Another banner year, spread across multiple projects, ranging from #bonkwave to #RFFF25 to #NHAM to #TIBtv, to a little solo stuff. I don’t know how long any of this will last, but I’m relishing it while I can. Skip to Design | Community

Music

In more or less chronological order, I think:

• I co-wrote You Are Not Alone with @CCirco@ravenation.club for the Comfy Collaborations #RadioFreeFedi tribute album organized by @futzle@old.mermaid.town
• I released a couple of extra tracks based on You Are Not Alone.
• I released a new song, Cities
• I wrote jingles for NHAM Mixtape Radio and Not What I Call Radio Bonk Wave
• 2 of my bonkwave songs were delightfully remixed
• I released The Rite of Bonk for the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave-Bonks of Spring 1 album
• I collaborated on Hi It’s Spring (production) with Sam (@ethicalrevolution@climatejustice.social) for the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave Spring album
• I gave a few related songs a common home by releasing the Cities EP (which got a lovely review on NHAM by @babumenos@sunny.garden)
• I performed the sknob bonks cities live livestream for Radio Free Fedi Fest 2025 #RFFF25 (and covered other fedi musicians)
• I contributed some vocals to Happy Bonk Day 2025 as part of a great lineup of BonkWave Allstars herded by @axwax@chaos.social
• I released Ukulele Bonk on the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave-A Midsummer Bonk’s Dream 1 album
• I released Wannawadda on the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave-A Midsummer Bonk’s Dream 2 album, part of the first ever Bonk Wave Sample Challenge
• I produced (and played on) Better Than That by Sam, which was also released on the Bonk Wave summer album (and I also make a guest appearance on the fantastic video Sam made for the track)
• I wrote and recorded a song I’m quite proud of for the upcoming Four Seasons of Bonk Wave fall album (which should come out this winter or next spring, in typical #bonkwave fashion)
• I released a new song, Choo-Choo Train
• I wrote 4 new songs for an upcoming concept album or EP, and have been chronicling my progress on Mastodon. We’ll see how far it goes and how long I can resist the urge to release them...

Design

I used to do quite a bit of UI and web design back in the day, experience which I put to good use this year:

• I designed album covers for the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave album series, with real-time feedback from the bonkwave community, and essential contributions from @Traiken@mastodon.social
• I designed web and fedi assets (and the NHAM RFFF25 LiveStream graphics) for NHAM
• And I did the version 1.0 redesign of the NHAM website (CSS mockup, Sam had to actually implement it)
• Which gave me the impetus to finally recode and redesign my antiquated music site from scratch, which I’d been meaning to do for about a decade ; check out the new sknob/music, and read all about the redesign in a series of posts right here
• I made a bunch of hand-drawn NHAM animations for the NHAM program slots on The Indie Beat Television (#TIBtv)
• I made a bunch of more general NHAM promo videos for #TIBtv

Community

On top of the musical collaborations with @CCirco@ravenation.club, the bonkwave community and Sam mentioned above, I participated in the following initiatives to promote music and musicians on the #fediverse:

• I did some virtual leg work vetting artists and asking for their consent to be listed in the Indie Art Support Community (IASC) directory which is built on the shoulders of @radiofreefedi@musician.social (and you can apply by pinging @hello@fedi.indieart.support on fedi)
• I was involved in prepping the launch of the NHAM fedi music discovery site, and I’m also an admin of the site (for which I wrote a few posts too, like The Best Spotify Alternative and Imposter Syndrome)
• I handled the technical plumbing for and co-hosted a NHAM Mixtape livestream for Radio Free Fedi Fest 25 #RFFF25
• Last but certainly not least, I was part of the group of fedi musicians corralled by @limebar@mastodon.social to prep the launch of The Indie Beat Television, a 24x7 “Fedi MTV” (brainstorming, transcoding and tagging a ton of videos, pixel-pushing, and contributing a few musical snippets to station IDs and such). Don’t forget to follow @TIBtv@tv.theindiebeat.fm on the fediverse!

As I said in a mid-year progress report:

I can’t believe how lucky I am to be part of the incredible fedi music community and to have met and collaborated with so many delightful, open-minded, super-creative people, who have opened my eyes and ears in so many ways.

All in all a fine way to keep my head above water in these troubled times, and a constant and much-needed reminder that there is plenty of good, and good people in the world, and that we have agency.

Thank you everyone ❤️

Hot on the heels of his smash hit Hi It’s Spring, I was delighted to partner again with Sam (@ethicalrevolution@climatejustice.social) on Better Than That. The song is included on The Four Seasons of Bonk Wave: A Midsummer’s Bonk Dream 1, and you’ll also find it on this Faircamp page, along with an alternate mix.

