welcome to my life.

welcome to my past.

or perhaps a former present.

whatever way you choose to view it, Anubis Horror, to me, is a memoir. it is a certain time, transposed and reproduced via music.

and music should be all about interpretation, which has left a question mark over how far I should go in explaining my own motives and my own decisions when creating this music.

it has been a long, strange journey, and one thing that I am certain of is that the Hunchbakk saga is not up to date, in an alternative reality, the Hunchbakk album would have been completed a number of years ago, I'd have found the time to work on the music and wrap it up quicker.

as such, when sourcing the spoken word material I restricted myself to trawling through poems from a very specific time frame, Open Myself Up and Teenaging had already been written and recorded, so I simply flicked through the pages until I found these among my original scrawlings and worked my way forward, taking notes of the passing years, as noted on occasion by my past self with great foresight

thankfully, by february 'project resurrection' had excavated a total of ten tracks, each in differing stages of completion, leaving my plans for a twelve track album not so far out of reach, it was then matching these up with my words, what to leave as instrumental, what needs adding, what needs changing and what needs completing.

now, if my memory serves me, then there are no lyrics/poetry on my album that were written any later than 2008 or possibly 2009, and of all the music, every single track on the album apart from one had its genesis in the same back bedroom that I wrote all my poetry in.

the time spent crafting it and moulding it to its final shape has felt like a certain form of regression for me, casting my mind back to my old self, my old bedroom, in my old home, I think the lyrics and the music reflects who I was, and now I'm wondering who it was that I left behind, and who I have become.

living in the past hasn't been easy, and the release felt like an absolution of sorts, a chance to start being me again, right now.


perhaps I shall break down the album further in a handful more posts, but for now, allow yourself to wallow in the past that I couldn't put to rest until recently.br>

debut album, Anubis Horror out now

of course it isn't unreasonable to launch your album from a country other than the one you live in...

a nice glitzy press conference at perhaps a swanky hotel of some sort

and in this day and age of live streaming and digital media coverage, it could be trending on twitter as soon as the first flash bulb pops


except this isn't the way the Hunchbakk album is launched


Anubis Horror, the debut album from Hunchbakk, released on the 29th June 2013



i picked the date specifically, the 29th being the last day that i am 29, my last day in my twenties, alongside the book that I have written, completing and releasing an album before my 30th birthday on the 30th of June seemed a rather achievable goal to aim for after declaring that it would finally see the light of day this year.

except nobody was informed of the release until late on the 30th June, when I sat down in Byte Burger in Alexanderplatz, Berlin, with my girlfriend and finally found myself gifted with wi-fi.

the album had already been online for over 24 hours, and as my sinister phone connected i had to fend off a barrage of facebook birthday greetings before I could finally announce to a small portion of the world that my first opus was among them.

as we were setting off on our journeys last thursday, album set and ready to launch, I did not conceive such an issue occurring, although we had not booked into a hotel with free wi-fi as we had on our jaunt to Iceland, I imagined that I would be checking my emails every time we sat down to eat, I did not imagine that it would be a struggle to use my credit card every time we sat down to eat, with numerous bars, restaurants and train ticket machines only accepting cash, let alone leeching off a bountiful supply of complimentary cyberspace.

by contrast, Rekjavic was overflowing with gratis googling and my credit card tailor made for well-travelled transactions was welcomed almost anywhere, whilst the majority of Berlin was depleting our dwindling fund of paper money at almost every turn as the city seemed to be stuck somewhere in the Eighties (although the lack of dividing wall and my advancing years seemed to argue otherwise).

and so concludes my masterclass in how not to market an album successfully, remember to leave your worries and your mobile network at the airport and abandon all contact with social networks, heck, even old fashioned means of communication may not be possible if you haven't got enough Euros for a postcard and stamp.

but now back in the UK, I can finally publish this post and possibly hop on the campaign trail.

(did i mention that i have an album out?)

This is progress

there has barely been time to shout from the rooftops about my debut single

my lack of promotion is frankly embarassing to be honest


and yet all of this, as far as i'm concerned, signals progress


hopefuly my life is progressing, since i am now swamped with completing the album within the time scale that i had given myself, completing my book (which has fallen out of the timescale i had given myself, but shall be arriving, no matter how late it may be), writing reviews and trying to figure out where my life may take me next

where I am being taken next is Berlin, where I shall be celebrating 3 decades on this planet (although celebrating may be a touch too strong, perhaps toasting it is more appropriate), and where life takes me after shall hopefully be a new adventure, one that I have postponed or too long

I don't feel that I am gaining enough from my current employment, it is simply a means to an end, and a paltry end at that, so it is time to try and figure out who I am and what I want to do and where I want to be

where I want to be is invariably somewhere I can create, hopefully music focused, but we'll see

as this month draws to a close I'm hoping to draw a line under who I've been and instead focus on who I am

it's here: Teenaging, the debut single

finally, it's here...

