To begin at the beginning: visual art is one thing. It uses specific senses and parts of the brain. Music or auditory art is another thing. It uses other senses and parts of the brain. When you paint, you use your sight and your touch.You think in terms of composition, shapes, colours, texture, light, lines.When … Continue reading When music merges with art, something different happens
Sometimes a song just hits the right spot with people. "Hold On" is a simple little love song that we released a couple of months back, and it's had an unusually good run on SoundCloud. It's like "the little engine that could". It just keeps on keeping on. By now, without any help from anywhere, … Continue reading The love song that also can – “We Needed Us”
Hungry Eyes, that we've just released, is about the eyes of subjects in portraits looking back at you, while you stare at them - the same as in the song, The Portrait. This time, the eyes that look back at you are alive, not painted. Hungry Eyes describes the moment when a glance across a … Continue reading Something delicious that’s just out – “Hungry Eyes”
In January 2026, I looked back at seven years of making music. The first two years, 2019 and 2020, were spent learning how to do it. Literally. The next three years, 2021, 2022, and 2023, were spent learning, writing, producing, and getting my songs and tracks professionally mixed and mastered. I was working full-time as … Continue reading Looking back on seven years in music
https://vimeo.com/1165489722 Music: Orchestrated Mix of "The Portrait", remixed by Cōdae. A SONG ABOUT A PORTRAIT - AND ACTUAL PORTRAITS While producing our song, "The Portrait", which we recently released, I started painting portraits of the man who inspired the song. A year later, I had painted more than 40 portraits of him, mostly in acrylics. … Continue reading A song about a portrait – and portraits
—"Perfect You" (POEM) And "THE PORTRAIT" (painting) Image and poem from: Soul Collective - Poems and Paintings, by Marthe Bijman (July 2025, 2nd Ed., Blurb Books, ISBN 979-8-31-996715-2). Painting: "#101 - The Portrait (Classic Redone)"; Acrylic on canvas; Artist: Martha (Marthe) Bijman. Poem form: Quatrain. PERFECT YOU Trace the outline of his face —The amber … Continue reading “Soul Collective” – Paintings that became poems
te Amo (The Ring) "Te Amo (The Ring) has just been released. The track will be on the album, "The Portrait", which will be released later this year. It is a love song about a very romantic artifact. "Te Amo (The Ring)" is on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, etc. - where all the good music … Continue reading “Te Amo” – A love token recovered from a shipwreck
"Hold On" is our latest release. It is a Heart Song, expressing deeply-felt love with a sweet melody, subtle harmonies, and sweeping rhythms. It is about the pain of not being able to say the name of the person you love, having to keep your love a secret and, for whatever reason, not declaring it. … Continue reading A heart song that will stay with you – “Hold On”
Remembrance Day, on Nov. 11, is more than just a statutory holiday for many people, including me. On this day, I remember my brother, Evert, who died in 1994, and my first boyfriend, Ignatius (Natie) Greeff, both of whom were in the Army during the South Africa Border War and the People's War or War … Continue reading A Song for Remembrance Day 2025
Two more tracks from our latest album, Bound with Gold, have been released - the title track, "Bound with Gold", and "Blue Sunday". The five-track album is due out by the end of October 2025. BOUND WITH GOLD This song was inspired by kintsugi – Japanese: 金繕い. Kintsugi is the Japanese art and philosophy of … Continue reading Bound With Gold – Two tracks, similar bluesy moods
The year so far has been crazy busy. We've been producing new music and now is the time to start releasing the tracks on our latest album, one by one. Each song is special, so each one deserves its moment of glory before it becomes an item on the playlist of the album. The album … Continue reading Just out – new track “Hello Moon”
"Just Breathe" is the result of a collaboration between myself and the artist Telay Os (one of the artist names of Luke Garfield, a.k.a. Doxkyn). He wrote a perfectly delicious instrumental featuring his signature blend of synths and an 80s feel, and I instantly got some lyrics in my head when I heard it. The … Continue reading The Sound of Synths – Just Breathe
I released "You Should Know" three weeks ago to finish off the project. As a sunk cost, I did not think I could do anything more to it to optimize it. Already, I had spent too many hours and too much money on getting it to the mixed stage. The budget was exhausted and so … Continue reading More than unlikely – “You Should Know”
Whenever I'm stuck in a rut and don't know what to write about, or whether I should write a song about something, I remember what Nick Cave wrote in his Red Hand Files. He was responding to the controversy about ChatGPT, but his words define what it is to be an artist, and what it … Continue reading What to write a song about?