Breaking news: check out Sam’s amazing video!

Credits:

Music, lyrics, lead vocals, lead guitar by Sam Keyboards, guitar, background vocals by sknob Arranged and mixed by sknob Mastered by @ordosmarkzero@ravenation.club

I’ve only released one solo track (and one solo EP) so far this year.

But that’s only because I’ve been involved in so many other collaborative projects!

• I did some virtual leg work vetting artists and asking for their consent to be listed in the Indie Art Support Community (IASC) directory which is built on the shoulders of @radiofreefedi@musician.social (and you can apply by pinging @hello@fedi.indieart.support on fedi)
• I collaborated with Sam (@ethicalrevolution@climatejustice.social) and others to launch and run (and write a few articles for) the NHAM online music magazine dedicated to promoting the indie/fedi music scene
• I co-wrote You Are Not Alone with @CCirco@ravenation.club for the Comfy Collaborations #RadioFreeFedi tribute album organized by @futzle@old.mermaid.town
• I released a couple of extra tracks based on You Are Not Alone.
• I wrote jingles for NHAM Mixtape Radio and Not What I Call Radio Bonk Wave
• I designed album covers for the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave album series, with real-time feedback from the bonkwave community, and essential contributions from @Traiken@mastodon.social
• 2 of my bonkwave songs were delightfully remixed
• I released The Rite of Bonk for the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave-Bonks of Spring album
• I collaborated on Hi It’s Spring (production) with Sam for the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave Spring album
• I prepped (design and technical plumbing) and co-hosted a NHAM Mixtape livestream for Radio Free Fedi Fest 25 #RFFF25
• I prepped (design and technical plumbing and rehearsal) and performed the sknob bonks cities live livestream for #RFFF25, which featured covers of other fedi musicians
• And I wrote/and or collaborated on 4 more tracks for collaborative projects that haven’t been released yet

Honestly, it blows my mind.

I can’t believe how lucky I am to be part of the incredible fedi music community and to have met and collaborated with so many delightful, open-minded, super-creative people, who have opened my eyes and ears in so many ways.

And I just felt the urge to say so, and to keep track! 😅

(Maybe I should keep updating this post throughout the year, or maybe I’ll just finish it when the year is up. We shall see...)

Hi It’s Spring by Kid Sam and sknob was written by 8 year-old Sam (@ethicalrevolution@climatejustice.social), sung by grown-up Sam, and arranged (or produced or whatever the kids call it these days) by me for the latest #bonkwave compilation, The Four Seasons of Bonk Wave: The Bonks of Spring 1. An early listener swears it is destined to be the hit of the summer.

What do you think?

Oh, and ducklings!

Lancé officiellement à la mi-février, NHAM a largement occupé mon début d’année. J’ai contribué à l’élaboration du site et je le co-anime depuis son lancement. C’est un projet à la fois artistique, éthique et communautaire qui ambitionne de faire le bien et du bien.

Vous trouverez ci-dessous la présentation du site que j’ai publiée sur Mastodon à sa sortie, suivi d’un appel à contribution !

Depuis l’annonce de la fin de #RadioFreeFedi (et l’annonce récente de la fin de #Fedivision), ça phosphore dans le monde bouillonnant de la musique indé sur le #fedivers.

@keefmarshall@mastodon.online a brillamment décrit la situation dans son billet, A New Hope.

Et @ethicalrevolution@climatejustice.social l’a brillamment cartographiée.

J’invite VIVEMENT tous les gens qui souhaitent se repérer et s’y retrouver à les lire !

Il se trouve que ce même @ethicalrevolution@climatejustice.social mûrissait déjà l’idée de sortir une version web d’un magazine consacré à la musique qu’il publiait jadis sur papier.

(Et beaucoup plus modestement, je cherchais justement un endroit où regrouper toutes les infos intéressantes que je trouvais éparpillées un peu partout, en public ou en plus petit comité sur des chats et des forums, etc.)

C’est comme ça que le nouveau site nham.co.uk a vu le jour !

Vous y trouverez :

• des radios qui diffusent de la musique indé dans LISTEN
• des vidéos marquantes dans WATCH
• des calendriers d’événements (streaming, concerts, etc.) dans ATTEND
• des billets et des liens vers des infos utiles ou pertinentes dans NEWS
• des critiques dans REVIEWS
• des billets et des liens vers les sorties musicales dans RELEASES
• des liens vers plein d’autres ressources et initiatives libres et éthiques dans le MENU (en haut à droite)

(Et utilisez les tags pour vous balader sur le site !)

