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As some of you on here know, my primary artistic pursuit is that of a musician, and to that end I am currently entering the mixing phase of my forthcoming album "Blue Odyssey".  After working on many projects with Miki over the years, I've really come to view the creation of new music as 'painting with sound' - particularly when it comes to mixing a track and placing each sound, each instrument, in its proper place. It is very much like the composition of a painting. One element misplaced, and it strikes dischord, disharmony, and offends the ear (or the eye).

I truly believe that observing the creation of paintings firsthand many times over through Miki has informed the way I approach my own work, giving me a greater appreciation of how to create 'the whole'.   It helps me to step back, and perhaps view the piece differently. This is something musicians (and perhaps artists, too) find very difficult, particularly when you are recording a solo album, and every part recorded, every decision made, is down to you. It becomes increasingly more difficult to take a detached view, so close to your creation do you become. Yet it is a necessary evil.

Perhaps even the act of standing back from a painting, seeing how the light falls on it, how it looks from afar, is a great trigger for the mind when it comes to music, for that is how I picture myself when I mentally take a step back from my composition. An apt analogy? -perhaps, but for me certainly a useful one.