PhD: The Final Frontier

Yes folks, it's coming up to the business-end of this monster task - one that has dominated the last five years of my life. I have often likened the PhD process to making an attempt on Everest: even just getting to Base Camp can be a substantial mission in itself; and, for some time, I found myself stuck there in the cold, watching and waiting for the conditions to be right for an ascent. Now, I'm somewhere high up on the North Ridge, all alone in the middle of the Death Zone, with stormy weather closing in. There's no going back down - the only way is up!

I get another one of these for my final season as a research student at SOAS:

And I'll also be helping my PhD supervisor, Richard Widdess, to teach one of his BA Music courses this year. Coupled with my continued research consultancy work with SOAS Marie Curie Research Fellow and fellow Cure fan William Tallotte, along with the excruciatingly detailed work that remains to be done on the thesis, my hours continue to be filled with the stuff of crazy music analysis. However, once the PhD is submitted (my draft has been approved, so this should be within the next few months, all being well) then I will make some time again for my own musical creativity. I have seventeen album projects waiting in the wings, and my musical mind is filled with all kinds of new visions - so look out!