29/September/2023 - Release Day Flowers in the Kitchen.

Today is release day for the song 'My Dreamworld', which I co-wrote with my friend Katrina Swift, aka Lilac Haze. I met her back when I was a lecturer at Bath Spa University. I remember her coming to open day as a prospective student on the Songwriting Masters course - having crossed the Atlantic to do so - and immediately feeling a rapport.

She was wonderful to teach - although in all honesty, there wasn't really anything I could teach her about songwriting - and so my role was really to help guide her through her dissertations. Fast forward to several years after graduation, and we've kept in touch, and are working together. My Dreamworld is the first piece we created, and we have several other songs in various states of glorious disarray and progress. I am only one of a number of creative people she's working with, but I'm proud to say that My Dreamworld is she and I.

She's a generous collaborator in that she's open to ideas without ever needing to compromise her own. We meet nicely in some kind of middle in something of an unspoken telepathy. Yes, we can be oh-so-ethereal with one another, but we also discuss which day we need to put out the recycling, as we live in the same neighbourhood. As I write, we're probably hearing the same wine bottles being spilled into the same lorry.

And so today I answer the door to this cheerful mass of flowers she's sent. They're currently on the kitchen window sill because that's got the best light at this time of day and I wanted to show them in all their glory. They will be moved to a less utilitarian spot shortly.

I really should get those kitchen windows cleaned and refresh the paintwork...

If you're of my generation, it may puzzle you that the way songs are released these days - sorry 'dropped' (!) - is that you are invited to pre-save and then stream them.

I'm not a fan of streaming, for all the obvious reasons, but as an invitation into an artist's world for when they do actually release something tangible, and in my book that's anything from, yes, a digital download to heavyweight half-speed vinyl, it's part of the process.

But today is release day and the time for pre-saves has passed. You can go to Sp*tify or Apple or any of the 'major platforms' and you'll find 'My Dreamworld' there from today. Thankfully, you can also buy it as a digital download here.

. The song, along with a couple of Lilac Haze's other collaborations, will appear in the not too distant future in something of a more hold-in-your-hand format.