…is going to be a day late, but stay tuned!

Comments (0) Mar 31 2008

With five hours of amazing karaoke behind me, I don’t have much of a voice left, but I do have a hilarious seed for next week’s song, which will be a duet.

For this week, which unfortunately hasn’t left me any time to write or record due to other commitments, I’d like to present a little jazz! I love jazz – although I don’t write as much of it as I’d like to, I find the experience to be quite different from writing in other genres. Bad News (not literally) came to me one night when I was too close to sleep to grab a paper and pencil, and I think I prayed to the music gods that I’d remember it and then tried to memorize it in my sleep. I would have felt horrible to lose it, so I’m glad that it stuck around in there.

Demo-wise, it’s the bare bones, as it was both written and recorded toward the end of February. I think it has great potential though, and one I’m thinking of submitting as an entry for the FAWM compilation album. I’m envisioning more jazzy complex chords as well as more instruments. It remains one my favourites of February, I hope you like it!

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Bad News

I see you in your corner pulling shadows ‘cross your face,
perusing every bit of skirt that walks across the place,
your Little finger stirring ‘round your half filled glass of wine,
and your knowing smirk is screaming out “you’d better wait in line”

Now another girl like me might find potential in your smile,
and convince herself that someday you’ll be walking down the aisle
When you’ve played the game as long as I
you’d better read the clues
Hey, Mister, you’re bad news!

Now another girl like me might find excitement in your kiss,
but from my vantage point I’d rather give those lips a miss,
‘cuz I know which lips are poison,
and I’ve already paid my dues,
Hey, Mister, you’re bad news!

If leers had fingers you’d be
sliding the straps of my little red dress down my shoulders
You can say your lines and play it real cool
But nothing that you do or say will make me play your fool

I don’t want your drink
I won’t have this dance
You’re not even worth a second glance
Hey, Mister, you’re bad news

Comments (5) Mar 24 2008

The lyrics and about half the melody of this one were written on the evening of February 29 in the space of about 45 minutes, as I frantically fought to get to the magic 14 in February. Because of the time constraints, I was freer than usual with the lyrics, so I was really surprised that it needed very little tweaking when I came back to it this weekend. Maybe because I had a break from it, writing the rest of it was really easy, it pretty much told me where it wanted to go and I just followed. In a strange twist, building the harmony was the hardest aspect of writing it.

Catch and Release is the last song I wrote for February Album Writing Month, and I meant it as a FAWM tribute, echoing the sentiment that I felt throughout the process. I’m already envisioning recording it on a grand piano with a decent flute player. Enjoy!

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Catch and Release

Come as you are

Bring what you will
Say what you need to say

Sharpen your pencils
Tune your guitar

Say what you need to say


Take a breath and fill your circles
Cut the strings and send them to the sky
When gravity carries their weight back down

Hands will reach up and help them fly

Whether they’re clear bubbles
or heavy dark balloons

They will never touch the ground 


Some may burn,

Some laugh themselves free

Say what you need to say

You are a wave

Of our musical sea

Say what you need to say

Take a breath and fill your circles
Cut the strings and send them to the sky
When gravity carries their weight back down

Hands will reach up help them fly

Whether they’re clear bubbles
or heavy dark balloons

They will never touch the ground

Take a breath and fill your circles
Cut the strings and send them to the sky
When gravity carries their weight back down

Hands will reach up help them fly

Whether they’re clear bubbles
or heavy dark balloons

They will never touch the ground

Comments (3) Mar 16 2008

Welcome to the strangest song I’ve ever written! The idea behind this one was to only use the words made during one game of scrabble. This game, right here:

Little did I know that it was going to result in the most convoluted board ever, with the weirdest words. While I was trying to fix words (wishing for an L to change “Anima” into “Animal”), my friend Greg was busy laying down words like “Zinky” (an adjective of zinc) and “Lase” (the verb form of Laser). I swear he did it on purpose!

In the end, I’m actually glad I didn’t get the L, because Anima was the basis for this concoction. It means the female part of the male. So what I’m trying to do is to show both the male (battle) and the female (nurturing), and then sort of combine the dual/duel into seeking “Qi” or lifeforce (pronounced “Chi”). Of course, it makes entirely no sense, and there had to be a lot of chanting to get rid of the non-word-words. I also took the liberty of using homonyms (hi-high) and words that sort of sounded like other words (fa is used as far for example). And for some reason I really like random battle sequences in the middle of songs.

Pretty much all of the harmonies and melodies were improvised on the spot, and some of the lyric groupings were too. Some of the lines sound distorted because Garageband was being really stupid with tempo changes, but I think that just adds to the weirdness. Definitely a challenge, and one I’d love to do again with a different board! With thanks to Greg Dillane for the scrabble game!

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Anima

ZA RE SO LA DOT HAO ABA!
ZA RE YO ER LO REM ET GOS ZA!

Anima
Crave ripe neon dew

Anima
Naw epic zinky jute

Cry Om! Cry Om!
Crave Qi!
Cry Om! Cry Om!
Crave Qi!

[Hit Lo! Hit Lo!
Hit Hi!
Lase Lase Lase!
Inn Bin!
Ex Ex Ex! Ex it! Ex it!]

Anima
Epic dual, epic dual

Anima
Epic fame, epic fame

Tell Quite, Cry Lot
So, Hug
Un-hit, un-cry
Good Hug

Anima
Birdies dared, birdies net

Anima
Visit runt, bow in awe

Cry Om!
Cry Om!
Crave Qi!

ZA RE SO LA DOT HAO ABA! (Arise, go fa)
ZA RE YO ER LO REM ET GOS ZA! (Arise, go fa)

Comments (6) Mar 09 2008

March feels so good! For those who are wondering, I actually did manage to write 14 songs during the month of February, becoming one of 280 winners of February Album Writing Month! After managing just six last year, this is a huge accomplishment. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me and gave me random input and inspiration over the month!

I’m really excited at where things go from here, and there are some great collaborations on the horizon. First up though is finishing some of the demos I didn’t have time to do during FAWM, after a bit of a break of course.

Song #9 is called Earth Eyes, it was the fifth song I wrote last month. It’s based on a Native American proverb (the first two lines of the chorus) that I heard several years ago and that stuck with me. Writing and recording this one happened very quickly because I was feeling a bit of a time crunch by that point, having posted just 4 songs.

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Earth Eyes

If I had magic scissors
I tell you what I’d do
I’d climb up the tallest ladder

And cut a sliver of sky for you

If I had a magic jar
I tell you what I’d do
I’d hike up the highest peak
And capture some air you

We don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors
We borrow it from our children
And I want you to play outside

If I had a bit of land
I tell you what I’d do
I’d feed a baby panda bear
And keep him well for you

We don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors
We borrow it from our children
And I want you to see through different eyes

If I had a secret place
I tell you what I’d do
I’d take a seed from an apple tree
And store it safe for you

We don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors
We borrow it from our children
And I want you to love the trees

Comments (8) Mar 03 2008