
A Few Good Things
December 30, 2020It’s not all been bad… It’s undoubtedly been a difficult year. A horrible year even. But… there are some things that weren’t shit for me in 2020. Here’s some stuff (in no particular order and with no particular theme) that have made me smile in the weird year of the pandemic. Some of it is … Read More

The Year That Wasn’t
September 30, 2020This post originally appeared on Hideous Things I also share my writing on Medium *** I’m half entertained and half spooked by the fact that I titled our first blog post, back in February, ‘Sorry Guys, Do You Mind Not Dancing?’ At the time, everything that has happened since would have seemed unimaginable. Five months … Read More

Complexa Mix Series
September 8, 2020Something I’ve enjoyed recently has been the Complexa Mix series. Put together by my friend, York-based DJ Jon Baker-Hood AKA Upside your mind and Brad Wood AKA Synthia, the vibe is spacey electronic sounds. The genres vary – which is always something I favour – but the cosmic, trippy vibe is strong throughout. The first … Read More

Imaginarium (Part One)
June 25, 2020It’s been some time since I’ve documented any progress on our studio space. In my last post on this, we’d decided on a name for the space – The Imaginarium. Part of the reason for this lack of updates was just how busy I was. Also I didn’t want to be repeating myself. And then … Read More

Lockdown Diary (Part Five)
June 15, 2020I’ve not written one of these for a while. Lockdown has got less strict and less weird, I’ve been busier, seen more people, felt better. In what I would deem as a responsible way, I’ve broken the lockdown since it began. I was dropping some post at a friend’s house at the beginning of lockdown, … Read More

Lockdown Diary (Part Four)
April 30, 2020I want to go somewhere mad. But nowhere is open. Anywhere. A weird consequence of globalisation that none of us were expecting. The world is small and quiet. Tomorrow it will be six weeks since I had a beer in a bar. It’s been six weeks since I rode a bus. I’ve sort of lost … Read More

Lockdown Diary (Part Three)
April 26, 2020I’ve not written for a while. I read my last post back and I felt that it was very negative and I didn’t even end up sharing it on any social media. That was quite early on in the lockdown. Since then I’ve been a lot more upbeat, and assuming that this doesn’t go on … Read More

Lockdown Diary (Part Two)
April 1, 2020I think I dealt with the first part of this pretty well. In some ways I was even weirdly glad of it all. I wouldn’t be left homeless or completely broke and, after months of little free time, diminished amounts of work meant that I would have more time for creative projects. As the weekend … Read More

Lockdown Diary
March 27, 2020Two weeks and two days ago I was sat in a bar, just next door to where I was living, planning many things for the year ahead. I went down to Outlaws Yacht Club, as I did most days, where one of the owners had kindly offered to help out with advice about licensing our … Read More

An Alternative Christmas Message
December 22, 2019Years ago (I was about fourteen), I was at my friend’s house, stoned (I smoked weed back then) and tripping (we’d eaten some hallucinogenic mushrooms) and staring into the fire. Some terrible Christmas film was on, but we weren’t really watching it. What did happen, though, was that it inspired me (along with the mushrooms … Read More

Reflections on a Disaster
December 21, 2019One of the saddest days of my recent life was Friday 13th December 2019, the day our election results came in. I wasn’t expecting to feel so gloomy. That part came as a shock to me, because the result didn’t. I was expecting that – and so I wasn’t expecting my own reaction to it. … Read More

Studio Space (Part Five) – The Imaginarium
November 29, 2019It’s been a mad couple of months. When I started packing to move house and began the real task of sorting our studio space I knew it would be a mad few weeks. I underestimated how long it would all actually take. This is unusual for me. Usually I overestimate. We took on a warehouse … Read More

Distrikt Pride Courtyard Party Review
August 19, 2019This post originally appeared on DIY Leeds *** I need to stop reviewing gigs I’ve played at myself. Or we need more writers for DIY Leeds (it’s a labour of love. Currently all content is written by me and Joe Haze). Anyway… Every so often you play at a party that stands out a little from … Read More

Future World Problems
August 16, 2019There is a beautiful quote from The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan that by its nature will always be relevant: “We are all flawed and creatures of our times. Is it fair to judge us by the unknown standards of the future?” A thought-provoking question. To put it in context, here’s the whole passage: … Read More

A Golden Weekend – The Off Licence presents CMYK
June 20, 2019This post originally appeared on DIY Leeds *** This was such a good party. The Off Licence is the brainchild of my friends Ben Etherington and Alex Kelsall, who are also Schwein residents. They’d been talking about putting a night on themselves since before coming on board with the Schwein crew and it’s been awesome … Read More

The Opiate of the Masses
April 10, 2019My mate Brett used to say ‘That’s dead seventies’ about anything he thought of as grim or old fashioned. ‘I think TV is dead seventies’ I said to him one day. ‘Like things still being on at particular times and just that people watch it at all.’ I’ve always found the notion of watching TV … Read More

Controversial, but…
April 10, 2019The other day I made someone chuckle because they said something about feminists and I apparently pulled a face of disgust. “So you’re not a feminist, then?” my friend asked, laughing. “God no!” I said. This kind of response from me is usually either met with amusement or horror, so I feel I should maybe … Read More

Goodbye, Mint Club
March 8, 2019This piece originally was originally written for DIY Leeds (for those not in the know, Google does not penalise this kind of duplicate content) *** I need to stop going to gigs on acid. Well, I don’t, because it’s brilliant, but I probably should when I intend to review them objectively because it makes everything … Read More

