Tom's Diner Remix

Artists who inspire me

There are a few artists who inspires me, some include Jean Michel Jarre, Gary Numan, The Electric Light Orchestra (all of Jeff Lynne's work), William Orbit, Faithless, Don Felder, Ian Van Dahl, Muse, Daft Punk, to name a few.

I will start by picking a Genre and will say what techniques and inspiration I have got and use in my music, plus links to my track in question.

My roots start with Pop/Rock music, the first band I remember listening to was Clint eastwood by the Gorillaz, the techniques I learnt from that song was how to play melodica which they used. My next major band I was exposed to by my oldest brother was Muse and I learned "Newborn" on piano and I learned the playing technique of broken chords. I was also exposed to greenday, my favourite being Holiday and Good riddance (mainly been the reason I started playing acoustic guitar, especially while singing). I was exposed to a lot of good music by my parents, Dire straits "The Sultans of Swing", Simon and Garfunkel "Mrs Robinson", ELO "Turn to stone" (i rediscovered their music a few months ago and am a huge fan). 

It was around this time I started listening to Black Sabbath and Metallica after finding one of my dads old mix tapes. I was introduced to Led Zepplin and The Doors (which I've sampled a few of Jim Morrison's Vocals, including "Texas Radio"Texas radio Remix by Stuart W (ExeDist)). Friend introduced me to Linkin Park, which I remixed "Numb" as its one of my favourite songs: Numb Remix. Later on I discovered Adele, which again I did a remix of "Rolling in the Deep": Remix in the Deep.

 In late 97 I discovered the Ministry of sound, Cream and other club favourites. I loved Trance with my all time influential song being William Orbit's "Adagio for Strings", my favourite mix being the Ferry Corsten mix, Tiesto made a version but i don't like it that much. Kernkraft "Zombie nation", Lost witness "Happiness Happening" and Snap! vs Plaything "Do you see the Light". in 98 I got my first Korg Electribe and sequencing software for the Amiga A1200 and started making my own Trance and Dance music (way before it was coined as EDM music). I found out a majority of electronic Dance songs used samples, so in 2001 I purchase a 2nd hand Yamaha A3000 and the rest is history.

I loved deep house, Drum and Bass and got into Rave music, "in the hall of the mountain king" being my all time favourite. 

Then my music taste changed to start hunting out 80's music, New wave and new age pop music, like Gary Numans "Are Friends Electric", Flock of seagulls "She ran so far", Europe "The Final Countdown". I started making New wave myself this is an example called "Freedom (That 80's Sound)":Freedom (That 80's Sound) Instrumental

I started also listening to broadway productions like Phantom of the Opera, Blood Brothers, Cats and many more. About this time I wrote a production piece called "Insania" which was used at week long drama/stage production: Insania 2015 Edition 

I have recently got into Electronica and european dance and disco music, from artists like Jean Michel Jarres "Brick England ft Pet Shop Boys", "Electrees ft Hans Zimmer", "Oxygene" and "Here for you ft Gary Numan". I've also rediscovered Giorgio Moroder, "Racer", "Chase", "Machines from Metropolis"and "24 is the new 74. I recently did a remix of "Tom's Dinner" featuring the voice of Britney Spears which is here: Tom's Dinner the Remix

I recently aquired a Akai MPC Studio and may get back into doing Hip Hop and R&B, but I will make more EDM and D&B works, with samples, cuts, recording flips and mainstream music, like some of the examples of my work (above)

JMJ Equinoxe 4/brick england remix

Into the light

Finding a job and living my life with a disability (Asperger's Syndrome which is a form of autism).

For starters;  a little about my past, myself and my employability as a civilian living with a disability. 

When I was growing up as a child of about two to three years old my parents realised that their son wasn't normal, I didn't like playing with other children at my playgroup, when I was playing peek-a-boo I never made eye contact even when the game was with mummy and daddy, I consistently cried over extremely minor things, and by the age of six years old, the local school which I was attending was worried about my social behaviour and my development. After seeing a few doctors, with one just calling a dumb and clumsy kid which would grow out of it.After about a year of this game of ping pong with regional doctors giving silly diagnoses, I was carted off to London where I went to psychology specialist which after hours of testing decided that I was one of the few in the country at the time, which was just about to be diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. I fitted the description and I was a textbook case, funny how regional doctors didn't pick on it, very funny indeed! 

At home I was put on a new diet, I was forced by my parents to socialise and make new friends even though I remember thinking what was the point of it and it was a stupid exercise, and probably a futile one at best with the severe anxiety condition which pretty much controlled and dominated my life back then. I remember that year having a birthday party with a load of kids which I had never seen in my life, dure they went to my school, but they were not in my class. When it came time to sing happy birthday, I just ran off crying, mainly as I hated the act of surprises. 

