Unmarried

Previous generations seem to have been satisfied with THE HOBBY. That’s no good for us. We’re all about THE ART. We demand to earn our living and make our mark as creators. But we are the Peter Pan Generation that doesn’t really dig business, so we’re crap at useful things like self-promotion and networking.

I have friends who are happy with normal jobs. They tend to be the ones who are also married, because marriage is a sign of GIVING UP ON THE DREAM. It’s OK to be with someone for ever, as long as you don’t get married. Because you couldn’t possibly get married until you’ve figured it all out (ie. next year).

So we’re all floating along. We hoped turning 30 might bring a flash of enlightenment. It didn’t. We’ve created a wonderful and free digital world where everyone can have everything and we’ve turned down every opportunity to do things ‘the old way’, because we knew things were going to change.

Revolutionary trinket

And things have changed. Instead of making a trinket for fun, giving it as a gift, being surprised when people want more trinkets, making a few more, maybe setting up a little stall somewhere (always as a hobby – never seriously), selling more, making more and selling more, we think of an idea for a revolutionary trinket design, we register revolutionarytrinket.com, we make a business plan that has a huge question mark by the word FUNDING, we build revolutionarytrinket.com/shop, we set up a hosted Gmail account to deal with the inevitable flood of orders and to streamline team calendaring (there has to be a team), we post a couple of mysterious tweets and we wait.

Nothing happens. We never even get round to making stuff any more. We ignore the voices of THE DRAGONS that float over from the TV: “Malcolm, the best thing you can do is to LET IT GO. This is NOT A BUSINESS, and it will NEVER BE A BUSINESS.” What do they know? They’re old and successful. They didn’t create stuff. They did it the boring way. Little by little. With ice cream trucks and leisure centres and shrink-wrapped toys. What is this? 1982? We’re MAKING ART HERE, PEOPLE. Did you even hear Duncan Banatyne on Desert Island Discs? Worst. Taste. Ever.

What’s the answer?

Crowdsourcing. Crowdfunding. Fundcrowding. Micropatronage. Begging. It’s the new way! It worked for Coming & Crying and, um… there are others. We don’t even need to think about money any more. There are people out there who will just give. We think of a clever name for the second-from-bottom-price-point package² and throw in a personal appearance (OMG! Seriously? You’ll turn up at my house and actually clamp a trinket to my mantelpiece? For only £599?), and the money will come rolling in.

Or not. I think there’s another way. In fact, I know there is because Xander has already thought of it. He just hasn’t built it yet. And while he’s away directing a play in Edinburgh, Miranda and I had a secret meeting (with tea and Co-op Truly Irresistible Stem Ginger Cookies), and planned it all out. When Xander gets back he’ll tell you all about it. It’s going to be amazing. ;)

Singers of what, now?

Let’s face it. Nobody’s going to turn up to a gig called Singers Of Twitter II at random. Everyone in the audience knew one of the performers. Which always makes for a friendly and fun gig. But not everyone knew us in real life. There were people there who only knew us from the ‘tubes.

I met @postdocal at the bar after my set. “You must know Steve, right?”, I said. “Nope, but I know some of your stuff and some of Steve’s from the net.”, she said.

People connect.

And that’s what it’s all about. People connect. The music has context. Three acts that would confuse the hell out of an average pub crowd suddenly seem normal, familiar. Lloyd Davis‘ ukulele songs are joyful and then breathtakingly melancholy. My musical tweets and quirky songs are surprising and funny. Steve‘s bass playing is phenomenal and engrossing. Lobelia‘s singing is stunning and sweet. We (and I mean the audience as much as the performers) are like a musical family enjoying an get-together around the piano. Except we’re only related by Twitter and the piano has morphed into a ukulele, two guitars, a six-string bass and a rack full of magical looping gizmos.

If only Lily Allen could have been there. She’d have loved it.

UPDATE: Quality video

@edent took a few videos at the gig. Here’s the Twitter song live!:

You should also check out Lloyd Davis and Steve Lawson playing All Of Me with uke and bass and Steve and Lobelia doing a wicked country version of You Spin Me Round with crowd singalong!

