New Year’s Day, as always, was a day of hangovers and resolutions. I was sitting in a café with Nick Gill slowly and quietly exploring the potential of the new year and the new decade. Both of us had the usual resolutions about becoming successful without being famous, never drinking again and seeing more of our friends. Experience had showed us that the no drinking resolution was doomed from the start, so we thought about the other two.
Creative people are always busy
Although I’ve known Nick since the early nineties and enjoy his company immensely, we consistently fail to see much of each other. It may be because he doesn’t really like me, but I doubt it. I’m optimistic like that. It’s probably because we’re both creators of stuff, writers and musicians. We both go through life with a neverending mental list of projects, plans and ideas that will get us one step closer to being creatively successful. Creative success is a ridiculous goal, because it has no end. If you were ever to reach it (and you’d have to have a narrow definition of success to get there), you would be inspired, forced and driven to do more. So it’s not a goal at all. We don’t want to waste valuable creative time until we’ve finished, but there’s no end. So we don’t really have time for each other.
The solution to this antisocial quandary wasn’t difficult to find. We want to see each other more and we want to create stuff. So let’s see each other and create stuff. But what kind of stuff? Music doesn’t work. Nick creates beautiful music that makes you sink into a melancholy thoughtful state and I create geeky music that makes you smile. The last time Nick and I collaborated on a musical project was back in 1999 when we made an album called Groove On, which stands as the singular most embarrassing record either of us have ever made.
We’re making a videocast
All we really wanted to do was meet up and chat. So that’s what we’re doing. We’re making a videocast called The Peoples Princess (after a Diana commemorative mug with a missing apostrophe that I took to the session) in which we chat. We made a theme tune with a ukulele and an autoharp that Nick had lying around, and we filmed some short clips of toys being pushed over to break up the talking.
The Peoples Princess isn’t supposed to be funny (which is lucky, because we’re generally not). It’s just two self-involved but loveable chaps catching up for a chat. With beer. And a sofa. The wonderful and talented Daley Walton is editing it, so if it ends up being funny it’s his fault. Daley is also the special guest in the first episode. He doesn’t really say much or appear on camera, but he’s pretty special.
The Peoples Princess #1: Twenty-Ben. Nerve tonics. Sleeves. Television.
Here it is. Share it with anyone you think might like it. You can fave it on YouTube or subscribe to the peoplesprincesstv YouTube channel, share it on Facebook, tweet it, follow it on Tumblr or just email the link to your friends. Hope you enjoy it. ;)
