’t last and I headed for London looking for a job in a recording studio.
I had no real idea of what I wanted, I just knew I was in love with all the toys and the studio was the only place I wanted to be. Did the usual run of tape-op to engineer and then onto production and once again written contributions and recordings. Have had the privilege of working with a few of the world’s greatest musicians and have recorded everybody from the fantastically famous to the obscure and sometimes bloody awful. Coffee adverts, film soundtracks, electro, ambient, rock, jazz and back again. Remixes, concept albums, pushy Japanese executive producers, drug excesses and every station in between. Went round the world, had my arse wiped in luxury, slept unwashed and hungry on cold floors and I’ve think I’ve just about been there, seen it, done it, and I’m damn glad I did.
During my UK based time I was a founding member of The Orb and as well as writing for the debut album I was responsible for about 75% of the mix and song arrangement. I’d say that would give me a pretty big stamp on the sound (but maybe that’s just my opinion) and sure I’m smug that "Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld" has been the biggest critical and commercial success the band ever had. I left after this first record and I wish Alex love. Other projects from around the same time period that saw me making writing contributions were the debut albums of Steve Hillage’s System 7 and Tony Martin’s Hypnotone. It was during the making of these records that I finally got to exercise to excess the passion to view and use the studio as the biggest most creative instrument of all. Soundscapes and my ambient fantasies could run free. Brian I loved you for the inspiration.
After a few years the dream started to fall apart for me. I’d been supporting the economy of Columbia in a big way and when I looked in the mirror I realised I didn’t like the person looking back. Arrogant arsehole is the phrase that springs to mind and when I had a couple of friends die of drug related incidents, I knew it was a time for a change. That change was to get out of the circle I was in and the catalyst was following my heart and a woman to Germany. Work was no problem as my management kept me supplied with things to do and I’d reached a point where I no longer had to be based in London to work, but it just wasn’t the same anymore. I knew I wanted out, but everybody I’d talk to would tell me what a great job I had, how exciting! My friends thought I was mad to think about giving up and I didn’t know what the hell I would do instead anyway. The final push came with the knowledge that I was going to be a father and I knew I wanted to be one that would be there for my child so I quit. The last bit of commercial work I did was a remix for Tony Banks from Genesis, so I sucked Satan’s dick for a huge pay cheque.
Luck smiled on me when a major German export company that I was aquatinted with offered me a job and I quit one career and started a new one almost at once. After spending years making music I was all of a sudden selling it instead. It wasn’t long after this that the mother of my son decided she preferred her old boyfriend better. Maybe I’d lost my shine with a 9 till 5 but I’m fairly philosophical about this as I ended up bumping into the partner I’d been looking for all my life. My best friend and lover whom I’ve now been with for the best ten years of my life (two of them married). My son lives round the corner and we see a lot of each other, we’re close, and life has been good. I gave up writing music even for my own pleasure as I felt I nothing more to say or contribute, and I was happy to turn my back on something that almost felt like it had happened a life time ago and to somebody else.
Ten years passed and it wasn’t until my twelve year old son started to ask about the framed discs hanging on the wall or what dad had done for a job before that I started to think about all my old gear in storage in the cellar. I dragged it out and after playing around for a few weeks was surprised to find out that I was enjoying myself, and that it was so easy to start writing again. Maybe I had something to say after all and lots of ideas just started to spill out. A trip to my local music store followed and I was soon kited out with all the latest gear. That was a major culture shock after being out of the loop for ten years. When I left, everybody was still working on Atari 1040 computers and the Akai S1100 sampler was considered state of the art. Everybody still used tape and even though we’d got as far as digital multitrack tape machines being fairly common, hard disc recording was still a clumsy super expensive toy best left to the likes of Trevor Horn. Now I have a complete studio on my desktop and one with more flexibility and possibilities than most of the Neve or SSL top-flight studios I’d worked in (provided I didn’t want to do things like record a drum kit which I don’t).
It didn’t take long until the flow of ideas began to take a more coherent form and I realised that I had the makings of a concept album for want of a better description. After writing and recording for a little over a year I’m now as far as the penultimate track. Mixing should start around Christmas and I’m expecting to have a CD ready master by early 2008. That’s when I have to decide what to do with it as I feel there is a message and first and foremost I want that message to be heard. It’s part of my reason for being here on MySpace and for those of you who’ve read this far I hope you’ll hang around to read the blogs, hear the rough mixes that will be posted and enjoy the final product when it’s finished. Stick around and see how the story ends. Maybe it won’t be an ending, but another new beginning.
Andy Falconer Nov’ 07
Talking of new beginnings it’s really time for a personal update as well as an artistic confession. Let’s start off by going back three paragraphs to the bit where I say, “I ended up bumping into the partner I’d been looking for all my life. My best friend and lover whom I’ve now been with for the best ten years of my life (two of them married)â€. This, unfortunately is no longer the actual state of play. I’m afraid that my wife has realised that what she wanted when she was 25 is not what she wants now she’s 35. It’s a blow to put it mildly but I can understand and respect her. I know from my own experiences that your 20’s into your 30’s is a period of rapid personal growth and change. The statement “the best ten years of my life†still holds VERY true but I only hope that at some point in the future I can change the statement too “some of the best years of my lifeâ€. I don’t regret a minute and she still has my love and friendship. She’s going to be a tough act to follow.
The artistic confession is that the album has been on ice for the last 5 months. The distraction and emotional turmoil of recent events have dampened my creative endeavours and even though I’ve got a half finished track up; I’ve not recorded a note. As a result my planned schedule for completion can be thrown right out of the window, but all is not lost. I’m slowly getting my act together and once I’ve got a couple of things in my life sorted out I will be back at work. Have some patience and a kicking new track will be posted very soon. Life goes on.
BTW If anybody wants to send any messages of sympathy…..DON’T
Thank You
Andy Falconer Feb' 08