• Released: 31.01.2007
• Plays: 49

• Released: 05.02.2007
• Plays: 19

Why Skopje?

31/01/2007 By Skopje

I have been writing and recording music amidst travelling, for the past 16 years. For most of that period I took music very seriously, and hoped to make a full time living from my songs. I currently have a very different approach. I simply want to get my music to people who want to hear it. Hence this web site and live performances. <br><br> WHY Skopje? (short clean version) <br><br> Way back in 1998 I used to record Music under my surname “LENMAN” I liked it, but it never really set me on fire. Going further back to my teens I was in bands like “Phantom Steam Demons”, “Universal Love” and “Trajectory of the Sun” Hugely descriptive and emotive (If a little bit embarrassing and shit to be honest) <br><br> I was looking for something neutral, something that wouldn’t have a musical connection in people’s brains. I thought back to the first record I bought when I was aged just eight. It was “regatta de blanc” by the Police. Even though I knew the meaning of the word “Police” there was not one time when listening to the album that I ever got a picture of the police force. The music somehow stole the meaning of the word, changed its literary DNA and made me listen without prejudice. That’s what I wanted from a name, something more neutral than the police, something that when people saw they would associate with my music. <br><br> The other criteria was that it should look good when written to help it stick out in listings and just generally be bold. This was quite foreword thinking of me as the importance of the internet and music had not yet become apparent. <br><br> I struggled like crazy to come up with something and then just gave up. It was by complete accident that I came across a word that really inspired me. I was on my way back from travelling round Indonesia and on the plane home when I first saw the letters scrawled across a screen. The video display on the plane was charting our progress with an extremely poor graphic of our plane, the altitude and the area we were flying over. <br><br> I saw the word “skopje” and it instantly caught my attention. My brain analysed the text and I knew that by way of lucky accident I had found my name. Then there was a further shock, a delayed reaction. I had actually been to “skopje” before when I was inter railing when I was17. I had a very turbulent time in “skopje” and the more I thought of it, the more I really understood its significance. It was quite earthshaking to think that the name I had chosen had real significance. More than any other event in my life, it had changed me, and made me who I am today. <br><br> To look so hard and to find something so perfect merely by accident was quite enthralling. <br><br> I’ll write another blog about why I was in skopje at some other time….It is quite filthy you know, and could take me some time to write. I might end up having SMS problems. No not, text trouble, sticky mouse slime!!!! Auurghhhh…….. <br><br> Thanks for listening <br><br> Bye for now <br><br> Stephen