First principles

ONLY ONE UNIQUE FACTOR

That's right, there can't be two unique factors! And the unique factor is me <gulp>.

Everything else has been done before; the song structures, the lyrics, the arrangements, the dynamics, the instruments, the recording techniques... you get the idea. In fact, most of these things will have been done better somewhere else.

Worse, that unique factor may even turn out to be mediocre, but hell, I'm fifty and if I can't be myself now then I'm really stuck.

So, the only thing I've got going for me is that I'm James Bisset - there's no room for wannabees here.

LEARN FROM THE PAST

OK, so everything has been done before. Well, being fifty, I've had time to learn from my mistakes as well as everyone else's. There's a myth in modern popular music that the best stuff comes out of a kind of passionate naivete whilst clever dicks are no better than the charlatans who create shallow formula music. Romantic nonsense - leave that to the journalists.

It's certainly true that nobody likes a smart-arse, but it's not a requirement that you need to be either stupid or innocent in order to write good pop music.

So I'm going to write out a list of the things which I like about my favourite records, and use that list - everything I can think of to make James Bisset sound more like James Bisset.

NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

Modern computer based recording techniques and the synthesis of sampling and erm.. synthesis mean that almost any sound or arrangement is possible. This choice paralyses me.

Instead, give me a restricted palette and I'm creatively provoked to search out a method of getting the effect I want. The end result will sound better and be far more personal. Either that or it'll sound like shite.

BUT THE FIRST FIRST PRINCIPLE IS...

Shite - I almost forgot this one. And you don't get to fifty years old without realising the pre-eminence of this rule.

If anything can go wrong, it will.