Chapter II

Sex Tape transcended from blog idea to musical reality on Thursday night (see event below) with some good feedback and a pinch of stress experience tied in with running the event as well as performing the first time with an artist who was also celebrating his first gig.. my contribution for this one came in the form of some oscillating swirls thanks to my Moog pedal bank and KP3 as well as backing vocals mainly for the chorus in each song.. it was a success and was pleasing to hear all the swirling analogue effects i've been carving away finally blasting through a decent PA system.





For now i'm looking to book a Sydney tour hiring out friend's bedrooms in the inner city to play very small, private solo bedroom shows. Working with the host, i'll create a small list of mutual friends (10-15 p) who are invited around for a 1/2 hour set which on completion will just dissolve into a normal gathering. Having completed recent artwork for Sydney bands The Preachers and The Walk On By i'll be on the hunt for some artwork business also to even out the Sex Tape productivity.

I came up with this short intro for the initiative:

'Sex Tape is Jim Shirlaw's open-ended musical and visual art mercenary service. Aimed at working with musicians, Sex Tape can provide musical or visual art reinforcement for your band or solo efforts. With the right settlement (applicable offers of trade are welcome) l am happy to work with anyone in the studio, and/or on stage for an agreed term; l can play with you or in your band, as well as create artwork for it; both options or neither!'

I've been wondering how to integrate Sex Tape into the name of a group/artist i'll be working with.. decided that instead of something generic and lumbersome ie '..... ft. Sex Tape' i'll ask all collaborators to either integrate the words 'Sex' 'Tape' or both words into the name of their title; you'll see example on the poster below in my previous entry 'AJGB and the Sex Tape Society'.


Jim S

new artworks: thoughts on Sex Tape

The two images below are newly completed drawings which in regards to my former posts, apply to the 'exteriors' module. The emphasis on pastel colour via the red under-painting gives them the hot visceral Australian appearance i've been after, hopefully they should be appear further dramatised when opposed by the drifting, muted, mixed-media 'interiors' to come..

currently untitled, oil pastel on paper 2011


Coffs Harbour commission, oil pastel and acrylic on canvas 2011


Recently some offers have come available to create artwork for local Sydney bands as well as (with the recent acquisition of my beloved Moog VC system, see once again below) in some cases join these bands, to provide in light of my musical ignorance 'tactical interference' as l call it. These propositions got me around to thinking of a project name l thought of a while ago, whilst anticipating the soon-arrival of my VC manipulators.. I thought of creating an imaginary band called 'Sex Tape' depicted exclusively in artwork, kind of like what Damon Albarn did with inventing 'Gorillaz' and hiring Jamie Hewlett to create all the images/animation of the 'band'.

In this guise i've now decided on inventing myself as a sort of 'music mercenary' which bands/artists can hire to make their artwork or to join in on their sound, or both! Sydney, as anyone who goes to enough gigs knows, is brutally divided by its 'scenes' most of whom resent each other and don't allow any fraternising with the enemy; l always enjoyed working with a mix of bands during the Exquisite Corpse/up late with Jim Shirlaw years and now l intend to contribute in breaking down these petty barriers as an artist and musician of fortune.. we shall see.

On the news of my music l don't have anything to upload yet but l can positively say i've made a lot of ground in the last four weeks with figuring out what does what and sculpting a sound that makes an electric guitar sound totally unholy while also still audible, not actually patching the guitar through the audio in/out of the Moog Freqbox did a lot to assist that!

More on the Sex Tape coming up, VC setups as well as a Youtube special feature,

J . S