I Gotta Consolidate

In fact I may even use that as a song title! 2010 began with the resurrection of the Weekly Songcast, but I feel it’s current format and aimless direction is restricting me creatively and it’s also one more thing to get done when I could incorporate the same kind of thing into my main musical blog.

After completing my third FAWM Songwriting Challenge I feel that I have grown as much as I can, simply putting out songs by myself. I’m really pleased with my progress and my results over the last couple of years, but there is something I haven’t done enough of and I finally realize why I haven’t.

That thing is collaboration. The FAWM community does a lot of collaboration and on the few occasions I have participated it has been very rewarding, but I usually shy away from doing much of it and I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t into sharing the creative process more. Well I think I have the answer:

This website!
Yes really. Not that it’s doing me wrong of course, but I realize how much emphasis I have put on the importance of writing songs all by myself, probably to make for all those years I didn’t do it. I guess it’s what I have created as an identity for myself and everybody has issues when it comes to breaking down any kind of identity that we have created for ourselves.

To be honest I think it’s an ego thing, but it’s definitely stopping me from being more connected with many people who share the same interests as myself.

The truth is that to be a great songwriter, a great anything in fact, you have to share. I already have written well over one hundred songs since I started and I want to record many of them properly, so I can proudly say to myself that I am a songwriter, now I want to be the best songwriter it’s possible for me to be.

So I’m taking away the cause of this dilemma of "Do I keep this great idea for myself as a song or do I allow someone else to play a part?".

So, what liberated me in the beginning has really outgrown it’s purpose and is now holding me back. I’m really happy with this realization. There’s no woe about stopping the weekly songs because I’ll still be posting them over at the musical home of Boy at Heart and what’s great about that is I’ll be able to post the collaborations too and I’ll be able to post them weekly, daily, monthly or whenever I want to.

An extra little service I’ll be able to provide in doing so will be to help promote some excellent musicians and songwriters that I have come into contact with around the world. Even better for me is the fact that they cover many different genres of music, so I will be able to learn from them too.

This is just speculative right now. FAWM is nearly over and my mind is a bit blank right now, but I’m looking at doing this outside of FAWM too. My dream now is to connect with other musical alchemists and establish a really cool, creative relationship with those who I seem to particularly click with, so as to create some music that is bigger than the sum of its parts.

It’s time to let go of the "Lone Ranger" style that I seem to have created for the Boy at Heart and become more connected. I’m also up for working with other types of creators like: animators, film makers, writers and who knows what else.

In the future this could see me making some in-person collaborations too which would be cool. I’m building a new studio this year, so I want to make sure I’ve got plenty to do in it!

Thanks to all those who have contributed their time and comments to the Weekly Songcast. It was a great ride and it served a great purpose. This is just the closing of a chapter, not the end of the story.

If it’s all a Straight Line…

Where is the fun? This song is part of my FAWM 2010 experience, which I am really enjoying and finding particularly challenging.

I am starting to find my feet as a songwriter I believe. Although I think many of my earlier songs are better than many of my more recent ones I am still confident I am improving and that it is a sign of me moving into new creative territory .

This one song a fair chunk of ad-lib lyrics. I had the first verse written down and the chorus. Verse 2 is what came out on the first take. This year’s FAWM songwriting challenge is really getting me into a different area of creativity: Namely one that is seeing me create songs in a very short space of time and making me realize that if I just have faith that something will come out of my mouth worth keeping then it does.

Now I’ve got to practice that faith in my lyrical abilities becoming more diverse and versatile to different subject matter because I seem to be unable to write a song without philosophizing!

Not that I’m complaining though.

On a Serious Note this Week

Haha. Not much more to say really, except… Always check!

Very Simple and non-Subtle Inspiration

I wrote this song last night whilst under attack from some really painful acid indigestion. In a way I’m glad I had it because even though I felt as sick as a dog and in as much discomfort as I can tolerate, it gave me this song, which I quite like!

As with all WSC songs, this is a demo recording, but it makes a change from just the usual solo voice and acoustic guitar. The title is the only thing that was inspired by my condition last night. The song is more about the fact that often, when you achieve a goal, get what you always wanted etc. it isn’t the end and there is no "Now I can just put my feet up and stop trying". It’s the beginning, always.

