Welcome to Lost Penguinos Music! Here you'll find all of the music, lyrics and stories behind the songs and albums of Lost Penguinos. Lost Penguinos are a band without members. Sort of...
I’d had ideas for songs but didn’t want to front a band, didn’t want to sing, didn’t want anyone to hear me sing and didn’t want to do all the marketing and social media stuff – just not interested in ‘drip feeding’ content and all that.
That all changed in stages – firstly I wrote a set of 4 or 5 songs and recorded them, just to see what would happen. Those songs would eventually become the first album and through doing take after take for the vocals, my vocals got a little better (and I got better at editing them), but it took the boredom and limited horizons of the Covid 19 pandemic to have a need to write songs and to have a project to work on. Discovering that there were other bands who were really 1 or 2 people, recording anonymously or semi-anonymously under artistic pseudonyms just for the sake of creating – I thought I’d do the same.
After finding a world of lo-fi and DIY music online it nudged me into thinking – you know what, I can do that with what I’ve got right here. I removed the barrier of not having access to a professional studio – and with it, the barrier of creative perfectionism was removed too. My mantra was - lets see what you can do with one SM57 microphone... I fully embraced and learnt to love the imperfections, the creaks of floorboards that were picked up as I stepped towards the mic, the traffic noises outside, the feedback, the buzz, I see it now as all adding a colour to the songs. Writing them and working on the arrangements was cathartic.
Making these albums has taught me a lot about the technical side of recording, but more than that, each album has come with its own challenges, from the lyrics to trying new chord changes, writing new lead lines, learning to balance the arrangement and remove clutter, or to try and make it sound like a band or artist I like. Each album tests as much as it rewards.
More recently writing music as ‘Lost Penguinos’ has challenged me to strip back the layers, turn up the vocals and show the songs in a clearer spotlight. Trying to write more directly and honestly – raw, brutal and scary, and then trying to capture that in the recorded takes that layer up to make the tracks. Its all a process and a journey and I like all of the songs from all of the records, but you can hear a development.
At one time I didn’t want to share any of these songs. I finished them and they lived on my phone and in little dusty corners of the internet where only I knew about them, but with some nudging from friends I realised that its a big world out there, and if I liked these songs and was getting a lot of joy from listening to them, then maybe there might be a few other people who might like to hear them too. As I wasn’t promoting gigs or selling physical copy CDs or merch then the music wasn’t making any money anyway – and putting it all online would be no loss. This really got me thinking about why I do this – and the simple answer is – because I feel I have to. Writing and recording these songs is a way of learning and understanding the world, as well as a creative purpose in life. Continuing to write and record them is the continuation of trying to get better and better, and write truer songs that capture moments, thoughts and emotions in new and interesting ways. It now comes from being receptive to the muses and then stoking up that creative fire and letting it burn whatever they have brought you – trying to capture the flames along the way.
In the future I might put a live band together and play these songs – give them a life on a stage somewhere, not for any goal or future recognition other than spreading the music and allowing people to enjoy it; seeing where the songs go when they are in the hands of other people. Thats the place I have arrived to now – a place where although the songs are mine, they have a life of their own. The muses bring ideas in the form of inspiration, and the lyrics, melodies and rhythms of the songs arrive. You have to keep opening the door and letting them in, or putting up the antenna – however you want to think of it. With that realisation the shame left.
I still write as ‘Lost Penguinos’ and with each batch of songs I try someting different, whether thats writing with different instruments, making it more riff or lyric focussed, each time its an opportunity to try something different and see how it comes out – I hope you enjoy the music.
I’m grateful to all who take the time to listen, and especially to Charlie & Ed, Nik, Cian, Steve, Patri, David, Ian and Natalie for their encouragement, support and feedback.
Lyrics and stories behind the songs available here: