Harmonic Distortions was originally a poster for an exhibition staged by Red Dog Design in Dublin to celebrate its sixteenth birthday. The theme of the exhibition was one word - Red - and this is the explanation that sat beside the poster at the exhibition.

Inspired by some of my favourite albums on Columbia Records’ legendary ‘Red’ label, I started to collect different moments in my past that are linked, in my memory, to songs and musicians. A little exploration revealed a flood of memories - some that had stayed with me always and others that had been long-forgotten. This exhibition seemed the perfect opportunity to put them all on record. 

The poster is made up of several concentric circles that takes on the appearance of a vinyl record (complete with a punched hole in the centre) Each ever-shortening ring of text is a brief observation or recollection about songs and moments from my life.  Some are vivid memories that ha a lasting impact but others were harder to pin down. Did that happen? Was that you? Was it me? And, of course, with personal memories come exaggeration and embellishment and you can never really be sure what's real and what's imagined. And that's why it's called Harmonic Distortions and not Harmonic Recollections. You can read some of them here. Many names have been changed to protect the innocent. To protect me too, if I'm honest. 

Craig Ferguson described writing about the past as being similar to looking for something in the shed. You start off looking for one specific thing and, before you know it, everything's out in the yard for the neighbours to see. That’s what Harmonic Distortions, the poster, ended up being like. And now, many years later, comes Harmonic Distortions the website. Just think of it as a yard full of random thoughts scattered among the weeds.

Because that’s just what the world needs right now, isn’t it?