Dane Cobain's Blog, page 26
February 3, 2017
The new approach to DaneCobain.com
Hi, folks! Today, I’ve got something a little different for you. I wanted to talk to you about some of my plans for DaneCobain.com, because I feel like it’s stagnated a little of late thanks to me being lazy in my habits.
See, I have a to-do list, and that’s what has led to part of the problem. The goal is to post one article a week about my music, my writing and my poetry. Unfortunately, I ended up just posting new poems and pushing the other articles back every week until I ended up 50 articles or so behind. The good news is, I’m planning on changing all that, and I’ve started brainstorming new article ideas for both music and my writing as a whole. The aim is to get back into posting one article for each category, once per week.
Of course, if you have any further ideas, or if there’s anything in particular that you’d like to see from me, please let me know! You can click here to drop me an email, or hit me up on Facebook and Twitter if you’d prefer.
And that’s about it! As always, thanks for visiting DaneCobain.com, and be sure to check out my books or to follow me on Facebook and Twitter for further updates. I’ll see you soon!
Competition Winner: Win a Character Named After You
Hi, folks! Now, as some of you might remember, I ran a competition towards the end of 2016 where you could enter for a chance to have a character named after you in one of my future releases.
Well, I’m pleased to announce that entries are now closed, the draw has been made and we have a winner – congratulations to Gemma Applegarth!
Gemma has been a long-time supporter of my work, and I know her in real life as well as online – I go to a bunch of her events in High Wycombe, where I live, and so it’s going to be interesting to work her into the story.
At the moment, the current plan is to name a character after her in a short story featuring James Leipfold, the private detective protagonist in my upcoming novel, Driven. I’ll be working on a full collection of short stories to be released in either late 2017 or early 2018, and so keep your eyes peeled for that!
In the meantime, be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter for further updates, and to keep your browser pointed to DaneCobain.com for the latest news, gossip and competitions. You can also sign up to my mailing list to receive updates directly to your inbox. I’ll see you soon!
February 2, 2017
Announcing Discordia: New album coming soon!
Hi, folks! Just a quick update today to let you know that I’ve written and recorded a new album, Discordia, and that it’s due out for release on March 31st!
I’ll admit that it’s a tentative release date, and so please don’t be alarmed if the album still isn’t out by then. There are a couple of reasons for that – it’s all recorded, but I still have a few more overdubs to make, and it also takes a while for it to be propogated across different distributors.
Here’s the tracklist:
Catch Me Out and Defeat Me
Low Down Blues
Sober
Not Enough
On My Way
Who Will Lead the Sailors to the Shore?
Sevens
If I Die Before You
The Girl with the Rose Tattoo
Stand Right by Your Guns
It Doesn’t Matter Much
Got No Time for Jesus
Lifted
Bitter
Philosophy
Waterfall
Your Life
Discordia is set to be my third album, following up from Nocturne [2010] and Sketches [2015]. All three of them are written, recorded and performed by myself, and the first two are available to listen to or to download from Spotify and iTunes.
So be sure to mark Friday 31st March 2017 in your diaries and to check out some of my music in the meantime. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud and YouTube for further updates. I’ll see you soon!
Liverpool Journal 2017
I’m away from home again, which means it’s time for another travel journal. This time, I’m spending a couple of days in Liverpool, European capital of culture and home to Scouse accents, Beatles and beautiful buildings.
It’s only a flying visit. I had annual leave left over, and my mom had a week off already booked, and so we decided to combine the two. I spent most of the week in Tamworth, the land that time forgot and that I grew up in, but on the morning of Tuesday 24th January 2017, we got up early (relatively – 9 AM) and made our way to Tamworth station.
The journey to Liverpool wasn’t too bad. It was a 20-minute train from Tamworth to Stafford, and then we umped straight from one train to another. It takes about an hour to get from Stafford to Liverpool Lime Street, and the time passed quickly because I got too hot and fell asleep when I’d intended to read my book. I didn’t want to carry multiple books around, and so I started reading The Stand by Stephen King. Only 1,300 pages.
We arrived in Liverpool at around 11:30 AM, and we started to wander in the vague direction of the hotel. The plan was to stop off for food along the way, and we found a Wetherspoons around halfway to the hotel which did the job nicely.
First Impressions
This city
is a city
of women.
Red-headed girls
with empty faces,
eating breakfast
at a Tuesday morning
Wetherspoons,
boyfriends beside them
with stretchers in their ears
and a disappointing lack
of tattoos.
The waitress
is a redhead
too.
Girls with
Irish and American
accents.
