Pioneering Musician’s Diary Reveals an Addiction to Photoshop

Thanks to his published diary, which is back in the limelight, it’s clear that prolific musician and artist Eno is addicted to Adobe Photoshop.

English musician, songwriter, record producer, and visual artist Brian Eno, known mononymously simply as Eno, is best known for pioneering ambient music and electronica. He’s also known for producing, recording, and writing works in rock and pop music.

Eno collaborated with fellow musicians frequently including David Bowie. He also produced work for U2, Coldplay, and Peter Gabriel. Eno even designed the startup music for Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system, so broad is his career, always working on one project or another.

Despite being renowned mostly for his musical contributions, Eno studied painting and experimental music at the art school of Ipswich Civic College and the Winchester School of Art.

It may be fortunate that his passions were focused on both music and visual art, as, after such a long career of back-to-back hits, his Health finally caught up with him. In 1995, Eno was bedridden due to swollen appendices. Not one to take bed rest lightly, he utilized that time to create a series of diaries entitled A Year With Swollen Appendices.

As reported by Digital Camera World, Eno’s diaries offer behind the scenes look into the thoughts and daily life of a musical genius. However, one note stuck out to many readers. It seems that Eno has an addiction. His vice may surprise, as Eno appears to be addicted to Photoshop.

Nearly a dozen diary entries detail Eno’s penchant for losing time by “fiddling” with Photoshop.

The entry for January 31, 1995, reads, “Too long playing with Photoshop — lethal time-waster — like chronic alcoholism. Should schedule it in the diary and not use it otherwise.”

Then on February 13, 1995, “Renata came to clean, but I’d already wrecked the morning by resorting to Photoshop.”

Several other entries give insight into his hobby of using Photoshop to alter the physiology of women.

The diary entry for January 2 muses, “created some novel [redacted] in Photoshop — modifying back views of women to expand their bottoms to Cosmic proportions, creating she-males by collage. Strange that one remains gripped by the same fantasies throughout life.”

The paperback book was published in 1996 by Faber and Faber. It has since been re-released in 2021. Years after its publication, Eno’s obsession with Photoshop was recently noticed when a screenshot of the diary entries describing it went a bit viral online. Now, back in the spotlight and drawing attention from amused readers, even writers are remarking on how addictive apps can be.

Daniel John, of Creative Bloq wrote, “I’m obsessed with Brian Eno’s Photoshop obsession.”

“Brian Eno might be best known for his pioneering ambient oeuvre, but it turns out that beneath the calm exterior, the man has been battling a terrifying inner demon since the ’90s,” John explained.

“In a world of addictive tech and ‘brain rot’, there’s something delightfully nostalgic about the idea of a Photoshop addiction. It’s certainly sounds like a far more creative use of time that doomscrolling. But if you do decide to check out the best Creative Cloud deals, please do remember to edit responsibly.”

Image credits: Lead image left courtesy Faber & Faber cover of ‘A Year with Swollen Appendices.’ Right image via CC 3.0 to How We Get To Next.