New EP 'Songs for a Scattered Classroom' out now

In January, I took part in a songwriting course (along with about a thousand other people) led by Brian Eno and organised by School of Song. Spending a month learning from someone I consider to be not just a living legend, but maybe *the* living legend, was by turns daunting, surreal, fascinating and deeply illuminating. Brian covered everything from the most universal (what is art?) to the exceedingly granular (more handclaps), and to hear him talk through his creative process both as a solo artist and as a prolific collaborator felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

 Brian also set a lot of homework, and one of the surprising things that I took away from the course was that it's possible to create music at something other than my usual glacial pace when properly motivated. ‘Songs for a Scattered Classroom’ is made up of the pieces I wrote on the course in response to oblique prompts from Brian, polished up slightly, but ultimately all written in the space of a month (as opposed to the usual 3 or 4 years). The songs cover a broad spread of moods from introspective soundscape to beat-driven techno and, just to be perverse, the opening track is 90% outro. That wasn't one of the prompts, it just happened.

 The EP is streaming now - search for ‘Vellum Hill’ or click through for links.