Scouse girls
with hoops in their ears
and so many blondes
I can’t help looking
for a brunette.
Black people,
but I don’t see
many Asians.
Statues of explorers
and local astronomers,
some raised on plinths
but most
on the ground
with greedy pigeons
defecating
from their perches
atop their heads.
Another
redhead.
Overweight men
and overweight women
and overweight children
eating beans
and meat
and mushrooms.
Strange shops
selling craft beer
and Anfield memorabilia,
their quirky carapaces
nestled between
Cafe Nero
and Forever
21.
It’s the birthplace
of modern
contemporary
pop,
but I’m
just glad
I’m not
at work
today.
And there goes
another damn
redhead.
We weren’t at Wetherspoons for long – just for long enough to devour a vegetarian Mexican burger and a pint of Stella – and we soon set off on our way again. We got a little lost and somehow ended up at a different Premier Inn (there were at least two within a half-mile radius, what’s up with that?). But we managed to find the right one in the end, and they were good enough to let us check in an hour early.
We unpacked our stuff and had a quick cuppa, but we were also both exhausted and so we had a kip for an hour before heading back out. Reception booked us a taxi to the docks, and after a pleasant ride with a guy who looked like a Liverpudlian Mark Hamill, we found ourselves outside The Beatles Story.
I’d wanted to visit the place for a couple of years or so, ever since I heard about it on Facebook. It was a fantastic attraction, and very atmospheric. I didn’t actually learn anything that I didn’t already know, but my mom did. Because of that, it makes me think that it’s the perfect attraction for both die-hard fans and casual listeners alike. They give you a headset to listen to as you go around, and I listened to every clip they had and read every bit of information at every exhibit. Definitely worth a visit.
David Bowie’s Guitar
I saw Bowie’s guitar
today,
a little old 12-string
with dents and chips
and strings that need
ch-ch-changing.
It was
unremarkable;
it looked like
a 12-string
I used to own,
a £120 special
from a second-hand shop
somewhere
on the internet.
But it was used
for writin’
and recordin’,
most notably for
Space Oddity,
Ziggy Stardust
and The Man
Who Sold
the World.
They wouldn’t let
me play it,
so I didn’t.
Sure would’ve
liked to,
though.
It had 12 strings,
after all;
more than enough
to go around.
It was dark by the time that we left, but the city looks beautiful by night. We walked back to the hotel and had some food in their restaurant (I had a margarita pizza) and enjoyed a couple of pints. My mom sank three Stella shandies because she’s a machine.
After that, we headed back to the room to get some rest in, ahead of a busy day of exploration. Mom was asleep by ten, but I’d brought her laptop and so I worked on some writing (including this thing) until midnight. Then I read myself to sleep with The Stand.
Klaxons
My mother’s asleep
and my mind
is like a satellite,
naturally cruising
at thousands of miles
per hour,
all because
the earth
tends to spin
like a spindle.
I cannot sleep.
Seriously,
I should probably take
medication.
So anyway,
I turned on the TV,
flicked through the channels
and settled on
a QI re-run,
probably not one
my writer friend
researched for
but you
never know,
no?
The volume
was set to 2,
because when it was 1
I couldn’t
hear it.
Even on 2,
it was just
a murmur,
like the voices
in my head
when I go to bed
myself.
And it was fine
for a while,
and then
Alan Davies
scored three klaxons
and my mom woke up,
grunted,
rolled over
and fell asleep
again.
So I turned
the TV off
but I’m still
wide awake.
Seriously,
I should probably take
medication.
Alas, I slept badly. It was too hot in the room, and I was basically on a sofa bed – not really what springs to mind when I think of a twin room.
I woke up at around ten in the morning, too late to enjoy their breakfast, and so we headed pretty much straight out.
Our first stop was St. John’s Tower, where Liverpool’s Radio City is based. It’s a 400-foot tower with a viewing platform on the top, and it gave us a great view of the city. It helped that it was a clear day – you could see everything, from the Albert Docks and Lime Street Station to Anfield and Goodison Park. We also took a lovely selfie, which I’m now using as my profile picture.
From there, we took a trip to the Docks, where we were planning on taking a bus tour. First, though, we stopped off for a spot of lunch at the top of the Maritime Museum. We both had the same thing – soup of the day (broccoli and potato) with a cheese toastie, and I had some orange juice and a coffee to try to wake me up. There was a great view from the restaurant – we were four floors up and it overlooked the docks and the Liver building.
After that, there was only an hour or so until the tour started, and so we finished wandering around the docks and checked out a couple of souvenir shops before booking our tickets for the bus tour and then stopping for a Costa Coffee.
