Some lyrics from a new song

middle 8

The birds of light tonight that are dancing on the clouds
that revolve around our house
with a rainbow smiling down.

The birds of light that say I still love you dear
Let us know that you are near
But we wish you were still here.

Credit where credit is due

A couple of years ago when I was writing Post Life (Good Things?) I went to visit my wee granny in an old peoples home, where she had been living for quite some time. Typically, I was stuck with lyrics for a couple of verses.

My granny had been suffering with altzeimers (or a form thereof) disease for quite sometime and her memory had been getting progressively worse. She had become basically incoherent to the point where she couldn't finish a sentence.

During this visit she had attempted several sentences to varying degrees of success. So the last thing we were expecting to emerge from her frail chops was the most profound statement we had ever heard. I had the line

'How can you say goodbye to me if we've never even met'

I should point out the writing of this song was not at the forefront of my mind during said visit.

What did she say, you ask?

She said 'I know..' then there was a pause, at which point we had come to expect that rest of the sentence would drift into the ether. The pause lasted about 5 seconds. Just when we were about to accept that there was nothing else on its way she proclaimed '...the colour of my own regret'.

To this day I don't know if she knew what that meant but for a moment we were all stunned by the magnificence of the statement. I knew almost instantly that I was going to use it, and where. So credit where credit is due this was your line granny.
Lets all just take a second to think about what colour our own regrets are....(mine are green).



R.I.P Granny Panny 1920-2009

Anyone Else? Again or?

OK so that didn't work, stupid MySpace video upload was acting like knob (actually it was probably me not reading the instructions properly), don't fret you should be able to watch it here on the brand new hastily organised Radiola YouTube site....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWy11XxoD6g


There should be a permanent link to the site over there >>>

Here is a wee picture of another song being played on the piano to get your multimedia juices flowing...


If you are enjoying this Blog and the music then you could opt to send an email to radiola.band.music@gmail.com, you may also wish to include the email address of like-minded colleagues and we can develop some kind of mailing list. Or if you are into the whole social networking thing (I can't really get into it) you could spread the music on Facebook or Twitter or sumink.

Cheers
OUT!

Anyone Else?

It is probably about time I just played a song live and direct.

It was really a straight head to head between 2 songs, one called 'What I'm trying to say!' and 'Anyone Else'. You can, hopefully, watch it here...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=59638702

I chose 'Anyone Else' for several reasons.

(1) I enjoy playing it, especially the big harmonica instrumental bit.
(2) I have a few ideas of how to turn it into a full song and it will be very different from the video version on MySpace when it is finished.
(3) I have a concept whereby I plan to build this song from the ground up and post each stage on the site for you to hear it going together.
(4) I think you will like the song.

Here are some notes about the video:-

This was the first time Radiola have ever been recorded on film and I wanted this to be what you see, one continous first take, chins and all. I was drinking some vino and waiting for Neil Young to come on Glastonbury and suddenly had the notion to bust it out live for you future delight.
I appologise for the hideous double chin, it exists for three reasons (1) it have an odd shaped face designed to maximise chin-age (2) it was filmed from a low perspective a technique which worked to great effect in Citizen Kane, but unfortunately not quite so successfully in this video (3) I have my head bend forward, primed to explode shards of blues from the moothy at any moment, not a flattering angle.

The straw hat is for aesthetic purposes but I have taken to wearing one quite regularly and enjoy it so looking like a tit didn't come into the equation.

Here are some notes about how it will sound as a full song so you can imagine it with your brainboxes:-

The intro will be awash with echo-ish feedback and organ based dissonance out of which the acoustic guitar may or may not appear.

Over the line 'fanfare plays distorted drunken drones' in the second verse a fanfare will play distorted drunken drones. Which will signify the start of brass in the song which will continue til the end.

When the instrumental bit starts the bass and brass will follow the harmonica going dah-dum! dah-dum! dum dum dah dim-dim. I propose the harmonica part but played in a shredded electric guitar solo.

