peter coyle

when i was just starting out in music...

most of the people around me would say...

just make your money...be successful...

and then you can do what you want...

i didn't buy that idea then...and i still don't...

you see it costs nothing to be creative...

creativity and money have no links whatsoever

although i was having a laugh with an old music friend

we were reminiscing about the enterprise allowance

and how good that was

you were given forty quid a week i think it was

and not hassled by the dole

and you could work as a musician

i wish that scheme still existed now

but things were different back then

there were still inklings of culture...

and for me i believed then and still do now 

that popular culture meant something...

all those great writers and popstars and artists were entertaining 

but also changed my world and keep on changing it...

now if you don't mind i would like to show you a comment

made by someone called comingup4air

on the guardian comment page for today's Charlie Brooker's article...

i hope comingup4air does not mind me using his comment

but he puts it better than i ever could

so thank you comingup4air and if you want me to take this down then of course i will...

So called popular culture is just bread and circuses for the masses. I'm convinced this crap is deliberately pumped down our throats on a continual basis to dumb us down, reduce us to mere unthinking automaton's, who cannot think for ourselves and need to adhere total allegiance to the corporation for all our material and psychological needs.

The point is that popular culture is merely another outwards expression of the profit motive. The vast majority of what passes for popular culture these days has the explicit aim of selling and promoting the products of global corporations. This may take the form of product placement, celebrities marketing certain "lifestyles", or just plain old fashioned propaganda and social engineering. The central aim is to produce an unthinking population of consumers.

Popular culture even teaches that we must even commoditise ourselves and our reality - just look at "reality" shows like The Only Way is Essex and Big Brother. We are taught to adopt persona's that are "economically viable" - i.e. we are taught to try to be other people in order to make us (and ultimately the corporation) more money.

Popular culture wants us all to become little Thatchers - we must have an unshakable belief in competitive consumption, we must "sell" ourselves, everything we do must have a profit motive. We must strive to compete against others in order to buy the "correct" conspicuous products from corporations, we must compete with each other to make the most money. Popular culture tries to indoctrinate people with the religion of corporations - the Zombie like religion of chasing profit and beating competition.

Popular culture, spewed by global corporations teaches us that if we do not conform to the "norms" they create and spew out via their mass media then we are failed people. There is no room for non-conformity, even rebellion is a consumer choice these days with corporate products catering to the "rebel" market.

All this is not "culture" this is the belch of corporate capitalism. The only way to rebel is not to consume the corporate crap, not to fall for their lies. Yes you'll probably be seen as "weird" or "old" by the unthinking drones who have sucked up this corporate religion from birth, but at least you'll be in a sense freer.

Lose touch with popular culture - it shows you are human.

is it just me or is the world becoming more polarized...

gearing itself up for another juicy little conflict...

where logic is thrown out the window...

it is at moments like these when humble music has such an important role to play...

in my opinion...music is something that can bring people together...

a shared humanity...

i just wish Bob Marley was still alive...

 

Pocket is releasing his new album 'All of this happened' on May 21 on Tirk records

i am collaborating on one of the tracks for the release 

hope you like it

Info here:

http://music-by-pocket.com/new-pocket-lp-out-on-521/


here's an iTunes pre-order link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/preorder/all-of-this-happened/id521884556

 

here is the biography for the release

Pocket is the snappy moniker of NYC based Richard Jankovich, the principal creative mind behind the NY based electro-pop band Burnside Project and a seasoned big-name remixer (Beck, Radiohead, Kristin Hersh, Of Montreal, Elk City, Joanna Newsom and many others). We're happy to be presenting his debut LP on Tirk! It's a beautiful pop menagerie, fusing electronic beats & sounds, driven guitar tones, soaring guest vocals and sumptuously eclectic harmonies.

It kicks off with Someone To Run Away From, featuring Craid Wedren of Shudder To Think. One minute in and you're instantly fulfilled with all the above. Previous Tirk single 'Hear In Noiseville feat. Steve Kilbey' follows, and we're reminded of the quirky playfulness of one of our fav 12's from 2011.

Up next it's Jar's Of Fireflys featuring Throwing Muses' Tanya Donelly on vocals. Wisps of guitar effects and building electronic beats lead into this skewed pop track, enveloped in rhythmic textures. It's as full-bodied as they come. Menomena's Danny Seim steps up to lead the pack next in Backwards From Ten. It's a power house effort thanks to his drawl tones lifting the tension and release in this stylish bit of work.

Surround Him With Love feat. Robyn Hitchcock begins with a mysterious tribal bongo rhythm before delving into another strong male vocal. Hitchcock's lyrics stir deep twilight memories with this one. Beautiful Gray featuring punk legend Dave Smalley is an altogether more upbeat affair. Crunchy 4x4 beats and unwieldily synth & guitar flourishes create a fluxing atmosphere for Smalleys lyrics to chant and untwine in.

The Way You Love Someone featuring The Lotus Eaters' Peter Coyle reverts the album back to its darker recess. The emotive output from Coyle toils in humbling tones over the mechanical beats and melodic phrases. Delicious! Up next, Yuki Chikudate of Asobi Seksu brings her sensuous ear for melody to the track Sambo. Disco, shoegaze and 60's girl group nuances radiate lovingly from this unique slice of pop.

