'Bad Boy Blue' is a song/book/film from the 'Romantic' album sessions.
To get it you have to buy the deluxe edition of the album 'The Romantic' and you receive (amongst other extras) the story book of Bad Boy Blue with a link/code to download the song. Both are very lovely.
The Film is a gently animated version of the story book, which will probably be on YouTube by the time you read this. It looks a little bit like this....
This is an out take from the 'Fear' album.
I replaced it with more harp songs ('under the frozen ground' and 'slumberland') because harp is more interesting than piano. Fact.
Never wasteful though, me and Johnny the engineer used all sorts of bits of this to make a one off radio song called '35' on my 35th birthday... that is also in the scrapbook somewhere....
Features Gav on drums and Katy Dent on violin.... and an annunciation of the words 'broken bones' that I pinched - without realising it- from Fiona Apple. Oddness.
It may be a bad thing or it may not, but either way its a sign of the times; If I stick a video up on the interpipe more people take notice than if I stick a song up.
So occasionally I record exclusive one off songs in my bedroom straight into the camera on my computer. It looks cheap, because it is cheap - ie: free - but then Jessie J came along and made it cool to video yourself singing in your bedroom, so if its good enough for the Price Tag Lady...
Here's one I did a few Valentines days ago 'Silver Lining'. I was single at the time, you'd never have guessed....
When I was making the 'Fear' album in 2006 I hadn't yet established the artwork style that I since carried though for all of my records. My original idea, above, used a photo I had found online and as such seemed a bit dodgy especially seeing as it's of a kid (I think). So I asked punters to send in their images of 'Fear'.
Pleasingly people actually did and for a while the website hosted a 'Gallery of Fear'... here are some of the best ones....
In 2008 I made 3 x EP's 'Monkeyboy', 'Wolfboy' and 'Pigboy' : all using our new, exciting self sampling technique. They are no longer available but compiled on the 'Monkeys, Pigs and Wolves' album.
The nature of the compilation meant 2 songs had to be missed off. At the time I was all about curious pop, acoustic meets electro, rhythms and beats. So the saddest, prettiest song from 'Pigboy' got left off the compilation.
'Voltage' is about Sam 'Voltage' Voulters, now a stylist at Vice magazine, then a 17 year old model kind enough to myspace message me saying how much he liked one of my tunes.
The pictures on his profile showed a life a million miles from anything I had known when I was 17, constant parties, urban glamour, sex 'n' drugs 'n' no control. Got to be a song in that...
The original versions featured Tom's harp, brass and percussion made of newspapers but this version here is an exclusive alternative recording by Joe Peet, featuring my original piano demo and some very clever orchestral samples he built up. It is appropriately gorgeous.
