Songwriters Soundoff! (introduce yourself)

[Eric VB]

I couldn't find one of these -- I scanned all 12 pages of topics, honest! -- so I thought I start one.

 

Hi, my name is RicBassDude. {Everyone: Hi RicBassDude!} And I'm a songwriter.

 

I'm more of a musician-songwriter (i.e., composer) than a word-songwriter. My main instrument is electric bass, but I also play guitar and a little mandolin. I used to play trombone and tuba. I can sorta play (but am not proficient on) keys and drums.

 

I typically write music first, then add lyrics to accompany the mood/emotion I get from the music. This is not an efficient way to crank out many songs, at least not for me. Lyrics in general are the most difficult part for me.

 

I am aware that I am not a singer or vocalist worthy of recording.

 

I grew up listening to what is now called classic (ex. Led Zeppelin), blues-based (ex. Eric Clapton), and progressive (ex. Rush) rock; my music echoes those roots. I've also played in jazz and classical bands, which can also be influences. Sometimes I write instrumental pieces in a classical style.

 

After recording bass on 2 full length and 1 ep cd of other people's material (well, I wrote the bass lines) which were never released, I've decided it's time to record my own songs. I'm currently learning "home recording" for this purpose. This was partly inspired when I found out my new Mac came with GarageBand. I try to record as much stuff "real" as possible, but I'll have to live with MIDI drums until I can afford real studio time or better equipment.

 

Right now I have about 20 songs "backlogged" for recording. I have 5 in "amateur demo" quality sans vocals, with another instrumental nearing completion. I'm mostly doing it to "get it out of my system", but I wouldn't mind turning it into an economic opportunity. I've even started considering "jingles" ...

 

I look forward to e-meeting many of you here on this forum.

[Tedster]

Hi, Ricbassdude, I'm Ted.

 

I guess I are a songwriter of sorts. I play guitar, but I don't really consider myself a guitar player. I sing, but I don't consider myself a singer. I write songs, but I don't really consider myself a songwriter. I guess the word that fits me best is "enthusiast". THAT I am. If someone wants to call me any of the others, fine.

 

Major influences...oh heck, everything I hear. If I was to pick a favorite genre, I reckon power pop or something of the sort, but, I like alt country, blues, surf, jazz...whatever.

 

That's about it, I reckon.

 

Oh, you're from Detroit. I grew up in Port Huron. I live in Kansas City now...

[Steve West]

Hey Guys:

My name is Steve West, I hail from the Twin Cities and my Mom (bless her) always said I had a nice voice Been playing and writing a few songs on and off for 30 years now but just started to record them in the last year or so. Guess my roots are Classic Rock/Pop(Beatles,Stones,Holly) and Folk Rock (CSN&Y,Byrds,Dylan)with about everything else thrown in for good mesure. Music has kept me sane or at least not as crazy had I'd been without it. Please feel free to listen to my song clips from the links at my website and let me know what you think. Please send me your links. Ted, your cover demo sounds great, if that's you singing, you are quite the singer my friend. Do you have full copies of the demo songs available?

 

Steve\'s CD page

[Tedster]

Oh, hey, thanks Steve, and welcome to the forum. Yeah, that's me...all of it, harmonies and all. Like I said, I sing, but I don't really consider myself a singer...I mean, not like, er...someone like Steve Perry or someone.

 

I don't have full copies of the demo tunes available at the moment, but it really wouldn't take me long to do...perhaps I oughta...(shrug)

 

Hey, I dig the title of your CD, "Songs of love and other natural disasters"!!!! That's GREAT!!! Dug that little clip, with the acoustic, and a bit of flute in the background. I have a buddy who plays jazz flute as well, I'd like to work him into some of my compositions.

 

Here's a link to a montage of my original stuff:

 

Original montage

 

Some of it's kinda syrupy and sappy. (shrug) Oh well...

[Steve West]

Well, hey, get working on those CDs . Seriously, the demos sound great and I would love a full copy of each. Let me know if you're into a trade as I do seem to have a few of mine around here as I try to type around all the boxes Do you have your own recording studio? The mix on them is really nice. As for syrupy, they sounded perfectly fitting. When I first met my wife, she keep asking me if all I knew were depressing songs? I told her "Yup".

[Tedster]

Originally posted by Steve West:

When I first met my wife, she keep asking me if all I knew were depressing songs? I told her "Yup".

