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Personal Message from Julian
Hi folks! I thought I'd give you an update on what's happened my
end as regards life, love and music.
After a year concentrating on my home life I'm now focusing my thoughts
on a new album.
Last year I started putting some song ideas on tape for a new album.
Now,I'm in the process of meeting with possible collaborators - new
musicians and producers. I'm also starting to put together a home
studio which will in the future be able to send music straight to
the website via MP3/Broadband, so that you'll be able to hear work
in progress. But that's away off yet!
I've already sung and produced a cover of the Beatles
song 'Blackbird'. This track is intended
to go on a Linda McCartney album for
the American charity Women Against Cancer.
Another song I'm working is 'Things She Said', which was originally
sung by Kevin Gilbert, the multi-talented
singer/songwriter friend of mine who passed away some years ago ('Crucified'
from 'Photograph Smile' is dedicated to Kevin). A friend of his is
putting together a tribute album and has been approaching people and
friends who worked with Kevin to come together in remembering Kevin
with an album of his work sung by other artists. This is something
I'm really looking forward to working on.
There are also similar projects in the pipeline!
Last year I finally bought a vacation home in the Mediterranean and
most of the year was given over to designing and rebuilding it. Boy
its been chaotic! Builders...plumbers...electricians - you name them
they've all been at my house. It's played havoc with my cooking. I
spent months making Sundayroast dinner for six or more on a hot plate
with two electric burners and a dodgy microwave. Talk about camping
in your own home! But it's all coming to an end and if nothing else
it's been character building.
Now my kitchen is a working one and I've been doing a lot of cooking
- anything from Italian to Thai, from English to French. You name
it I'll try it. I'm getting into the habit of writing down the recipes
and I hope one day I'll do a cookery book with either sketches or
photographs I've taken. I might even put a couple on the web site
for you to try out. I should say though, I'm not one for following
recipes to the T. I'd much rather challenge myself and try out variations
on traditional recipes or make something up as I go along. And then,
if they taste great, I've got to remember how the heck I made them!
I've only got about 40 recipes written down that I'm completely happy
with, but its early days yet.
Apart from cooking, I've also been trying to get out into the garden
as much as possible to learn about plants e.g.. what should be planted
at what time of year and what suits what kind of soil. I'm growing
all kinds of vegetables and luckily I've got a few fruit trees, so
I've been enjoying homemade lemonade, freshly blended fruit and vegetable
drinks. You can't
beat homegrown!
There's more exciting news coming up about the website and my music
label. More about that in a couple of weeks.
And all the best for 2001 (I think it's going to be a lucky year
for all of us)
Julian
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