Another

And another song! I'm churning them out!

We were set a brief in songwriting class to write a song with a refrain at the end of the verse using the theme and word 'corner'. I changed it a little. As I'd written a song last week I really didn't think I'd be able to come up with anything this week. But I had a bit of time off work and I used a chord sequence and melody that I already had and I came up with something that I'm really pleased with.

It's based on the fictional library in Richard Brautigan's The Abortion: An Historical Romance where people can bring books that they've written themselves and place them anywhere on the shelves.

The Public Library

"Imagine a room" he said
A library in his head
"Shelves full of stories that people will bring
With pages bound up there in paper and string"

His wishes came true that May
In bricks and plaster and clay
Paid for with charity, friendship and thrift
Built on the corner of Mission and Fifth

Some people came just to look
Or to bring their hopes in a book
Dreamers and authors were welcomed by him
Catalogued, stamped and their books held within

A novel called Victory
A six-year-old's poetry
Love Always Beautiful by Charlie Green
Placed on the corner of shelf forty-three

People and times grew hard
His library fell apart
Coffee shops sprang where the building once stood
Shelved and forgotten its doors closed for good

Now all of his books are boxed
Their words all tied-up and lost
Dust on their jackets and leaves turning brown
Scuffed on the corners and left facing down

Interference

For a while now I've wanted to write a song about some experiences that happened to me when I was having a really bad time a few years ago. When I was at my worst I seemed to affect electrical equipment. I completely wiped my hard drive. God-knows how. And another time a street light went off when I walked up to it. It turned on again when I'd walked past.

A couple of weeks ago I read that this is a phenomenon that has been recorded. It's called Street Lamp Interference (SLI) and a project has been set up to study it called the Street Lamp Interference Data Exchange. Reading a few stories of 'SLIders' helped me write my song. I know it's probably circumstantial nonsense but I still think it's a great subject for a song:

Dark Receiver

Street lamps see her coming
Fade away to nothing
Sets her compass spinning
With no other witnesses

She walks streets at midnight
Bathed in pools of black light
And when her thoughts surround her
Volts flow from her fingers

Dark receiver
Static showers
Down on her

She attracts repulsion
With her cold transmissions
Weak electrons scatter
Car horns whimper back to her

She rides faulty train lines
Switches off their stop signs
And when her thoughts surround her
Volts flow from her fingers

Dark receiver
Static showers
Down on her

City lights no longer
No lamps here to bother
She calls out for thunder
Fuses skin with undergrowth

She scares crows at midnight
Sparks from flower-flashlight
And when her thoughts surround her
Volts flow from her fauna

Dark receiver
Static showers
Down on her
On her
On her

Worthy

By my reckoning I've now got seven or eight album-worthy songs. That's quite impressive! Here's what I've got so far:

The Lepidopterist
Junior Architect
Grace is Just Her Middle Name
Indian Summer
Houses Don't Know Poetry
Poor Frederick Isaac Gold
Dark Receiver (more about this new song soon)
Down the Line (not sure about including this one yet)

Just a couple more and I've got an album!

Cock-ups

I did the Brunswick open mic night last night. I was a bit less nervous this time, probably because I was on first and there was hardly anyone there.

The first song I played I had the microphone angled too high and my lyrics were on the floor so I had to look up, sing, look down at the lyrics, look at what chord I was playing and then look up again to sing.

So for the next song I arranged my lyrics on a chair next to me and angled the microphone so I could look down at them. Half way through the song the microphone started to sag. I tried to lower my head closer to it but it carried on sagging. When that didn't work I tried singing louder. When that failed I stopped, apologised, adjusted the microphone, only for it to happen again ten seconds later. A girl in the audience jumped up and had a go with the microphone while I tried to carry on singing. She couldn't do it either. I joked to her "You'll have to stay there now". She did. She kindly held up the microphone until I'd finished. Why the sound man couldn't have helped I don't know! He eventually came and sorted the mic out and I did my last song without any major cock-ups.

Although it was all a bit shambolic, I did it quite calmly and I was able to pick the guitar without my hands turning to jelly. I'm starting to realise that performing live is a whole other ball game though and I need a lot more practice.

Listening to the other acts last night made me think about what I appreciate in music. There was a singer – very beautiful and with a fantastic voice – but I just thought: who cares? I'd much rather listen to someone interesting with something to say in their songs.

Hate

I've written another song. We were set a short project in our songwriting class to write a song about someone who is in the public eye who we either hate or admire. I had a few ideas as there are a number of people on the telly who I hate... usually without particular reason, I just don't like the way they talk. Miquita Oliver, for instance, has a half-stoned drawl and a jumped-up arrogance that makes me want to punch her face in.

A couple of days later I was watching Grand Designs and shouting at the telly as usual. It featured the most boring couple I've ever witnessed. They had bought a castle, added a lego brick house on the side and filled it with plastic chairs so that they could sit at home and watch DVDs. Jesus... is that really what we're all meant to be aspiring to?

