Ode to A-minor.

This is the very first post in a blog that will statistically last no more than a few months. Most blogs don't. Most blogs open with a positive statement: "Hi! I've finally started blogging now! Woo" and then die a quiet death not long after. I'm doing pretty much what everyone else is doing but bare with me for a minute and I'll try to hide it as gracefully as I can.

I can't start off joyful. I named this blog "rants in A-minor" and even though there's chords much more depressing (E-minor, for instance, yikes!) and much more harsh (I'm looking at you C-sharp minor) A-minor is not a chord to start a party with.

If you've heard any of my songs you've most likely heard A-minor kick off "Lily Allen", flavour "4am" (D#m in the guise of a capo) and most recently add drama to "54 days since I wrote something". It's not an exuberant, joyful chord but it happens to be the chord by which I build most of my songs and I love it. It's sort of a guilty pleasure. Most musicians probably wouldn't condone it since it's considered a pretty dull chord. But I love it. I love the shape, the drama, the vibrations and the extra notes you can pick out of it.

My name's Jack by the way. I operate under the nom de guerre of "Uh-huh, Radio".
I first started making music under that name 4 years ago when I saw Lily Allen play a local venue in my hometown and was captivated by her bounce, her sounds, her voice and sheer playful attitude towards music. It inspired me. I can't make music like hers and I never aspired to but I wrote a song called "Lily Allen" and it defined the musical style for my first few years: distorted, filtered guitars, drum-machines and easy, melodic synthesizers. Moreover I gave myself the freedom to do whatever. I'd played in a band for a long time and this was my project for making music-making fun again.

Those experimentation days have recently been collected and released in the album "1." Available everywhere.

But I've got a new record out soon. It's called "Make strange love & then War" and it's about writer's block, Berlin, what to do with your youth, more writer's block and perhaps somewhere in there there'll be something about love aswell. It's a much more brooding album than before. I aimed for "mood" this time more than "noise".

Look for shameless self-promotion on this space and everywhere else I reside. At the very least I currently live here:

http://www.myspace.com/uhhuhradio
http://numberonemusic.com/uhhuhradio/
LastFM

So tune in.

Jack