Press

I have made (I think... I hope!) the decision not to read any press about Shimura Curves. I hope that I can stick with it, as reading your own press is insidiously compulsive, especially for a "paranoid narcissist" like myself. (And I hope that I am not jinxing myself so that we receive no more press.)

This was brought on by a silly little review on a website. It wasn't even a "bad review" (though it was perhaps lazy bad journalism) - just a bit narrow. What really wound me up was a passing reference to my old band, comparing us (the reviewer probably thought favourably) to a current trendy, media darling band who post-dated us by about five years (and who, conincidentally, I am not very fond of. It's not that I hate them or anything, it's just that I think they're a bit dull and rather missing the point of a genre I am very fond of.)

Anyway, it's not important what was said, but what frightened me was the extreme nature of my reaction. In my old band, I used to receive little package of press clippings every now and then. I had forgotten how much I actually used to get wound up by them. For every moment spent dancing around the flat with glee and ringing my mum to tell her to buy some glossy magazine with a picture of us in it, there were dozens of tooth-gnashing, self confidence-smashing, real black dog moments.

Which is ridiculous, really. I know; all press is good press at this stage. I memorised the NME's "bad review" of us word for word because it captured the spirit of the single so perfectly, even when Swells thought he was insulting us. ("Long-haired vegan girly boys who read french poetry and think football is vile" -- yes please!)

And the irony being that all four members of this band have been music hacks, three of us professionally. (So I suppose we have won the right to sniff "...and it's so *poorly* written!" of poor reviews.) I joke that the reason there are so many music journos in my band is because I never wanted to be reviewed or interviewed again, because it would be a conflict of interest.

I know it's petty, and probably my inability to take criticism is linked in to my inability to take a joke, that I have no sense of humour. But it does irk, it does get under my skin and it does wind me up. So I'm just not doing it any more. Somebody please hold me to it.