But that wasn't what wound me up the most. In his summing up of the finished Ikea meets Lancelot building, Kevin McCloud said "This building has a poetry to it."

What the hell has some yuppy's house got to do with poetry?!

And so I had found the subject of my hate song. It's about poetry getting its own back on Kevin McCloud

Houses Don't Know Poetry

Poetry will kick down your door tonight
Mask you up and leave you stripped outside
Poetry will crash your 4x4
Wipe your face in mud and metaphor

And walls won't help you now
Your facias let you down
And foundations will flee
From the scene
Cause houses don't know poetry

Poetry is not at fashion's call
It's not an ornament shown off in halls
It's not a book of rules, but a ransome note
It picks you up and grabs you by the throat

And mauve won't help you now
Your palettes let you down
And colour swatches flee
From the scene
Cause houses don't know poetry

And houses
Don't know a thing about poetry
And real estate
Isn't as real as you think it to be
And houses
Don't know a thing about poetry
Oh no...

Dive

I did a gig with Annie in the Providence again last night. The Providence is such a dive! Loud, shitty music before the bands came on, pissed old men laughing at nothing... As soon as I got there I just wanted to be somewhere else... anywhere else. The gig went well and neither of us made obvious fluffs. I think because I wasn't expecting it to be a good gig I just did it without worrying about it.

I'm meant to be collaborating with some people off my songwriting class but it sounds like it's all gone pear-shaped already. The three girls I'm collaborating with met up without me because I couldn't make it (had to watch Lost!) and couldn't agree on anything. Songwriting class tonight will be interesting.

Anyway, I'm so excited by this video I found the other day:

Job

I've found the advert for my perfect job!

Scrabble

Apologies for my absence... work is crazy. (As if anyone cares!)

I've started another songwriting class. And I've just written a new song called "Grace is Just Her Middle Name". Listen to it on my myspace page. I wrote it by this method:

I had a game of scrabble with my girlf. At the end I wrote down all the four or more letter words. Then I picked every other one. I then tried to include as many of these as I could in a song lyric.

For this exercise, 'grace' was the strongest word that I came up with so I based it around this. Once I came up with the phrase "Grace is just her middle name" I had the idea for the song. I was trying to write a new melody for it but I found myself singing it to a harmony I'd written the week before. So I followed that through to it's conclusion.

I debuted it at the songwriting class on Friday. The feedback I got was good. One person suggested leaving more gaps in there. I changed the arrangement a little and added bars here and there which have stretched it out a bit and actually made it easier to sing and to remember the lyrics.

I'm quite please with this one. I wrote it all within the space of a week too.

Low-key

Last night I did an open mic night. The Brunswick in Holland Road, Brighton.

I was trying to think of it as a low-key performance. I dressed down and told myself I was going to make mistakes. I was telling myself anything that would take the pressure of performance off so that I could just get up and knock out a couple of songs. This all changed when my girlfriend invited a few friends, who then invited other friends, and then there were about ten people round our table waiting for me to go on!

The acts started and I was feeling nervous. My heart was racing and no matter how much I tried to rationalise things I couldn't control it. Then a guy came on who was doing all twiddly rock guitar stuff, his fingers moving up and down the fretboard at a lightning pace. I knew instinctively that I would be next and sure enough I was asked to get ready to go on.

"Great", I said sarcastically down the boomy microphone, "That was a great act to follow. Thanks". I got a laugh. Hope the guitar guy didn't take it the wrong way!

I started playing The Junior Architect. Heart pounding. I looked down at my fingers picking out the notes but they didn't seem to be hitting the strings properly. They wouldn't relax enough to play properly. I struggled on and started singing. Jesus my voice sounded loud! My voice sounded okay but my guitar picking was awful... every note was wrong, some notes weren't coming out. I abandoned my picking half way through and strummed it instead. This was better even though I had never strummed it before.

I got through that song. Not too bad except I was annoyed that I couldn't have picked the tune. My fingers had just turned to mush. I made a quick decision and rather than try to pick another tune I opted for an easily strummed song: Down the Line. I know this really well so I could relax a bit more and I think I got through it okay.

I got some good feedback. My friends said it was good and congratulated me. Obviously they would, but it was nice none the less.

I waited around and played guitar with Annie for a couple of songs, one of which Annie dedicated to my girlfriend. I really enjoyed playing this time. It felt like all the pressure was off because I'd done my songs. I fluffed it a couple of times but it didn't matter to me. I was just having fun.

Anyway, I did it! I knew I would make mistakes, and I did, but I'm just thinking that this was the first of many open mics so it doesn't really matter. Adopt, adapt and improve.

