Maxwell Volume: More Information than You Wanted or Needed

I started started my creative life writing fiction – influenced particularly by experimental writers such as William Burroughs and James Joyce, as well as New Wave SF from the likes of Michael Moorcock and JG Ballard. I eventually completed a novel Beauty Myth Fuck Soul-Manure, and two novellas – Information Island and Falamh. (All released in very small runs, thankfully, as I'm not especially proud of them nowadays).

Through the works of Michael Moorcock, I discovered the music of Hawkwind, which was a revelation in that it was music whose themes were specifically inspired by fiction. This was the inspiration for delving headlong into music composition and performance, though I'd been playing various instruments from a young age.

My primary and longest-lived musical endeavour is the solo project Homeostasis, which grew from four-track home recorded experiments in various genres – electronic, ambient, experimental, pop, rock, outsider - pretty much anything that caught my fancy. The linking element of all Homeostasis material is that it contains highly developed thematic, narrative, conceptual - often literary inspired - content.

With Paul Power, I formed the spacerock / psychedelic rock band Alpha Omega, soon joined by drummer Stuart Hodgson. We release two studio albums and one live album, after which I parted company with the band, but they continue to release albums this day.

Another band, Arseradish arose from many evenings of altered consciousness collaborating initially with Chae Grimbeek and Ivan Anderson – and a little later joined by main Arseradish collaborator Razors Christopherson. Razors & I entered a prolific stage and release some six albums over the space of four years.

While at a Hawkwind concert in Byron Bay, I happened to met Daevid Allen, founder of the seminal psychedelic jazz band Gong, and soon struck up a close friendship with both Daevid and Gilli – going on to move to the Northern Rivers and collaborate with Daevid & Kavi Samut as Tripswyche, as well as collaborating with Gilli Smyth on various projects including her final album Paradise.

Soon after moving to the Northern Rivers, I began collaborating with Rebeka Phoenix on a project entitled Third Sky – soon joined by Jem Edwards, Vasudha Harte and Glen Westwood. We released two albums – “Φ” and “Somebody Call an Ambience”. Glen Westwood & I also released a collaborative ambient guitar album during this time under the moniker Westwood & Volume.

A very traumatic period followed when, for various reasons, my mental & physical health completely flatlined, not the least because many of my friends & collaborators seemed to me at least to all die at once.

After completely dropping off the map and retreating to a tent in the forest for a year, I thankfully found my feet again & settled in an amazingly beautiful farm house with my amazingly beautiful partner Jolanda, and now two amazingly beautiful kids – not to mention a gradually expanding project studio.

Nowadays, besides occasionally producing / engineering / mastering other people's albums, my main focus is on both my solo music project Homeostasis & the ambient / drone collaboration jlmxv.