I had weird fears and fascinations, I was a avid collector of anything to do with electricity and my favourite pass time was gop outside hunting for different models of pylons (you know the towers that carry electricity to and from the power station and your homes local; substation? I believe they are called transmission towers in the US), well I took pictures, had a notebook, and took down model numbers, I then scrap booked my results. I was a scared to say this to any of my new friends as I rightfully scared that they would find me more different than I was already. Which looking back I think myself as being probably some weird eccentric which didn't fit in properly anywhere in society, apart with others like me which I found a few people when I was about nine years old with one having Tourette's Syndrome, a Dyspraxic (which I believe is somewhere between having a very functioning form of asbergers and having dyslexia) and a kid with ADHD (attention hyperactivity disorder), we were a fun a bunch, yes even today I'm still friends with them and see them occasionally.   

I also as I touched on in the last paragraph...have fears and phobias, mainly irrational fears which wouldn't affect normal people and its not a fear of the dark or a fear of snakes or spiders. My fears are fear of the light which hung off of the ceiling in my bedroom...the plug hole/grate in the bottom of the swimming pool...the fear of black colour cisterns on toilets, most of which I am no longer afraid of, but now I have an irrational fear of pylons, yes the same transmission towers from my old fascination and hobby. I also have a fear that nearly everything will kill me and a fear of crowds and public places, which is kind of a huge bummer when I am attempting to become a integrated member of society.

The other problem is my learning curve and the fact that in school I was approximately three years behind everyone else in terms of how I scored on rests as part of the national curriculum. For example I took GCSE's (Englands school systems final test which are compulsory to take when you leave school!), I had the option to bail and not do the final tests and also had the option to leave school a year earlier than anyone else and go to college to study something else instead, possibly I should have done this and learned social skills and other skills which I learned later at college several years later. The grades I got were five E's and two D's which for getting into college or sixth form you generally needed C's or above. I retook my English three times in later life scoring the same E which I got originally which is a bit of a bummer, but instead I did English at A level which I got a B in which is what is needed to get into some universities with a score like that (minus the fact that I would had to have got another six or more A levels to be accepted into even the lowest of the counties universities, but as it goes at the moment I have no need to do a university course, mainly as I think nearly ten grands worth of loans against you for the rest of your working life is a bit of stupid thing really, but maybe one day I might do it and get in as a mature student (when I can pay up front first).

After high school I went to a specialist college with other people with learning disabilities, this is where I did an apprenticeship at a local music studio for three years which I thought was cool as it was experience as working a job under my belt, I also through college connections got work a general cleaner, worked for year and a half in a car audio shop, half a year in a general store selling organic food, which was also a farm shop.So when I left I had certificites, GNVQ's, GNC's city and guilds certification for welding and job references coming out of my ears. I then spent the next month at home everyday sending in forms and applications to pretty much everyplace I was trained to work, this also included menial jobs which included shelf stacking, trolley boy at the local supermarkets and cleaners, six weeks later I was due to start a music engineering course at the local college and in that time I hadn't a single phone call or letter, note, text or slight hint that there was a job offer. I thought what had I done wrong and the thing that I now reckon had happened is that on every form I filled in there was a section on the form which stated "are you disabled" and "what disability do you, how does it affect your ability to do work", there is an apparent law in this county as a employer that they have to fair with job applicants and let in a certain amount of disabled workforce, even though if they don't accept you as an applicant they are not under onus to say why they hadn't employed you and if it was because of disability, technically its against the law but how is this law actually enforced? my guess ifs not very well.

So did a sly experiment I filled out the same forms again to the same companies, but this time using my middle name and not filling the disabled section on the paper work, and guess what by the end of the week I had half the applications back asking me for an interview, on about half those I actually got a job offer after the interview and the job I landed, I was fired in the first week because they found out I had asperger syndrome and didn't' tell them and according to the employer it was fraud on my part even though this was taken to court though my solicitor and they found the company guilty of unfair dismissal and I got a pay out. They where also brought up on discrimination charges which was what was hoping, but according to my solicitor he is seeing this happening more and more and more, and he says its nearly impossible to find employment if you're honest about being disability ad the fact you have the option to disclose it to your employer and there is no rules about them knowing!

