Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Unreleased tracks are both new and nostalgic but both benefit and are impeded by both states. As someone who built a career around perpetual self documentation, it's fascinating to consider the creative processes and constraints that various music economy models place on artists 000
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 29/09/2026These are four really great songs but without the 50 years of repeat listening, a huge number of people will, I imagine, hear them as substandard because you're can they compete with that scale of memory? Nostalgia is still the most potent force in music marketing... 100
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The richness of the story here about curation, about format, about the ways that technological limitations shape our perception of significance, greatness, art... Does great art exist with any kind of objectivity? Is it *all* story telling? 110
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I mean, adding four whole new songs to one of the greatest albums of the 20th century - arguably THE greatest - is an extraordinary moment. Not demos, not outtakes, just too many amazing songs to fit any format or budget in the mid 70s... 100
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 29/09/2026So this is pretty extraordinary, and an interesting thing against which to measure your response to the cultural significance of digital artefacts - a brand new EP of songs from the Songs In The Key Of Life sessions. Absolutely seismic music history moment 💜 music.youtube.com/playlist?lis...music.youtube.comSongs In The Key Of Life - The EPEP • Stevie Wonder 130
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 29/09/2026One of my desert island discs. I still remember buying it, and the journey back across London to my dad's flat, imagining what it might contain... And then having my mind absolutely blown when I put the needle on the record. Astonishing. 🙏 030
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Last week's celebration of John Coltrane's 100th birthday produced some really lovely reflections and events. My own contribution is here: www.stevelawson.net/2026/09/thou... Alongside Miles Davis and David Torn, Trane shaped my understanding of Improv in incalculably huge ways.stevelawson.netThoughts on Coltrane at 100Two blog posts in a row about Coltrane, eh? This expansion on his influence was inspired by the 100th anniversary of his birthday, which was yesterday as I write this. Happy birthday Maestro, you trul... 000
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I've knowingly capitulated to the capitalist attention economy of IG despite also seeing it and its wild flaws unfold daily in ways that are deeply inhuman. 110
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 29/09/2026What's odd is really enjoying it and appreciating the humanity of it but also feeling far less pull towards it than I did first time around. And I wonder if it's just that the rewards/meaning of social media for me have been wildly corrupted by algorithms. The addiction has shifted the pay off. 120
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 29/09/2026It's so interesting dipping back into Bluesky every few months and finding conversations and the sharing of minutae in the way we used to on Twitter and it feeling really odd.. Not bad-odd, just such a wildly different syntax and purpose to what's happening on algorithmic social media. 100
Reposted by Dr SoloBassSteveTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 02/09/2026I have rarely had so many (sincere*) requests to do a podcast as I received about “Pop Syllabus”. Folks just didn’t know — I stalked Christiana to make her my friend. youtu.be/00w3f4boeJQ?...youtu.beThe State of Beauty Politics and What It All Means with Tressie McMillan CottomYouTube video by Pop Syllabus 311610
Reposted by Dr SoloBassSteveTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Pop Syllabus. 437295
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 24/09/2026just wrote a big ole thing about Coltrane at 100, and his influence on me. I'd forgotten that the last thing I wrote on my blog was about Coltrane too. So two in a row. Happy birthday to the absolute GOAT. www.stevelawson.net/2026/09/thou...stevelawson.netThoughts on Coltrane at 100Two blog posts in a row about Coltrane, eh? This expansion on his influence was inspired by the 100th anniversary of his birthday, which was yesterday as I write this. Happy birthday Maestro, you trul... 064
Reposted by Dr SoloBassSteveJerry Bartlett @maltjerry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026music.stevelawson.net/album/40-yea... Listen to the music, obvs, but read the words (manifesto?) too.music.stevelawson.net40 Years of SoloBassSteve: Manifesto, by Steve Lawson7 track album 142
Reposted by Dr SoloBassSteveDancing Monk🌻 @dancingmonk.bsky.social · 12/08/2026@solobasssteve.bsky.social plays heavy metal (sort of) youtu.be/DjJNFRoGFRU?...youtu.beNIB - Black Sabbath cover (for #OzzyDay) YouTube video by Steve Lawson 032
