Creationfest 2026

Yeah I am necroing this blog.

It's been a little while since I posted as is typical of me. I blink and it's been two years somehow. I feel like those movies where some astronaut gets lost in a space/time vortex and finally manages to break the experimental craft free and return to Earth, only to find 4 million years have passed and now the lettuce people (Lettucians, thank you) have built their own society and humanity is enslaved by veggiekind wouldn't be too a disconcerting situation for me.

Having returned to Earth recently, I've been busy playing with the epic band Toro. These guys have toured all over the USA for years, probably every city, every state, some multiple times. Super experienced, much loved, excellent musicians, unfazeable by live music shenanigans as they've pretty much seen it all. Even if the Lettucians were to mount their unexpected takeover attempt, Toro would be rocking out regardless. Plus they tend to eat steak mainly, so maybe the Lettucians would be lenient?

Toro's style is such a myriad of genres and influences. Their previous band name was Universal Royalty and their first album runs the gamut from American Indie Rock, to Folk, to Hip Hop, to EDM, to Country, to... well, you name it and it's probably in there. They have some truly great music and the recent stuff is fantastic. Check out Jesus Makes Me Clean for a gorgeous, sumptuous, deep, atmospheric track, for instance.

I actually had the immense pleasure of joining these guys for last years Creationfest too. We camped out together and played about three times over the course of the festival, with all the fun times of hanging out and doing music together.

This year was much the same but I also joined them for the Hope Now festival in Harrogate. Both this and Creationfest are Christian festivals, both for believers and non-believers alike. Hope Now is just in a big park in the city centre, so it's open to any and all.

Going back slightly, I had spent ages practicing to the band's tracks. Last year for Creationfest I kicked off a document with notes on every track: keys, vibes, scales and modes that work, things to remember, unexpected drops, etc, etc. I think it's fair to say there's a sense of pressure joining in with a band who already have a recognised body of work, who's tracks people actually know. As it worked out though, for me it was very easy.

It was probably more important for me to carry the right vibe of each track, rather than go note-for-note, which helped me a lot. It meant I could relax and join in, rather than go grey worrying about hitting each bit. So I ended up doing my usual thing of embellishing the melody/vocal lines - something I picked up from playing with Raj Kaul and Booboo - as they explained to me; Indian music (older/classic maybe) seems to do a lot of mirroring/call-response between instrumental pieces and vocal melody and it's something those guys had asked me to do from my initial time playing with them. As a result, a lot of my lead playing tends to be more minded of creating atmosphere and embellishing melodies rather than going for eyewatering solos, which truth be told have never been my thing.

I think that mentality served me well here as I slotted in with Toro again and tried to drop little licks and grooves into the tracks, trying to find the little spaces in the rhythm.

All in I think it went okay! I loved playing - the guys make it so easy because they are incredibly, telepathically tight as a band, so it's very easy to come in, read the cues, start playing!

As is my current playing phase, I just went in with Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian and Aeolian modes and just jammed it out. There's a super nerdy post in me waiting to be written about how much I love the major modes, but I'm going to wait until I find out more about them, especially across the minor scales, because it might come off like a toddler exclaiming how much they love the letter e.

This year, we played the main stage, the worship and the Word tent and the Big Shed cafe area and thankfully each of them went really well. The cafe area was a lot of fun as it was so intimate - the guys just having banter with people chilling. They seemed really into it, which was ace. The Worship and the Word tent was also really special - as the sun was setting we helped lead worship before Dave Toro gave a sermon. (He spoke about how Jesus exchanged currency to pay for our debt). And the main stage was great. All the lights, monitors, cables, amps and volume a player could ask for!

Here are a few pics of some of that:

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So! All in, amazing times. As ever I'm incredibly grateful to

1. get to play music,

2. join with a band like Toro to play aforementioned music and

3. to Toro themselves for their time, generosity, grace, kindness, good nature and positivity.

Fingers crossed I won't leave the next post for two years time. Maybe the Dinosaurs might be back for round 2.