After that fiasco, my life really changed when I started college full time doing sound design and engineering to national diploma standard, because I was still under 21 at the time social service and my parents forced me to live in a care home with 24 hour support (as my parents had a extended court order taken out on the protection of custody of myself until the age of 21, which I took them to court over and it took two years to go through whats called a family court, thats not a regular court, during the stay at said care home I was only allowed out of the house to go to college and I wasn't allowed to work, if I wasn't back at the correct time they would file a missing persons report with the local police force and they were notoriously quick to act, so basically it was like living in an open prison (and yes I was treated like a animal by some of the care staff and was generally treated like some form of criminal, locked into a institution).   

I moved out as soon as the court order was lifted and moved in with guy which I went to college with. within a year I was married to a girl which went to my high school and seven years later I am still with her, but I still don't have a job. On average I send out about thirty forms a month and haven't had a single reply in seven years. Im on DLA and JSA (which are state benefits) and it looks like unless I get a job answer or my music goes anywhere , I'm going to be stuck in a rut, yes its a easy life, but I personally hate it. I have a obsession with making music these days and that keeps me sane. Its a hobby of mine and I would like to turn it into a business, yes I love making music to generally make people happy, but I want to expand my horizons, sell my albums and live self sufficiently away from government help. As my disability goes these days, all I can say is I have adapted, I have friends which I've met myself, I go out to he town and go to family and social gatherings and unless I tell people that I've got asbergers they are non the wiser. But not saying it does't affect me at all, I still have my daily struggles and I don't think I would ever be considered as normal. My girlfriend is physically disabled and I'm called a Co-carer, so we basically help each other out and have a decent life living together, when it would be nearly impossible living on our own. 

I hope this blog posts finds you well, I've been sitting on this one for quite a while not mainly not knowing how to write it. I'm now confident I've covered all basis. If you want more information on my disability, Asperger's Syndrome there's a few good books out there to read, one good one to look for is literally called "Stuarts manual, a guide to dealing with children with Asbergers Syndrome" which is a book which is written about me, by a old friend of mine and my mothers. another good book is "Asbergers Syndrome: a guide for parents and professionals by Tony Attwood. There is the following websites you can look at this first one is by National autistic society and there is their guide to the condition which is here: Guide to Asperger's Syndrome. 

This was a brief insight into my life and struggles, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask me anything related to this topic. Thankyou for reading.

Stuart W (ExeDist music) does a daily blog, to get email updates go to his front page scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your email address for emails when his blog posts come out. Otherwise check his page regularly.  

A few remixes I've done with MPC so far

MPC remixes week 1 and 2:

Vapour  which is a chilled dance track which was my first track I made on the MPC.

Show me your bass which is a a track I made in cubase and made the drums all on the MPC 

Sampled DnB which I used samples from sesame street and kermit the frog

Sitting on the Edge this I made the instrumentation in Cubase then chopped it and sampled it with the MPC Studio Black.

Flip it challenge Wk 2 V2.0I I made the following three for the "Pad Bank" on facebook, as they were running a competition. I'm still not happy with the results of this weeks version of the WK2 challenge.

NEW!Flip it challenge Wk2 V7.0 This is a Dance and electronica tune I made called "Into the Light"

Flip it challenge Wk2 V4.1 This is the fourth version I made which is a fast paced D&B song

Flip it challenge Wk 1This is Week 1's challenge entry, but I got it a day late so couldn't enter.

Accordion session remix I did a session recording on the accordion and ran it into the MPC and re-recorded it. This is the resulting song which I made.

Melodica session remix The same as before but with melodica and me on vocals,

Pure DnB This is another fast paced Drum and Bass song, with me on vocals (chopped and processed).

They came from mars This is from a free sample pack I received free of charge so I used the samples and flipped them using the MPC Studio, this has vocals by me on this record.

Kick the Licker Is another DnB song which I made completely using the MPC software, which came with the unit, opposed to Cubase ( which I just use the MPC now inside Cubase as its easier to use)

New albums and free album giveaway!

For those who want to try my music out we have a limited amount of Bandcamp store codes to give away, this is for the following albums "purely sequential vol 1" @ Purely Sequential and "The Fat keys collection vol 2" @ The fat keys collection If your interested just leave a comment and I'll get back to you! 

We now have stock of the following albums for sale, The Fat Keys Compilation which retails at $9.99 for thirty five tracks! (or they are available separately for $0.99),  EDM Your Heart Out! (New release!) which is $6.99 and then there is Purely Sequential Vol 2 which is $9.99, which contains some newer unreleased works.

My new Single is out as well which is called Do You Love Me (Take Me Back) which is available for under a dollar!

I have a new album out in February called Dystopia which is a musical story about a dystopian future.  

I now also have my new and improved website up so you can visit on Wix.com which is @ Exe.Dist's website

There is also a load of new songs up on my soundcloud account which are mainly drum and bass and EDM music which is @ Exe.Dist's Soundcloud page