THE SHY LIFE PODCAST

MASTER TINY, GIANT JIM (SINGLE EDIT)

This song for THE STRANGE WORLD OF SHY YETI (2024) was written for my friend PJ and it's all about a relationship between a submissive giant and his rather over-bearing friend. Not that PJ is either of those; it just came from a conversation that we had about giants and tinies. It's quite a goth pop anthem and there are quite a few different versions of this one - maybe I'll share some more of them on the next album as extra tracks.

LUCA THE TIME TRAVELLING BEAR (RADIO EDIT)

This one for THE STRANGE WORLD OF SHY YETI album is more late 70s/80s new wave in style and it's named after my friend Gianluca who appears on the podcast. A few of the early songs were written specifically referencing the names of friends who have been very supportive of me in recent months. I'm not sure why I made Luca a time travelling bear... it just seemed to make sense at the time! I love the ending of this; the Ai just came up with the whooping vocal which I thought was so different, unusual and - hopefully - memorable.

I LOST MY KEYS (RADIO EDIT)

Originally I wanted to write an over-dramatic ballad in the style of Adele or Celine Dion about losing your keys - because I thought it was a daft idea and I think a lot of ballads seem over-blown and silly anyway! I love a power ballad, but Udio was going more for the soppy ballad style when I began to try and work on it - so I decided that I'd go for something more euro-disco. As much as anything, you have to spend a lot of time listening to the songs when you're putting them together - so there's nothing worse than spending time with a song that you don't like the sound of! Anyway, here it is on THE STRANGE WORLD OF SHY YETI album!

DISCO JELLY FISH (RADIO EDIT)

Another early experiment using Udio before I even knew I'd be writing THE STRANGE WORLD OF SHY YETI album and it was vaguely based on a poem that I'd written in the 2010s.

DEELEY THE WERECAT (EXTENDED VERSION)

One of the first songs that I wrote for THE STRANGE WORLD OF SHY YETI album in 2024 and it's about Deeley, my cat! Super catchy! (RIP, Deeley 16 October 2004 - 29 December 2025).

THE DANCE OF THE STONES (VERSION 1)

I wrote this one to go with an episode of The Shy Life Podcast (#724) which focused on a trip to Avebury. Three different versions with completely different styles and tunes were completed and the other two versions appear later on in the album. This THE STRANGE WORLD OF SHY YETI version and the also the next song almost sound like they've escaped from a Disney movie.

BEST BET (INDIE POP VERSION)

This song was originally written with my old school friend, Harry. He wrote the music and I wrote the words and we even recorded us singing it back in 2022. My original lyrics had to be condensed in Harry's version to fit the music - whereas this time sadly Harry's input was lost. One of the versions not on the album came out sounding like it was sung by Neil Tennant of The Pet Shop Boys! This version for 2024's THE STRANGE WORLD OF SHY YETI was the "INDIEPOP MIX".

BEARS WHO EAT PIES (SINGLE EDIT)

This song for THE STRANGE WORLD OF SHY YETI (2024) was sort of a re-write of a poem that I used to perform; but I started again from scratch.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (VERSION 1)

I pretty much wrote this song for THE STRANGE WORLD OF SHY YETI (2024) because I thought it would be silly to write a song about artificial intelligence using artificial intelligence to help write the music.

A GHOST IN MY SUGAR (SMASH VERSION)

This song from THE STRANGE WORLD OF SHY YETI (2024) came about because of an Italian sentence that I was taught on Duolingo - which was literally, "Help! There's a ghost in my sugar!" It just really tickled me!