That is HILARIOUS!

 

Well, I guess you could say I have a little project studio. All those were recorded on a computer...Cool Edit Pro with a Darla soundcard. Little Mackie 1402 VLZ...uhhh...a little reverb (either my funky old ART or one of CEPs onboard reverbs). I just added a Tascam model 38 reel-to-reel...which should allow me to mix in more of the mode I'm familiar with, with the faders rather than a mouse.

 

Thanks!

[Steve West]

Well, it seems to work well for you. I have a little Tascam Porta Studio that I mainly use to record the songs as I'm writing them. A friend just gave me a Mac with OS X so I'll try putting GarageBand like Ricbassdude (hey Ric, where can here some of those cuts?)and play with that. Any of you guys have dealings with Publishers? I've gotten a few nibbles, but no takers yet. I really hate the bussiness end of this. I really wish I had an Uncle in the biz or at least someone whose life I've saved a couple of times

[Fulc]

OK, I'll play.

 

I've been a musician since I was six, so I have about thirty-mumble years of experience at it. For all those years I've played some form of keyboard (six yerars of lessons, the rest on my own) and for all but maybe the first five I've played drums as well, and it's only in the last fifteen that I've been confident enough in my own voice to belt out a tune or two. As far as all that goes, it's all just stuff that I do.

 

However, what I am is a composer. This includes things that follow standard pazz-and-jop forms as well as longer-form pieces that might be performed by an orchestra or a choir. Not that any of my stuff has ever been performed by an orchestra... though my church choir has done one of my pieces and asked me to write more for them. The neo-orchestral stuff winds up getting arranged with various synths both real and imagined (I mean, soft), and I usually reach for a rock rhythm section somewhere along the way, so I guess you might say that what I do sounds a hell of a lot like progressive rock. It just... comes... out that way.

 

In no particular order, these are the giants upon whose shoulders I totter like a drunken flagpole sitter: Bach, Britten, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg, Copland, Bernstein, Gershwin, Porter, Zappa, Ellington, Brubeck, Metheny/Mays, Lennon/McCartney, Pete Townshend, Joe Jackson, Keith Emerson, Tony Banks, Dave Stewart, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Hornsby, Kevin Gilbert, Becker/Fagen, Difford/Tilbrook, Trey Anastasio, and Dave Matthews.

 

I have dedicated a bedroom in my house to be The Project Studio That Would Not Die, in which I am producing the first Fulcrum album, partaking in various inter-not collaborations here at musicplayer.com and elsewhere, and gearing up to enter the business of composing for computer games. TPSTWND consists of me, an old Carvin desk, a Kurzweil K2000, an Ensoniq EPS (used more as a controller than as a sampler these days), an original Layla 20-bit card, and a Frankenstein (i.e. self-spec'd and built) Pee Cee flying Cakewalk Sonar and hosting a plethora of soft synths and effects.

 

I don't have a web site that is hosting any of my own tunage, but you can hear me yelling over some industrial music on an internet collaboration here . Enough people have expressed positive interest in the tune that we're now committed to an album.

[Steve West]

I'm so jealous that you got a room I had a room when we first bought our house many years ago for all my music, stereo equipment and somewhere around 3000 LPs and then..."Emma" arrived so I was sent to the attic for a number of years and then.... "Patrick" was there and I was send to the basement. Well, at least they let me out of the basement during the weekdays for my day job and the weekends for 2 or 3 times a month to play. Sounds like you got quite the set-up I'll try to check out your links soon.

[Eric VB]

Originally posted by Steve West:

A friend just gave me a Mac with OS X so I'll try putting GarageBand like Ricbassdude (hey Ric, where can here some of those cuts?)and play with that.

Sorry, Steve, I don't have anything up yet. Nothing's ready for "public consumption" yet anyway; so far I only put 5 tunes down (sans vocals) for experimental purposes. The whole "home recording" thing is taking some time to get a grip on. Maybe I can put together a cover demo (like Tedster) so you guys can get an idea of the sound I'm getting.

 

I gave Tedster's stuff a listen; very well done! It has that definite Port Huron/Kansas City Beatlesque sound. Seriously, the songs are catchy and the demo is well made.