UPDATE: Beautiful feedback

I got some great messages after the show (Twitter can be such a happy place…):

_Jo_: Great eve at Darbucka listening to @ihatemornings performing songs to tweets, v amusing. Plus wine , nice grub and good company.

catstress: Home from fab night at darbucka – much fun & great to finally get to see @ihatemornings live…

guitartim: In more +ve news, loved the Darbucka gig tonight. @solobasssteve & @lobelia awesome as always, @lloyddavis uke-tastic, @ihatemornings genius

lobelia: @ihatemornings So lovely to finally see you play. You and @lloyddavis were on top form tonight! Such a fun night! x

solobasssteve: it must be said, @ihatemornings & @LloydDavis make for a top quality double bill. Glad to have them both on board for @officegigs :)

Louforyou: @guitartim @lobelia @solobasssteve @ihatemornings @_jo_ @j_ane @catstress THANK YOU for a special evening :-) #darbucka

The fiasco prompted some interesting, thoughtful and occasionally inspirational blog posts from Twitter sympathisers, the best of which was a post by @glinner called The Conversation. It is in fact a direct response to yet another badly-researched Twitter piece in the broadsheets, but it presents a good answer to the ‘babble’ accusation:

…we are communicating with each other on a platform that encourages good manners, that rewards us when we’re interesting and lightly smacks our hand when we’re not. For the first time in history, the human race is having a global conversation, and despite all our differences, we actually seem to be getting on quite well.

Twitter is all about context, and that’s what you can’t see from the outside. Let’s take the classic ‘what I had for breakfast’ tweet:

Avocado on toast. Breakfast of champions. @aliteralgirl

This tweet is not:

• newsworthy;
• literary genius;
• life-changing;
• hilarious;
• sponsored by the Avocado Board with support from the Olympic Committee;
• inciting hatred;
• illegal.

Neither is it:

• boring;
• pointless;
• narcissistic;
• laughable;
• ridiculous;
• a sign that society is doomed.

But it is:

• cute;
• positive;
• polite;
• pithy.

I know @aliteralgirl.

If I didn’t know @aliteralgirl, and I were browsing the Twitter public timeline trying to classify tweets for some shonky PR research assignment, and one of the categories available was ‘Babble’, I would probably class this tweet as ‘Babble’.

But I happen to know @aliteralgirl. And she knows me. We talk in real life once or twice a week, and the rest of the time we’re part of The Conversation on Twitter. So when I saw this tweet I read it as shorthand for something like this:

I’m eating avocado. It’s after 11, so I probably overslept and might be late for my teaching job. I’ll probably have to cycle like a demon to get there, but once I’m there nobody will really care that I was late and I’ll sit staring out of the window as usual. So for now I’m quite amused that I’ve made myself a slightly quirky breakfast, and I’m glad to be able to share it with a handful of people who might be reading Twitter at the moment.

Rather than just reporting my breakfast, which is acceptable but mediocre I’m adding a comment. Staking a claim. Not only am I eating avocado on toast, I’m telling you, the world, that it’s a great thing. Breakfast of champions. If you want to be a champion, you should really be eating this. If I were publishing this in a newspaper, or standing on a street corner shouting it, I would probably choose different words. Something more straightforward, maybe. ‘I love avocado on toast’ or ‘Eat avocado on toast’. But given that my boyfriend (who will definitely read this) and most of the other people who regularly spot my tweets generally have a certain quirky, British sense of humour, I’ve written it as a deadpan advertising slogan knowing full well that everyone will understand the spirit in which it was written. Except maybe the girl who’s watching the public timeline and classifying tweets. She’ll probably put it in the ‘Babble’ box.

You see, this tiny bit of babble is part of a huge conversation. My interpretation is only one of many, and the conversation carries over seamlessly into real life. You might even say that, in this case, the online part of the conversation is an extension of the real life part.

A justimanifestification for the Tweet Suite

I get a bit antsy and embarrassed when artists start to justify and explain their work, or produce manifestos, or make claims about the effects their work has on the world. But sometimes art does have a relevance beyond the aesthetic. Feel free to slap me round the face with a trout if I’m disappearing up my own arse, but I think the Tweet Suite has a message, albeit a simple one:

Babble is valuable in context.