Reposted by Dr SoloBassSteveDancing Monk🌻 @dancingmonk.bsky.social · 03/09/2026#NowPlaying We Make the Road by Walking - @solobasssteve.bsky.social 021
Reposted by Dr SoloBassSteveDancing Monk🌻 @dancingmonk.bsky.social · 23/08/2026#NowPlaying Inner Cinema - @solobasssteve.bsky.social 011
Reposted by Dr SoloBassSteveAndrew Long @closetotheedge.bsky.social · 16/08/2026#NowPlaying: @solobasssteve.bsky.social : 40 Years of SoloBassSteve: Inner Cinema: 2026. Three long (ish) form pieces.stevelawson.bandcamp.com40 Years of SoloBassSteve: Inner Cinema, by Steve Lawson3 track album 093
Reposted by Dr SoloBassSteveAndrew Long @closetotheedge.bsky.social · 08/08/2026#NowPlaying: @solobasssteve.bsky.social : 40 Years of SoloBassSteve: How We Got From There To Here: 2026.stevelawson.bandcamp.com40 Years of SoloBassSteve: How We Got From There To Here, by Steve Lawson6 track album 063
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 14/08/2026I was also in my late 30s in 2009, not early 50s 🤷 030
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 14/08/2026I very much wish I'd been single in the pre-algo Twitter years rather than now. "hey, anyone want to come and watch a film at mine?" would've assembled a party in about 10 minutes in 2009. Putting that on my IG stories, or even on FB, would feel very weird indeed... 120
Reposted by Dr SoloBassSteveDancing Monk🌻 @dancingmonk.bsky.social · 14/08/2026#NowPlaying Inner Cinema - @solobasssteve.bsky.social 40 Years of SoloBassSteve a subscriber only release 132
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Morning all. Recorded this for #OzzyDay a coupla weeks ago, but just put it on YT - solo cover of NIB by Black Sabbath. Does not sound much like Sabbath, though Bill Ward was undoubtedly a jazz drummer 😉 youtu.be/DjJNFRoGFRU?...youtu.beNIB - Black Sabbath cover (for #OzzyDay) YouTube video by Steve Lawson 120
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 11/08/202620 min documentary about Sugar - Copper Blue is an extraordinary record and makes a strong case for Bob Mould being one of the most influential rock artists of the last 40 years, following on from Hüsker Dü. There's so much that's interesting in here... youtu.be/Vl_vt9HTW4I?...youtu.beSugar - Changes: The Story of SugarYouTube video by Sugar Copper Blue 042
Reposted by Dr SoloBassSteveDancing Monk🌻 @dancingmonk.bsky.social · 10/08/2026#NowPlaying @solobasssteve.bsky.social - How We Got From There to Here 151
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/2026... just turned that thread into the blog post is should have been in the first place 🤦🏻 www.stevelawson.net/2026/08/thou...stevelawson.netThoughts on Being Prolific – Lessons From John Coltrane.(This is the first time in many, many years that I've reproduced a 'tweet-thread' on the blog. Only this time, it's from Bluesky, not that other hellscape. For those of you who are new-ish round here,... 054
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/202616. Lastly (cos this has turned into a blog post in a shit format), practicing with the intention of playing release quality music every time you pick up your instrument will completely change your relationship music. You'll be way way better on gigs, a better improviser, have better ears. win/win. 021
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/202615. But in the history of jazz, 10 album recording sessions a year was/is nothing. As Ralph Towner said to @innerviews.org "The ECM format is very intelligent, but it’s very demanding in that you have two days to do a record in most cases and then you have one day for mixing." So you prepare well. 100
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/202614. I find it odd when people use subscriptions just for demos, bootleg-quality recordings, documenting process without ever embracing the joy of actually making that stuff sound amazing by practicing how to do it. It takes a lot of effort to convince people that my 10 albums a year aren't demos. 100
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/202613: Coltrane and Miles because they made albums in a single session. Prince and Prefab Sprout because they were emblematic of just how poorly served prolific recording artists are by the mechanics of the mainstream music industry. Subscription economics cuts through all of that. 100
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/202612: It all stepped up a gear when I started playing with @danielberkman.bsky.social - our 10 album set, FingerPainting, came out as downloads but also on a USB Stick. That changed a lot. All the way through, Coltrane, Miles, Prince and Prefab Sprout were the artists I was inspired by. 110
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/202611. Every iteration of my live rig was a step towards refining the fidelity of the recording of everything. By 2008, my live set-up was my studio. Total parity, every gig recordable, and if I liked it, releasable. That produced Live So Far with Lobelia, and 10 Years On: Live In London. 210
