Crimson Kaie

Ian Jackson (Tiny Scum) - Melbourne, Australia 

Boyan - Ian is a good friend, even-though I’ve not seen him for eight years. I wanted to show something different to the usual visual art on Crimson Kaie so I invited Ian to talk about his music. I’ll leave it to him. Be sure to check out the link below for all of the music. 

Ian - I guess these songs were written over the last decade as a sort of therapy, or self expression if you like. Until recently they have been instrumental guitar tracks with the hope in finding other artists to collaborate with and finish them that way.

Unfortunately I was never able to find people who wanted to collaborate on these tunes so I thought “f*ck it” and decided to create drum patterns to the songs on my computer as well as laying down vocals. The vocals were very difficult for me because I struggled to write lyrics to the tunes that I have completed. Words are also more personal to me than music and that’s very difficult for me to come to terms with because I think of myself as being a very private person and generally don’t like to let people in on my thoughts and feelings. It’s also very strange listening to myself on the recording and is something that I am struggling to come to terms with.

Another hurdle in producing these tracks is that I’ve always aspired to artists such as Bryan Adams, INXS, Bon JOVI. It took a long time to realise that I’m not these artists, I like their music a lot but I have to come to terms with who I am and that I cannot change that. I’ve always liked the idea of fun, uplifting, pop/ rock tunes.

When I was younger, I listened to a lot of angry and depressing  music. I’m glad I outgrew this because music has a huge influence on a person’s mood and state of mind; I feel good when listening to happier tunes. Saying this I also think music can sometimes reflect the hardships of a person’s life, but in a way that gives a positive outlook to the situation and gives people in the same sort of situation comfort and hope.

That’s basically what the blues is, I think, and it is definitely a huge influence on my playing. The Doors, Jim Morrison in particular, had this element a lot in their music. You get a sense of the darkness of Jim in his music but it’s always in a way that gives you hope and comfort.

The songs I have written are about various things-

Ride is about life in general, about being free but the loneliness that this brings in today’s society. It’s about the opportunity for your life to be a wild ride and you should live it on your own terms. It also has sexual connotations that I hoped girls would pick up on.  I’m pretty sure I came up with those words while I was riding my bicycle passed some hot girl who I incidentally wanted to ride, get it?

Dancing in Limbo is a reflection of my life at the moment. I’m sort of in a passing time waiting for the stars to align I guess. Limbo being a timeless place neither here nor there.

Loving You is about falling in love with the wrong person and the way it breaks your heart to reject a person you know isn’t right. It’s not about being in love with an underage person, but does refer to the person in question having a mind set of a child.

Merry Go Round well you could say this is an anti-religion statement of some sorts. That these beliefs are just people going around in circles. They also refer to the way some people in society just live their life going in the same old circles, kind of like my sister in a lot of ways. Also the way that society is becoming more and more power hungry and greedy, which I think is just human nature and the disgraceful way that humans just grow and invade- like viruses.

 See his Facebook page for all of the songs