I first started working on the music for 'Not the first Unfluencer' on arriving home after Leeds Light Night in October 2021, inspired by watching Martin Fondse's brilliant 'Tulip Fever' which was music and images projected onto the outside of Leeds Art Gallery.

'Disaster 3000' is a song originally written for the abandoned 'Don't Die' project, then reworked and extended during autumn 2022.

Thank you for your ongoing interest and support. You can stream for free but if you choose to download the songs your donation will go to ravisdream.com which is a project raising money for brain tumour research.

Share this and my music with a friend you think might like it, or with someone you know came to an Eiger or Himself gig back in the day. Or don’t. As you’ll see down in the punchline if you read on, whether you share it or not will not change what I do, apparently, so that takes the pressure off you.

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In artistic endeavours I’ve never been good at giving people what they wanted. I’m badly placed to judge what that even is. I’ve always offered what I thought they needed. This isn’t me saying I’m a rugged-jawed speaker of the truth, it’s just me being clueless. Songs about awkward topics with oddly intimate vocals? Songs that flip from ugly and heavy to sparkly and fragile without a hook that you also can’t nod along to? The line I thought was paydirt just leaves everyone else wondering? Brilliant.
As an example, in 2000 I glued hundreds of expensive and fiddly card CD sleeves together on my own because I believed two 4 track CDs in a gatefold was a better product than one 8 track CD like real bands did. As if the whole venture wasn’t esoteric enough in the music alone, this was me knowing I knew better than everyone else AND doubling my costs at a stroke. Like setting up a disposable BBQ tray to cook baked alaska on the pavement outside a restaurant. Great stuff.
Like so many other teenagers I hid in my bedroom tinkering around, in my case with an electronic drum kit and guitar. I met Jon who was streets ahead of me on the drums and we called our band Sherbet Burp, of all things, and we eventually started to get good. I fell into my own cock-eyed way of articulating unorthodox lyrical content, and I was driven to impress Jon. He did the same on drums and we encouraged each other to be weird. We became Eiger, we did some gigs and picked up a small number of passionate believers. Then we became Himself, a development along the same curve. We picked up some more believers and a Radio 1 session at Maida Vale. Then folks started families, moved away, so it goes. During the 2020 lockdown I started practising drums more, and that brings this up to date. So now I’m on my own in my room again. Except now there’s not even a chance for live performances which I’m told are the only way to reach people. Oh dear. Here I am gluing gatefold sleeves again. But surprisingly the ideas (as I call them) keep coming and I’m genuinely not sure why. I was sure they would fizzle out when there wasn’t a live band anymore, but apparently not. Whilst it’s encouraging that people listen there’s clearly more to it than that, so if you figure it out do get in touch. There aren’t many people who will like this music but I still entertain the idea I can stumble upon them. Perfect.
Ad. x