So maybe I'll write my life story here, not that anyone reads this thing anymore. that way when I'm on my death bed, I'll whisper the blog site address and there you go, instant eulogy.
It will probably explain a lot of things as to why I am like I am. I know it's gonna take quite a while too. And it's as I remember with a little fiction intertwined, heck why not.
So, here we go........
Friday, January 22, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Songwriting
Circa the winter of 1996 there was somewhat of a family reunion over in Sonoma with Cousin Kit, Cousin Johnny, Cousin Stevie, Cousin Nelson, Brother Scott and a number of Aunts and Uncle Mick. Coming from a musical family, one evening we attended a jam session at " Big Daddy Mur's " , retrofitted garage, jam palace. Murray was a colorful, local drummer and Sonoma is not lacking for walk in musicians. The place was dimly lit, xmas lights hanging on the interior, rugs on the wall to dampen the sound, a stage. Oddities scattered about ( I contributed a taxidermied rooster crowing on a post, one of my early taxidermy projects). Shadowy sillouhettes with gig bags and congas flowed through the door.
We all took turns getting up and playing, jamming and afterward the cousins decided that it sounded pretty good. We'd all played in bands seperately over the years, some with more success than others. We decided to write some stuff and record it on our own.
Mad Uncle Mick was the driving force behind the project, footing a lot of the bill for recording time at Prarrie Sun Studios in Cotati. A collaberation between some cousins and freinds who sat in on some tracks, it was an amazing 6 months project. I wrote 4 songs on my own and collaberated with music or lyrics on 2 others and Scott wrote one. Cousin Ricky flew out from Maryland to enrich a song " More Love" with his silky vocals.
The only problem with writing so many songs in that short of time is that I eventually developed writer's block. Then the mixing and re mixing of tracks, time, money. The studio liked the fact that we were family and gave us a discount rate of $45 an hour but then toward the end, the price went back to the normal price of $75. With all these factors we called it the End.
We passed out CDs to family, friends with good reviews. Several of the songs were played on a couple internet radio stations. Internet radio was in its infancy, the CD was for sale on MP3's website when they featured mostly Indie music. Until You Change Your Mind and What You Do To Me were in the top 40 for many weeks with good reviews from critics.
Recently, after listening to the tracks, I decided to try and market them, i.e, get a song published. Once its published, then the publishing company may pitch the song to an artist. Thats how I understand it anyway. If an artist eventually records it and it ends up on an album that sells, then you get royalties every time its played.
I found a songwriting consultant at songmd.com. An accomplished songwriter with many credits and an Emmy nomination. I sent 4 songs in not knowing what to expect. I paid my fee, submitted and waited. I didn't know what to expect really, I thought maybe a hook to get you to shell out more money for recording.... some angle.
But within a few days I received a 30 mintue CD with her comments. Well, lets call it mostly constructive critiscm. At first listen, I didn't know if this was her subjective opinion, projections based on her style but as I listened and re listened, it was honest critiscm. I learned her lean was oriented to having people break in the music business with a hit song. You have to write something good enough to break in even though I thought my stuff was better than a lot of stuff I hear on the radio.
I learned that the contemporary song structure is verse - chorus - verse - chorus - bridge - chorus. And a lot of them actually have this structure if you pay attention. I learned you want to go " up" into the chorus and the way to do it is with a major 3rd. I learned the chorus, verse and bridge should all have different rythyms, to write the melody first, then the lyrics, to tell a story rather than put together a song with a bunch of metaphors, poetic imagery thinking someone would understand what I was conveying... and on and on...
Interesting enough, the song she seemed to introspect a lot on was one that was my favorite lyrically but one that wasn't as popular among people who had heard it. She did encourage me to re write and not give up. Hey , at least I got 30 minutes of constructive critism, that means something, right? I could have been totally blown off.
Bottom line is I can't quit the day job for now. But her ideas are actually liberating in the sense that there is a definite structure to things, and I dont have to get too complex in the delivery, just tell a story, with a good melody that will make people want to get lost in the music. She told me to bleed and put my guts on the page..... ok. Back to work. I can do this!
We all took turns getting up and playing, jamming and afterward the cousins decided that it sounded pretty good. We'd all played in bands seperately over the years, some with more success than others. We decided to write some stuff and record it on our own.
Mad Uncle Mick was the driving force behind the project, footing a lot of the bill for recording time at Prarrie Sun Studios in Cotati. A collaberation between some cousins and freinds who sat in on some tracks, it was an amazing 6 months project. I wrote 4 songs on my own and collaberated with music or lyrics on 2 others and Scott wrote one. Cousin Ricky flew out from Maryland to enrich a song " More Love" with his silky vocals.
The only problem with writing so many songs in that short of time is that I eventually developed writer's block. Then the mixing and re mixing of tracks, time, money. The studio liked the fact that we were family and gave us a discount rate of $45 an hour but then toward the end, the price went back to the normal price of $75. With all these factors we called it the End.
We passed out CDs to family, friends with good reviews. Several of the songs were played on a couple internet radio stations. Internet radio was in its infancy, the CD was for sale on MP3's website when they featured mostly Indie music. Until You Change Your Mind and What You Do To Me were in the top 40 for many weeks with good reviews from critics.
Recently, after listening to the tracks, I decided to try and market them, i.e, get a song published. Once its published, then the publishing company may pitch the song to an artist. Thats how I understand it anyway. If an artist eventually records it and it ends up on an album that sells, then you get royalties every time its played.
I found a songwriting consultant at songmd.com. An accomplished songwriter with many credits and an Emmy nomination. I sent 4 songs in not knowing what to expect. I paid my fee, submitted and waited. I didn't know what to expect really, I thought maybe a hook to get you to shell out more money for recording.... some angle.
But within a few days I received a 30 mintue CD with her comments. Well, lets call it mostly constructive critiscm. At first listen, I didn't know if this was her subjective opinion, projections based on her style but as I listened and re listened, it was honest critiscm. I learned her lean was oriented to having people break in the music business with a hit song. You have to write something good enough to break in even though I thought my stuff was better than a lot of stuff I hear on the radio.
I learned that the contemporary song structure is verse - chorus - verse - chorus - bridge - chorus. And a lot of them actually have this structure if you pay attention. I learned you want to go " up" into the chorus and the way to do it is with a major 3rd. I learned the chorus, verse and bridge should all have different rythyms, to write the melody first, then the lyrics, to tell a story rather than put together a song with a bunch of metaphors, poetic imagery thinking someone would understand what I was conveying... and on and on...
Interesting enough, the song she seemed to introspect a lot on was one that was my favorite lyrically but one that wasn't as popular among people who had heard it. She did encourage me to re write and not give up. Hey , at least I got 30 minutes of constructive critism, that means something, right? I could have been totally blown off.
Bottom line is I can't quit the day job for now. But her ideas are actually liberating in the sense that there is a definite structure to things, and I dont have to get too complex in the delivery, just tell a story, with a good melody that will make people want to get lost in the music. She told me to bleed and put my guts on the page..... ok. Back to work. I can do this!
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