The Future…

Greetings all!

No doubt you have noticed it’s gone a bit quiet on the Arctic front!

The main reason? My life entered a state of flux about 5 months ago when I finally decided to leave my day job of 5 years.

It’s been a very scary, exciting and beneficial experience and has given me a lot of time to pursue other interests such as writing and illustrating.

I’ve been documenting my experience at a new blog called DO Leave Your Day Job. You can read all the posts at www.doleaveyourdayjob.blogspot.com (and ‘Like’ the Facebook page).

See all my posts at www.doleaveyourdayjob.blogspot.com

Over the last few years, I’ve also rekindled my interest in comics and graphic novels (growing up, I read Tintin and Asterix). I used to make comics as a kid, and have always been interested in them as a storytelling form.

So I decided to create my own webcomic called Garçon Deux. You can see all the strips I’ve posted so far at www.garcondeux.com (and ‘Like’ it’s Facebook page too!).

There are new strips every Wednesday at www.garcondeux.com

Which brings me to music.

I entered 2013 with the intention of taking a break from music (having been writing, recording, performing and releasing almost continuously since 2008).

It’s been difficult to stop. I even played a couple of gigs and also supported my musical chum Simon Herron on a few occasions.

I love making music, and could never stop completely, but feel I’ve reached a point where I cannot continue the way I have since 2008 when I released ‘The Boy In Brown‘, followed by ‘In My Hands‘ in 2010 and ‘Like Lovers‘ last year.

I’ve never claimed to be a “live musician”, so will most likely withdraw from that scene even further. Despite my best efforts, my stage nerves perservere. The core of my interest in music has always lain with composing and recording. Performing live, to me, is a necessary evil, rather than an activity I enjoy.

The physical presentation of my music has also been something I’ve struggled with, especially over the last few years.

While I’m very proud of the consistent branding I created with my artwork and knitted goods, I don’t feel my physical product can really compete with other music releases you’ll find on store shelves.

Moving forward, inspired by labels such as Clay Pipe Music and Second Language, I would like to offer limited edition vinyl presentations of my music via platforms like Kickstarter or Pledge Music, while still offering digital downloads at www.arranarctic.com and Bandcamp.

I’m hoping this method will open a whole new level of creativity, encompassing all the bells and whistles that limited edition vinyl can offer – beautiful 12″x12″ artwork, expertly typeset liner notes and vinyl all the colours of the rainbow!

However, before any of that happens, I need to write more music! So it’s very early days yet. For the time being, my CDs, bundles and scarves are still available at the BUY page, but they won’t be around forever.

‘Like Lovers’ CD – £5.00	‘In My Hands’ CD – £5.00
‘The Boy In Brown’ CD – £5.00	‘Electronic Blood’ CD – £5.00
‘Notebook’ CD – £5.00	‘By The Sea’ CD – £5.00