A month or so left of our first semester on the Songwriting MA course. A decent time for reflection I think, especially since we don't have to write a song this week. For our solo songwriting module, we'll be concentrating on past papers this week, so we have a brief reprieve from writing.
However, if anyone else is like me, they'll have continued writing to try and get ahead of the game a little! Thankfully, I've had at least one song idea every week so far, and have begun writing for my solo songwriting module.
Not too sure where my current idea is going, it's a bit stop-start, but I'm determinedto finish it off and get a song out of it. I think that's the main way in which I've changed writing-wise - previously I'd start an idea, lose interest or inspiration and abandon it after half a day. Must have hundreds of those kind of ideas knocking around. Now, I want to finish every idea I have - even if it doesn't come out the way I want, chances are there will be something in there I can salvage at a later date.
I've also started work on some collaborative writing. I've acquired some cunning musical tools for my computer recently and have been having a good play around with those. Got a couple of decent pop ideas on the blend at the moment so am interested to see where they go. All I need now is a young, stunningly beautiful vocalist who sings like Aretha Franklin to sing on a couple of demos. Know anyone?!
So anyway - I'm yabbering already. I was going to reflect on a couple of the guest speakers that we've had come into our University, as I realised I haven't really talked much about them. I did mention Will Hicks and Jez Ashurst briefly in a previous post. These are two guys who are right in the thick of it pop-wise at the moment, and have their proverbial fingers in plenty of pies. I was gutted to have missed their lecture/group discussion, as it was fascinating stuff, especially for what I want to do. I've listened to the recording of that session twice already...
Next we had a guy called Andy Graham, who is currently working as a manager in the industry. He came across as a straight-talking, honest kind of guy who was obviously fairly hardened by the music biz! Tremendously useful stuff from Andy - we talked about the benefits of having a manager or a publisher, rather than trying to go it alone. It may be hard to get discovered, but once you have someone like that behind you, the benefits are enormous. These guys have the contacts to get you where you want to be, and that's what the music biz is all about of course - who you know. The main two things that Andy stressed, in order to get noticed, was a/ get your demos up to as high a standard as possible - make them sound like a commercial record and b/ you just need a bloody good song! Obvious but true. Always make sure that demo you send out is the best thing that you've ever done. I guess that's why I've always hesitated to send stuff, and maybe I was right to do so.
Had a good chat with Andy after - a few people gave demos over and exchanged contact details etc. I don't know if anyone's had any response. I'll be sending a demo or two over when I know that my stuff is the finished article. Andy even came down the pub with us after, which was great! We had a good old chat about all things music, and he shared some interesting views on various industry-type figures, including some interesting views on Louis Walsh's association with John and Edward (X-factor contestants, if you're lost)! I won't go in to that.
The next week we had a fantastic lady called Kim Richey visit us. Kim really has been there and done it - she's been writing, recording and collaborating for years and she was a fascinating person. She mentored our Solo Songwriting sessions; of course, I chose the week to bring my worst song ("Too Bad"), and was a bit embarrassed to play it to her really. She was ruthless (but brilliant) with everyone's lyrics. She'd look at them, then say "take this section out. swap this around. take that word out, and that one, and that one. what does this section mean? it's not relevant. re-write this. but this bit is good!". She would be your perfect "lyric doctor" - she's from the Nashville school of writing, so was particularly good with that side of things. Not to say that she wasn't very strong with melody also.
Kim spoke at our Industrial Context lecture too, and she was very friendly, helpful and down-to-earth, with a wicked sense of humour! A breath of fresh air, I'd say. I think the lecture was far more useful for aspiring solo artists, being that Kim herself is, of course, a tremendously successful one. Nevertheless, a lively and fascinating couple of hours, and hopefully we'll stay in touch with her.
And so my reflection ends (not literally - I can confirm this because I am sat next to a mirror). Plenty more great guests due to come in, and being that I am doing two years of this course, hopefully I'll get to meet next year's guests too. Next step for me is writing, writing, writing. Getting every idea down, no matter how small. Ideally I want to get a fresh, current-sounding pop track mostly finished by the end of the year. Need to start circulating those demos! I guess I'd better start on those essays too... damn!
