The End of the Century

Track By Combstead
Guitar, Lyrics and Vocals by Robert Grigg

In Your Arms - Combstead & Robert Grigg

Happy b-day Abi.  His fave director is Stanely Kubrick. I asked him to rec me a film last year and he said “Happiness with Philip Seymour Hofman.” I thought it was creative and funny and sad. He has higher moral standards than me. Found his gf perverted.  I would have called it kinky. I was going to tell him to lower his standards but if someone said, “maybe you should cheat”to me I’d say “no” cos a)your gf is supposed to be one of your best friends and b)it’s disrespectful. If I treat one of my best friends with disrespect how can I treat my friends well?  So I think Abi should do Abi. Other than that Abi sent me a pic and I told him he looked a bit like Rami Malek. He wasn’t too fond of that but Rami Malek isn’t bad looking and Abi looks 16.

I thought the whole song was A Dorian but it’s actually A dorian b2 alternating with A dorian for the verses.  I came up with the riff and wanted to make it more complex so I used the same strumming technique for ‘Can’t Stop.’ First time I used hand clicks for a song and also first time I’ve kept an entire song all modal. Thought the vocal phrasing was quite ZZ Ward for the verse and I wanted to  make it more hard rock sounding like Soundgarden. So the verses sound quite ZZ Garden or Soundward (Squidward). The bass in the verses is playing a simplified version of the bass line in ‘Come Together.’ I do like the vocal phrasing for ‘yet in the mix I found joy’ for the chorus. First time I’m doing that much falsetto for lead which is inspired by QOTSA. Some counter melodies for the beginning of verse 2. Fave use of counter melody is probably the 2nd half of ‘Emotion Sickness’ from Silverchair. I added some congas and wanted the same rhythm as the percussion from ‘Roots Bloody Roots’ but I decided to keep things simple and accent the 2 vocal syllables.. Then, the last chorus I was going to copy paste my piano parts but accidentally copy pasted my lead guitar over and that improved the groove.

Lyrics: Written by SGOR. Some guy on reddit. Lost contact. If it sounds like it was written an angsty teen that’s cos’ it was written by an angsty teen. Terrific message about finding empathy. Not sure about how death fits into all this.  ‘There can be miracles when you believe’ is cheesy on paper but I don’t think it’s cheesy when you hear it. ‘If you squeeze my lizard I’ll put my snake on you’ is ridiculous on paper but badass when you hear it. Depends on vocal tone, phrasing, delivery, and melody.

Stranded on a desert planet, lost in my own curse,
As if I caused a cataclysm, but all I did was change.
I was Found in the mud, like a coin in ruin's dust,
Polished up, made to fake, like I hadn't seen the rust.
Hear a beating heart in the darkness,
I've been lost, I've been found, I've wandered so long,
I found myself in you, but in the end, it wasn't me I found.

Ride with me through the storms of life, (it was fly with me originally and I am not singing that)
Let our hopes shine bright,  (it was light shine bright originally)
Like we've been struck by lightning, 
Revealed 
As something in the night.
I came to life when loss became real,
Felt pain and sympathy,
Yet in that mix, I found joy, found a way to be.
Am I cursed? I'll never know, but I'll embrace it all,
Life is its own limit, 
perfection in its sprawl.
The final goodbye, the chill of death, it comes for us all,

Running through the lost ruins of an apocalypse. (I wanted to give some more sensory elements to a song that was very much ‘in its feelings. So I matched the idea of a cataclysm. Took about 10 secs to type out)
Found myself with spears and arrows and feeling generous
Smeared my face in mud, like an Indian warchief
I’ve been dead, I’ve come to life, I’ve wandered so long
I found myself in you, but in the end it wasn’t me that I found



Ride With Me

Guitars, Bass, Keys and Vocals by Robert Grigg

Master Plan

This is a nostalgic song lamenting the complete transformation through development in modern days of a once rural area where I spent a lot of time during my childhood on day trips and weekend bush camps. Such is progress!


Cedar Creek

Mid tempo guitar based rock song, written, arranged & produced by John H.
John Hardman - vocals, guitars, keys. Original version on Electroman album by Beats Working UK.
(c)(p) 2025 Swamp Music UK & Swamp Records UK for all territories

Cross The Line

Cross The Line - remaster 2025

Radio Silence

Rock song written, arranged & produced by John Hardman
John Hardman - vocals, guitars, keys
(c)(p) Swamp Music UK & Swamp Records UK for all territories


Calm

One Man

One Man - Beats Working

newly released older recording. Thanks for listeners that helped make it to #2 on Repost Ex- Best of the rest chart.

blues reign

instrumental counterpoint between guitars & electronica/synths

counterpoint

JOHN HARDMAN - singer, songwriter, guitars, keys, producer 
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/john-hardman-latest-guitar-tra-tF7LEkFPT.e6BVl22SCo5g#0
YOU TUBE MUSIC - https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=xgOiS8QNa9Q&list=PL-PCsZnU8IF-6X-WgdydjtsjA6cOTWjl1
LINKTREE: linktr.ee/john.hardman
WEBSITE: https://johnhardmanmusic.com
https://app.viberate.com/artist/john-hardman
linkedin.com/in/john-hardman-799488321
APPLE MUSIC - NEW PERSPECTION ALBUM:
Buy single songs or whole of John's albums in lossless at https://beatsworkingukjohnhardman.bandcamp.com
John Hardman Cooked Oxide album - buy individual or full album lossless: 
https://johnhardman.bandcamp.com/album/john-hardman-cooked-oxide
https://music.apple.com/us/album/perspection/1599817271
TWITTER: BEATS WORKING:  twitter.com/beatsworkinguk
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/john-hardman-latest-guitar-tra-tF7LEkFPT.e6BVl22SCo5g#0
email: mail@johnhardmanmusic.com
swampprods@outlook.com

One Man - Beats Working

John Hardman - musician, writer, producer