 

Put an ear on your stuff, too, Steve. Can hear the folk influence; everybody's doing their thing on down to the harmonica. A little Steve Miller kind of sound in "I'm on a roll". Were those recorded on a 4-track or tape? (Maybe it's just because I pulled the "lo" quality tracks?) The first demo I helped put together was on 4-track tape and it didn't go over very well (in the late 80s) because the production couldn't compete with what everyone else had.

 

GarageBand can get you digital, but only one track at a time so drum kits are not really doable (unless you buy a multitrack input device or use a MIDI drumset/MIDI input device). I guess if you're really good at it you could use a mixer to mixdown your drums to stereo to feed to GB, but that's obviously not the best way. I'm trying to get by with the built-in MIDI drums. Once I get something substantial I may bug my drummer friend to bring over his Roland MIDI set for some "real" drums. I just can't afford a Digi-002 and ProTools at the moment, know what I mean?

 

Other things I haven't figured out yet with GB are multi-tempo songs; it seems GB only works with one tempo. You can turn off the click track if you're doing all the instruments yourself, but if you're using the buit-ins (like the drum kits) you're kinda screwed.

[Tedster]

Originally posted by RicBassGuy:

I gave Tedster's stuff a listen; very well done! It has that definite Port Huron/Kansas City Beatlesque sound.

You picked up on the Michigan accent in the vocals, right? Thanks, BTW

[cherri]

Hi I'm Cherri. I sing, play guitar, and write songs. We have two CDs out that we're promoting around Michigan this summer at shows and festivals.

 

We generally write the music as a group and I write most of the lyrics. Sometimes we start from the lyrics, sometimes from the song. Every song on our CDs was written in a different manner - some fell together, some were beasts that took months to polish, some started as one song and ended up completely different when we recorded them.

 

On "Time", we took a chord progression (Am, C, D; Am, C, G, Cm7) home as homework. We came back to practice having noodled around with these chords, and we all had something different.

 

I developed what later became the chorus of the song, and the musical bridge from the chorus to the new verse. Tony developed the verses. While the basic chords remained the same, the progression, tempo, and vibe was different between the two of us.

 

We played it often, and then I started writing lyrics. Once they started coming they couldn't stop ... a stream of consciousness writing style.

 

Here they are:

 

Chorus:

Wait for me, Im trying to keep

Up with your demands

All Ive got is these two hands.

 

Time taking time take away, take me through another day

Give it time give it play, give me clever words to say

Say Im right, say Im wrong, say you knew it all along

Say that time marches on, marches narrow straight and long.

Time cant keep; cant keep time

 

(Chorus)

 

Time, time is up, double down, time is chasing me around

Chase the gold, chase the prize, tracking down your alibis

Buy more stuff every day, then just throw it all away

Made of dust made of clay, have you hugged your kids today?

Time cant keep, cant keep time.. wait .....

(guitar lead)

 

Time silent time voices loud, losing faces in a crowd

Time is lost, lost and found, running sand run aground

Give it time, time to heal, all the anguish that we feel

Keep it live, keep it real, keep on running in a wheel.

Time cant keep, cant keep time

 

(Repeat 1st verse)

 

It's on our suondclick page, but some people can hear it and some can't. I keep meaning to fix that but no time.

[Eric VB]

Welcome, Cherri! Thanks for posting your intro.

 

I'm one of those people that can't hear "Time (Wait for Me)" ... my RealPlayer chokes on the mp3 format. I did listen to the other two tunes, though. They seem well put together. The vocals and guitar are up front in the mix -- always a good thing -- but for me the drums and especially bass could be louder. (Guess you can't fire the bass player, now can you?)

 

Good luck on the shows and CD sales!

[Eric VB]

Ok, I think I found the original thread for this kind of thing, so I'll try to add a link to it here .

[cherri]

I fixed the MP3 of Time, and while I was at it, I added Up for Me as well. Thanks for the thread, Ric.

[yidneth]

hi there

my name is Priscilla Hernández, i'm a singer-songwriter and composer from Spain, i started in music rather late. I sing and play keyboards and mostly compose ethereal gothic and celtic based tunes based in fairytales. I am also a fantasy illustrator so i guess my music was born cos of my art. Now i'm working hard to make my first self release, after having dealt with quite a few labels, decided to remain unsigned for many reasons, sigh! that went agaisnt the spirit of my music, guess i'm a stubborn dreamer.

you can listen to some of my songs here

http://mp3.yidneth.com

I love to conceive songs as a a tale, in fact rather than a songwriter i consider myself a storyteller LOL. I'm not fond of my voice, but jsut because I was a composer looking for a vocalist first that ended up singing by accident. Actually i do enjoy singing as much as composing and i hope to go on fulfilling my dreams, releasing the music i carry in my spirit. Regarding that, also best wishes to everyone!