Over and out.
However, if anyone else is like me, they'll have continued writing to try and get ahead of the game a little! Thankfully, I've had at least one song idea every week so far, and have begun writing for my solo songwriting module.
Not too sure where my current idea is going, it's a bit stop-start, but I'm determinedto finish it off and get a song out of it. I think that's the main way in which I've changed writing-wise - previously I'd start an idea, lose interest or inspiration and abandon it after half a day. Must have hundreds of those kind of ideas knocking around. Now, I want to finish every idea I have - even if it doesn't come out the way I want, chances are there will be something in there I can salvage at a later date.I've also started work on some collaborative writing. I've acquired some cunning musical tools for my computer recently and have been having a good play around with those. Got a couple of decent pop ideas on the blend at the moment so am interested to see where they go. All I need now is a young, stunningly beautiful vocalist who sings like Aretha Franklin to sing on a couple of demos. Know anyone?!
So anyway - I'm yabbering already. I was going to reflect on a couple of the guest speakers that we've had come into our University, as I realised I haven't really talked much about them. I did mention Will Hicks and Jez Ashurst briefly in a previous post. These are two guys who are right in the thick of it pop-wise at the moment, and have their proverbial fingers in plenty of pies. I was gutted to have missed their lecture/group discussion, as it was fascinating stuff, especially for what I want to do. I've listened to the recording of that session twice already...
Next we had a guy called Andy Graham, who is currently working as a manager in the industry. He came across as a straight-talking, honest kind of guy who was obviously fairly hardened by the music biz! Tremendously useful stuff from Andy - we talked about the benefits of having a manager or a publisher, rather than trying to go it alone. It may be hard to get discovered, but once you have someone like that behind you, the benefits are enormous. These guys have the contacts to get you where you want to be, and that's what the music biz is all about of course - who you know. The main two things that Andy stressed, in order to get noticed, was a/ get your demos up to as high a standard as possible - make them sound like a commercial record and b/ you just need a bloody good song! Obvious but true. Always make sure that demo you send out is the best thing that you've ever done. I guess that's why I've always hesitated to send stuff, and maybe I was right to do so.
Had a good chat with Andy after - a few people gave demos over and exchanged contact details etc. I don't know if anyone's had any response. I'll be sending a demo or two over when I know that my stuff is the finished article. Andy even came down the pub with us after, which was great! We had a good old chat about all things music, and he shared some interesting views on various industry-type figures, including some interesting views on Louis Walsh's association with John and Edward (X-factor contestants, if you're lost)! I won't go in to that.
The next week we had a fantastic lady called Kim Richey visit us. Kim really has been there and done it - she's been writing, recording and collaborating for years and she was a fascinating person. She mentored our Solo Songwriting sessions; of course, I chose the week to bring my worst song ("Too Bad"), and was a bit embarrassed to play it to her really. She was ruthless (but brilliant) with everyone's lyrics. She'd look at them, then say "take this section out. swap this around. take that word out, and that one, and that one. what does this section mean? it's not relevant. re-write this. but this bit is good!". She would be your perfect "lyric doctor" - she's from the Nashville school of writing, so was particularly good with that side of things. Not to say that she wasn't very strong with melody also.
Kim spoke at our Industrial Context lecture too, and she was very friendly, helpful and down-to-earth, with a wicked sense of humour! A breath of fresh air, I'd say. I think the lecture was far more useful for aspiring solo artists, being that Kim herself is, of course, a tremendously successful one. Nevertheless, a lively and fascinating couple of hours, and hopefully we'll stay in touch with her.
And so my reflection ends (not literally - I can confirm this because I am sat next to a mirror). Plenty more great guests due to come in, and being that I am doing two years of this course, hopefully I'll get to meet next year's guests too. Next step for me is writing, writing, writing. Getting every idea down, no matter how small. Ideally I want to get a fresh, current-sounding pop track mostly finished by the end of the year. Need to start circulating those demos! I guess I'd better start on those essays too... damn!
Over and out.
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