you do love me

it was as a special valentines day treat that i released a free download of VCR, a cover of the XX song, on february 14th 2010

(back when i was still loading my music up to fileden for sharing)

and last week, nearly two years on from its initial debut i received an email from my soundcloud account informing me that that same song had reached its limit of 100 downloads.

ok, i'm only a small dust particle blowing around in this indescribably huge music business, what i do, i do for fun, and as a hobby, as a passion.  i don't imagine a career as a musician being forthcoming.  but for one of my tracks to be on the hard-drives, iPods or iPhones of 100 people, that is something of a milestone that i am proud to have achieved.

i was thrilled when my remix of The Enemy went global, and bloody astounded when my remix of Radiohead was downloaded something like 5000 times in its first week, and it may be a slow burner, but this cover version is clearly something that at least 100 people felt strongly enough about to click that little download tab that has now been disabled.



with 2053 plays to date, i am still extremely proud of how this track in particular has performed, and the fact that it has completely outshone my spoken word version that i created after my girlfriend cringed all the way through the original version i created and insisted it would be much better if i did not sing.

of course, with just 3 downloads and 82 plays to date, the spoken word version is still available to download for those that may wish to sample it for themselves



which also leads me to wonder if i should not have listened to her when i chose to make a video for the spoken word version and not my sung version, if i can still find the remains of the video on my crippled computer i may need to do something about redressing the balance and restoring it to the most favoured interpretation of VCR.


so thanks guys, thanks whoever you are that have enjoyed my tracks so far, i know i've been rambling on about other things on my blog and really have not produced enough new music recently, but hopefully you'll be sticking around

(and i love you too)

titus groan

my foul tempered and life-support assisted computer has been a real burden on any kind of creativity that i was intending to display, another year, another christmas and i'm ashamed to say that i have nought new to offer anybody by way of a musical present.

that isn't to say that i haven't thought about it (after all, i am a thinker and not a doer)

and somewhere on my flatlining hardrive is my follow up to www.xmas.com, intended to be released in 2009, but with each fleeting moment i assume that it shall remain an incomplete idea that recoils in Sony Acid

it is a cover version of sorts, and the more thought i give to it, the more i see it as something that was never likely to have acheived fruition

much more likely to be within my grasp was the notion of another cover version, my own attempt at John Cage's 4'33" that i was rather delighted to have thought up when the Christmas number 1 campaign was still in its infancy and is now being actively encouraged, but quite simply i just haven't found the time (all 4 minutes and 33 seconds) to work on it properly, combine this with the fact that my girlfriend's laptop seems to make an awful lot of noise when it records and it leaves me falling short of the creative vision i had in mind

and so it goes, i have ideas, i consider cover versions, i play out in my head a way to make it sound like my own, give each track a Hunchbakk stamp that makes it recognisable as clearly being one of my interpretations, i did manage it with the xx's vcr, i also made a start on a cover of a rialto song, and i'm still certain that my eventual version of 'many of horror' while be a darn sight better than that wet squib currently being offered up by Matt Cardle (seriously, why?)

but in terms of a festive treat for right now, i'm bringing back www.xmas.com, and shall keep bringing it back until amazon or hmv see fit to use it in their christmas advertising campaigns and send a little money my way

if they want it, they'll have to pay for it, but for everybody else the track is available to download absolutely free (just like all my music to date has been) and this year is the first year that the track is available via soundcloud, so please feel free to share it around and spread the cynical christmas cheer

   www.xmas.com by Hunchbakk

compare and contrast

since my original 'sung' version of vcr has ceased to exist because i have failed to keep my fileden account active, and after mentioning it while posting up the video for my new 'spoken word' version i thought i may as well revive it and put both versions on here to listen to and download in all their glory.

so if you liked what you heard on the video, help yourself to an mp3 of it right here

vcr (spoken word xx cover) by Hunchbakk

but if you're brave enough to give my singing a listen, perhaps you may like to take advantage of my ever abundant generosity and grab this one

vcr (the xx cover) by Hunchbakk

heck, take both if you realy want to, don't be shy

oh, and did i mention that i'd made a video for it??

premiere

it has been an unbelievably busy and rather productive few days for me.

i've been working on new music for a new little project that is likely to take over my life and become the only thing i care about if i can ever ween myself off the addiction to reading comics that i seem to have picked up again (but i guess there are worse addictions to be afflicted with).

