Cat friend.

Seems life has gotten a little too busy to make this a weekly thing. Shows how I treat my aspirations, unable to spare like ten minutes to type a blog. Rubbish. Still, here I am.

So it's been about four months since my cat, Dennis died. I was always worried beforehand that when he went I wouldn't think about him or I wouldn't be that affected. I was pretty convinced I was going to be neutral to it.

This terrified, and more, upset me, that something so close to me could disappear and I wouldn't care.

Well, as it turns out, I do care. Just under a week ago I had a dream about him. My parents asked me to look after him when they went on holiday, and so I took him back to my new flat and I was well excited, but then, of course, I woke up and there was no cat for me.

Now, this is sad I admit, and it had me down, but it also made me feel better about myself, because four months on I'm still thinking about him regularly, and I know he was a pet but he was my first pet that was around me since I was like 3 years old. He followed me everywhere and sat with me all the time, Mum and Dad would joke that he was my shadow.

When I went out for my morning coffee, though, I was greeted by Landmine, which is my nickname for the older of the two cats that live next door, a big fluffy gentleman. After a moment of caution, he let me pet him and he was purring and all that. Eventually I decided to let him come into my room by leaving the back door open (my bedroom is also the only way to the garden). He milled around my room for a bit and came to see me, checking out my bed and sofa, and then he left.

This was all I needed to know I want another cat in my life, because I guess now I feel that Dennis (my cat) was his own personality, and no other cat will ever replace him, but I shouldn't look for a replacement, because what I had was amazing and I was too focused on losing it, but when you're focused on the loss, you throw away all those years that you had a real best friend. What I should look for is a new friend, a different one, because I'll never forget Dennis, and knowing that he'll always be in my heart gives me the faith to move forward.

GET OFF MY CASE!

So I said this would be a weekly blog, well that wasn't strictly a lie, just a lot of stuff has been going on in my little world the past few weeks.

I moved out and in with my parents, then out from my parents to a new place, then I fractured my toe by dropping a wardrobe on it (and then finished building it from an office chair, foot still pissing blood), and then I went to Gibraltar.

So, with all that in mind, it's been difficult for me to make any music or have any tangiable thoughts other than "ARGHSOMUCHNOISEINMYBRAINWHYWONTTHEVOICESSHUTUP?!" but the last few days I have been lovely and chilled.

And as such, the last couple of days, I made two new tracks, both of which I'm quite happy with. The first one was made by taking samples from the Batman Arkham City main theme, which is AWESOME, so I really didn't do it much justice to be honest, but some b-boys have taken interest in writing stuff to go over it, which is cool. It really feels good when other people get excited about my work.

Anyway, here's the link to that badger - http://soundcloud.com/woodsalt-soldier/tamban

The second track is actually one I've been meaning to try for quite some time. I wanted to make a similar kind of remix to Tamban (the Batman one), and so I set to thinking about orchestral scores I liked, and then I remembered I had the main theme from Gataca kicking around on my computer, which again, is a BEAUT.

I think the key with remixing stuff like this is to go completely the other direction with them, which I like to think I did by making a liquid drum and bass track out of it. It wasn't too hard, technically at least, I ran into a few problems and published a rubbish first draft, but now I've pretty much finished it and I much prefer it.

Here it is - http://soundcloud.com/woodsalt-soldier/garaticate

I think I've found a new style that I'd like to play with, so I'm going to think of some more soundtracks I enjoy and see what wizardry I can pull out of them. I was considering doing Pogo style vocals, that is to say, taking voice clips from the source material and chopping them up with pitch changes, but it's complex and honestly I think I'd rather develop my own sound.

Anyway, I must fly, I'm off to have a lovely day in the sun! HUZZAH!

Take it easy, readership of one. I love you x