This year has been about pretty fundamental life changes. All of them good and most of them hard work. I didn’t realise that settling down could be so chaotic!

We have relocated home twice this year. We made the move initially from the city centre to the area of Idle where we had a fairly troublesome 6 month tenancy. The owner of the property had some considerable problems which affected us directly and quite profoundly. It was a disappointing experience overall because we saw ourselves staying there for much longer but it simply didn’t work out in the end.

In the summertime, we found ourselves moving once again, this time on a much more permanent basis. Our new place is lovely and not too far away from Idle. Minor teething troubles notwithstanding, it has been relatively stress-free since we moved in. Moving home is fairly traumatic as it is and after having done it twice in such a short space of time, it’s not something I wish to repeat.

We barely had chance to catch a breath when in late summer, Emma and I got married. Of course us being us, we simply had to do it in Las Vegas with an Elvis impersonator. It was an amazing and full-on experience. The autumn was taken up with a couple of parties which we arranged in October and November respectively. It was so lovely to share our experience with so many family and friends, some of which we hadn’t caught up with for a while and some who had travelled some distance to be with us.

Since then, the chaos of wedding and parties turned to the chaos of Christmas. Not having much chance to plan, it has felt a bit more rushed than usual. We are looking forward to our first married Christmas together in our new home.

So amongst all of the above, music has been much less prevalent. I started the year with Man Down but ultimately this did not work out, which I have talked about in other blog entries. Looking back, Man Down was a short flash of something which seemed to appear very quickly then disappear just as quickly. We recorded and released the Christmas song “Man Down the Chimney” around this time last year and had one fantastic gig but despite having some strong material, the project didn’t work out as we had hoped. It lasted about a year all told, starting in May 2016 and after I left in April 2017, it lasted another month or so before the remaining members went on to do other things. If truth be told though, the bottom really fell out of it in the new year. I still have all the rehearsal recordings and there’s some great material so perhaps we can do some proper studio recordings at some point. Mikey has expressed an interest for the two of us to work together again and I have missed him dearly since the band, so we’ll see what time will permit.

Dawn of Elysium has still ploughed along in the background. We played just 3 gigs this year and released a single in April. Our profile has been lower for a while as we’ve been trying to write and record new material. Given the upheaval described above, this has not been easy. Of course Emma and I are in the band together so music has not always taken priority. We were hoping to release a second album or at least an EP this year but it just hasn’t transpired. Don’t get me wrong though, there’s some fantastic material being developed, which may take listeners of our music by surprise. However, there is much work to be done before it’s a releasable entity. I think it is ultimately time to take a step back and give it some space. You can lose yourself in the writing and recording process at times and I think we have all missed actually playing our songs and doing gigs. So, in 2018 we have decided to do just that. We’ve a couple in the pipeline already and are on the lookout for more opportunities to play.

The frustration of Man Down not working out and lack of live activity led me to start looking for a brand new band in September. My intention was to steadily get something together with a view to starting in the new year. As it happened, it came together quite quickly and we kicked off in October. It’s still early days and we don’t yet have a name but ideas are flowing. Most of us had never worked together before and barely knew one another so we are still very much getting used to playing together. I suspect it will be a little while before we’re ready to get out there but we’re enthusiastic.

Since we moved into the new house, I have finally achieved a bit of a personal goal which was to set up my little home studio. When we lived in the apartment, there was never any space to set it up properly and there is only so much you can achieve with headphones. I began setting it up in the house in Idle but when it became apparent that this would be temporary, I was reticent about doing much with it in anticipation of packing it all up again. It’s only a small space but it’s reasonably comfortable and very usable. I have recorded and mixed bits and bats in there and I’m improving each time. There is a whole host of activities and projects I want to do. I have toyed with the idea of starting a new blog to describe the studio in more detail and document my progress, I just need to apply more focus, which is something I’m hoping 2018 will bring.

My immediate plan however is to enjoy Christmas in my new home with my new wife and look forward to a bit of relaxing winter sun in the new year as we take off for sunnier climes for a few days. Have a great Christmas and a prosperous New Year.