[Tedster]

Hiya Priscilla! Welcome to the forum.

 

I wouldn't worry about your not liking your singing voice. Most people hate the sound of their own voice, when they hear it back on tape.

 

I think I did listen to some of your stuff...you posted on another thread...your stuff sounds great!

[yidneth]

thanks very much for the compliment...

yes I agree with that, i think it has to do with your own bucal chamber reverb, specially i cannot bear my "dry recorded signal" LOL, i blush and feel so unconfortable, when i started composing and making music, I confess I didn't think of myself at first option to think, looked for a vocalist a while, I feel more confortable at the keys composing LOL, then I started myself and damn, now I like it.

[philbo_Tangent]

Hi, I'm Phil Koenig (my friends call me Philbo - - that includes all of you!). I compose whenever the muse hits & time allows; I have about 120+ tunes that I hope to get recorded some day soon.

 

I sing, play a bunch of different instruments, and run a private recording studio out of my home.

 

Digression:

(Private vs. Public -- anybody know what it means for a studio? I guess, for me, it means I won't record anybody for the money only - - I have to be able to enjoy and relate to the music. If I'm to track, mix, maybe master a song, hearing it 400-500 times in the process, I don't want it to be something that sucks...).

 

I have a day job in electronics design, but rarely have the personal bandwidth to do things like design my own preamps or whatever for home use... there's just too much going on to devote the time to do that properly. It'd be fun though.

 

I invite anyone who's interested to check out my band's tunes on the link below.

[Eric VB]

Welcome, Philbo!

 

Check out The Project Studio forum (and the archived Phil O'Keefe:The Project Studio) here for studio-related stuff.

[MusicYouCantGiveAway]

New guy here,

 

I play piano and some guitar. I have a Kurz K2500, Alesis QSR and an old Roland GS64. Been writing music since I was a kid. Went to school as a composition/theory/piano major. Met a girl, dropped out and got married. In bands in my 20's, more interested in drugs then... Computer programmer now.

Bob

[Red Winger]

You know, I've been around these forums for quite a while, but never dropped by here when that nursers guy was moderating, just cuz there were better places to be. But now that David Holloway has taken over, well....let's just say that it's a big improvement over nursers. Whew!!!!

 

Anyway, I've introduced myself on a few threads already around this place, but I'm a keyboardist, guitarist and sometime bass player who has been in bands since I was about 15, sometimes professionally, but for most of that time as a weekend warrior. I've written on and off over that time, both lyrics and instrumental pieces, in styles ranging from ambient to what I'll label "alternative rock," just for lack of a good descriptor. I stopped writing for about 10 years...just because other parts of life became more important (law school was the start of a decline), but have started writing again in the last couple of years.

 

Glad to see that this place is in good hands and seems to be getting pretty active.

 

--Mark

[Eric VB]

Welcome, Red Winger! Good to hear you're writing again.

[Mickael]

Oh hi, I was re-directed to this link to introduce myself. So I am a 23 yrs old singer/composer from Quebec,Canada and to answer that question about the role I think I have as a songwriter , I would say that it's more a descision than an artists feeling..or mood. I strongly believe a songwriter decides at an early time of his career, if he's gonna write only for himself or for others.Sometimes we could think it's both but I beleive it's always more one side or another. I wrote the song "So Much To Speak" to fight anxiety of my own life but also because I know that so many people going through anxiety times think they are not normal or too much emotional... they sometimes feel like "loosers" , not able to handle situations the correct way. So in my lyrics, I had to find the middle point between the typical "winners" positive song and the "life after all leads nowhere" minding. So , who knows ... the result ended into that song . SONG

 

So nice to meet you all! And a big Hi from the french province

Mickael

[David R]

I just realized I never posted here before. Let's rectify that, shall we?