Studio Space (Part Four)
February 21, 2019I’m conscious of repeatedly posting the same thing, so didn’t want to do daily updates on our progress doing up our wonderful new space. Also, I’ve been busy as hell as I’ve needed to make sure I’m earning enough to pay my share of the costs. Following the glorious multi-coloured walls, we needed to get … Read More

Words That Should Exist
January 15, 2019The image above is something I’ve seen floating around the web for a while, and I always enjoy re-reading it. Number 12 prompted me to think of a word that doesn’t exist, but should… Anecdouche – A person who constantly interrupts others with their own anecdotes. (I will add that most people I know are … Read More

Nicolas Dixon Mural at Leeds Trinity
January 15, 2019Last week I took up the brilliant opportunity of helping prolific Leeds artist Nicolas Dixon out as he painted a mural in the Trinity Centre. Along with Peachzz , Florence Blanchard, Raul33 & D7606, artists for Blackbox and OllyStudio, he has transformed the Albion Street entrance to the shopping centre. This will coincide with new … Read More

Studio Space (Part Three)
January 10, 2019Swift progress is being made doing up our wonderful new space… After some discussion, we decided not to paint the studio ourselves. That was our original plan – and we even had some of our lovely friends volunteer to help. On thinking it through, however, we realised that the time we’d spend doing it would … Read More

The Moral Quandry of Greggs Vegan Sausage Rolls
January 6, 2019In recent times I’ve made a concerted effort to eat less meat and I’ve started 2019 with an aim to avoid meat products altogether. This is the only new year’s resolution I’ve ever made. This was what one of my friends had to say about the new vegan sausage rolls at Greggs… “Profits from this … Read More

Studio Space (Part Two)
January 5, 2019Following probably the best Christmas and NYE I’ve ever had (great time with Freaky Behaviour on Boxing Day, mint NYE and NYD Schwein gigs at Wire and 212 and then dancing all night at Hold The Relish), the time had come to get my brain back into gear and remember all the serious stuff I … Read More

Schwein NYE at Wire
December 30, 2018The Schwein & Bad Ornament crew are back at Wire for NYE. I’ve done a full write up about this on our site. Have a read here

Studio Space (Part One)
December 13, 2018A couple of years ago – the day after the hideously depressing Brexit vote, in fact – someone asked me where Schwein & Bad Ornament was. (Schwein & Bad Ornament being the art and music collective that I’m part of). “Oh, it’s not a place” I said. “But we would love to have a place … Read More

Making a Difference
December 11, 2018“If one person makes a change it makes no difference.” I’ve heard that a lot, and it’s bullshit. A friend said to me the other day “You do realise that if you do this it won’t make any difference to the rest of the world.” Oh but it will. If everyone had that attitude, nothing … Read More

My Friend Marco
December 5, 2018My friend Marco died like his heroes. It was a terrible waste – as is the death of any young person. Marco was talented and sweet, and he made us all laugh a lot… and he deserved to live long enough to realise that most of his heroes were douchebags. Marco loved the past. He … Read More

Underthinking
September 20, 2018I don’t think much. I mean, I obviously do have thoughts, but I don’t really ponder things that often, I tend to just observe and do. I have been told that I’m ‘hard to read’, but on the few occasions when I would consider myself to be really THINKING, someone has always asked me: ‘Are … Read More

Bad Ornament Art Exhibition at Outlaws Yacht Club
September 20, 2018Currently, myself and the good folks at Schwein & Bad Ornament have artwork on display and available to buy from my favourite teleport destination (as I once quipped to Nigel Rogers who has since adopted the description and used it widely), Outlaws Yacht Club. Nigel, Darryl Marsden, Al Bradley and our resident DJ Carl Sheppard played some tunes for the launch party, a … Read More

Home Is…
August 14, 2018I went back home on Thursday for the first time in two years. When I say home, I mean my home town. Leeds is my home now. Home is Grimsby, which is nothing like that terrible film. It’s a lot more mental than that. Home is also Cleethorpes, which is attached to Grimsby, so they … Read More

Balancing Gigging with ‘Normal’ Life
June 28, 2018…I am just about managing this. I work as a freelance web designer and developer and I also run Schwein & Bad Ornament with a few close mates. We’re a crew of DJs and artists and we host regular events in Leeds and a few further afield. This includes two residencies on the third and … Read More

Studio Time
May 23, 2018Up until now I’ve not had much time to work on tunes this year, but I got a few finished in the later part of 2017, after various reworkings and I got to have some studio time last week to do rough masters of these. My housemate and fellow Schwein resident Marcus Kitchen is studying … Read More

Pop Cult Chic
May 16, 2018As a web developer/designer I get to work on some exciting projects. Some of these are a buzz in a nerd kind of way – like the technical side is fun and I get to make some cool shiz and solve weird problems. Others are inspiring because they tie in with the other side of … Read More

Gold Lego Minifigure Necklace
December 19, 2016Gold Lego Minifigure Necklace Custom made gold Lego minifigure necklace. I made this a while ago and just shared a pic on Instagram and facebook. Had quite a decent reaction so going to make a few more to sell. Watch this _________

Big Disco
July 8, 2016Big Disco Our stall at Big Disco last week – prior to putting on Rhythm&Soul at Wire…