Stuck in the past having a blast.

For those that don’t know me, I’m one of seven billion people on this planet. Nice to meet you.

I’m in my 50s, married and have a cat as my child. I’m Australian and a previously senior IT Professional, now retired. I worry and act the fool in equal quantities.

Gavin Graham was a demo-scene musician and programmer on the Commodore 64 & Amiga home computers in the 80s & 90s who has an affinity with those older 8-bit sound-chips such as the MOS6581/8580, Atari TIA/Pokey and AY2681.

Today, Gavin is recreating covers in the Bitpop genre and exploring how these 8-bit home synthesisers can be transformed into a fusion of old and new electronica.

I started out on the Commodore 64 way back in the early 80s and I was fascinated by what that home computer could achieve in synthesis. I wrote my own music driver in assembly and tried hard to push the limits of its sound chip. I wasn’t (and still ain’t) much of a musician but I really got wound into the technical challenge of it all. I guess I could’ve chosen to focus my technical on graphics or other things (and I did at times) but I always came back to sound production so I suppose it has some affinity with me or me it.

I then moved beyond the technical compulsion and poured myself into the creative side as time moved on. Looking back now, even the technical programming has a creative element to it inasmuch you look for novel or innovative ways to solve a problem. Creativity is really the fundamental element at play. I’m a self taught musician and I love discovering new techniques in sound production and musical theory.

Now I think of how I write and arrange music more as how a sculptor starts with a block and carves away until there’s a statue. That’s a total reversal of how I use to write music. Previously I would start small and build the piece up. Now I think big and etch parts away to give it texture and contour. That’s just become part of my creative evolution.

In a nutshell, it’s not about money, publishers, fame –  it’s a personal growth and learning where expression is allowed to flourish. Yeah, it’s nice when my music gets a like on YouTube or Sound Cloud or someone buys a song on iTunes/Google Play but even if no one listened, I would still put my music out there. I do share my music mostly for my own existential meaning in life it’s something that will be left to survive me when my time on this world is over. So, it’s also a legacy. 

My tiny little mark in the archives of mankind. It’s my my graffiti that says “Gavin was here.” but mostly I just love doing it.

I consider myself and my music to be a anarchic display of the pop-culture anti-hero by repurposing defunct computer sound hardware to create a bridge between an underground electronic music culture and the mainstream music medium.