A Magical Mystery
The cost of
Costa Coffee
got me coughing
up banoffee,
properly.
The taste of
a big flat white
keeps me up at night
when the lights are bright
and I might not fight
because I’m frightened,
but I’ll take a quick sip
of my caffeine fix.
We’ve got the Albert Docks
with little holes in our socks,
and it’s a boat that rocks
while the ride rolls.
We’ve got St. John’s Tower
and another half hour
before flower power
takes us through
magic and mystery.
But now we’re drinking
dry the coffee shop,
and I think that I’m warm
but I know that I’m not,
and I hope
the bus will leave
for work on time.
I’ve got another two
views to consume,
another two trains
to ride home again,
but first there’s Penny Lane
where the song got its name
and my grandmother came
for her birthday.
When we’d finished our coffees, it was time to hop on to the tour bus. It left five minutes late of course, but it was probably my favourite part of the trip. It took about two hours and took you all over the place, including Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields and the early childhood homes and haunts of all four Beatles, as well as Brian Epstein. The guy who conducted the tour was funny and full of anecdotes, and they also played little bits of Beatles music along the way. There were also a fair few opportunities to get off the bus to take photos, which was cool. Definitely worth doing if you pay a visit to Liverpool.
The tour dropped us off at the Cavern Club, which was levelled and then rebuilt over the years. No trip to Liverpool is complete without a visit to the Cavern, although it was surprisingly empty in there. We stopped for long enough to have a pint and to check out the signed memorabilia on the walls, but then we headed back to the station. It was getting late, dark and cold, and Liverpool had a match on. It was time to go.
The train home was crowded, but that was probably because it was rush hour. In fact, after we left the station, I realised that our tickets weren’t valid, but luckily nobody checked them. And we managed to get some seats opposite a pair of old women who were talking about how there’s too much swearing in the new Bridget Jones movie. It was incredibly distracting, but I still managed to read a bunch of pages of The Stand.
We got back home – to a cold, cold house – at about 7:30 PM. The end of another adventure.
In to the Jungle (Guitar Tab)
PICKED
CAPO ON FIRST
VERSE: C Am G Em, F G C G
CHORUS: C Em Am, Em F C G
VERSE ONE:
“I want to be Bob Dylan,” she said.
I’ll miss you, baby, like a hole in the head,
and I’ll never lie to you for the rest of my life.
She took my tambourine and tore it apart,
a mixed message that she gave from the start,
and so baby you can drive my car if I can take your picture.
CHORUS:
Remember when we used to dream,
about a red guitar in the back of a limousine?
Remember that season in the snow,
when we had money to spend but nowhere to go?
INSTRUMENTAL VERSE
VERSE TWO:
I want to lie down by the fireside,
let you learn all of my battle cries,
and I’ll never let you down for the rest of my dies.
She said she’d shelter me from drunken blurs,
buried under a brand new hearse,
and baby, you can tell the world that I’m a loser.
CHORUS:
Remember when you said we’d never die?
Have I been keepin’ it real or living a lie?
I’ll walk back out in to the jungle…
INSTRUMENTAL VERSE
A Love Like This (Guitar Tab)
VERSE: C Am F C
CHORUS: G G (w/little finger) F, Am C G F
Verse One:
It’s late and it’s cold, I feel her heart beating as she curls up next to me.
Her voice is soft, her breath is cold, her skin is warm, my hand she holds.
What else can I do?
When she breaks off our embrace and sees the look upon my face,
am I thinking of the past?
Chorus:
The moon is clouded out of view,
but the stars are shining through.
The chemicals slow my beating heart,
a love like this should never start.
Verse Two:
We lie down in her bed, as I look up slowly, I see her eyes piercing me.
Her gaze is deep, her pupils wide, I can’t believe, she’s by my side.
We never would have thought,
two years ago next month, when this all first begun,
our fragile bond would last.
Chorus:
The stars are clouded out of view,
the moon too feeble to shine through.
The caffeine speeds my beating heart,
a love like this should never start.
INSTRUMENTAL CHORUS
Chorus:
The dark night sky is almost through,
and now the sun comes in to view.
A love like this should never start,
‘cause every fall-out breaks my heart.
Alcohol Blues (Guitar Tab)
12 bar in E
Well I’m up all night, smoking, drinking, dancing around.
I think I’m up all night because my little love can’t be found.
If I don’t find her tonight then I’ll drink myself underground.
Sometimes when I get lonely, I never can understand,
why the drops on my lips taste so weak and bland.
Don’t want to waste my life listening to a rock ‘n’ roll band.
