Notes For An Album – Wayne 25

[For back story go here: Story so far at 17 Sept 2020 and the last one.]

[Back story also found through in-links.]

Title: Non-viable

Concept: What makes a thing viable? Work? Music? Life?

Possible tracks:

Dough

Based on the beat from Dave making bread. What does money now mean, or fast cars or any kind of thing we used to want? Surely right now we're just in the game of survival and we don't even need to think about anything else. Some people just need money to live – and do they get that from the government or what? Hang on to the ones you love, whoever and wherever they may be. There's no certainties in this world any more – are the certainties the things that you build? Are they the things other people give you like recognition or fame or money? And how quickly can all that go? And in any case fame is just a question of opinion. If someone don’t know who you are how the hell are you meant to convince them that you are something or someone? What are we measured by?

Album

Page by page, image by image. Don't need to say nothing just need to record the images and the emotions. Don't let on it's me, they’ll work that out anyway, just who is this person looking out at you? Each verse describes a picture, an image, a setting. Could even just focus on a single element in the frame – like the pram on page 2. Or that bloke in the image opposite it – I mean who is he and what’s he doing and what are any of them thinking of? What could be their future? What was their future – I’m just putting the questions out there not answering nothing, just provoking. And off that we ask what does the future hold in general?

Hold it down

A track where we basically bombard everything together for and see if it rolls. Make sure there are seconds when it does and then moments when it doesn't. Push it so hard that the whole thing does fall to pieces. Throw in as many different samples as as possible, spin the whole thing backwards, create a fall apart – chaos – and a lull, just to fool everyone before it all crashes back in again or falls down around your neck. Samples from everywhere, TV, radio, conversation, cars, sounds, planes, supermarket cashier, bleeps from the cash registers, self-service banks and tills. Two or three different drum tracks going off simultaneously, fighting with each other. Warning announcements you get in shops about wearing masks. Anything and everything. Can we get through all this?

Challenge

So who's going to pick anything up? Government or world organisations are meant to be able to save us? Are they? Or is it just down to us and what does that mean? Do those with money and stuff have to help everyone else? Does going out for a meal help anyone now or is it all a con? What are we looking at and who can we depend on? Each other? And for what and is that fair? Do we look for too much in each other now? Can we mix this in with family structures and friends and some other kind of support systems? Food banks – more than food banks, toy banks. All that charitable stuff.

Q

Stand in line and waiting for everything. Waiting for food or a shop entry of course but more than that. Waiting for sanity or for normality except what was there before ain't coming back. Queue of the unemployed sort of thing. Waiting for interview, opportunity, jobs. Also what about waiting for stuff to be delivered? No one wants to wait anymore. Mix the two together - we're in a deliver it to me now world and we want everything now. Including a job to give us the money to make our demands. Circle thing and getting faster and madder.

Do we include Who am I?

I mean it seems a bit obvious but almost too obvious. The whole identity thing is sort of covered elsewhere across the album so this seems a bit to spot on the nose and gives too much away. Maybe it needs a remix and update. I mean, possibly the whole idea actually struck a nerve cos everyone’s asking this kind of question now – Not because they’ve all been adopted and stuff, but because we’ve lost identities or had that challenged along the way. So twist it and remix it and make it more general about identity and who we all are.

Maybe.

Artwork

Plain as possible. Maybe hint at pandemic or toxicity. Or question mark. Or that baby picture of me from page 7 of the album. Can you imagine? And a picture of me all grown up on the other side. Might even type viable one side and non-viable the other side. And it’s just me. And it was only ever just chance and that’s the same for everyone right here right now. Sheesh, makes you think.