In the context of a conversation, babble has value. With the Tweet Suite I’m setting babble to music, and that gives it context and therefore value. By making the avocado on toast tweet into an annoyingly catchy jingle, I’ve given it an unexpected life beyond its fleeting appearance on a handful of screens.

[The track isn\'t included in the RSS feed. Visit the blog to listen. ;o]

Don’t get me wrong. I’m writing the Tweet Suite (50 movements in 90 days) because it’s fun, it’s something interesting to talk about, and I work better to a deadline. But whenever Twitter gets accused of being babble, I’m going to jump on a chair and give an impromptu performance of Movement 7 of the Tweet Suite. So if you see a 9-foot fop singing about avocado on toast, you’ll know what’s going on. And I’d appreciate it if you could join in with the harmonies at the end.

I took part last year, and wrote loads of great songs (and a few silly ones). But the ones that really caught my imagination were the 12-second songs I wrote right at the end. So this year I’m writing short songs. Not 12 seconds, but definitely under a minute.

I’m going to find 50 brilliant tweets and set them to music. I’m calling it Tweet Suite:

Help me find the best tweets

So far I’ve found a few sites that claim to list the “best tweets”, but none of them have really delivered what I’m looking for. Maybe you can help. I’m not after funny tweets – setting them to music would be weird and horrible. I’m looking for the kind of tweets that make Twitter seem worthwhile. The tweets that inspire you. The tweets that restore your faith in humanity without being humourless. You know what I’m talking about.

You can submit tweets (or tweeters) to me in a few different ways:

• Tag them 5090tweetsuite on Delicious.
• Retweet and tag them 5090tweetsuite on Twitter.
• Send me a link on Twitter, email or Facebook
• Post a comment on this article.

I’ll put up a page with the candidates and the songs as I write them once I’m a couple of weeks into the challenge. Wish me luck, and keep your eyes open for brilliant tweets…

Ben’s Big Gig posters

The highlight has been the beautiful new gig posters. Nick Gill printed them by hand (on a proper old-school letterpress), and blogged about it. Xander and I then spent a pleasant afternoon pottering around North Oxford and charming our way into the most bizarre shop windows.

Still rehearsing

We’re still hammering out the details of the set and coming up with quirky and amusing vocal harmonies to lift the arrangements to a new level of pop genius. Here’s a little treat from the phone camera archives:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I was in a quandary. I had less than two weeks left in the 50/90 Song Challenge, and 30 songs left to write. Times were tough. I needed a short cut, but I couldn’t bring myself to cheat. So I did something in between…

Limitations are your friend

Creative people often talk about the benefits of boundaries and limitations to your creativity. No designer will start a project without a well defined brief. A blank sheet of paper is a useless way to start writing. That’s one of the reasons why I took on the 50/90 Challenge in the first place.

I really enjoyed writing the 12seconds.tv song, and it got a good reception when I played it at the Oxford Geek Night. A 12-second song has to rely on humour, simplicity, clarity and great words. And when you need to write loads of songs quickly it’s a godsend!

A micro-songwriting process

I only had about 4 hours to write, film and upload 12 songs, so I had to be brutally pragmatic. Armed with a 10×10″ sketch pad, a Moleskine full of title ideas and a 2B pencil, I set to work.

I have had a title suggestion form on my website for a few weeks, so I had about 30 potential titles copied into the notebook along with ideas I have captured in the wild. It’s always useful to have starting points on hand when you’re pressed for time.

Because my mind works best with systems and structures I divided a page of the sketchbook neatly into 16 equal squares, room for 12 tiny songs and 4 bad ideas. That way I could afford to spew out ideas quickly safe in the knowledge that the crap ones wouldn’t make the cut. It’s never good to be worrying about the final quality when you’re trying to create. Nothing’s good until you make it good.

