Re: Stay safe, folks...
Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2020 1:14 pm
Thanks guys. That is probably my favorite song I ever wrote. The majority of the stuff I have written has been collaborative instrumentals for TV background music and not really me writing what I would on my own, if that makes sense. That song was just me being myself and not caring about writing for any particular genre.
My last cmpleted writing project was my publisher buddy asking me for 10 country songs. I did them all myself again and they turned out OK. I have to admit, I am not a huge country fan but, I did it anyway to help him out. I do or did before Covid at least play in a lot of country bands and I am ok at it. My main band plays everything, jazz, country, rock, pop, dance. I love variety and hate doing one style all the time.
My parents met performing in the traveling Grand Ole Opry in the fifties. My mother and her sister were one of the acts backed up by the band. I finally heard the whole story a few years back. My father was a beer distributor in Williston North Dakota and also a guitar player. When the Grand Ole Opry came to town someone stole all their music gear and they were kind of screwed. My father had a lot of musical gear I guess and offered it to them under the condition they let him play in the band. Apparently they agreed and he went on the road with them, met my mother and here I am.
I haven’t been motivated to write any music for awhile and mostly enjoy doing gigs. I love to perform. Of course since Covid came along all the gigs have stopped for every musician in the country. I have done one gig since March 9th and that was at an assisted living place of all places. Writing music is hard and can be frustrating, especially when you aren’t really into what you are supposed to be writing.
My publisher buddy had an idea to do Yacht Rock tunes thinking that might be an untapped niche for TV. He wrote a loose bed of music for ten or so songs and gave that to me to write melodies, lyrics and guitar over. I worked hard on it for months and then so e A&R guy in LA told him there was zero demand for Yacht Rock. That project stalled. Several months later he came back and said “Let’s just knock these out and finish them anyway.” I agreed and went back to work. I am kind of new to writing lyrics and struggle with that. I wrote lyrics to one kind of sad sounding song and they came back and said the lyrics sound kind of downer and they should be uplifting. I was like, you could have told me that sooner. I spent an entire week trying to come up with those lyrics. I went back and spent another week writing uplifting lyrics and the response was, “Well, we just aren’t feeling it” That was the end of that project. I was done. Hundreds of hours spent for nothing. The songs are about 80% done sitting on my hard drive and I haven’t touched them since. Like I said writing music can be frustrating.
I have been putting guitar on a bunch of his other projects with other artists but, not as a writer on them, just a gun for hire. It is much easier and pays cash. When we ‘write’ as a team I get no cash, just my writers share if it gets used on something.
I know I am giving more info than anybody probably is interested in. I have too much time on my hands with a broken fibula and Covid.
I have started writing a new song that is just me doing whatever I feel like, not caring about being current or anything. It’s a cross between an 80’s rock tune and a weird Phish tune. A guitar player friend of mine made me go to a Phish concert with him. They are sort of like a jam band like Grateful Dead band only a little more sophisticated musically but, with the same so so vocals. I love it when Phish goes outside the box and gets weird. They will be playing a happy upbeat song with a happy guitar melody and then one by one the rest of the band starts going out there and weird all while the guitar player keeps playing the same happy melody. It starts to bend your mind because the band just keeps getting more and more out there to the point you can’t stand it and then all of the sudden Bam, back to them all playing together the happy song and you feel relieved. That’s kind of where I was going on my new song and it is fun.
Oh well,I better stop. I am sure I have bored you all to tears by now.
My last cmpleted writing project was my publisher buddy asking me for 10 country songs. I did them all myself again and they turned out OK. I have to admit, I am not a huge country fan but, I did it anyway to help him out. I do or did before Covid at least play in a lot of country bands and I am ok at it. My main band plays everything, jazz, country, rock, pop, dance. I love variety and hate doing one style all the time.
My parents met performing in the traveling Grand Ole Opry in the fifties. My mother and her sister were one of the acts backed up by the band. I finally heard the whole story a few years back. My father was a beer distributor in Williston North Dakota and also a guitar player. When the Grand Ole Opry came to town someone stole all their music gear and they were kind of screwed. My father had a lot of musical gear I guess and offered it to them under the condition they let him play in the band. Apparently they agreed and he went on the road with them, met my mother and here I am.
I haven’t been motivated to write any music for awhile and mostly enjoy doing gigs. I love to perform. Of course since Covid came along all the gigs have stopped for every musician in the country. I have done one gig since March 9th and that was at an assisted living place of all places. Writing music is hard and can be frustrating, especially when you aren’t really into what you are supposed to be writing.
My publisher buddy had an idea to do Yacht Rock tunes thinking that might be an untapped niche for TV. He wrote a loose bed of music for ten or so songs and gave that to me to write melodies, lyrics and guitar over. I worked hard on it for months and then so e A&R guy in LA told him there was zero demand for Yacht Rock. That project stalled. Several months later he came back and said “Let’s just knock these out and finish them anyway.” I agreed and went back to work. I am kind of new to writing lyrics and struggle with that. I wrote lyrics to one kind of sad sounding song and they came back and said the lyrics sound kind of downer and they should be uplifting. I was like, you could have told me that sooner. I spent an entire week trying to come up with those lyrics. I went back and spent another week writing uplifting lyrics and the response was, “Well, we just aren’t feeling it” That was the end of that project. I was done. Hundreds of hours spent for nothing. The songs are about 80% done sitting on my hard drive and I haven’t touched them since. Like I said writing music can be frustrating.
I have been putting guitar on a bunch of his other projects with other artists but, not as a writer on them, just a gun for hire. It is much easier and pays cash. When we ‘write’ as a team I get no cash, just my writers share if it gets used on something.
I know I am giving more info than anybody probably is interested in. I have too much time on my hands with a broken fibula and Covid.
I have started writing a new song that is just me doing whatever I feel like, not caring about being current or anything. It’s a cross between an 80’s rock tune and a weird Phish tune. A guitar player friend of mine made me go to a Phish concert with him. They are sort of like a jam band like Grateful Dead band only a little more sophisticated musically but, with the same so so vocals. I love it when Phish goes outside the box and gets weird. They will be playing a happy upbeat song with a happy guitar melody and then one by one the rest of the band starts going out there and weird all while the guitar player keeps playing the same happy melody. It starts to bend your mind because the band just keeps getting more and more out there to the point you can’t stand it and then all of the sudden Bam, back to them all playing together the happy song and you feel relieved. That’s kind of where I was going on my new song and it is fun.
Oh well,I better stop. I am sure I have bored you all to tears by now.