With the achievement of something comes a responsibility and usually that means something new to take care of and then of course there is the added factor of realizing that getting what you wanted was only a part of the equation and it still feels like there is something left to achieve. Good ol’ life. You can’t ever say it is boring without actually being boring of course!

So life always need work to become perfect unless, of course, you accept that life was already perfect and it is you who needs working on!

Enjoy!

A Slow but Effective Start to 2010

As the title suggests I have been clearing out my head for the first month of this year. I spent most of it looking at what was really important to me in terms of what I do on a day-to-day basis. What I really want to do as my main vocation in life and what kinds of choices I would really love to have the freedom to make any time.

It was a month well spent. I am clearer. I have offloaded several goals and targets that I thought I really wanted to achieve last year, but didn’t, only to discover the reason I didn’t was because I didn’t truly desire them at all, so I have made space for some far more inspiring ideas and thoughts.

I am still doing a lot of clearing. I don’t think it ever really gets finished. Your thoughts, ideas and goals change often enough for it to be necessary to clear some clutter from the mind, so as not to get confused and fall into what I feel is one of the most common traps of all, which is: "I don’t know what it is that I want".

Ha! Nonsense. We always know deep down what it is and if you feel like you don’t then it’s time to pick up the hotline to your heart and listen out until you hear the answer from your subconscious because it is there all the time with the answer.

So this song really tells the story of a period from my 2009.

Enjoy!

To Be Crazy!

Yes I have been called crazy a few times in recent years. Not the zany, whacky, "cool" kind of crazy, but simply crazy.

Maybe I am, maybe I’m not, but if somebody has an explanation as to what it entails not to be crazy in any way whatsoever then I’d like to hear it.

If I’m crazy then crzy feels good. In the words of Mr T. "You Crazy Suckers!"

It’s never too late

To start all over again. It really isn’t. I have always believed this deep down, but the truth is that I have allowed my doubting voice to have too much say in the past and even fell for the illusion that once you reach a certain age then there isn’t much left you can hope to achieve.

Well I have seen enough evidence, up close to convince me that you can achieve your life-long ambitions even if you feel it’s too late. That’s it really. There isn’t much else to say except don’t believe the stories told to you by doubters or what you see on TV or in the newspapers. There’s more reality in your dreams than there is in the media, so which do you trust more?

It seems to me that the more you learn to really know yourself, trust yourself and be yourself the more success, fulfillment and happiness you experience. The more you know, trust and are able to be yourself then the more obstacles you will overcome because they will just seem like twists and turns and will provide some excitement and things to love along the way.

I mean if you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust? So just believe in the fact that while there is breath in your body then you are still in the game and you can still win, even if you have to start all over again!

Comment, add, follow, listen, download and Enjoy!

The Inner Game of Life

There is a general agreement in the world that the way the it works is that everything outside of you is so and you have to fit into it in some way. In other words, it is a belief that creates a state of being of reaction rather than creation.

You see things ‘out there’ and that determines your next move, which creates what you then see ‘out there’, which determines your next move ad infinitum.

This is of course the truth because it is generally agreed by the majority and as such creates a reality based on the predominant consciousness adopted by the population of the world, but it is not actuality.

What actually happens is that you create your moment first, often subconsciously and because it is subconscious the world appears to be the way it is because it just is and so your next moment of creation is influenced by that, again acted out habitually and subconsciously.

This is the reason why adopting a healthier attitude to life is what brings about a better quality of life. It is YOU who is the starting point for all you experience. That’s why you can take a dislike to somebody whilst other people love that person. It’s you doing the ‘disliking’, not them doing the ‘disliked’.

OK enough philosophizing. What it comes down to is that you have the power to create your life. Oh yes you do because you are already creating it! Once you commit to creating your life with awareness: I.e. deliberately and purposefully, you’ll see just how much easier it can be to experience life the way you want it to be more of the time.

