It’s that time again.

A year where it felt like I didn’t get lots done, but when you scoop it all together, add in the fact I have a pretty busy day job, it’s not been too shabby.

Confetti as an HE institution has essentially ended and has integrated into the School of Art and Design at NTU…so the 9 – 5 has been a journey into working in a more traditional University format as opposed to alternative vocational HE provision.

I ended my tenure as an External Examiner with Point Blank and WaterBear, and both experiences were useful for my professional growth. As of October, I started as EE for a suite of industry based courses at LIPA.

Mixes/Masters:

Finished album 6 by One Cure For Man..the fifth album I’ve mixed for James: a real one man powerhouse.

Mixed some singles by Fools and Sages who I really think have something special. Ones to watch for sure.

Mixed a couple of singles by wonder boy Theo Carslake and have finished 3 songs on an EP to be released in 2026. He’s got such a fantastic voice.

I did a few mixes and masters for Hannah Brine, plus some vocal post production for her debut album

Also, I mixed 5 tracks for 80s infused pop man James Burt….out 2026 in some format or other, and mastered a single for JJ Lovegrove....which has an interesting album story to follow. I love the lyric on the single so much.

No new plug ins this year, only what was added to the UAD/SSL suites that I subscribe to…and that’s still too many!

Library Music:

A couple of songs I wrote were released on a Thermal library album, including ‘Sparks’ ..which I really loved pretending I was in a female fronted electro band for. Nice to write songs rather than instrumentals.

I had 3 tracks on 911 Crime’s Desolate Tension album

I released an album on my own library label

….and speaking of which, my library label, Arms Production Music got a sexy new website and signed sub publishing deals for, amongst other places, Africa, Australia, Greece and Cyprus.

I’ve got a couple of album releases coming up in 2026 on other labels …co writes, which is a nice change…one from 2025 and one from a few years back that I only got round to properly shopping this year.

Then, planned for ages – but am a year behind actually doing anything substantial – 2026 should hopefully see the launch of my song only library. Name TBC, but have been doing lots of time researching the types of songs/productions and lyrical themes that will best place me to get material used. Have catalogued all my songs and started finishing those off, ready for launch.

TV/Films of the year:

Can’t remember lots but the Traitors in all it’s guises was great, Black Rabbit, The Girlfriend, The Beast In Me, Stranger Things and The Bear were winners too, and late to the party was Pluribus: took a couple of episodes to hook me in, but the talent involved made me invest, and it’s worth it.

The Devo documentary was great, too.

Am a big Alan Partridge fan so it was great to be spoilt with a new TV show as well as season 4 of the Oasthouse podcast: the podcast is so good…and we get lots of Lynn this season.

I only just into the Office (American version): so very very good.

Gigs:

Not many, but made them count… David Gray in March,

Father John Misty at Rock City in June ( so good: he has the best band in the business). Then in July, I was at Hyde Park with my daughter for Sabrina Carpenter. Never been to one of those corporate enorm-o-gigs but the sound and organisation was great, and she has star quality for days..total charmer, and I love Short ‘n Sweet.

I rounded off the year with an ‘In Conversation With’ Mike Joyce at Metronome. I listened to his audiobook..essentially a love letter to the Smiths, so you don’t get any real dirt on Moz, but I managed to get a question answered that I got Stephen Street to ask via me…..Stephen was a guest at Confetti’s Industry Week, and I was the interviewer…dream come true

Music:

I still do a monthly playlist of stuff that catches my ears, but in particular, new albums I loved were:

Saint Etienne (their final album)

Pulp

Lily Allen

Doves

Sparks

Sabrina Carpenter

Taylor Swift (as ever..too many tracks though)

Haim (too many tracks though!)

Matt Maltese

Baxter Dury

Nation of Language

David Gray

Suede

Podcasts:

Mostly the same as usual, with a handful of new ones thrown in:

The Adam Buxton podcast

Oh! Brother (a Fall podcast)

The Rest is Entertainment

Bob Lefsetz podcast: always excellent deep dive interviews

And The Writer Is….

Word in Your Ear

The Money Trench

The Hustle

The C86 Podcast

Morrissey and Wine (I forgot to mention last year, I did their audio stings)

Tape Notes

Sodajerker

Song Exploder

Twenty Thousand Hertz

The Price of Music

Rocks Back Pages

The Louis Theroux Podcast

Helping Musicians

Life of the Record

The Rockenteurs

Money, Music and Mayhem (excellent limited series deep dive into EMI’s Guy Hands era)

The Stage Left Podcast

Health wise, am 13 months into a healthy eating pattern: batch cooking all the good stuff. Now I’m in an established routine with food, it’s time to resolve my allergic reaction to excercise!

So, as 2025 closes and 2026 speeds towards me, it’s a time to promise myself to be more focussed and selective in my non-day-job time so I get my new song only publishing company up and running.

All the best to you and to your resolutions!