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/202610. Then I came up with the very first iteration of what became the subscription; uploading additional digital recordings for my 'Street Team'. Just a folder on my server that may have been password protected, which a bunch of extra stuff that I loved but couldn't fit into a CD release schedule. 100
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/20269. (missed out the number on 8). My recording career seems insanely prolific. But it's entirely intentional. I realised early on I wanted to make more music that the prevailing industrial model for releasing CDs allowed. I started out putting out extra CDs for early ordering, doubling my output. 100
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/2026This is a really important epistemological point. The fixedness of music has a long and problematic history. 010
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/2026If you're looking to work out how this fits your music making, try doing both. Make a live version, film yourself making it, invite your audience into your process, rather than hiding it and presenting them with an edited, polished, inhuman product. Embrace your humanness, your momentary decisions. 100
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/20267. It's really tough to graduate from pristine aesthethics to a live, evolving, interactive model of music making. It requires a very different skill set, and also exemplary technique. Not to mention the discipline to STOP EDITING EVERYTHING. Sound human. There's a reason why we love Tiny Desk Gigs. 141
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/20266. ...BUT... neither does most pop music production. Which is why it's so susceptible to AI cloning. If you're making a thing that is finished, that has no human responsiveness in it, no decisions made AS IT IS BEING MADE, you're in the business of constructing a product, not documenting a process 120
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/20265. Music that is the document of a process takes time to understand. The beginning may not mean anything until you hear where it goes. Then you listen to it again and are expecting the evolution, the denouement, the resolution. Again, obviously, AI has no mechanism for this, BUT... 100
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/20264. (and this needs unpacking at much greater length) improvisation happens through time. The end of a piece of music is dependent on what happens at the beginning, at the choices made, at all kinds of messy human things. It's the exact opposite of AI generated anything. Process > product. 132
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/20264. Sometimes the significance of a record is there in the music. Sometimes it's in the story about the music. We have absolutely no idea what 'Trane thought was significant as he was making it. He wasn't the one deciding what was released. The auteur nature of many musicians is way over-exaggerated 030
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/20263. our relationship with greatness has absolutely zero connection to how long things take to make. Anyone who talks about the value of art because of the time or money it takes to make is missing something essential about audiences. Those stories can be leveraged for value, but it's not inherent. 220
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/20262. Many of them weren't released until years later. Our sense of what Coltrane was about at any stage in his career is at least partially shaped not by his development, but by the order in which things were released. (cont.) 220
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 09/08/2026just found this amazing chronological list of everything Coltrane ever recorded: rateyourmusic.com/list/wizardj... Coupla things worth noting: VERY few albums took more than a day. A lot of tracks were the first and only take. (cont)rateyourmusic.com 134
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 08/08/2026just found this lil' think I wrote on Facebook back when it had a quasi-blog function built in, titled 'The Illusion of Genre' - it's nice to know that 36-year-old, 2009 me was having thoughts I'd still largely agree with now :) www.stevelawson.net/2026/08/the-...stevelawson.netThe Illusion Of Genre – a post from 2009The following thoughts were posted to Facebook, back when there was a quasi-blogging function built in. I'm not going to edit them, as it's more interesting to me to log where my thinking about things... 000
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 08/08/2026ahhhh, I'd so, so love to do more music with Michael. He hasn't been to the UK in about 15 years :( 010
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 08/08/2026remake And Nothing But The Bass? I think I am going to do an album of earlier tunes, as a '40 years of solobasssteve' celebration. Might not be a remake of one album though... just the ones that make most sense reinterpreted :) 120
Dr SoloBassSteve @solobasssteve.bsky.social · 08/08/2026Nope, was SoundCloud only. David Wright's list has a couple of new ones missing but has everything else - www.david-wright.co.uk/music/steve_...david-wright.co.ukSteve Lawson Chronological Album List 210