IMPROVISED SOLO
The cider and the whiskey and the lager and the cigarettes.
Maybe I drink so much because I’m drinking to forget.
I try and put her face on a pissed up little brunette.
And when I go outside to catch a breath of air,
I feel a stabbing in my side, but by now I really don’t care.
Because the pain in my heart is more than I can bear.
IMPROVISED SOLO
Well, when I wake up in my bed, early on Saturday,
I’m writing checks from my head that my body cannot pay.
I wonder if the pain will ever go away.
Dreams (Don’t Get Me Started) (Guitar Tab)
PICKED
VERSE: C F G C
INTERLUDE: C F G (F Shape) C
CHORUS: G C F G (F Shape), C G C
VERSE ONE:
Share a dream with me, we’ll build a dream city where there’s a silver cloud on every horizon. Let’s set a date today so our troubles fly away, ‘cause I bet that promised land will be surprising.
INTERLUDE
VERSE TWO:
If I could build a house, I’d build it inside out and plant yew and ivy together in the garden. If I’m the king of spades then you’re a chambermaid and when you break my queen of hearts, you’ll beg my pardon.
CHORUS:
Don’t get me started, ‘cause when I open doors, I need to look inside.
So don’t get me started, ‘cause I’d hate to see a dream I’ve been denied.
VERSE THREE:
She’s always dream pretty and everyone can see that I’m a lucky man to be a lonely lover. And everybody knows that a feeling only grows if you keep on keeping on when undercover. So you’ll never be alone if you sleep on silver thrones and if you think your fears will always be misguided. We’re a happy state of mind in a world that’s colourblind, ‘cause what’s red is blue and purple’s undecided.
CHORUS:
So don’t get me started, ‘cause when I close my eyes, I feel like I could cry. So don’t get me started, ‘cause when I close my eyes, I feel like I’m alive.
Hey You (We’re Alive) (Guitar Tab)
INTRO: E C C/B Am E (Picked)
VERSE/INTERLUDE: E C Am E
CHORUS (Lead in with E7): C E G D x2, Am C E
INTRO
VERSE ONE:
Hey you, you’re like another colour on the lining of my eyes.
Hey you, you’re just a chariot a-riding through the sky.
Hey you, hey me, we’re explosive chemistry.
Hey me, hey you, how’s it feel to be living proof?
INTERLUDE:
We’re alive, we’re alive, we’re alive, we’re alive.
VERSE TWO:
Hey you, you’re a memory of a life I love to love.
Hey you, a philosophy when a thought is just enough.
Hey you, hey me, we were born with empathy.
Hey me, hey you, in a castle drinking tea for two.
INTERLUDE:
We’re alive, we’re alive, we’re alive, we’re alive.
CHORUS:
We’re alive and that’s what counts,
I’d like to wrap you in a true romance.
I’d like to be the meaning in your dreams.
I’m a fire that’s burning out,
you’re the music I write poems about.
I’d like to be the voice behind the scenes.
When I’m famous, the star of the show,
you’re the fuel that keeps my eyes aglow.
We’re alive, we’re alive, we’re alive, we’re alive,
we’re alive, we’re alive, we’re alive.
VERSE THREE:
Hey you, you’re a fantasy, or a flying dream come true.
Hey you, you’re a smile machine in a world that’s come unglued.
Hey you, hey me, you’re a sad man’s therapy.
Hey me, hey you, I’m glad we both moved to E2, yeah.
CHORUS x2
INTRO OUT
February 1, 2017
I’ll Never Want to Sink Again (Guitar Tab)
CAPO ON THIRD FRET
VERSE: C, Am, F, G
CHORUS: G C, Am, G
Verse One:
She built a wall around herself,
she made it hard for me to help,
and all I want to do is show her how I feel.
She wished for this but she got that,
my battery too dead to call her back,
and as an afterthought, I wondered if she was real.
Chorus:
So don’t you swim.
Don’t you swim.
Don’t you swim.
‘cause if we float then we’re meant to be.
Yeah, if you float then you’re meant to be with me.
Verse Two:
She plays guitar, she knows the songs,
would spend her life righting the wrongs,
of a fool like me, who can’t tell wrong from right.
She wears her heart out on her sleeve,
I’d never ask her to believe,
that I would die happy if she never left my side.
Chorus:
So don’t you swim.
Don’t you swim.
Don’t you swim.
‘cause if we float then we’re meant to be.
Yeah, if you float then you’re meant to be, with me.
‘cause if we float then we’re meant to be.
Yeah, if you float then you’ll always be with me.
Outro:
Be with me.
