Welcome to this, my debut album. I am so grateful that you’ve taken an interest. When you start making music you have no idea who will hear it and then of course, you’ve no idea if they’ll like it. If you are brave enough to share your music you’ll find that inevitably some people like it and some don’t. Because that’s life and even the top ‘household’ bands have their detractors don’t they? So then you think, what can I do to make it ‘better’ or more appealing. In the end, the only answer is to do what comes naturally to you. As in life I guess? Creating something which is ‘your sound’ seems a bit high brow, but people started saying ‘well I could tell it was one of yours within seconds’. This perplexed me as they were all different (as far as I could tell!).
After a few months, reeling from positive comments and an award for my debut EP from Clouzine Magazine (under my ‘maiden’ name MidLifeMix) I decided to just carry on, while balancing the desire to throw the rule book out the window – and yet create sounds that made sonic sense in some capacity, so they were accessible?
It is a big responsibility making music. I certainly feel that it is anyway. If someone is generous enough to take time out of their day (or night!) to click on a link containing something you’ve made, their ears need to not be offended by it. It means I have so many mixes of each track. I got to mix ZZZZH with the Ian McMillan track. Almost four and a half times round the alphabet! Why? Well it was a complex piece and each time I listened I noticed something else and I just couldn’t leave it.
Of course, you change one thing and then this can have a knock on effect in a different instrumental part...and so on. Oh the joys of mixing! As you can see, I take this very seriously. And the fact that you are reading this and perhaps listening to the music means that all that time and effort was worth it.
The play by Elizabeth Alker on BBC Radio 3 Breakfast show in the middle of July 2021 was an absolute dream come true. To have the ‘seal of approval’ from the BBC’s classical radio stations, albeit a presenter who has a gloriously open mind to the word ‘classical’, was out of this world. What’s more her listeners were very enthusiastic about the track on social media. Hello if you found me because of that spin of (Teaching Darkness) How To Fly featuring Ian McMillan. Thank you for ordering this album on the strength of it. Another big responsibility! I hope you like some of the other tracks too!
As alluded to by Elizabeth, I was a ‘late starter’. She said I was 54 when I started but she didn’t say how long I’ve been doing it for. So I’ll let you into a secret, I started making music only last year, assembling sounds into instrumental pieces. Using a free app called Garageband. When you’ve got your ideas arranged into a way that pleases you, you then have to produce and master it! And there the real work starts! Plus I also had no experience of either of those things. So it was an uphill struggle. I am so not the most tech savvy person you’ll ever meet. The ‘composition’ of a track is in a way the easy bit. Mixing it so the various elements are heard by the listener as you intend, panning across the head (headphones definitely enhance these tracks, I had a bit of fun with panning left and right as you will hear) without distortion, muddy sounds and of course, without sounding ‘wrong’ ie timing, structure or tuning issues, with no clicks where you’ve joined the instruments in the mix, etc, is no mean feat. I take my role very seriously and want to take you on a pleasant trip over the course of these 11 tracks. I also made a video for this track. Which you can find via my website or on youtube.


What started out as one experimental track turned into an album! Someone suggested to me that I should add ‘found sounds’ to my creations. I had never heard that expression before. Fancy way of saying ‘sounds you find around you’. All bar one of the natural sound recordings (ie everything that is not conventional music) were done by me. Thanks to Daniel Parsons for the waves.
Up ‘til that point I had relied very happily on the music recorded by others who kindly play the instruments and allow others to use notes, phrases, whatever, as they see fit. These are called loops and samples. I started ‘assembling’ music in this way last summer (2020) and a whole new world opened up for me. This album represents my foray into found sounds and there’s a particular theme of nature. Mostly the nature outside the window but also a snap shot of human nature as you will hear.
I was fascinated by the dynamics of the dawn chorus and then evensong. The natural start and close to the day. Having spent so much time using phrases or sections of song I felt I owed it to the birds (and you) to have the experience as it is in the wild! Without additional man made music. It seemed to make sense to open and close the album with this. And I am reliably informed that the evensong is the perfect music to go to sleep to! Just hope you don’t drop off BEFORE that point!
If you are not in the mood for uninterrupted birdsong (for about ten minutes each end) just skip to track two and meet my lovely garden thrush.
I’ve listed where the main bird sounds, where distinguishable, kick into each track on the sheet at the end. I hope this is of interest. If you’ve got any insights about others that I’ve not listed, please do get in touch via the socials or email. Would love to hear from you.
So whether you are a seasoned twitcher, a ‘lockdown birder’ or someone who is keen to learn more about the different (mostly garden) birds in the UK, I hope you find something in this album to enjoy and savour.
Thank you once again for taking the time to explore ‘Nature’s Grace’.

The album will be ready by the mid/end July on here only and on general release 5th September to mark my first festival appearance at Tomorrow Calling at AMP Studios for Vanishing Point in South East London.