the debut single, a four track package, is now available as a pay-what-you-like download via bandcamp

it has been a long time coming. the release of Teenaging, originally recorded in 2008, heralds the arrival of the full length debut album, Anubis Horror. a trip down memory lane and an industrial take on hip-hop elements, Teenaging follows the path travelled by many as their formative years at school gives way to an errant sense of identity and the prevailing person that we will ultimately become as life shapes us all. the title track of the single is also backed by a chopped up and tortured rendition of the poem 'The Dishonest Truth', the Kaoss pad created and long unavailable 'Base Element' that originally debuted in 2009, and a remix of Teenaging tackled by Tesla aka Matthew Sewell, guitarist and knob-twiddler with North-London djent-metallers UNX, whose debut EP was released earlier this year.



it's been an interesting journey that isn't over yet, but for this release i can't give enough thanks to my brother, Ian Byford, for providing inspired artwork, and to Matthew Sewell, who turned in an amazing remix that really changed the sounds that i have had swimming around my head for so long

so please, download, share and enjoy, and keep an eye out for the forthcoming full length album

I

it's coming....

here come the remix

I certainly can't speak for anybody else, but it isn't very often that I find a remix of one of my own tracks has appeared in my inbox overnight.

actually, it has never once happened to me before, and it was with trepidation that I actually opened the attached file.

y'see, part of my big plan is a number of singles released from my forthcoming album.

and part of my big plan is to include a number of the bloody talented artists and individuals that I have encountered along the way in my little musical foray.


to date, my music has been my own, I have kept the album under wraps, kept it hidden, only herd by a chosen few, and certainly, working on the music has been a thoroughly solitary experience, just me, sat at my computer trying to make something that I am gonna be proud of

but music doesn't have to be for the individual, it can be experienced together, as groups, and as a collaborative process, my years of flitting around on the local music scene has led me to cross paths with many people, and it was to some of these people that I have reached out to when looking for some fresh ideas on my own creations that will soon be seeing the light of day.

I hope that this is just the start of a long and fruitful series of Brave and Bold style team-ups, and fingers crossed that first remix, in its complete state will be making up part of the debut single.. which should be surfacing on the horizon in the coming weeks.....

all about the timing

Some things are all about the timing

and in this constantly connected, constantly evolving and ever changing world that we are living in this is thoroughly important in the game of 'self-promotion'

so, of course my timing is completely off...


urgh, self-promotion, what an ugly little term, essentially jumping up and down and going 'oooooh, look at me!', this is pretty much the opposite of how I choose to live my life, nothing wrong with a little bit of shameless plugging here and there... but I'd rather kinda just get on with it and hope that the universe shares a little bit of good will with me, hardly a go get'em attitude, I know, but this is simply how I am

thankfully, the modern world makes it far easier to be less show-offish and still get noticed, social media, blogs and unparalleled connectivity make short work of being in touch with people and getting your voice heard.

so of course my timing is completely off...


currently, in a whirlwind of stolen moments and furious activity, I am arranging self-publishing my debut novel, (hey, wasn't that coming out in April?), releasing my debut single (on course to be derailed, but with you very soon-ish), followed by the release of my debut album (in June, definitely in June), so I guess my online banter should make reference to the fact that all these things are happening!

of course my timing is completely off...

it has been nearly a year since I started a new job, a new job that pays ridiculously badly and leaves me with next to no free time throughout the day, compared to my job of 11 years prior to that, which paid poorly but gave me enough free time to try and be who I wanted to be, I felt that was a fair compromise to be honest.

email checking, social networking, actual networking, blogging, researching, all of these were possible if work was quiet, not the case anymore, my time is limited and little indulgences like these are long gone, my social networking presence has certainly taken a hit and prior to this, my last blog post was over a month ago!

of course, my timing is completely off!!!

and of course, the book I grabbed from the library, a book about one man choosing to flee his life of paying exorbitant London rents and instead living out of hotel rooms around the world in a social experiment in keeping costs down isn't just a book about the former mentioned, it is all this plus preparing for the release of his debut book...

as a 'published author' he is often on the blag and making ends meet via freelance work as he builds on his reputation, as the publishing date nears he relays the importance of his online standing and traffic to his frequently updated blog.

(grumble) ok, so my timing is completely off....

I can see the similarities and I can see the differences, both of us gearing up for the release of our first novel, him flying around the world (hey, to Vegas and Rekjavic and erm, the Soho Revue Bar, places I have also been!) and updating his blog and forging his reputation and living off the advance he has been paid, and me, who is selfpublishing, expecting to make no money, and haven't blogged in a while.


and I can see what I have to do, but so much of it comes down to having the time, I no longer have this disposable commodity to do so freely with as I wish, the time that I should perhaps be spending trying to maintain my online presence and keeping the world updated of my progress is instead spent trying to make progress, or trying to make dinner and make the house look tidy and all the other household chores, and then squeeze in a little bit of progress if I can find the time


I guess it's all about timing