It’s the same principle as the inner game of golf or tennis. What separates the very best players from the others is the strength of mind, attitude and focus. There are many tennis players with the same actual ability and skill as Roger Federrer for example, but he has the mental edge. However it’s not just about thinking. In fact it is not about thinking at all, even though it is largely to do with the mind.

Something to think about then! I’m still working on it myself.

Enjoy!

How Far We’ve Come!

Welcome back to the Weekly Songcast! It feels a little like it did back when it started from scratch. I was reminiscing about that the other day with a friend. When I decided to do the Weekly Songcast, it wasn’t called the Weekly Songcast. In fact it didn’t really have a name and the first few entries were done using iWeb on my Mac.

It seemed like a really easy and self-contained way of publishing a podcast at the time, but I soon went back to Wordpress to enjoy the amazing flexibility it provides.

Anyway, back to Dec 30th 2007. I had decided to publish a new song every week and I promised myself that song number one would make it onto the website before New Year’s Day 2008. I got the site up and ready quickly enough, but the stumbling block was the first song. I had some chords (actually I had chords for loads of songs ready), but no words and I was due to visit my friend for New year on 30th; not coming back until after New Year’s Day.

The clock was ticking and I had to just get myself out of the way, so to speak. Song number one (Moment) ended up being published at about 18:30 (ish) hours on December 30th and I then raced to pack some stuff into my bag, ready for the 3 hour drive to my friend’s house in the really snazzy coupe hire car that I had been upgraded to for free (2007 was the year I got to drive nice, new cars for almost free due to being smashed into by a massive lorry in the summer).

I arrived at my friend’s house pretty late, but satisfied that I had actually honoured my intention and made my deadline. The Weekly Songcast name came later, around February with the switch to Wordpress, but it was well and truly Alive (song #2). It was to be a defining moment in my history and helped me grow as a songwriter, musician and generally as a person.

It seems like a world away now as the title of the song in this post, although the ‘World Away’ referred to in this song is more about any undesirable feeling or situation being a world away once you get over them and progress with life. It’s a word of encouragement and support I suppose. There have been some moments like that for me in my life that now seem like a world away, which is another sign for me of the progress I have made.

All in all I am grateful for the Weekly Songcast. I love it and I should never have stopped it in August 2009. Still the reason I did stop it (to focus on something that wasn’t in my heart) provided me with some great lessons about myself and an increase in self awareness. It caused me to wake up some more to how I fit into this crazy game called life, which I love more and more as each day goes by.

The Weekly Songcast has helped form a significant chapter of my life. It has been with me as I put my plan to change my life situation into action, it inspired me to keep going and cheered me on as I moved to the other side of the world to live in a tropical paradise. It witnessed me marry the woman of my dreams and now it will get to share with me the joy of being there as my baby daughter Lilla grows up.

How long will the Weekly Songcast continue? WHo knows, but it is my intention that this is, again, just the beginning!

2009 was the quickest year of my life and I feel a little like I didn’t have time to get anything started, but as I look back at the year I can see that it was one of the biggest years of my life and contained the ultimate in joyous moments for me – Becoming a dad!

Thank you WSC and thank you life for keeping me in the game. I’m ready for more!

More Music for 2010

It is getting closer: The time for making empty promises to yourself (New Year’s Resolutions – sorry for the cynicism), drinking too much and asking yourself the question, again – Where did the last year go?

It is also the time of year (well this once anyway) for the Weekly songcast to rise from it’s ashes and take flight again. Yes I have banged on about it already, but after deciding to take down the countdown page, which was messing up the rest of this site due to some boring technical details, which I don’t really understand I’m putting this post up now as the precursor to the relaunch, just so you know!

So mark it in your diaries if you haven’t already. December 30th at 18:30 GMT there the program will resume! I don’t know how it will develop over the course of the next year. Hopefully into something good , but for now it’s business as usual, as it was between December 2007 and August 2009.

To be honest, this website is as much for my benefit as it is anyone else’s. If I know I have a deadline then it gives me more impetus to fulfill my obligation to myself: To continue and to improve my songwriting. It keeps me writing. Who knows, it may even help me develop a knack for telling stories, which is something I would love to do.

Comment, add, follow, listen, download and Enjoy!