Name: Cracking Up by Studio Creatures
Duration: 4 min 28 s
Description: Saigon...the first demo from 1980 done in Downtown Radio for Davy Simms rock show. Featuring Eamonn Keyes on guitar and vocals, Ross McClelland on bass, Tom Clyde on keyboards and Mickey Sands on drums and backing vocals. We didn't have much of a clue, and it was Eamonn's first time singing as all our attempts at getting a vocalist had crashed and burned....

Dance As Old As Time

Another interesting Ross lyric.
We're used to having our love songs written by teens and twenty somethings who talk about love which has just arrived.
But what about love from the perspective of a couple 30 years on, who've seen hard times and good times, and who are looking back and still in love? This is the premise of the song. Saying that kids, this is what real love is, and what can be.
It falls in perfectly with the T3A Project -no-genre pop music for older folk.

Love Story

Originally written by Ross Mc Clelland and me around 1982. Only finished and recorded some 33 years later in 2015. With bass guitar by Ross and backing vocals by Maggie Thorpe and Jenn Jones, I'm guilty of the rest of the musical input and programming.
I've just remixed and remastered the original as of March 2019, as it badly needed it, having been recorded on budget equipment at the time, so expect more bottom end, which was needed to give Ross's excellent bass work the prominence it deserved.

Thoughts About You

A story of loss of faith. He could have been a young guy called Ross who has started to play bass and ended up playing in small Belfast gospel halls and whilst on stage decides the whole religion thing isn't for him.
Or he could have been another young guy called Eamonn who decides it's all nonsense and tells his shocked and angry family. Or not.
No moving mountains or walking mulberry trees were harmed during the making of this song.

Live At The Mustard Seed

Another complete left swerve inspired by Ross's lyrics. 
Started off in a different lyrical vein, I realised how much we use the word heart in many contexts, and in exploring this the song is a celebration of that in an uplifting and joyful anthem that I really needed to bring colour to my world.
Beginning as a simple two chord rhythm before I realised the syncopation was giving me an African vibe, so off I went to source Western African rhythms, which hit the spot. I could hear the guitar riff in my head and had to sit down to learn it and note pull offs that previously weren't in my style at all. The mid section was problematic- I tried about 4 options before it came fully formed into my head one night when I was almost asleep. I jumped up, sang it into my phone before realising it should really be acapella harmonies. Added to the verse African style harmonies it's one of the most vocal tracks I've ever done.
It was hard to sit still whilst recording it, and it's one of the best yet- if not the best that T3A have done. Ross's excellent bass work on this is pivotal......

Dedicated to Partson Mukonoweshuro, my friend from Zimbabwe. I think of him when I hear this song, his gentleness and big, big heart.

Human Heart

Saigon...the first demo from 1980 done in Downtown Radio for Davy Simms rock show. Featuring Eamonn Keyes on guitar and vocals, Ross McClelland on bass, Tom Clyde on keyboards and Mickey Sands on drums and backing vocals. We didn't have much of a clue, and it was Eamonn's first time singing as all our attempts at getting a vocalist had crashed and burned....

Cracking Up

Originally a set of lyrics from Ross that then gained a different meaning for me. Originally, it was about our Studio Creatures ethos of not procrastinating, wasting time and instead making the most of life.
When I got the lyrics I started subconsciously trying to achieve something fairly quickly with them, but soon ran out of steam. 
My health wasn't great, I was exhausted and constantly in a lot of pain, struggling to get up each day.....and that was where the mid-section came from, turning the song into something about keeping going, no matter how slowly, against all the odds. It described how my daily life was, and turned the song around for me.
Eventually we got there.
And now I hear the song as self-advice and an attempt to help rather than being a demand or order. 
Lots of guitars and keyboard noises feature throughout, with yet another excellent bass guitar from Ross.
Onwards and upwards.

Get It Done (Right Now)

The first song that sprouted from the renewed contact between my long-term musical collaborator Ross Mc Clelland and myself. Ross provides lyrics, bass and additional input into the songs which I largely produce. We initially called ourselves T3A because of this song, but have recently changed that to Studio Creatures, 
We thought we'd write something that reflects the farther end of living, and in my brain this sounds as if McCartney had found an old Lennon piano song.
This is a remixed version from 2023 when I realised I couldn't listen to the hazy mix from 2015 anymore.

The Third Age

Why should the kids have all the fun? We started writing music together in 1980, stopped for over 30 years and then started again, developing niche pop music for old people. You learn a lot in 30 years.

Cracking Up

Studio Creatures

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