Ghosts

At the end of last year I wrote another song for my songwriting class. The theme was 'ghosts'. I wrote a kind of historical murder ballad. Here are the unfinished lyrics:

The Ghost of Frederick Isaac Gold

Wandering...
Down the dusty, disused line
Crumbling...
Down the bridges over time
And time didn't register
In the field where he was thrown
Left to crawl back on his own
He never made it home
Oh no

Shimmering...
Over streams like Damselflys
Wallowing...
Under cloudless late July
He hit the ground struggling
Tried to keep his timepiece gold
Left a childless widow cold
Poor Frederick Isaac Gold
Oh no

Sleeping his way through the tunnel
Shot to the floor with a tumble
Thrown from the carriage a bundle of bones

Stumbling...
Cause his feet won't touch the ground
Hollering...
Though his cries don't make a sound
And people walk through him now
In the street where he was born
Worked the chandlers for their corn
But now that it's all gone
Oh no

Hovering...
Over cornfields dressed in gold
Wondering...
What the next life's gonna hold

It's loosely based on a story I read about that happened close to Brighton in the 1890s. A petty criminal shot a wealthy, somewhat miserly gentleman on the train from London. He put up a struggle but was eventually pushed from the train in Balcombe Tunnel. It was in the middle of the summer.

My idea was to tell the story of a ghost haunting summer fields where he was pretty ineffectual, the same as he was when he was alive. But I don't really think this comes across in the lyrics I've written. I don't know... I'm just not happy with it. Maybe some tweaks would make it come alive a bit.

Eve

Happy Christmas. It's New years eve and I've had a nice break over Christmas in which to formulate my resolutions for 2009. Of course, getting to Portland is high on the list. But I've also promised myself that whenever anyone suggests playing my songs then I will. I haven't got time for this false modesty any more! My girlfriend asked/told me to perform three songs for her at home as if it was at an open mic night. This is just the kind of encouragement I need (thanks Helen). I got nervous even in front of her but I still managed to sing the songs all the way through.

So with this pre-New years eve resolution in mind, I played 'Junior Architect' in front of my family at Christmas. It was a bit of a sad song to play for Christmas - especially as there were two children there (my nieces) - but I was asked and so I did it. My Dad, in his typical Black-country way, said "That's a bit self-deprecating isn't it?". But still, I did it and I didn't get too nervous. I just wanted to show off a bit. I think it's partly to prove that I'm not one of them any more - by showing that there's more to my life than what's on telly. None of my family learnt an instrument. All my brother had to talk about over Christmas was what TV he was going to buy in the sales.

Anyway, to start off 2009, I've been asked to do a gig in Hastings at the Rooms. I'll be playing guitar with Annie but I'm hoping to do some of my songs to start off the night with. It'll be with my friends Adam and Jayne playing the main slot. Can't wait!

Happy new year!

Jumping

I went to see I'm From Barcelona last night. They were amazing! It was a cross between a rock gig, a rave and a kiddies party. Their frontman was unbelievable... jumping around, getting the crowd going, running around the stage, climbing on the monitor speakers. I was willing him to do it and he eventually did... he stage dived. I've never seen anyone do that before. Fantastic!

Again, it just proves to me what different things music can be. Music doesn't have to be all po-faced and quiet, or cool and up its own arse. It can be just pure elation.

Two

For God's sake! No Sharp Objects are at number two in the Latest Magazine music chart. Who the hell listens to this crap!

Hooks

I showcased my new song, Junior Architect to my songwriting class on Friday. Here's what the tutor, Heidi Berry, wrote:

Simon gave a strong performance on guitar and vocals of a song based on ‘back to the drawing board’. This used a wide variety of imagery (e.g. the architects and his plans) and the group felt this was a strong song. I suggested playing some open mic nights to gain confidence in performing live.

She also asked me if she could have a recording of it!

I was so nervous when I was playing it! I managed to keep my voice under control, even though I could hear it wobbling and I was running out of breath very easily. But my guitar playing was awful! It felt like I had hooks for hands. I think my tutor's suggestion of playing open mic nights is a good one.

Only thing is there's a film festival on in Brighton at the moment so I'm too busy to be doing much else. (Excuses!)

List

I'm coming to realise I've got quite a lot to do. Here's my online to-do list:

• Write several more songs
  
• Record songs (Jayne and Adam at Blue Eyed Sounds should be doing this with me - hooray!)
• Design artwork for CD cover and label
• Duplicate 50 CDs with printed label
• Print artwork on to gorgeous Arigato Paks (maybe do it myself at BIP)
  
• Design/produce and print CD inlay (I want it to be a nice product)
  
• Do a week of open mic nights
• Get some singing lessons from Annie
  
• Finish my songwriting class
• Album launch/Portland warm-up gig
  
• Buy plane ticket to Portland
• Find accommodation in Portland
• Find excursions around Oregon
• Find gigs to play in Portland
• Find people to come to gigs

I'm sure each one of these could be broken down further too but at least it's a start.