When taking and then naming the above photograph, the image name came from the scenario. Two guys were standing on this strata pinnacle and jumping off and into a swirling dervish of water. The noise from the water was loud. Very loud. Thinking of yourself in that situation, and for fun, is a non existent in entertainment value in the Summers’ mind set. There is no room for a self inflicted adrenaline rush needed in my life.

Those two guys? Therapy? Or an adrenaline rush? Who knows! Maybe the water exploding around them was the reward for the chances taken.

Adrenaline is never a constant when writing songs. Okay! Adrenaline came way back when, when playing live gigs. In the 1970’s, when jumping on a stage and playing to an audience, the butterflies intertwined with the fight or flight response brought about with the onset of adrenaline hitting the blood system and flooding the heart. I went back to those days this morning when typing a little video text for the song Audience. When the song (written by myself) was played back then, it was pretty much a pop song with jangling energy. It was written in 1976.

Cut to 2026. 50 years on. A gentler vibe exists below borne from years of learning that it is far nicer on the heartstrings to experience flight, not fight.

Jangling energy has altered in Summersville to a gentler vibe. Thinking about songwriting stages and the layering of sound? Or the progression of songs as they reach a final mindful decision of ‘Yes! Happy with this’ state is a strange process. It also includes an ongoing visual consideration too. Little holistic captures that include the Summers’ naive tried out’s in other artistic mediums too.

Photography captures, printing, little watercolour paintings, typing lyrics or thoughts to add to a video are pretty basic. But they can offer a nice focused session where the outer world simply slips away. All that is left is ‘comfort land’. A place to sit and talk to my other self. Or produce two or more instrumental or vocal recording tracks to interact with my musical ideas.

Where in the World and Pink Hearts experiments. Sound wise, this is the new direction. Simplicity of sound. Some percussion, a bit of instrumentation, an electric guitar simple melody or riff and vocal harmonies and call backs are the aim. And definitely no crazy experimentation inclusions anymore.

My Hohner Les Paul L75 electric guitar is back today after being set up to play properly. Hopefully no more going out of tune on a regular basis half way through a song. It is back home in my youth town called Coventry. My brother will pick it up. So a few weeks will have to go by before I can travel to collect it. Once back, gentle guitar inclusions will be added too.

And so. Definitely no Cacophony of Sound and Dreadful Thought.

Of course, more visual captures to add to future video imagery will be required too. Definitely a need to up the game in this respect. I can’t stand still. Ideas are currently swimming around the brain in the form of ‘film-making skills’. Self learning this ideal is going to be the way to go again! I am my own worst critic unfortunately and even though people have fed back that the below video is pretty good regarding my black and white photographs inclusions……it has a distinct lack of holistic value. Nothing marries. An ever seeking mind is pretty tiresome at times. But……..

Time allowance to get things up and running and to hoped for finishing lines is pretty awesome presently. Retirement is so much fun.

November, the Stereo and You…..My Friend.

All photographs taken by Gray Summers on the Pentax LX SLR film camera.

The Work Horse of cameras. A beautiful iconic ownership.

I didn’t have black and white photographs that could relate with the lyrical content. So chose ones with the fragility of not quite there in close meaning. They were ‘oh so obviously’ a million miles away from sitting comfortably in juxtaposition. The future can bring about little scenario ideas that can be set up to sit alongside each line of lyric content with true meaning.