I'm breaking away from the density of this blog by putting up pages like grimaceworks.com/majectical and grimaceworks.com/mf/in_heaven. These will be 'focal point' pages that assemble bodies of work I have produced into something that can be shared and enjoyed without the usual wading through old posts. Also, these serve as a landing page for links from my youtube videos!

I have this theory (well - it's a modified version of a more learned man's theory, but anyway) that happiness comes from helping others. That it ONLY comes from helping others. The reason being that most genetically advantageous activities bring an immediate reward - eating, drinking etc..., but altruism requires the suspension of a selfish individual's beliefs so that the benefits of cooperation-over-time can start to kick in. My theory is that happiness is the way our genes program us to suspend our disbelief, and that, therefore the only way to achieve happiness is through altruism.

This theory is quite probably very flawed but, as a scientist, I am experimenting to see what happens when I help people unconditionally.

Cos this is the keyboard that is for the win.


Hulk Dash, tonight in Dalston

Right. This is the last place I need to put this thing and then I can relax for the rest of the day. Hopefully.

I finished Majectical Electical on Saturday night. I decided it was good. I decided it's worth firing on all cylinders to promote. Because it gives something to the world (rather than empathising with pain what I have a tendency to produce normally).

You can download this work for the next couple of weeks before it shifts into the iTunes music store, so get it while it's hot!

And did I mention... tell everyone you know!

click here!

This is it. The master copy of my new album. Featuring some old favourites and some new ones. And it's happy.


Update

And now I'm putting it for free download for a couple of weeks. Get it while it's hot! grimaceworks.com/majectical

I have just heard a stupid debate on Radio 4 about how memory sticks containing sensitive information keep getting leaked. I'll tell you why I think this is - it's because agencies' work computers are so locked down that nobody can do any work without undermining the whole security system by copying stuff onto these sticks. The problem will probably be tackled by placing yet MORE restrictions on these computers, and the end result can only be to completely scupper any chances of these employees being able to do any work, rendering the welfare state a hopeless waste of resources.

If you don't trust your employees then how are they supposed to do any work?

Due to, if not popular demand, one demand, I have added a search box to mf.grimaceworks.com.

I might even make it an autocompleter if you're lucky...

Update: I added the autocomplete field!

Although this website will now bring your computer to its knees very quickly :(

I put this together this afternoon - it's visualisations of the MIDI parts of Bumpy Bosbo and Some Day.



Bumpy Bosbo is the first one, the Some Day is the bottom one where it's denser and more randomly coloured.

All part of the album artwork I'm preparing for my next album; working title: Majectical Electical

Check it!

http://www.rbdx.com/?p=51

I've finally added some very rudimentary commenting functionality to my website. In theory stuff gets checked by akismet to see whether it's spam, so we'll see how that goes (one reason I have been reluctant to add comments on this website is because I get so much spam on cinestatic.com).

Now you can talk back!

So I heard them going over the copyleft debate on Radio 4 this morning with Tony James, who has made an album bearing the marketing gimmick in this post's title. This is the last time anybody is going to get on Radio 4 for doing something like this - it's interesting to people that haven't engaged in the debate yet but to the savvy it's old news, and it's getting worn out as a promotional gambit. When asked about making money, Tony said "I still like the idea of buying the records - I download stuff but I still want to go out and buy the CD because I like shopping". I find this argument irritating and flawed.

I've been giving music away for free for years. A lot of music. The first time I realised I should do this was when I was at school - 15 years old - a girl I had always liked asked me if I'd do her a tape of my music and I tried to sell it to her. This turned her off and I was kicking myself for weeks. I realised I was happy to know that people were listening to stuff I'd made and that I shouldn't be doing it for the money.

There is one very important lesson I have learned about giving music away for free: you still have to market free music just as much as you would if you were selling it.

Marketing costs money, and so does every other part of the process. I have spent thousands and thousands of pounds on recording equipment, computers, studio time, marketing and playing gigs over the years - it's certainly not free to make music, even if the means of production are no longer controlled by a select few.

In my old bands (Dionysus, Pinstripe, Gaijin) we always used to make tapes or CDs to sell at gigs - with the right friend pushing them at people in the crowd we could make a few quid (by students' standards anyway). In recent years I have foolishly neglected this habit. But you know why it works? It's not about money, or even how much these customers liked the music (they have to like it a bit, obviously!), but about convenience. This is my considered answer to the questions surrounding this entire free-music debate.

Sometimes the most convenient way to get something is to download a torrent. Sometimes it's easier to burn a copy of a CD borrowed from a friend. If the business people get it right, the most convenient way to obtain something involves an exchange of money. If something is reasonably priced and easier to buy than to pirate, then I'll buy it. For instance - Quicktime Pro costs £20. I had a choice to hunt down a crack or serial number and try to find something that was not a virus or a scam (try it with Quicktime - it's a particularly awkward thing to find a decent copy of), or just hand over my £20 and get it delivered painlessly and instantly, and not feel bad for stealing. I have paid for a lot of little bits of software since I got my Mac - and I pay for the upgrades when they come round, because it is easier than pirating stuff and it doesn't make me feel bad.

I noticed the same thing recently with the iTunes music store. I don't have a TV but I wanted to watch Peep Show the morning after it had been shown - the torrents hadn't emerged yet but it was available for a reasonable cost (£1.89) on iTunes. So I paid instead of waiting. I rented a few films through iTunes after this - films I would never normally have paid for but I wanted something to watch more-or-less immediately so I handed over a little cash.

I don't know about you, but I find record shopping immensely tedious. I can never find anything I want - I am always having to guess what section I will find a recording in - my tastes don't really match up to the sections in 'Zavvi' (if that is your real name!) so I invariably leave frustrated. I always balked at buying music from iTunes because of the DRM (i.e. the inconvenience of not being able to control how I played the music) so was very happy when they started getting rid of it, and now I'll buy stuff because it's the most convenient route. I'd rather get something at a reasonable price where there is some quality control and a pleasurable user experience, than wade through a lot of torrent files or LimeWire noise to wait an unspecified length of time before receiving something that may or may not be what I'm after. Kids spend money on ringtones because it's really easy to do so.

In summary: we need to keep looking for ways to make it easier for people to pay for art than to take it for free.

Are these links even easy enough??

Michael Forrest - Broken Into Tumbolia on
eMusic , iTunes , Amazon MP3 or GroupieTunes

How's about clicking the little 'become a fan' link on here - my page is looking a little unhealthy so far... Michael Forrest Facebook Page