On a Songwriter's Mind This Week #6
Happy new year folks! Latest thoughts from me: just before Xmas I finished off When You Want Love, my 7 minute epic love ballad. I’ve wanted to do something with that classic chord progression for a while now (G, Am, C, D), some of my favourite songs use it (Gary Barlow was a fan, as were Wet Wet Wet). I tried to do something a bit different with varying the chords slightly and developing the second guitar part in places. I almost morphed into Cat Stevens at one point. I was a little concerned with the length of the song, as a new artist I don’t want to bore my audience with anything too self-indulgent. But the story simply took that long to tell, there wasn’t too much I could do to help it, other than perhaps speed up the tempo a little. Maybe one for the radio edit hehe!
One other original song written and recorded since my last post, Watch Out, In The City! It’s a futuristic tale of what will happen if we don’t sort out this climate change issue and the seas rise to swallow up New York City. I had some fun developing a few characters for the song, putting into practice some things I learned from writing my first musical (2nd draft on the way). The main guy is an Italian American called Leo who, in his own words, “hit the Big Apple time but still pays the family dues”. He’s a good fella really who loves his mamma – let’s hope he takes her advice to get outta town, he’s pazzo if he doesn’t! Got to play a bit more with the guitar part on this song too, trying a few things out in that regard, different types of chords to reflect a certain mood. I’ll never be afraid to try new things with my songs – sometimes it’ll come off, but when it doesn’t at least I learned something.
Recorded another cover song too, Donovan’s Catch The Wind. It’s a beautiful melody that transferred nicely over into a piano version which I arranged and performed myself. I don’t often get to perform my piano tracks out in the pubs and clubs due to the practical issue of getting ol Joanna there with me, but it’s nice to try things with her when possible. Piano was the first instrument I learned as a child, so it always feels like coming back home. Guitar songs sound very different on piano, and vice versa. I hope you like it. Oh and apologies, I changed the lyric to “might as well” rather than “may as well catch the wind”, this just happened when I sang it without thinking too much. Hope I’ve not disappointed the die-hard folkies :(
That’s all for this posting. Do you have any suggestions for songs for me to cover? I’ll certainly look into it if you do – why not send me an email at info@ryanfoxmusic.co.uk?
So long!
Ryan
