I have had a crazy few weeks but this week I WILL be getting back to: -Prisoner of Zegna - a series of posts about a new song from idea to release -Where do you get off - a collaboration song with an external deadline in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS, so I have already started -Updates on the second album which is starting to take shape on paper - and creating the momentum and schedule to make it happen.... And of course there are always more things to finish in the classroom! I'll also give an update on how my second channel, GUITAR MOD LAB is going after its first 7 days.....

I’ve been testing a second Skool community this week: Guitar Mod Lab. It started as an experiment around something I already spend far too much time doing: taking ordinary guitars and making them feel more personal. What’s interesting from a Room to Record perspective is how quickly having a very narrow idea changes the way you create. The posts, visuals, classroom structure and even the tone become much easier when the promise is really specific. Guitar Mod Lab = swap it, tweak it, make it yours. It’s still tiny and very much being built in public, but that’s part of the experiment. If guitar or bass customisation is your thing, you can have a look here: https://www.skool.com/guitar-mod-lab-5999

I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between being busy and actually making progress on your own work. I’ve had plenty happening lately: gigs, rehearsals, radio interviews, client work, day job, festival work, and all the other useful things that somehow expand to fill every available gap. Meanwhile, one of the songs I’m most proud of, Morning Herald, came from actually sitting down and finishing something. That’s the bit I keep coming back to with Room to Record. Creative friction is not always about having no ideas or no gear. Sometimes it’s about being very productive on everything except the thing you actually want to make. I call that relevant procrastination. You’re still creating. You’re still learning. You’re still busy. You’re just not finishing your own thing. So I’m going to spend a bit more time showing what happens when I turn that around and actually start recording again. The other great thing about this song, which is also true of the one that I will be featuring over the next couple of weeks - is that it came from a collaboration. Not just any collaboration. It came from the starting point of my partner saying "when are you gonna write a song about me?". "Typically, after you leave and almost kill me with rejection", was my reply. But, those desperate days are over now - and what we ended up with, was her showing me a poem she wrote when she was 17, about the "rat-race" in Sydney. Maybe this could become a song? And then, we were making exactly that. She reworked the words slightly, I adapted them and wrote some music - I decided to make it a surf-rock lament. That's how Morning Herald started. You can listen to the song at: https://open.spotify.com/track/1CbZWuuveJd6hoPTgirZAj?si=31bcbccc37384c98 This became the first Baulk at the Möön single, released in November 2025. Later, it was compared to some of the Morricone-esque pieces and even something from a Tarantino movie. This is the essential first part of the back-story to the next collaboration - Prisoner of Zegna - which I will start posting more about tomorrow :)

Room to Record has now passed 20 members. That means the first 20 are officially the founding group. You were here before this thing had much proof, before the courses were finished, before I knew which bits would work, and while I was still figuring out what Room to Record actually needed to become. So thank you for taking a chance on it early. I’ve also simplified and reduced the paid options: - Founding Members: keep their founding access free - New members: Premium is $15/month or $120/year - VIP: $75/month or $600/year Premium gives access to the deeper guides, challenges, resources and courses as they develop. VIP is the higher-touch option for people who want more direct help, feedback and accountability. I want the paid side to feel useful and accessible while the community is still growing, rather than pricing it as though it’s already some giant polished empire. The next phase is less about building more stuff for the sake of it, and more about making Room to Record genuinely useful for people who want to create more and get stuck less. And if you’re one of the founding 20, you helped shape that.