The following is an essay written by John Payne. I came across it rather serendipitously, a chance head-turn to the left, that pointed me towards the box of leaflets containing his writings, outside his school. Funnily enough, this was after a meeting with a colleague during which we both found ourselves often getting caught in exactly the trap John writes about.

The piece touched me as not only does it speak to my past experience and ongoing journey forward as a musician, but I feel it contains in it, via metaphor, a seed of wisdom on how I, and possibly we all, might approach our lives, as times they change so quickly these days, and the things that once might have given us structure and validation no longer seem quite as relevant. Please enjoy this eloquent (yes, eloquent; it is not a dirty word  ) piece that speaks from the heart:

FEATURING VALERIE LARSEN ("MICHELLE")

And then there are those projects you really take your time with…

I guiltfully sat down to do a proper mix on this song, remembering full well that I had intended to post it to the blogstream sometime in late 2011… no, wait, 2011? Something about that doesn’t seem right…

Oh, because I had meant to post this song sometime in LATE 2010! Erk!

And this rediscovery only when I opened the ProTools file, and saw that it read “Be Right Here DEMO 2010-10-23”. Very embarrassing, though props from me to me for having an organized labeling system

In any case, here it is. I opted for a more raw approach than I was going for originally, which I feel allows Val’s natural expressivity to shine through more clearly (So, you see, it was good that I waited so long *snigger*)… more on this below.