Big thanks to Roger Payne from associated press (also frontman with Harpenden based Country Punks – Hubcap Moon)
365 days in a year. 365 songs. Each song represents a single day in the life… A unique experience, a mini drama, a vignette, however dramatic or routine, emotionally charged or neutral, all reflecting the trials, pressures, normalities, mundanities anyone might experience in any given 24 hours…
This is a big undertaking to capture the epic undertaking that is life… As Dermot says himself –
“like what a day does, you get what’s next, pretty much whether you like it or not and you deal with it, sometimes well, sometimes not… life in the now”.
These songs were born in an instant; conceived and recorded in bursts of spontaneity, each one an immediate statement of intent. Honest and pure but raw, like a wound, then left as is, untouched by the temptation to correct mistakes, mess with, tweak and fiddle… The thinking being as if to begin overproducing would be betray their roughly hewn from the ether quality and the spirit in which they were recorded…
In this day and age, because of the immediate hands on technology available in music and recording, so much emphasis is placed on crafting, shaping, controlling, cleaning up and polishing the work that any sense of spontaneity or evidence of the initial composition can be eradicated in the process. Through this misguided desire to seek perfection often the “undesirable” mess of accident, glitch, character and, god forbid, human error is wiped clean.
Like many of the Anti – Art DADAists, post war action painters or improvisational poets, by relinquishing full control of their craft, allowing accident and chance to live and breathe through their art and the creative process, a new aesthetic was achieved and new value was given to the finished results. Similarly 365 sets out to embrace these ideals contravening the petty quest for perfection and with the courage of full conviction to the purpose of the project, takes on an appropriate punk ethic to achieve an exciting, vibrant punk sound!
“This was a test, an experiment… an exploration employing a semi-surrealist, stream of consciousness… Let’s call it a bit Jackson Pollocks…”
The decision to start 365 as a “thing” hung, suspended in thought, like a ballerina on points on a razor blade… The narrowest movement, the slightest nudge either way could have been the difference between its existence or not! In this case, prevarication, apprehension and self-consciousness were the enemies of inspiration and, it was the light of inspiration, glowing in an otherwise dark place that motivated Dermot to reach inside himself and create something positive from the black swamp of his personal despair at the time… The death of a great friend and band mate, Terry, going through divorce, dealing with the serious illness of both parents among other traumas took Dermot to the edge…
Instead of retreating, shutting down, dimming the light by degrees, Dermot was shocked into action, turning to his passion for music to address the issues he was experiencing and face his reality.
“…just an average man from St. Albans, (once an ordinary city in England but now haven of the wealthy and bearded!). My style was spontaneous – I approached it how Terry’s death had approached me, by shocking me into action…”
Not so much as hoping for an instant cure but maybe to find some way to begin healing those raw wounds… You could say Dermot created a home-made music for a home-made therapy…
However 365 in not an exercise in self-introspection or indulgence. Amid the elements of despair sits a healthy dose of black humour to ease the pain, along with many a pinch of salt observation to bring a wry smile to the listeners face… 365 is a creative triumph… 365 is wild scream of optimism… 365 is a credit of creativity and example of spirit and hope overcoming the darkness…