It didn’t take long to fill the grid with lyrics. Some came from the title book, some were picked out of the air. 4 of them were crap. ;o)

12seconds.tv

I recorded a song in iMovie, exported it as a MOV, uploaded it to 12seconds.tv, and recorded the next one. The music was made up on the spot – I would work out a good setting for a particular line, record it and move on. The whole recording process took about 90 minutes, by which time I had an entire 144-second album online. A couple of people were even watching the videos go up as they were recorded!

YouTube

That was almost a week ago, and although they have been online for a while (and viewable in the 12seconds.tv widget on my website) I know more people will see them if they are on YouTube (especially after the Twitter song shenanigans;o). So today I edited them all together into a 2″54′ video and uploaded it to YouTube.

And here it is – the shortest album I’ve ever made!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks for the titles!

• Kenneth Okumura for “Zipper flies make me cry” (via Facebook)
• Lloyd Davis for inspiring “Mr Ukelele”
• Greg Lucas for cowriting “Walking down the middle of the road” in the late 90s
• Nick Gill for inspiring “Saw”
• Laurie Nevay for “Oranges or Carrots”
• Anna Speddy for “Not My Forte”
• Ellie’s boyfriend Steve for “Virgin Trains”

The Twitter song I wrote last week has been getting some serious and much appreciated Twitter love and even a blog mention. And within a couple of days I got a message from the BBC (delivered by a mustachioed messenger on horseback) asking if I would give them an interview for the Pods and Blogs show on Radio Five Live.

Despite having a tyre explode on my Volvo I managed to dash home greasy-handed just in time to answer a Skype call from the BBC studio (I was only kidding about the horse earlier – the Beeb is pretty hi-tech these days ;o). If any of you happen to be listening to Five Live at 2am tonight, I’ll be there. I will undoubtedly be tucked up in bed, but I’m assured it will be on the podcast (and I assume the iPlayer) afterwards.

If you found my site from the radio show, hi. Be sure to subscribe to the feed or the email list, or follow me on Twitter!

Jonathan Coulton became an internet superstar by writing songs about computer games, programmers, Flickr, the internet and associated themes (mostly zombies). That’s what he cares about and that’s what his audience cares about. He’s being authentic and connecting with like minds. He doesn’t try to get the rest of the world to listen. There are always going to be enough geeks to pack out his shows.

I’ve been thinking about JoCo’s approach to online superstardom for ages, trying to figure out whether it would work for any web-savvy musician (ie. me ;o). For a while I thought it would: build a decent website where you can preview and buy songs easily, and where the audience can interact with the artist (JoCo’s fans create videos, remixes and other derivatives of his work, which he releases under a Creative Commons licence) and Bob’s your uncle.

But then I figured out the snag. Think of your target audience. If you’re like most songwriters they will be educated, tasteful young adults with cool friends who put on your music at parties and rave about you to everyone they meet. Now think of the kind of people who create fan videos. The kind of people who remix Creative Commons music and transcribe ukelele tab. The kind of people who comment on every blog post. The kind of people who even read blogs. That’s right.

h3. I’m talking about geeks.

Geeks aren’t tasteful young adults who party with their cool friends. Geeks have bizarre and obsessive tastes, bizarre and obsessive geeky friends, and they don’t have parties. If you want to be an internet superstar your audience is geeks. To some, that’s not ideal. ;o)

Lucky for me, I’m a card-carrying geek and I love writing quirky pop songs about geeky things. So I have a chance at internet superstardom. Now, if only I had a breakthrough hit song that was guaranteed to go hyperviral the second it hits the Twitterverse…

Holy cow! I just recorded a song about Twitter! I bet that would work!

h3. You’re No One If You’re Not On Twitter

It’s true. Like Twitter itself, this entire blog post has been a pathetically disguised press release for my new superviral, Twittertastic song: “You’re No One If You’re Not On Twitter”. Shame on me. It’s in the player at the top of the page – you can listen to it now, while you’re reading! Now go tweet, people. Tweet until your little beaks are sore. Then wait a few minutes and tweet again. Let’s fill the Twitterverse with glorious music. ;o)

You can tweet the link to the song page on the 50/90 Challenge website, or the link to this article. Better yet, just retweet the tweet!

Feel free to flame me or give me love in the comments.