Alright folks, sorry it’s been a couple of weeks since the last update. I’ve been pretty busy of late with this and that. Anyway, I do have another classic track for you to check out. I use the word “classic” as a nice way of saying old really, I’m not being narcissistic or anything
You might have read on the little biog page of this site that many years ago I attempted to create my own style of music called Shed Music. It was partially a joke but also had some substance to it. This is the track that started all that off really. Now allow me to transport you back through the mists of time dear reader…
It was in the year 2000 and I was without a band at the time, pretty happily without a band if I’m honest as the previous one had been emotionally draining and I wanted some space. I’d just started a Computer Science degree (which I completed honest… I’ll get the certificate out if you like?) and things in my life were changing I suppose. I got my student loan and then promptly spent it on a load of audio equipment to set up a home studio, I got a digital 8 track, a nice Soundcraft mixer, some mics and all that kind of stuff. Most people spend their student loan on beer and drugs, I spent mine on my own little Abbey Road hehe
I was playing around with all this new equipment and starting to get involved with the Internet more and more via my course. I experimented with Propellerhead’s Rebirth software a lot at the time, it essentially gave you a virtual 808 drum machine and a couple of synths to play with. I loved it and spent a lot of time messing around with delay and reverb panning between speakers. Like I said, while other students were out getting drunk and partying, I was doing this (sigh). I came up with this long drum track containing weird synths and noises panning around so I dumped it to my outboard recorder. All 9 and a bit minutes of it, which I couldn’t change thereafter cos it was recorded to 2 audio tracks. I then started jamming a bass line over it, recorded that, added an acoustic guitar. Then I felt the urge to get the old harmonica out (that’s not a euphemism) and jam along. I recorded it all and after a day or two it was building into a pretty nice groove I must say. It sounded like a mad mix of electro noises with acoustic guitars and harmonica, I didn’t really know what to call it.
It was at some time around this point I found myself watching that perennially depressing BBC soap opera Eastenders. Readers within the UK will know what I’m talking about but basically it’s been running for about 20 years and it’s a bit of an institution here in the UK. Even if it is utter shite. Deadenders would be a more accurate description. I don’t honestly know why I was watching but it must have been fate because one of the characters said “You’ve got some of that shed music down there haven’t you Janine?”. It was a crap joke but the name stuck in my brain, Shed Music, that was it!. So I made a note of when the repeat of the show was on, set up my mini-disc recorder and taped the whole thing to use for samples. I got a few funny lines and obviously the bit where they said Shed Music and mixed them into the track, as you can hear. After that it had to be called The Shed Anthem. I recorded a load more tracks and combined them with some friends to make an album under the Shed Music banner. It was an experimental and eclectic mix but I still love it to this day. It still sounds fresh even 8 years later and that says a lot I think. Listening to this track again now it still sounds good but I’m not so sure it’s as groundbreaking as I first thought. Who knows? It reminds me a bit of Lemon Jelly or someone like that. Still good though. I piped the harmonica track through an electric guitar amp and mixed it with the dry version at different points throughout the track, which adds a nice touch I think.
I decided that the Internet was the future of music, pretty ambitious in those days but I wanted to start an Internet record company with my friends. We called it Shed Records and tried to promote tracks through the site for download. It was tough and to be honest, it was probably too early at that time for it to work. It took about 25mins to download a 3min track and it was tough going. It kind of fizzled out in the end but I’ve thought many times about resurrecting it since the dawn of the download age. Many people told me that there was no demand for music online and people wouldn’t go for it. I was convinced and I was subsequently proved right by the launch of iTunes a couple of years later. To quote the great Alan Partridge “needless to say, I had the last laugh”
Incidentally, I think we’re in the same situation with video now that bandwidth is good enough, if there were better legal options to buy films and TV programs through the Internet I’m sure people would use them. Mark my words, there’s a fortune in them thar hills!
I was so convinced this was going to be a smash that I phoned the BBC to inquire about clearance for the samples, I’m not joking. I spent ages trying to explain to some poor receptionist that I’d recorded this song using samples from Eastenders and I wanted to get permission to use them. They seemed a bit bemused really, passing me from one extension to another and probably having a great laugh in the process. In then end the bloke basically said to me “just do what you want with it, if it becomes popular we’ll contact you about royalties then” he was very nice about it actually. Still can’t believe I went to the trouble of ringing them over that though.

I set up the original Shed Records website and purchased the name www.shedmusic.net which as you can see I’m still using to this day. I really wanted www.shedmusic.com but it was unavailable at the time, it just brought up some large picture of a random middle age couple with the words “click on our faces to email us” in large flashing letters. What??!!!! Bastards!!! I kid you not, it’s gone now or I would link to it. You’ll just have to take my word for it. Anyway, I digress. Hope you like the tune and I’ll be sure to offer you some more selected samplings of Shed Music in the future. It can be a bit eclectic for some people’s tastes I know but hopefully some of you might like it. Fingers crossed hey
Catch you next time kids, don’t talk to strangers
Dan
P.S - This is called a radio edit because the original version was over 9mins long, I spared you

Sonic Real Estate - The Shed Anthem (Radio Edit) [4:47m]:
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