The colours of cold - the definitive song Now out is my EP called "The Colours of Cold". The title track with the same name is a love song to snow, and to my significant other. I'm not in the habit of writing love songs - I've only ever written two. And straight-up romance and … Continue reading Love, love, and love…
At the start of 2024, I decided that this was the year that I'd give music production my best shot. I decided to throw everything I had at it, and really try to do it right. The results were these: From Jan. to Dec. 2024, I composed and wrote lyrics for 77 songs, in-between managing … Continue reading How was my 2024? (a bit mad, a bit glad, a lot scared)
North Americans are just plain silly about having a good time. Give them a holiday, or an event to commemorate, and off they go, to dress up, eat, drink, and party. Hey, they say, gimme any excuse and I'll prove that the Ancient Romans of c. 100 AD had the right idea with their tactic of … Continue reading Thinking about death, life and everything – Reaperman
I take trouble over my music videos. For each song, I produce five different kinds - since each platform on which it will appear has different format specs: 1) full-length visualizer video - purely abstract patterns; 2) full-length lyric video; 3) Spotify Canvas; 4) Instagram Reel; 5) full-length music video, depicting the narrative in the … Continue reading Eye-candy, blood, sweat and tears
My (our) song "All the Lines" is one of those that started out as just my personal point of view. But, as my co-writer points out to me all the time (!!), this, below, is the formula for producing a song: A PERSONAL POINT OF VIEW ➕ A RELATABLE VISION & NARRATIVE 🟰 A SONG … Continue reading A matter of delineation – There’s lines and there’s lines
personal in Every way Songwriting involves two things that I had never given much thought to: Firstly, it is a very personal thing, which, if the song is not good, or if you are not successful, makes you feel very much like a personal failure. This is not a failure of your co-writers, or producers, … Continue reading The quiet despair (and hope) of a songwriter
I've found out that artists can have more than one artist's name and avatar. In today's digital creative environment where many artists do not perform live, or appear as themselves in their music videos, they are identified by a name and an image. I thought I knew "who" the people that I associate with are. … Continue reading How to create a perfect meta-human
My latest EP is called "Perfect You", the same as the title track. The album was written as a collaboration, and so any kudos for it is not only due to me. My collaborator prefers to remain anonymous, so when people listen to the tracks and go; "Where did THAT come from?", the answer is … Continue reading Perfection is in the mind of the beholder
I just found this out: - according to TuneCore, which distributes my music, the best performing song of them all is "Hirajōshi and Sky". Well, all I can say is, I'm baffled. Of the 9 albums I've released so far, containing 79 songs, this is the one? It is an Electronica instrumental of less than … Continue reading Just baffling, really…
I've always thought that if someone shows that they don't like cats (well, all animals, but particularly cats) then I probably won't like them. I have a suspicion that they have a nasty streak in them, because what's not to like about a cat? Even if you're allergic to them? Nothing. Cats are delightful. So … Continue reading A song about a cat – since very few people don’t like cats
So, ladies and gentlemen; this is the state of A.I. for the purposes of visualizing music: Now, you can generate video of a computer-generated figure "lipsynching" to your song. And believe you me, it looks as real as damnit, as my Papa used to say. The particular platform that I am subscribed to is Runway … Continue reading If you can’t be filmed, a meta-human will stand in for you!
(Or, the Long & The Short of It) Radio edits: - a song between 2 min. 50 seconds, and 3 min. 20 seconds long. Well, that's the ballpark - say, get it down to 3 minutes in total. There is a hardline discipline to cutting your favourite composition down to something that short, with an … Continue reading The Long Listen
I'm old-school in that I like to have my art in a physical form. I like my paintings on canvas, framed, I like my poetry published in a printed book, and I like my music reproduced on vinyl. So, I had a selection of tracks from my album, "Divan", cut on a 12 inch vinyl … Continue reading Pretty in vinyl
On my new album, "Ticket to Mars", the fourth track is "The Great Wall". The Great Wall This song is about people separated by a wall - metaphorical or literal - and desperate to be together. They are bound to Earth as much as they are bound to places far from each other. So many … Continue reading Borders, separation, longing
Following the title track with the same name of my new album, "Ticket to Mars", I've released three more songs, starting with "Hello". Cōdae · Hello Mixing and mastering by Luke Garfield, Banana Llama Studios. Lead vocals by Ben Alexander. Hello - first contact The interesting thing about the alien in the lyrics, is that … Continue reading How DO you greet an alien from outer space?
Following the title track with the same name of my new album, "Ticket to Mars", I've released the next three songs: "Hello", "Head in the Stars", and "The Great Wall". All three are about the contrast between being stuck here on Earth, and travelling beyond the stars, perhaps even meeting an alien from another planet. … Continue reading Songs about meeting aliens, space travel and being stuck on Earth
