I am releasing music for the first time in 15 years
Published on June 13, 2026
This picture is one of the first gigs I played. That’s my friend Richard on bass who I still know today!
Today, I am 45. So to “celebrate”, I am releasing music for the first time in about 15 years. I am tempted to say that because I am 45, I am releasing a 45. But I doubt many of you even remember or know what that is, and even at my ripe old age, I barely remember them.
Also, a 45 was generally only two tracks, and I am releasing 4, so it makes even less sense.
Ah well. Whatever. I am releasing music again. What midlife crisis?
Again, I hear some of you say. But Chris, aren’t you a tech blogger/video maker/tech writer/programmer? What’s this I hear about music?
I have a past life. In fact, some people know me better for that past life. Music has always been in the family, in my blood. My Dad played with a bunch of bands in the 1960s and 1970s, some of whom went on to be quite famous. My Mum was active in the curious English tradition of music hall theatre. During my childhood, my Dad made many efforts to get me into playing music, but it didn’t really stick until I was about 16, and then I fell deep into it. I put out one of the first online music zines. I had a few small bands. I went to a lot of gigs and was lucky that London in the late 1990s and early 2000s was fantastic for music. And even at home I was lucky that my Dad generally had great taste in music, some of which I am only starting to appreciate now.
And then around 2003, I met a curious bunch of individuals that kind of clicked, and we formed a band. That band, Art Brut, did well at the time, swept up in the second wave of “Brit Pop” with acts like Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, and Bloc Party. It was fun, I saw a lot, but for one reason or another that made sense at the time, I instead decided to go solo, and eventually moved to Australia.
There I switched instruments from guitar to drums and played in a few other bands, who did OK, but never quite as popular. I got tired of trying, and moved on to other things.
But there was always a desire to make music lurking behind the scenes, and despite being mostly known for playing in indie rock bands, my musical tastes have always been broad, and actually I always wanted to work on soundtracks.
Fast forward to the past couple of years, and I reignited my musical bones by teaching at a volunteer music school, which has been invigorating for my creativity and sense of musical discovery. I formed a music writing and production partnership with someone else and we have been slowly creating a body of work covering a mix of genres, intended use cases, and instruments.
And today, that new duo, Aeon V, releases a debut EP, “The dark embrace of infinite space”. It’s a conceptual EP of four tracks around a loose theme of an astronaut getting stranded in space after some sort of dramatic incident, and slowly dying, drifting in the vast blackness. I am not sure if you could describe it all as a soundtrack, as there is some singing (well, it’s me, so…). Maybe consider it as more of a statement of intent, and we will also be releasing other tracks to our profile pages over the coming months.
If you were an Art Brut fan, I am not sure if you will like it. Maybe you and your tastes have changed too in the past 20 years. You might recognise a few stylistic signatures, but it’s fairly different.
If you have no idea who Art Brut were, or even that I had a music past, even better!
Listen. Buy if you want. Subscribe. Share. All the usual things content creators ask and need you to do these days.
Most of all, I’d appreciate opinions, emotions. In this increasingly AI-filled world, they are increasingly important, and the inefficient creation process an important part of being and feeling human.
Enjoy. And more to come.
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