Enjoy! Feedback welcome!

Arguably too deep?

I promised a blog entry with some background on the previous song posted on MySpace, Post Life (Good Things).

I am not sure how much to write about the meaning of the songs. I always like it when bands or artists reveal some of the meaning of a song but I also like trying to interpret a meaning for myself. A song really doesn't mean anything until it is listened to and the this interaction between the listener, with their mood/ emotions/personal taste/interpretation etc with the song itself give the song a context and could potentially make it something that I could never imagine when I am writing and recording it.

Given the nature of all that new shit I have decided not to give too much away on this particular one, that's not to say I won't change my mind or provide a line by line description on other songs. I will tell you now boy-ohs that this is not a cop-out we are talking about some seriously deep shit, arguably too deep.
I will, however, provide you with the lyrics for you to interpret it whichever way you see fit.

Verse 1
Turn the camera on yourself when there's too much love to bear,
Dig a hole by the family tree and bury some over there.

Stumble down the garden path just a placid bag of bones,
In the ponds reflection, you're on your own.

Chorus
You believe in love
You believe good things can happen
You believe in truth
Do they believe in you?

Verse 2
How can you say goodbye to me if we've never even met,
After all that's past and passed you know the colour of your own regret.

How can you walk 500 miles if you're lying on your back,
With eyes like a thousand razor blades but no will left to attack.

Chorus

Middle eight
And then it starts to end up with the walls closing in
And then it starts to end until the walls are closing in, are the walls closing in on you?

Verse 3
Can't stay still for very long again its flight or fight,
The days they last forever and precede endless nights.

Its winter now in this old town so you pitch your discontent
To crawl inside and hibernate and think what summer meant

Chorus
End.

Post Life (Good Things?)

Hello, Long time no see!

After a day chipping away at 'Post Life (Good Things?)' I have finally knocked it into a presentable state. I will post soon with a bit of background to the song but this time I thought it better that you hear it first.

I hope you get a chance to listen to the song and that you enjoy it if you do.

Again, you comments/appraisals will be gratefully received.

OUT!

Be careful what you ask for

A wise man once said 'be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it'. I asked for feedback/comments and I got 'em.

I am only joking of course, I am very grateful to anyone who took the time to listen and even more so to those who processed what they heard and formulated opinions, digested them into a comment and conveyed that in my direction.

I got 2 things from this process

(1) That I don't take comment well, I assume that it is negative feedback (even if it is proactive). I must kinda invite people to comment in a bid to get people to tell me how great I am. I have a narcasistic streak that I don't think will ever go away. But I do listen to whats been said and still would like to encourage comments that could potentially hurt my precious feelings.

(2) The second is more specific to the songs. It was queried more than once {why I didn't/if I had considered} singing in my own accent (Which is Glasgow, Scotland accent if you don't already know).

Well I think I was only semi-aware of singing in any accent, though on reflection I do sing, pretty much, with a sortof American Twang. I don't think this was ever a conscious decision that I made but it has happened. This has had quite a profound effect on me, because I would like to be true to my roots especially given the nature of my songs and my pride in where I am from.

Since the comments arrived, I have been trying to sing in my accent like Glasvegas have had recent success doing. I tell you what it is not natural for me to do this, it feels forced and my singing Scottish accent is different to my talking Scottish accent. I end up talking songs instead of singing them.
As you probably have guessed by using your earholes I am not a natural singer and it turns out that I have been singing all songs in this American voice, well forever. So this is now my actual singing voice.

What I have decided to do is think about how I sound and try to erradicate some of the more riculous Americanisms from the delivery and see how that goes for a while, but I don't want to end up with that generic Scottish accent that exists in modern rock bands (no I won't name names). Hopefully though it doesn't actually matter either way and the songs with pass or fail on their merits as they come from the right place regardless of the voice that delivers them.
OUT!
MMP

Sweet Beauty Mix 1 Arrives

Well folks its finally here.
After a day of singing, adding and fair amount of tweaking Sweet Beauty has finally arrived in musical format.