 

My name is David, and I'm a 20-year-old pianist/keyboardist/arranger/composer. I'm originally from Toronto, but have lived in Montreal for the past four years. Most of my compositional and arranging work has been in jazz, but I started writing pop-ish tunes when I was a kid, and am now starting to work with elements of "classical" composition. As a player, I've played in all sorts of contexts - jazz, funk, rock, hip-hop, gospel, and musical theatre. I've also developed interests in African and Afro-influenced music (Cuban, Brazilian), as well as recently discovering Balkan music.

 

Influences: Billy Joel, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Dave Douglas, Don Byron, Debussy, Stravinsky, Bartok, Djavan, Ravel, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Ornette Coleman, Fred Hersch, Billy Strayhorn, Bjork, Stevie Wonder, and many many others.

 

David

[Hugo H]

Hello everyone...

 

I didn't even realize we had this thread. Real observant, hmm? Anyway, greetings to my predecessors and howdy to the new guys.

 

My name's Hugo. At the moment I'm 52 and living on the northern fringes of metro Atlanta. I've got a small area of my home devoted to my music: a grand piano, a synthesizer, some mics and a laptop. It's enough to lay down a melody line and make a little noise.

 

As a kid I took a bit of piano lessons but since then it's mainly been just me teaching myself. My 'natural' style of playing is influenced by romantic/classical music. I try to compose in a number of genres, though, and I'm not bad with lyrics in general. My main difficulty with composing is laying down drums.

 

Given my age, it's probably not surprising that my main influences date back to my teens. Lennon/McCartney, Pete Townshend, Jack Bruce, Brian Wilson, Carole King, Paul Simon, and the rest of their contemporaries, along with Rodgers/Hammerstein, Beethoven, Debussy, and similar.

 

Hopefully some of those influences will show up in my music someday,

-Hugo

[Hooper]

Hi Songwriters,

 

My name is Ken but I started using the handle Hooper once the Internet and forums came along. Actually, it is a nickname that I always wanted but never had as a kid growing up with Hardy Boys books.

 

My first instrument was ukulele at 11 years old and first song was Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue. Then the Beatles showed up on Sullivan and later a guitar showed up for Christmas. Then followed a steady stream of Beatles, Byrds, Dylan and later Moody Blues, Grateful Dead, The Who, Fleetwood Mac, more Beatles- especially Lennon. And my teen years were spent in an urban environment where garage bands were as common as pimples on a mugshot. My only formal music training was a music theory course in high school where I was at least introduced to analyzing and building chords and harmony. The other best music lesson I ever had was watching George Martins three part documentary The Rhythm of Life.

 

Nowadays I guess Im a jack-of-all-trades, master of none- playing guitars, bass, some keys, some electronic drums, some singing- all plugged into a PC based home studio. In fact, sometimes I just think of the whole pile of stuff as one big funny-looking instrument.

 

I keep working on growing as a songwriter, collecting snippets of words and music but havent really finished that many songs. One of those songs is Reaching Out which appeared on the Faces of Friendship project. Actually, that song came together pretty easy. The seed came from an evening news broadcast, about two days after the tsunami. The announcer said And now for our next story were taking you to: The saddest place in the world tonight. So, Im always watching out for seeds that a new song might grow out of. Since I live out in the sticks I enjoy on-line collaborations and it seems like Im always challenged into learning something new in the process.

 

Ill see ya around!

 

Hooper

[BlueAndGreen]

hey everyone,

 

i like the vibe here, heard some really nice songs and thought i would drop in and say hello.

I'm a full-time electrical engineers who designs avionics for large jets (777,747,767,a300,etc).

 

I did try to "make it" as a musician years ago with an alternative rock band. we won the "snickers new music search", got some airplay, great mgt.. a development deal from island records and then it all went south (in-fighting).

 

now i just dabble and i cant sing a lick. i play bass and keys.. well..then all that's left is happy new year..cheers

-gaffster

[nursers]

Welcome

[KeyboardPunk]

Hey all

My real name is Charlene and I'm from Indiana. I've been writing songs since I was about 13 and haven't stopped since. I love music. I grew up listening to country then averted to AC/DC and other rock bands in the same era. I made a move from a big city to a small town and met my boyfriend who is an avid drummer. About two months after first dating we decided to combine our talents along with a friend who played guitar. (I play keyboard(duh) and sing). Our band is called Rage. It's kind of punk rockish. We have over 12 songs and are soon to be performing at a new band showcase in Indianapolis in March and are starting a tour in May. (I'll post cities and dates as soon as possible)

 

So hey all!!