Fingers and thumbs
By Tom Foolery on February 15, 2026 7:00 am
IT HAS BEEN A VERY BIG WEEK. I don't think I've fully caught up with it all yet.
Selected big things:
I got a new job! I've worked my current job for the last 5 years and although I was very happy there, an opportunity came along that was too good not to follow, and as I interviewed I realised I really wanted to work at this place. Saying goodbye to the people I work with is going to be very sad, but I am very excited at the opportunities that will come with the next stage of my career.
Part of the interview process involved a personality test, which after a 30 minute questionnaire gave me a very thorough and scarily accurate look at myself. It was a bit surreal, and a strange mixed feeling. It made me feel very understood, predictable, and very normal? (not that I didn't feel normal beforehand). It gave me lots of helpful things to look out for and to work on too. I know it's a descriptor and not a life-sentence, but it has made me think a lot about the way I look at the world, respond to things happening, and my relationships with the people around me.
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC. I saw Alex G on Wednesday - beautiful. I can't believe how big an artist he is now, how far his songwriting has gone, and also how tight the band's performance was. I went to Laneway festival - highlights: Oklou was transcendent, Geese had such a passionate crowd and singing Au Pays du Cocaine along with the crowd was cathartic. Bladee and Yung Lean were a surprise favourite for me with an intense AV/lighting experience with mesmerising live visuals from Nate Boyce. I was transfixed but also torn between watching the live show and watching his laptop screen to figure out what he was doing. Then yesterday I went to Life's a Beach festival with my brother. I'm not normally listening to heavy music but I enjoy seeing it live, and it was very special to get to go with my brother. If I thought Geese were cathartic, getting into the moshpit was another level of catharsis. Highlight sets there wer Thy Art is Murder (with a new frontman???) and Heavensgate.
This week I started writing a very elaborate post-punk track, layered electric guitar, electronic percussion, distorted bass guitar, and I was very pleased with the instrumental. But when I got to the vocals, I was absolutely stuck. I just couldn't get anything to hit. I moved on and did my other weeklybeat (see: walter normand) in a matter of 20 minutes or so. I came back to this track and again I was stuck. Running out of time I decided to pick up my acoustic (still in DADGAD from last week), and improvised into an SM57 as a room mic. This was the fourth take of improvising. It just poured out of me, and left me feeling satisfied but also wrecked. You can also hear Ren (my cat) on backup vocals. Decided to keep the recording pretty dry, just some compression and EQ - I really like the howling room resonances that appear at points too.
just take it as it comes
'cause you can't get it back
your fingers and your thumbs
are holding you back
tomorrow never waits
so let's go get some rest
your fingers and your thumbs
lay them on my chest
it's just another day
you've been here before
just take it as it comes
and you'll do good I'm sure
Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works (BY-NC-ND)
And congrats on the new job!
well done improvising this!