It's all about the music

Here comes yet another blog that's already written;

Music is a very strange thing indeed.  You can get to the stage where you know that you're not going to get anywhere far with it, but you still can'y stop doing it.  I find myself getting bursts of inspiration, sometimes without even trying.

With my recent prolific spurt, I am going to try writing with someone, which I haven't really done in such a way since the late 90's.  It's been difficult because of not really having a permanent band to speak of.  I've written with Tony Hearn before, where he and I put music to some lyrics I'd brought in, which he then made editing suggestions about.

There are also times where people in the studio were so intrinsic to how a piece sounded, that I credited them.  The title piece to A New World Order is credited to myself and Jonathan "Joff" Spittlehose from SWIMMING because he basically came up with the idea while I was saying that I wanted something different that used bits from songs on the set, but in an almost disjointed and stark way.  From there he suggested bits, and I and Ellie Mason were inspired from there.  Ellie was also credited with us, because of her finger piano playing, which was reversed and became such a big part of the piece.

The song Changes from the Colours set features what's basically my lyrics, but with slight edits by my friend Jim Annison, so I credited him as co-writer.  Jim is co-writer on a piece to be featured on One Day as well, since he wrote the voiceover that Tony Hearn voices on the instrumental Cop Show.

I suppose in effect it's a fine line as to who is credited and who is not.  On the forthcoming One Day set, the opening song Good Morning World features my friend Jon James Hall singing.  The words he sings aren't different in any way to the ones that I wrote, but he has altered the melody he sings them with from what I did write.  Does he get a co-writer credit for this?  Do I give him a co-writer credit for adding two words to the other One Day song In The Shape Of Things?  Do I give Andy Dawson and Mark Freezer co-writing credits for the instrumental song The Dragon's Return from One Day?  I had the bass and drums already down, but Mark added slide guitar and Andy the other guitars, which have then made them intrinsic to the tune, along with my organ playing and percussion, and the sampled scream.

I suppose that all of this is a subject that's been debated for years, and will continue to be.  It is one that obviously has me in a sticky spot though, as I want to credit where it's due, but where do I choose to assign it?

I do know that as me and the person I am going to write with are both creative, we will carry on being inspired to write on our own too I suppose.  I know that sometimes I can't help but start singing lyrics while I'm writing, and I'm sure that Andy is the same.  I will however be open to his material as I'm sure he would be to mine, because the first step is a respect for each other's ability.  That where I believe a good songwriting partnership stems from.

When I wrote with Paul for Shadowplay and Jewel, we knew each other's strong points, and we played to them.  We made suggestions to each other and worked through that.

That's just made me think - it's the same in any relationship.  Wow, deep that.  Crikey, another blog written.

Everybody take care


Thank you for reading, I hope it wasn't too boring.

Marv - 7th March 2011 (40 years, 3 months, and 9 days old)