buttgammon

I'm an undergraduate student in English, originally from Wales but now based in Liverpool for half of the year. Naturally, literature is a huge passion of mine which consumes much of my life one way or another but music is just as ubiquitous, and I always love discovering new things to listen to. I try to keep an open mind with cultural stuff and it'd be nice to think this page confirms that. If my tastes are fashionable, it's merely a coincidence. If there's one thing I'm not, it's fashionable, unless minerally-coloured 'post-punk' shirts with buttons and collars are en vogue again.

Music is always a driving force in my life. It gets me out, even if nobody is willing to come with me, as I learned when a friend stood me up at a gig at the age of 17. I have even been compelled to try and make music in the past, but it's almost universally bad. I was a passable guitarist and keyboard player for most of my teens but arthritis has eroded my fingers to the extent that it's hard to play a chord on the guitar any more and my ability to read music has deteriorated through stagnation. Now, I try to make techno, ambient and dubstep stuff using my computer and synths but it never gets very far. At least I have some quality control, which was needed when I made my brief foray into noise music and 'released' a track which was only audible out of the left speaker or when I made a mediocre house track using some cheap software I bought in France. Now, I'm lucky if I can get further than programming an arpeggiator pattern, laying down a simple drum track or rewriting the lyrics to 'Hallelujah' to impress a woman. Any unsuspecting listeners are lucky too.

Aside from music and books, I like Eastern and Central Europe, left-wing stuff, tea, wine, rum, abstract art, screaming at football, good comedy, Moleskine notebooks, interesting poetry and European films. How's that for taste?