Info Junkie

All my song have stories, this one worth sharing.

More than a decade ago Amanda Tiffin and I were commissioned to write songs and put on a little show for a private birthday party with a theatre group in Cape Town.
It was no easy task.
We had only been given some words written about the person who’s birthday it was. From that we had to produce four different songs. Each one with different feel and tempo (sometimes in the same song if I remember to fit the story line…).
A really complex task from a song writing perspective.

The gig turned out to be quite a bizarre affair for us on stage, but a success nevertheless. I was asked to record the songs as a memento of the evening. I decided to do it in my makeshift home studio at the time with my very limited resources.

So I proceeded to record Heinrich Goosen on drums (poor Heindrich, we could hardly fit the drums in the same room as me and the control unit), and Amanda Tiffin‘s piano playing. I did the acoustic guitar and bass.

Of all the songs from that evening, one kind of stood out in my opinion. It was just a quirky little tune with a catchy chorus call “Email Junkie Man”.
It has come back to haunt me a few times over the years, but obviously the lyrics needed to be re-written. I tried a few times but could never quite find something that worked in the quirky 3/4 time signature.

The New Song

Then suddenly a few weeks ago, it just clicked. I wrote the words very quickly as my inspiration was all around me. The state of the world in the Covid Pandemic supplied me with many images. Suddenly I had a strong message to put across. Inspiration was all around. The onslaught of Media we have faced in the last few months has been unparalleled. Email Junkie Man became “Info Junkie”

I wanted to record the song quickly, without investing time and money into getting it out. It would have been impossible anyway with the restrictions in place. So I thought: “What if I still have the original recording?” (must have been around 2005).

I literally dusted off my old Roland vs 1880 plugged it in, and waited to see if it would even fire up. It did.

It then took me a while to remember how to navigate what some may consider archaic recording unit controls… Unbelievable , I still had the original takes!
I proceeded to salvage the drums and Piano playing, transferred to my now “archaic” version of pro Tools and re-did the Guitars Bass and Vocals.

Then the idea for the video struck me, partly because it’s the only way I’d get any of you to listen to the song, but also because the message is very strong and clear. i thought it was worth investing some time into it. We are bombarded by Media in various forms, none of which are accountable for anything they subject us to. The truth has become like a piece of plasticine that they can mould to suit whatever works for the reality they want you to believe. In other words whatever will keep your attention so that they can sell more advertising space. I’m not Ok with that.

So hence the video.

For what it is worth, enjoy “Info Junkie” especially the great piano playing by Amanda Tiffin and the drums by Heinrich Goosen (who has played on a couple of other tracks on the album “This is not a stick”)

Composition by Amanda Tiffin and Cedric Vandenschrik / Words : Ced