Well…. the last update I gave you all was at the end of December, just as Christmas was about to be upon us. We’re now already nearly three months in to 2026 and things are moving on at a pace and as I alluded to in previous updates, I’ve never been busier.

The work on Time Demands is proceeding at pace and today, I completed the vocal tracks that I had to do for the songs. So, the overwhelming majority of the work behind the microphone for me is done and I have a lot of comping to do for both lead and backing vocals. I’m very much keeping an open mind as to how many of my vocals will actually make it onto the finished project as I may well include lead vocals from either Suno or, more likely, Re-Sing, so long as I find the appropriate timbre for the song. There are a couple of tracks in particular where while I’m very happy with the vocal melody that has emerged, it is arguably not right for my voice; Silent Times, A Strange Love both being cases in point.

But this is a project which has been taking about three hours a day, pretty much 7 days a week for the last four months, from inception and writing to this stage of recording. Now, in fairness, given the amount of years that the previous three albums have taken, it is realistically possible that the album will be finished by April, which is unheard of, by my normal standards.

Then again, I’m lucky in the sense that now I’m retired from the day job, that I now have the time to be able to devote to my creative passions, just like I hoped I would and it certainly seems like this is starting to pay dividends. One of my key objectives on leaving my last formal IT employment was that I intended to not even think about whether I was going to resume my IT career before April 2026 and so far so good, that is still holding out and as I say, I’m busier with my creative activities than I have been for probably thirty years.

It is even different to when I had all day every day to work on No Expectations, because at no point so far during this creation process have I ever had a day where I have come into the studio room and thought “….. nope. Not feeling it today. Back to watching YouTube videos about dashcams and cats…”

...which is probably just as well, as while my intention for the next project was going to be the Chasing A Rainbow Soundtrack, that particular project has taken a bit of a left turn. Again, from speaking to my dear old friend Derek, his unwavering support and affection for the play led to me not only picking up on his Concept Album vibe, when I saw him last but also in the last 4-6 weeks, while I was working out the Cue Map (ie what music will go in what scene, what kind of atmosphere it is trying to set, what instrumentation, etc) for the project, I took the time out to do two things; one to reread the damn thing properly from end to end and then to realise “hang on… this is actually a bloody good piece of work…” …and then subsequently remembering that I didn’t actually do anything much with it last time round, when it was completed first time at the back end of 2005.

I was at the time, just starting a relationship that led to my second marriage, some of the happiest years of my adult life, plus I was getting back into music and was more concerned with my previous band and the associated AlterZero spin off tracks, which had been missed off previous professional recording sessions that we needed to get done; I had a half-hearted attempt at writing the Original Soundtrack for Chasing A Rainbow between 2007 and 2012 and in reality it was fits and spurts; but in terms of doing anything with the screenplay itself, it was pitched, I have to admit, somewhat half-heartedly, to the BBC Writers Room, to Marchmont Pictures and a couple of others and yes, like most things I have ever done, there were rejection letters (well, everyone has them, thats what builds up the “ten year overnight success” thing :)) but there was also encouraging feedback and finding out that Chasing A Rainbow got into the last 6 of Writers Room, losing out to The Lakes was also quite something for a complete newbie screenwriter… but after that, I did nothing with it. It got parked in PDF form in a folder somewhere and it grew dust for years. Over twenty years.

And then recently, ie in the last 4 weeks, something has happened. While I’ve been feeling in a good general place about Chasing A Rainbow as an overall project, there were two interesting things that have changed the focus somewhat.

One was an interview with a very well known actor on a Sunday morning chat show programme which led me to think “…now, he would be a bloody good choice for one of the characters in the screenplay”, (which my partner also agreed with and even more spookily wasnt prompted to either), which when relayed on to Derek, he indicated that there was a possible cut-out that might be able to get the script to this particular actor to see what he thought. And, as I’ve found from being tangentially involved with the crowdfunded Dogs!Waiting To Be Loved project, if you can get notable actors attached to a project, it can increase the chances of getting it successfully funded…

Interesting, I thought. And then, I started getting emails through for the London Screenwriters Festival which is due to take place in April this year.

I get these emails because not long after writing Chasing A Rainbow, there was an opportunity to write for a project called Fifty Kisses, which I followed up on. It didnt get anywhere, again my attempt was somewhat half-arsed being a short adaptation of some Marillion lyrics into a slightly cryptic short film script… but it did provoke me into writing again… and I’ve been on the organiser’s mailing list since like ever, LOLZ.