Bref, NHAM est un site qui a pour ambition de joindre l’utile à l’agréable, tant pour les artistes que pour leur public, et de contribuer à faire connaître et vivre la communauté musicale sur le #fedivers et au-delà (mais y a-t-il un au-delà ? Vaste question !)

Pour ne rien rater, vous pouvez suivre le compte @mixtape@nham.co.uk, et vous abonner au fil RSS du site.

Et puis n’hésitez pas à faire passer le mot, merci !

Au fait, musique indé ne veut pas forcément dire amateur ou bizarre.

L’industrie du disque comme on disait est morte et les plates-formes de streaming affament et arnaquent les artistes (et je signale que littéralement n’importe qui peut mettre sa musique sur Spotify and co, ça n’est en rien un gage de « professionnalisme »).

C’est pourquoi plein d’artistes connus et inconnus (et celleux qui les écoutent) cherchent d’autres voies de découverte, diffusion, rémunération, etc.

Nous sommes assez estomaqués par le succès du site si peu de temps après son lancement (des milliers de visiteurs uniques par jour !), mais nous aimerions publier davantage de critiques de sorties, y compris dans d’autres langues que l’anglais !

Voici donc quelques « conditions » de publication pour celleux qui souhaiteraient nous envoyer une critique :

• Musique publiée sur une plate-forme éthique ou équitable (Fair Music Platform) : site perso/auto-hébergé, Faircamp, Bandwagon, Mirlo, Jam, Jamendo, Resonate, Subvert, Wavlake, etc.
• Artiste ayant une présence sur le fédivers pour pouvoir s’assurer que la personne est fréquentable (pas de harceleurs, de nazis, de propos haineux, discriminatoires, etc.). Dans le doute, vous pouvez :
  • Rechercher l’artiste dans l’annuaire de la Independant Artist Support Community (@hello@indieart.support)
  • Vous abonner au fil RSS des sorties de NHAM, dont les artistes ont également été validés
  • Idem pour les artistes diffusés sur les excellentes NHAM Mixtape Radio et Not What I Call Radio BonkWave
• Enfin, il n’y a aucune condition de longueur. NHAM publiera volontiers des pavés comme des miniatures, le but étant de faire connaître et rayonner la musique indé :)

À vos plumes !

You may remember that I contributed two songs to the last #BonkWave triple album: C’est quoi (le bonkwave) ? and La sieste/Don’t Mind Me.

After the staggered release of Disc A, Disc B and Disc C of Not What I Call Bonk Wave – Volume 003, and as is customary in bonkwave circles, contributors started sharing stems (individual tracks) of their songs, so they could be remixed by other musicians.

I honestly didn’t think anyone would be interested in remixing my songs, and said so on the BonkBoard forum, but members begged to differ.

So I figured out how to generate and share my stems, and to my utter surprise, not one, but two people decided to remix my songs!

And they have now been released, along with many other amazing remixes, on Not Bonk What I Call Wave: Remixes Vol 2!

Go listen to (and download) the whole album now (It’s free!), or listen to it right here:

Reverb 10000 remixed both of my songs, and the results are absolutely delightful! I actually think I like La sieste / Don't Mind Me (Reverb 10000 Chausettes et Chaussons Mix) more than the four versions that I laboriously came up with!

C.Circo (@CCirco@ravenation.club), with whom I previously collaborated on a song for the Comfy Collaborations #RadioFreeFedi tribute album, also remixed C’est quoi (le bonkwave) ? in his incredible and inimitable style, and his track was way up there on the applause-meter during the online release party.

I nearly forgot! Ordos Mk.0 (@ordosmarkzero@ravenation.club) somehow managed to build a mind-boggling Bonkwave Bouillabaisse out of bits of 10 songs, including C’est quoi!

It’s truly wild for a songwriter to be remixed: flattering, surprising, touching, humbling, thrilling and gratifying, and I want to thank both Reverb 10000 and C.Circo from the bottom of my heart for making me feel so... special!

You Are Not Alone was composed and recorded by C.Circo and myself for the Comfy Collaborations tribute album, which was coordinated by Deborah Pickett to celebrate the legendary #RadioFreeFedi Comfy Channel. The album features collaborations between various artists who connected through the now defunct seminal #Fediverse radio station. It is full of comfy gems, so be sure to give it a listen and read the liner notes.

You might also want to read about how You Are Not Alone came about and was made.

