More FAWM stuff

Hi, I'm sorry if people are getting fed up the music chatter this month, but it's something that I am going to be doing for the whole month, even if I have already gone very much passed the 14 songs suggested.  I am presently in the way of having 26 songs up on my list at this minute, which does include two that have lyrics by other people that I am in line to write the music for.  They are something that is a frequent thing on FAWM apparently, and in a way I am now looking forward to it, especially after doing a collaboration with Matt Blick, who is not only the man behind Beatles Songwriting Academy and a great guitarist, but is also a friend.  I am crossing my fingers that I can get to his on Tuesday for the monthly songwriting group.

Anyway, since last time then;

Friday February 8th -
At just before ten to 1 in the morning I looked at Titular for song title ideas, followed with writing some lyrics for a piece that came from one of those titles - 'Declaration'.  At 4.46 in the morning I came up with an idea based on another title suggested from an earlier title - 'Tear'.  At 5 in the morning I put an idea into my notebook.  Between 5.57 and 6.03 in the morning I started coming up with ideas for another song.  At between 6 in the evening and 11.40  at night I was trying on and off while I was at work to put the lead vocal down for 'Bayonets', but without any success.  At twenty to midnight I looked at the second week's challenge.  Finally at nearly ten to midnight I started at another lyric idea.

Saturday February 9th -
At quarter past midnight, I tried to write another song but just got a verse and chorus.  Then between one minute to one in the morning and ten past two, I wrote the song Forever Friends as a response to the aforementioned weekly challenge, which was to write a song using only the notes from the pentatonic scale for the melody.  I then recorded the song without any instrumentation because I was at work (without an instrument) - a gospel song.  At 3.16 in the morning I wrote some ideas down.

At 4.14 in the afternoon I looked at Titular again, and then at 4.21 I looked at Struxxure.  At 8.35 in the evening I started trying to write another lyric but just down a verse.  Between ten to midnight and four minutes past midnight I wrote down a structure I though of myself, so to speak - an arrangement based around a time signature changing piece that I could hear in my head (and still can).

Sunday February 10th -
Between 11.10 and 11.30 in the morning I wrote down a change to an earlier lyric I'd started on ('Tear').  Between 12.25 and 12.40 I looked at a few collaboration ideas available on the FAWM website and decided on three of those titles for the time being.

From twenty five past one to 1.48 I wrote the lyrics for 'Ballad for the Songwriter', followed by writing a music idea between 2.25 and 2.43.  Between 3.50 and 4.40 I came up with music to a set of lyrics written by Matt Blick entitled 'I Am Nesia'.  Looking at the lyrics it seemed daunting at first, but after a while I looked at it from a different angle.  I thought that because it is about an amnesiac, that mentally they would be all over the place, so in a way each section needed to be slightly different in feel, so I purposely created something that had three distinct sections to it, hence the change in tempo, feel, key, and well, everything.  That was to give it that jaggedness that there must be with people who suffer from this, I suppose.  Initially I was a little bothered by it, because I was collaborating with someone, writing the music for their words.  After listening back to it a couple of times, I think it really works well, despite some fluffed bits in that live recording.

Between 8.25 and 8.43 I wrote the lyrics for 'I Am a Thief'.  Then later on (I'm not completely sure when) I was listening back to the music idea I came up with earlier (2.25-2.43) and realized that an earlier set of lyrics from the previous week fitted, but needed to be built upon because there was only a four line piece initially (a verse).  To that I added lyrically a second verse and chorus, then recorded double-tracked vocals onto the same recording as the guitar track I had recorded at home earlier on.  That became the song 'I Don't Mind ('Cause I'm In Love With You)'.

Monday February 11th -
At 1.14 in the morning I looked at the Titular thing on the FAWM website again, where I gleaned seven potential title ideas.  Between 5.10 and 5.25 in the morning I wrote out a verse and chorus idea for a new song lyrically.  Between 6.35 and 6.37 in the morning I wrote another couple of lyrical bits for a different potential song.

At 4.41 in the afternoon I remembered a suggestion by FAWM's twitter account whereby you could get an idea by looking at a random article on Wikipedia.  I went onto Wikipedia and clicked the option for it to take me to a random article, and it took me an article called 'People from Etobicoke' (a territory of Ontario in Toronto, Canada).  I wrote down all the list of people, and was fascinated that the actress Catherine O'Hara was from there (Kevin's mum in Home Alone and Home Alone 2, as well as other films), and a fair number of ice hockey players.  There are also a fair number of politicians, musicians, and actors.

From there I looked at the wikipedia page about Etobicoke, wrote more information out.  Once again not all of this was used for the eventual song, but still I felt as though it was vital for me to garner as much information as I possibly could.  I also had a page up about the actress Catherine O'Hara.

I also brought up a page on an official Canadian tourist web address, where there was a list of places where you could visit if you went to Etobicoke.

Then I started to write the lyrics, which was a great experience.  Louise offered a couple of suggestions which, although not copied exactly as suggested, they did inspire me.  Louise came up with a line about the mini-Indy, which I couldn't use exactly because I didn't fit perfectly with the meter of the piece, but instead I used the Mini-Indy idea in with the fact that I wanted to mentioned Centennial Park anyway.  That is just one of a couple of suggestions my sweetheart made.

She thought the process was fascinating and that the end product was a great set of lyrics.  When I found that Jeff Healey was from there as well, I just knew that I had to say something about that, because he is a great loss to the music world.  As with everything else that I have written for FAWM, you can find it on my FAWM page.

I then put down the rhythm guitar for the song using my laptop's microphone.  Then I had a break for a while until much later when it was gone half past ten at night, when I recorded a lead vocal and a lead guitar.  Because of the time I was much quieter than I could have otherwise been, because I didn't want to disturb the neighbours.  If I had waited until the next day, I would have added tambourine as well.  As it is though, I am really pleased with how the song 'Etobicoke' has turned out.

That then has brought you up to date with where I am up to Monday night.

Thank you for reading, please take care.

February 12 2013 (42 years, two months, and 17 days old).

PS - That is twenty songs completely written, plus two more collaborations I have started working on, and four sets of my own lyrics written that need music.  26 songs are up on my FAWM page in different stages then in the first eleven days alone.  Write just one album in February?  Let's go for two maybe. ;-)