There are still problems for example the bass is a little bit fucked up at one point, the vocals don't meld as much as I would like etc but eventually you need to commit yourself.
You can only talk about something so much before that thing has to speak for itself.

Check it out here ...www.myspace.com/radiolabandmusic

This will be the location for all the music for the next wee while.

I would appreciate your comments.

Happy Listening!
MMP

For Longer than a day should last...again

Been a while, eh?
When you are trying to create a song, or anything for that matter, it can be counterproductive to impose rules on the thing. That being said while writing 'For Longer Than a Day Should Last...' I found some rules have been imposing themselves on the lyrics.

So if you remember I was working with an autumnal theme based on the sound of the piano chords and this led to some seasonal words and ideas. Well the first verse had a rhyme at the start and the end of each couplet, which I really liked.

'Last autumn standing right in front of you, cried
I caught 'em trying to wash off a disguise'


So in writing the next verse, with some older ideas, I tried to impose these rhyming rules. Surprisingly, I managed to use old ideas and, organically, fuse these together with both the theme and the rules. Very proud, I was.

So one more verse to go with two verses in the bag and suddenly the rules became a hinderance and became more important than anything else, I didn't want to ruin the song by not using them but by trying to stick to them I was destroying any creative instincts I had (which have been few and far between, see last post). I was in a pickle.

So about 20 mins ago I was lying on the couch with the sun beating in the window and gust blowing through the room in that half sleeping, almost meditative state, thinking, but not consciously, and words started flowing about.
I think I have it or am very close at least. So here they are fresh from my brainbox to you before I sing them or write them down.

'Come out in a cold television sweat
a mountain of thing that haven't happened yet
Tower over us casting a vast shadow of sin
Flowers blow their dust making this a race we can't win

And you know that its moving too fast
For longer than a day should last'
(Note:I already had that last bit)

Inspiration out-age

There could be several potential reasons why I have not wanted to write or record music over the last few weeks.

(1) I have been really busy at work.
(2) I had a reasonably bad cold and it sapped my enthusiasm.
(3) I have been leading a more active social life (not crazy, out drinking stuff just more actual things which require prior notice of attendance).
(4) I simply can't be bothered and am more likely to do the dishes, or anything for that matter, than enter the spare room with the purpose of making music cos it is quite a tricky little business and after 3 months I still have no songs finished.
(5) After such an intense period of thinking/worrying about almost nothing else other than whether I can actually sing or if the songs are actually any good or how I am going to write that verse that has been evading me or countless other tiny details that may or may not be important in the overall scheme of things my mind needs a break, so is taking one.

You know what? its probably a bit of all those things but the fact remains the inclination to work on the project has left me of late and I swore I would not try and force it. I assume it will come back as it has been lingering (for better and worse) in my psyche for years.

I am listening to Astral Weeks by Van Morrison, just now (its fuckin' good)and was thinking about a month ago I would've gotten all inspired and wanted to get plugged straight in but now I can only think, 'fuck, I couldn't do that ah well I am away to watch telly'.

So if you want me that's where I'll be.
'Til then.

Substandard Soup

So I have been messing around, familarising myself with the song 'still country', you know the one I found in an old box of crap.

It was obviously quite quickly that it had a striking similarity to a song by Neil Young, I won't tell you which one but mention it is buried on one of his best but probably least popular albums of the seventies.

This was interesting to me (and maybe to you keeping reading to find out) for a few reasons. My first reaction was 'oh shit' I can't continue with this. It was and is my general policy to not finish songs which bear such a striking resemblance to one particular song but this one was completed (unusual in itself). There was probably a period around about when this was written that I was so into Neil Young that everything sounded a bit like him so the problem was more that it was SO similar.