so, yes, making music, reading comics, finishing my first ever music video (which is why you're here, right) as well as writing (starting, middling and indeed finishing) the first short story that i have probably written since i was a kid, i've not quite decided what to do with it just yet, it feels far too momentous an occasion for me to just put it up as a blog post.

oh, and that's not including all the live music i have seen, i have witnessed The Television Personalities, Milk Kan, Akira The Don, Kele and Underworld all doing there respective things. So of course i'm already working on an article, even tho the Enfield Advertiser seems to be getting ridiculously behind again.

and all this obtuse over achieving and busy business has only been since about 12.20 pm thursday!! it's already looking to be another busy week this week too, tho possibly (almost defientley) not quite as productive.

but lets get round to that video i promised you, the video for my new new spoken word cover version of the xx's vcr, which supersedes the version that i actually attempted singing on!!

enough waffle.

video, now!



now, perhaps a little more waffle??

Hunchbakk - vcr (the xx spoken word cover version)

made on a budget of absolutely nothing at all

Directed, Edited, Filmed and Concept by Hunchbakk
Additional Filming by Ian Byford

filmed on location in my Dad's back room.

thank you

exxplore

i just finished making my first full length music video, i probably should do afew more to increase my prescence on Youtube, but i don't want to videos just for the sake of it.

i've had ideas for a couple of my earlier remixes but they were ideas that i would like to see done right, instead of cobbled together using windows video editor thingy and a number of its dodgy video effects, but to be honext, you do need to work with what you've got.

so in the very not too far off distant future i shall be unveiling my video for my cover of The XX's VCR.

and not only is it a new video, it is also a new version of the song that i have done in a spoken word style since my girlfriend insisted it would sound better than my singing.

the original sung version i actually uploaded to my blog in february, but since i have been using soundcloud instead of fileden i am presuming that it has now disapeared into the ether.

i'm still unsure which version  the song i prefer, i don't think that my voice sounds quite as terrible as she says it does on VCR, i'm well aware that i don't have a great singing voice, but i didn't think i needed to.


but before i get round to uploading that vid, can i just take a minute to stake my claim as the first person to cover the XX, as far as i am aware nobody else had covered the band when i uploaded my version of VCR in february, as they grew in popularity i knew it would only be a matter of time so i'm glad i got in there quick.

i didn't quite expect Shakira to go charging in and claiming Islands for herself tho, she got in on the act back in may (3 months behind me, keep up Shakira) and brought her cover with her along with her hypnotic hip-wiggling set to glastonbury last month.

sadly no dry humping of the onstage monitors in this song tho.......

a destructive force

be  fearful of anything left too long in my presence

it is likely to break

computer hard drives must shudder in their shells when i walk in a room, shitting giga-bricks cos of my reputation

my current computer situation is that the microphone input won't work and hasn't for a long while, the CD tray has given up opening, the mouse isn't actually sure whether it is connected or not most of the time, i-tunes will only open half of the times i want it to and web pages seem to need constant stopping and refreshing in order to try and get anywhere.

despite this i will keep trying to be as equally creative as i am destructive by experimenting and producing music on my weary machine

other computers that i have regular contact with seem to suffer fits and spasms and memory loss

only one CD tray on my 3CD changer stereo actually works, and sometimes even that is close to death and needs a good smack to get it sorted again

the radio in the bathroom tends to leave semi-regular gaps of silence during FM transmissions

a long suffering video player flickered its last a handfull of months ago, before this it had been prone to turning most films into black and white movies at any given moment


and yesterday, my bicycle that i rely on to get from A to B was struck down with a gash in the back tyre, so that it was pissing the magical self-healing green gunk from the inner tube as the wheel spun round and round and was soon flat, leaving me with a walk of shame
i am currently trying to attract punctuality, wealth and a moderately priced house to myself through positive thinking, but i can't help but think that things will continue to go wrong and that i will have to keep struggling through no matter how many times i focus my mind on computers that actually do what you want them to and 3 bedroom houses with a south facing gardens.

this isn't a declaration of negativity, this is an acceptance that things won't be hunky dory all of the bloody time - the world just isn't like that

love. me?

Hunchbakk doesn't do love songs

but inspired by the ridiculous sentiment of valentines day i thought i'd have a crack at something slightly different

a cover of a love song

but this is Hunchbakk so this isn't your Steve Wright standard


now my musical skills leave a lot to be desired and the end result is far from perfect but i love it for it's imperfections

composed almost entirely with my kaoss pad, i present to you

Hunchbakk - vcr (the xx cover)