And finally, as a totally superfluous but hopefully fun bonus, my Faircamp site contains a couple of extras:

• You Are Not Alone (disco reprise), which is built on top of the lovely weird loop at the tail end of You Are Not Alone, and echoes the themes from the main song.
• You Are Not Alone (reconstructed), which gives you an idea of what the source material sounded like before it got superbly refracted by C.Circo, in case you were wondering.

I’ve been writing music and songs for several decades now, and every single time I finish a piece, I wonder if it was the last, if the well has run dry.

Well it sure didn’t happen this year. I can’t believe I put out so much stuff! Let’s see...

New songs

I wrote, recorded and published the following new songs:

• Driven By Desire (radio edit and extended mix)
• Unreal
• Entangled
• Anagram (and the #bonkwave cheer)
• Living The Dream (my #Fedivision2024 entry, which made the top 10!)
• Let Me Off
• Bercée d’illusions

I also contributed two songs to the Not What I Call Bonk Wave Volume 003 triple album:

• C’est quoi (le bonkwave) ?
• La sieste/Don’t Mind Me (I actually did 4 versions of this one: instrumental, then with French lyrics, then totally different English lyrics, and the one on the album, which has the French lyrics in the left ear and the highly processed English lyrics in the right ear 😅)

Livestream

I did my first livestream ever as part of the #RadioFreeFedi #fediwave series, and played these 11 songs unplugged (sorry, no recording, you had to be there), including some that were never meant to be playable live on a guitar. And it got great reviews, too!

Collaborations

And last but not least, I contributed:

• Electric guitar to the January edition of @ChelidonFrame’s Asynchronous Drone Orchestra
• Vocals (and a bit of guitar and piano) to the Bonkwave Allstars Happy Bonkwave EP
• My own Rugged Scrublands version of Happy Bonkwave
• A spoken recording of the numbers 1 to 12, for a mystery project. I mention this because the result, Tart of Noise – Rejoice in 12, by Duchess Of Snork, which appeared on Disk 3 of Not What I Call Bonk Wave Volume 003, is awesome!
• Acoustic rhythm guitar (and tubular bells) to @Futzle’s gorgeous and moving I’m Staying Home This Christmas
• Plus other shenanigans behind the scenes...

I wonder if I missed anything (and if I have any music left in me? 😅)

Time will tell, and while this frenzy probably betrays an urge to escape the worlds’ downward Spiral, it was also inspired and fueled in large part by the incredible talent, creativity and energy of my fellow musical fedizens, most of whom I discovered through Radio Free Fedi and the tireless community-building of the Hamster behind the wheel.

Thank you thank you thank you ❤️.

Not What I Call Bonkwave Vol 003, Disc B, Bonked and Unbonked, le 2e volet délicieusement éclectique de ce triple album, est sorti !

Ma contribution, La sieste/Don’t Mind Me, a une histoire un peu compliquée : À l’origine, l’album devait inclure des morceaux bonked et des morceaux unbonked. J’ai donc d’abord contribué un morceau résolument bonked, C’est quoi (le bonkwave).

J’allais m’en tenir là, mais j’ai ensuite écrit un instrumental particulièrement unbonked, une valse plutôt lente, avec des guitares, du piano, des cordes, des cuivres, des percussions d’orchestre, etc. Don’t Mind Me était né.

Sur ma lancée, j’ai écrit et enregistré des paroles en français. La sieste était née.

Incapable de m’arrêter, j’ai écrit des paroles en anglais, sur une différente mélodie, à partir du titre Don’t Mind Me (avec que des vers qui se terminent en « me » à l’unisson avec mi aigu qui ponctue tout le morceau. Say conceptuel). Don’t Mind Me v3 – with English lyrics était né.

Enfin, dans un élan bonkwavien, j’ai collé les paroles françaises dans une oreille et les paroles anglaises dans l’autre. La sieste/Don’t Mind Me était né.

Et c’est cette dernière version bilingue qui a été retenue par Bonk Knob Records pour l’album.

Voilà, vous savez tout !

Comme la dernière fois, l’album est également disponible sur bonkwave.org et sur Mirlo.

Le premier disque du triple album de la troisième compilation #bonkwave est sorti !

Vous ne savez pas ce qu’est le #bonkwave ? Alors allez écouter Not What I Call Bonkwave vol 03, Disc A, Into The Bonk pour découvrir les 17 premiers titres contribués par la fine fleur des artistes indépendants du #fedivers.

Mais si ce n’est toujours pas clair, sachez que ma contribution a été pensée spécialement pour vous, camarades francophones ! En effet, pour tout comprendre (ou pas), allez écouter C’est quoi (le bonkwave) !

L’album est également disponible sur bonkwave.org et sur Mirlo.

Et merci à Emma de m’avoir prêté sa voix.