But as my brain does from time to time, it starts to wander and thinks “hang on… you’re probably never going to get a better chance to do this; if you dust off the project, sand off some of the rough edges, bring it up to date a bit, dot the i’s and cross the t’s… you can afford the admission fee/tickets… why not go for it? It’ll be like trying to push demo tapes all over again… this has been twenty years, there is no reason to think that it isnt the right time for this project…”

And, to support that, one of the other things I did was try and use the likes of Grok and other Generative AI platforms to put together some brief video clips which could be put together like a sizzle reel or trailer to help inspire the writing of the soundtrack, particularly around scene setting and what kind of music these scenes would need.

So over a couple of days, I put together like, a Proof Of Concept reel which had the original piano track behind it and that led me to think… hang on… this could potentially really have some legs… so, I also did a second one, a slightly darker one, with some of the more emotional scenes from the play and there was a different track put behind it – (which you guys dont know anything about at the moment), one called Taking Each Day As It Comes, which is like a half-Suno version of an old set of lyrics to a song called Stockholm Syndrome, which I’d tried to write for the original effort at the soundtrack back in 2012.

And it works really well, in my very humble opinion. Normally, you’d expect it to be like a trailer, with real actors, real locations, props, etc… but in this one, its all GenAI short clips of things like characters walking into pubs, banging doors and slapping people, getting emotional after throwing their husband out of the marital home, torching a BMW 7 Series in the countryside and other such odd parts of the story… and when you think, each of these clips is a key event in a scene that shows you what the story is about, its incredible as to how much depth there is and how much opportunity there is for a really memorable film to be made… But….. and there is always a but….As there is with any AI free accounts, there are some particularly curious artefacts in the sequences (one that looks like four medics doing CPR on a mutant pillowcase is one excrutiating one, LOLZ) but in terms of the AI characters being placeholders for what the film could be, as opposed to the real actors and real locations, etc… I cant help but get that feeling that I might be on to something and that it is worth taking the time out to go for it and to try and push it and push it properly. I also reached out to my original mentor who helped me take the project from a five page A5 notebook scrawl to a finished screenplay and made contact with him again and have his blessing as well into the bargain.

Here is the first Proof Of Concept reel link: This one has more odd artefacts (look for the drinkers on the wrong side of the bar for a start, LOLZ) and less continuity between AI generated characters but it is representative of what the characters are going to be doing and of some of the key scenes in the story. I think it has great potential.

https://youtu.be/FBvldq2c__8

And this is the second, slightly darker one. There is more continuity between characters and less artefacts and I personally am very happy with how this one has turned out… it has much more emotional depth and shows the particularly moving, difficult emotional wringer that the two main characters are put through, especially the main female lead. Again, all they are as AI generated characters is placeholders for the real thing, but in terms of saying to a viewer or to someone I am trying to convince to make the project a reality this is what you can do with this story, this is the journey you can take your audience on, you really ought to try it… they more than fit the purpose.

https://youtu.be/2qRf7ZpMYYA

And thats the rabbit hole I am currently a LONG way down right now… and to not drag it out too much, I will be taking five days out in early April from the 9th to the 12th at the London Screenwriters Festival at a Uni campus in Regents Park in London and there is an awful lot of effort at the moment being put into preparations to pitch the story as best I can and that is generating a lot of heat and quite a bit of light as well. All the necessary things of accommodation, travel etc have been taken care of and now its just a case of focus and pursuing the goal.

It is possible that should Chasing A Rainbow get picked up (which even though I’m close to it, I am highly confident with good reason and being objective, that it really deserves to be), that this could end up being my legacy more so than the music. That is reason enough for me to make sure I give it my best shot. And, as I’m 60, I’m not going to get many more shots at it, so I have no excuse whatsoever not to do it. I’m not looking for a career as a screenwriter, I’m a musician and producer, which will be a bit of a headscratcher for those I’m likely to pitch it at… but the universe channeled this story to me in 2005 for a reason and I have a responsibility to try my absolute damndest to get it made, by hook or by crook, regardless of how long it takes. It might end up making sending demo tapes in the 1990s to Major Labels look like a walk in the park…

So… in addition to the work on Time Demands, that is the big focus at the moment and frankly, even if it doesnt get picked up, either here or in the US, I’m still going to be doing the soundtrack work anyway. That isn’t going to change and Sagittarius Rising is still waiting patiently in the queue behind it.

Its a really busy time and one with great anticipation, a hell of a lot to be positive about and something really tangible and worthwhile to aim towards.

I think I’m quite enjoying this retirement lark…