Mark Burgess of post-punk hero's The Chameleons features on A Force Of Nature, delivering a gritty, raw and thoroughly modern pop song. Easily one of the most vibrant extroverted recordings on the album. Sal Principato, know for his extraordinary work with Liquid Liquid in the 80's and beyond guests on the penultimate track, titled Echo And Sway. There's some serious dancefloor tendencies afoot here, with Sal's elastic vocal adding splashes of colour to the mix.

The final act falls to an 'orchestral reprise' of the opener Someone To Run Away From. A masterful bit of arranging in this conclusion.

And there we have it. An accomplished album of multiple moods and many guests. Let us know what you think!

the light is coming down in slow motion...and the seconds are melting orange flames...there is only the delay...and the fireworks display ...and i tell myself...switch off...enjoy the world...it is full of beautiful things...time to let the music play...xxx

 

Walking around in a street…it could be called bold street or church street…it could be in any European city…walking and looking…at the people outside of you…not in touch with you…I am in love…in love with something…that changes everything for me…but there are consequences…it also means days like this…days of despair…like waiting in a dark prison cell…waiting for the visit…just a glimpse of her eyes…a sandfall of her soul…but I am not telling the truth…I want more…much more…to try and fill the bullet holes in my own soul…to see her…to feel her…to be inside her…far away and hidden…from all the other cities in the world…all the other folded universes…I love you…I love you as much as the animals who live with me…the dogs and birds that teach me everything…they show me the sunshine…and they touch it in a way I could only dream of…they not only know about experience…they are being…next to them I am nothing…and I dread the day that I am asked to live without them…I think the same about music…will there be a day?…when it is time to stop…I think about my heroes and heroines and what was and is inside their hearts…and how did and do they cope?…you see I have a serious problem…I am not a heroin addict…nor hooked on coke or alcohol…although part of me thinks if I was then that would make me and my music more appealing and interesting to music journalists and the general public…you see that way there is a story…there is a neat little handle…something understandable, tangible and evident…ah they could say to themselves…he’s on smack…he must struggle…he must really be worse off than me…this means he is no threat whatsoever to me…the popstar with a ‘story’ fits in with every cosy little cliché in the book…in fact the popstar is someone to aspire too…someone who breaks all the rules of the universe and gets away with it…what a star…deep down in the heart of my imaginary music journalist or music fan…there is the desire to utterly destroy themselves just like their tragic pop star…even if it is just for one night or a whole weekend…total escape…sheer unadulterated loss of your self…in a labyrinth of otherness…not your ness…and here is where I need to climb off my high horse…I cannot talk…because that is what I am pining for right now…you see…that is what music gives me…it gives me a life, a light, a universe, an existence that just doesn’t stick to me when I am just plain old me…whether I am writing a song or recording…I am part of the song…I cease to exist…and yet that is when I start to live…and without wishing to be pathetic…that is what it feels like…some people argue that feeling and sentimentality is the enemy of all creative expression…I can see their point…but I also know what it feels like to hear some music or read some words or look at a picture and for that piece of human expression to bring you home…to make you feel that you are not alone…you still feel small…smaller than an atom…still not there…still invisible…still out of the universe…still a stealer of time…but you are home…and you are not alone…and you can face the outside world and say…I have no idea what I am doing here or even if I am meant to be here at all…in this time, this place, this space…but the most loving thing I can do in this world here and now…is try to make some beautiful music…that means something…no matter how much the process of being here hurts…and even though it all seems a bit pointless…I will look you in the eyes…and whisper to you…it is the best thing that I can do…it is my love letter to music and to you…  

What is it like being a musician? Tough…but I wouldn’t change it for the world… I wish I could earn say ten thousands pounds a year…that would be amazing I would feel validated and it would mean so much to me… As it is…I feel like a bit of a fake Even though I have been doing this for thirty years…which is a bit weird …but that is show business I am only as good as my last song…fortunately I have written a lot of songs …and I always seem to have the energy and hope to keep going… Besides that I have received so much loving support…and that means so much to me People go out of their way to let me know how a particular song I have worked on has touched them…and to be honest that is what keeps me going… Also my music friends who share the struggle with me… Some of them work full time in music…most of them part time… Some of them are as old as me…and branched out to make films and write books as well as the music…I admire them so much for keeping the faith…and living the creative life… The business side of things seems toxic to me…although it is still a dream of mine to link up with a business minded person and marry the two sides together…a partnership that enables creativity to be nurtured and flourish while at the same time some money is made for the business man or woman and the artist… However it is hard for people who come from different backgrounds to share a vision Business men want to minimize the risks…musicians are born to be risk takers Otherwise they would get a proper job…it is not an easy marriage…but when was marriage ever easy…all bridges can be crossed…so that black and white can taste a few small drops of stolen harmony… I still hold the hope that I will be able to play live regularly… My dream is to do a world tour…I know it is laughable but I can’t help it So I will chuckle a little to myself but always keep hold of the dream… The problem for musicians like me is that in order to do the gigs…I need some record sales so as people are aware of me and there is a marketing buzz…whatever that is… As it stands I would be hard pressed to drag my mother to a gig never mind Fill a venue full of people wanting to hear some of the songs I have been working on Please don’t read this as a self pity thing…because I don’t feel sorry for myself… In fact deep down I admire myself for being someone who stays calm and carries on... Someone who makes the difficult choices and trust me being a musician is not the easy choice… Being a musician is an easy choice for my heart but a disastrous one for my bank account and lifestyle and self esteem… To sum up…I am the luckiest man alive because I still have the dreams and desires I had as an eighteen year old as I do now… I was meant to go to university in London…but I chose to carry on making music…it was the best decision I could ever have made…even though it was a tough one…and I still keep making the best choices for me…that is by staying deep in the world of music…a place I love with all my heart and have been very privileged to contribute to in some small way…it has been a wonderful journey and hopefully will continue to be so for the years to come…

