The Next Step For TPJ

Spring has always been me favourite season. A time of rejuvenation and new beginnings and I time to think about what's going to happen over the upcoming year.

Well, for me that means a change of job, I have quit my previous company and will start a new job this June and I have a new Film project that will surface in due time that will involve myself and Tommy Cuellar and hopefully other artists. Its called Project Kiss and it will be a multimedia event that will include Video, Photography, Fine Art and Illustration.

New Levels Of Distortion

One of the things that has been kind of bugging me about my guitar sound was the level or 'sound' of the distortion I have been using. I was using a Boss Heavy Metal (HM-2) pedal that really didn't suit the style of music we were playing, although it had plenty of sustain for those big thrashed chords.

So, at the weekend I went to Shimamura music and picked up a new Boss Distortion (DS-1) to replace the HM-2. The sound difference was quite different...more spiky, or Indie, you could say, and much closer to the sound I'm looking for. So the HM-2 has served its time and been retired, after 10 years of service, to the back of my amp.

Looking forward to getting with MJ Ultra this week and trying my new DS-1 out!

New look TPJ YouTube page

I was a busy little beaver this morning adding stuff to my YouTube page. I've been meaning to update for a while but just haven't found the time to do it. I've added some 30 second shorts that I'm calling Cellphone Films. These are mainly experiments in light, texture and contrast and were shot using my cellphone's 2.0 Mega-pixel camera and recorded on the 3GPP format. They're just meant to be a bit of fun, but there are some fairly interesting effects. I'll add a few more as, and when, I shoot them...basically whenever an idea comes to mind.

Anyway, the main reason I decided to update my YouTube page was so that I could put up Flash versions of some of my short films. A lot of my Mac friendly buddies complained that they couldn't watch my films on my website because they were WMV only. So now they can all stop whinging. I posted Winter Ghosts, Interiors Redux, Gloom and Bloodshot Reanimated. Hopefully, my films will now start to reach a larger audience than before

www.youtube.com/user/RichLoffman

www.mjultra.com

Today we have launched the MJ Ultra website. It can be found at:

www.mjultra.com

This will be the main website for all future news and pictures of the band. Plus, we will putting some recordings on there in the not too distant future. I'll be sure to let everyone know once that happens. I have put a few little video surprises on there so look out for those too.

In the meantime...Log on and enjoy pictures like the one below.

Big Audio Dynamite - E=MC2

It's funny how various events during the course of a couple of days can collide together and suddenly you're reminded of something that perhaps you'd forgotten all about. And so Big Audio Dynamite suddenly came to mind...I was listening to a BBC podcast and who should suddenly pop up in an interview none other than the legendary Filmmaker Don Letts, who I'd remembered fondly from my teenage years for his work with The Clash and later with B.A.D.

The funny thing was that only a day earlier I had been watching The Clash's Rude Boy movie and had been marvelling at Mick Jones energy and curly hair. So, I sought out the most famous of B.A.D's singles on YouTube E=MC2, which incidentally was the first 12" single I ever bought.

I was shocked and delighted to see that the video contained footage from one of my all time favorite movies Don't Look Now, so I was totally made up. So, here is that classic movie inspired, sample-tastic piece of post Clash magic from messes Jones and Letts.

Big Audio Dynamite - E=MC2

Richard Loffman's Kiss

I know, I know, you're already put off by the title right? Sorry...anyway I'm about to launch a new project, despite what I said in my last post. This is something that I've been pondering over in my mind for a while now. It's going to be an art/video/music/installation project celebrating the art of the kiss.

To find out more or to get involved drop me a line or mail me.

How to spend my spring?

Well, its a third of the way through the year and the cherry blossoms are on the trees, but unlike previous springs I don't really have any projects on. Spring has traditionally been a good time to film but this year I've been concentrating so much on music that I haven't thought about film making at all.

With Jakey away on tour from this month with Cornelius it means I have a big fat space in my diary to fill. I would like to start writing some new songs for MJ Ultra, and I have a couple of ideas for new tunes, so perhaps whilst Jakey is away I will get some studio time with Mikko and work on them. That might not exactly fill three months but it's a plan of sorts.

Enjoy Hanami.