Hey, if you tuned in… thank you.

I’m not super experienced at live stream things. I mean, I’ve been doing them all year with AY, and building out the GGShow into three rather different geographically live specials (one yet to finish being edited, from COP26) I learned the possibilities of combining live performance as a music maker and speaker with pushing it through a sort of telly format. It was an experiment. And as much a finishing of one year as a starting of another.

As I said in the Promo article, I’ve been sitting on How Big, the new single, for ages. It could have been in Five Songs but sort of didn’t fit that particular flow; needless to say I can’t freaking wait to introduce it to a live Momo set ASAP. Gosh-me, but how I’ve missed performing the tunes.

But that TEDx Southampton talk. I wanted closure with it, essentially. Which can be a troublesome urge, bending the resolve of any truly mature artist to edit what is right to put out. But containing the key thesis to Unsee The Future as it does, it seemed like something to still have put out there, with a few recent accents. And doing it could create a slightly unusual but in the end very Momo little sort of show experience to present the tune. To say nothing of trying out how to make some more TV.

Making that TV suddenly seemed so natural with Michael Hancock, after wondering for years how we might combine our creative ambitions for both sustainability issues and for where we live, then finding ourselves making some lovely pieces to camera for Bea at World Of Love festival this summer. Tonight’s (as I write) little livestream event was a pushing into reality of chats we’ve had to build a very portable live rig for shooting and broadcasting.

Blimey but Michael made it happen. Getting to grips with great free live editing software OBS, having used it not much more than I have so far, trying to sync sound and vision through two phones and it into my YouTube channel with a new field router was frantically laying the track infront of the steaming headlong train, as Tom from Treehouse put it to me tonight.

And Tom epitomised Treehouse Digital in his help for us tonight. Staying back to help us plug into their space and big screen to do our little telly experiment. Such help and welcome from them to try things in, I suppose, a modest but similar version of their own creative attitude. They are a wonderful family. So is Michael, as part of those making moving pictures here in my home town. Shown on my way home when he dropped me and our lovely two young helpers, Jaan and Arianna, at this year’s final B:Reel social in Bomo. They were connected to us via Adam at White Lantern and catching up with him for a christmas drink half way home from a shoot felt like a bonus treat after a successful bit of work. Carefully, around masks and social distance and the quiet gathering gloom for other friends in the events business this winter.

The livestream and talk essentially worked, as a test case. I will tinker with an edit to align a few audio glitches in the coming days, and add a little behind the scenes film too, so you can see a bit how we did it.

And so yes, as I announced in the event, How Big is out January 14, hopefully with a nice B-side I have in mind to finally make available. Plus, I am going to regularly share chapters from the new book – UTF: How to think like an artist and change the world. And as soon as I can, launch the Unsee spin-off interview series I’ve been planning all this year, The Hopeychattybits.

I don’t know where all this work is taking me. Still trying to engage richly and hold lightly. It’s not been an easy ride in recent years, for all the things I seem to have easy. I know the lovely first lady of Momo and I are hungry for change, but to follow it in our flow to here.

And that video, eh? That tune. Worth waiting for? I owe much to Caroline for helping me shoot all of it and encouraging me to keep on it through a very busy autum on the move. But huge props to David Waller for the outstanding drums work on the piece, in a lovely Sunday morning out at Room With A View in Steve’s capable hands a fortnight back. And enourmously too to Pat Hayes for turning around a world-class horn session with 24 hours to go. He helps How Big land in the end with real Momo swagger. And a joy to do a tiny something together again.

How big do I want to be? After tonight’s metaphysical thoughts, I don’t think that question is thinking big enough.

Oh, and did I say thank you?

Here indeed is to seeing the future differently.

X.