There are so many words in the world…and it is really interesting to see how people use those words…and there are voices too…some people’s voice pours out of them like honey…others speak and the words pour out like burnt black cake…some people are very prejudiced when it comes to how someone looks…the kind of person who looks at your shoes to catch the measure of your soul…someone who flinches when they see your eyebrows meeting in the middle…mine do your honour…people gather all kinds of details and information from these coded signals and fashion statements…there seems to be a universe of organised hierarchies of visual stimuli that flutter continuously in our daily lives…without us even being aware of it…for example when I see a body with a broken genetic code or the result of some awful trauma like brain damage or a car accident…the spirit seems to be more visible more tangible…and the human connection is sometimes easier to make…because all the flotsam and jetsam of social interaction is bypassed…and there is something inherently beautiful about that emotional connection…we are all damaged in one way or another…the difference is that some wounds are visible…some wounds are easier to hide…or the wounds are embedded deep and unseen inside us…spending time with people who do not have certain physical and mental functions makes you realise how small our visual field is…how one dimensional we all are in so many ways…it is the same with a voice…if the voice is damaged in some way…as long as it comes from the heart and the mind…the message is crystal clear…the beauty is all there for everyone to sense no matter how distorted the words sound…there is a universe of organised hierarchies of sound as well…and at the top are the ones borne out of love and truth… voices are beautiful…and sometimes they are ugly…what matters is where they come from in a spiritual sense…the politician who drowns you in his deep bile of boredom and human fatigue…who uses words to fill up space and avoid using his or her heart and mind…reminds me of the ensuing chaos and carnage that follows lies and corruption…the lover who is playing emotional chess with the language of hurt and silence that sounds like a chainsaw to distract attention away from the real source of pain and distress…reminds me of the heartbreak we inflict on one another every day of our lives behind closed doors…there are so many secrets hidden in the waves of sound coming from the human voice…we live in a world of words...

here is an interview on Liverpool Confidential by Angie Sammons to promote my new single called Tell Them No this is a collaboration with my good friend Ronnie Stone who mixed and produced the meltdown for the mindless album here is the link to the interview http://www.liverpoolconfidential.co.uk/Entertainment/Music/Peter-Coyle-Tell-Them-No_17468.asp

Love and compassion mean everything to me but the apparatus of organised religion repulses me... In my opinion Life is about being connected... not about having the moral compass of a rat... The main reason I have not stopped making music is because it is the only thing that gives me that connection, that humanness, that belief... Suffering is everywhere but for the moment I will focus on Japan... I wish I could do something practical for them... but here in the heart of France the only real thing I can give are my prayers... so this is part of my prayer... And here is a paradox: All my prayers have been built, if you like, by the Roman Catholic Church But, to my real sadness, I can only pray outside the Church and I ask that my soul stands in the centre of the suffering in Japan with my brothers and sisters...

Just looking at a photograph of life in a city from overhead by Sohei Nishino…it fascinates me the dense pathways which cut through the city landscape…it is incredible to think of all that activity and existence pushed and crammed…all that living jammed into the concentrated urban space… the crushed focus of brick and light and metal over time…

watched top of the pops yesterday while waiting to eat a wonderful christmas dinner i don't like to be negative so i won't comment on some of the artists and the programme but what i would like to say is that it warmed the deepest parts of my heart when the number one came up it was one of the best moments of 2009 seeing rage against the machine at number one showing the people of the UK that people care about music the kind of music that comes from the heart there is nothing wrong intrinsically with all these simon cowell inspired competitions they are very successful as so many people watch them and buy the records not my cup of tea but each to their own so it meant so much to me that people went out of their way and put their hands in their pockets to send out a very clear message to the music business people are not stupid they like and love music they have been brought up on music that is a creative expression a need to share and communicate in a real and meaningful way music is not milk my heart leapt with joy and for once got some much needed faith in human beings and the world of music i would just like to finish by saying that all the musicians and creative people who keep plugging away in complete isolation and totally without any support whatsoever you are an inspiration to us all the world needs your creativity more than ever keep believing and hopefully all your dreams will come true love and light peter xxx