On the actual scrawled page I found in the box with lyrics and chords and musical ideas there was a wee note next to the chorus that just said 'its different from here' this ties in with where it changes to sound different from the Neil song. This is also where the lyrics take a more direct slant towards the meaning of the song. At this point the lyrics are:-

Shouldn't make a difference to me, today we're Still Country

So I think I knew what I was doing. If you are writing a song about trying to ignore that fact that loads of folks have achieved magnificent levels of songsmithery and the load that puts on you when you are attempting to do your own personal work. What better way to do it than to, all but, steal from the source and then add your own bit, no?

After my own bit there is a small instrumental section (which requires a harmonica in G about the only key I don't own) which is also reminiscent of another of my favourite artists, Lambchop. Its not as blatant as the previous nick but I am drawn to trying to make it sound more like the song in question, an urge I must quell. There is some logic in that part sounding similar, they are an artist who make music that owes a debt to the past yet sounds wholly original, so an example of a strategy the same as mine, succeeding. Hopefully, this was my train of thought back when my younger self wrote it but I probably just thieved from my heroes and fused some of there finest moments together into a substandard soup.

POSTSCRIPT: There are many songs that sound like other songs, hundreds and thousands actually.

Neil Young himself actually does it on Borrowed Tune (from Tonights the night - check it out if you haven't already) to the melody of Lady Jane he sings

I'm singing this borrowed tune, I took from the rolling stones
Alone in this empty room, too wasted to write my own

Another pertinent example was on Lucinda Williams most recent album, where she uses the melody from a Neil Young song, Cortez the Killer, blatantly and throughout.
So in short, not only is fine to do this its mandatory if it can be justified which I what I just done, so there!

Flat as a witch's tit

A large portion of the early part of Saturday was spend trying to recreate the therminish sound on PL using a blend of atonal whistling, deep humming and lala-ing. I think I have succeeded in making that part close to what I was after.

So on to the easy bit, singing, been rattling that shit out at high volume for years to the delight of my family and neighbours and passersby.
Lyrics writen down in a legible manner - check, microphone working - check, enthusiasm - check. Will we do one song no, fuck it, lets do both such is the power and prowess of my larynx....

Well it turns out that my, perceived, natural, emotive singing voice which I have been cultivating over the last few years is a flat as a witches' tit. I have developed quite a natural husky element, of which I am (was) very proud - those bits sound just fine it is the other bits that are like lemonade leftover from Christmas.

This all proved very disappointing at the weekend when I spent several hours trying to sing the lyrics to the two main songs I have been working on PL(GT?) and SB.

Lets not get too downhearted about it, lets just take out the rubbish, have a break and get back to it. Its not as if you are going to bump into an ageing female neighbour who is (unprovoked) going to take it upon herself to tell you that she and a friend were discussing the awful noise echoing through the building over a sherry and lay the blame for this cacophonic atrocity firmly at your door just when you are beginning to doubt the validity of the whole album project, that would never happen, would it.

It seems that I need to take a break from these 2 songs as they starting to erode my enthusiasm, its not that I am not happy with them, it is that I am but they are becoming something different in the way I am thinking about them. So best that I try some other songs for a bit and hit these 2 in about a month or so when I can give them some fresh lugs.

As a footnote, when clearing out a box of junk and paper - I found some scraps of paper with a lovely wee song written years ago (more than 5 maybe closer to 8 years it wasn't dated) called 'Still Country' which is about trying to ignore how good Neil Young and folk like that (Ok ,I know there is nobody like Neil Young but you understand, like from a beautiful bygone era) from the sixties/seventies and just do what you want to do. I felt there was some serendipity in this discovery so decided to give it a try next, I may even try to get some friends in and try a rehearsal/live take type scenario cos thats the type of treatment it deserves..
Get Some!

Drumslog Til we're there

I got my first outsider help at the weekend. A buddy who is a competent ivory tickler popped round to put down the 'central movement' of the third song being recorded, namely For longer than a day should last.... (the song I am in the process writing and writing about) He duly accepted my instructions on what was to be achieved and pressed on with the part, he even recorded an optional coda by taking a little melodic walk on the chords in half-time.

However, none of this is why I am posting, the remarkable moment occurred after he listened to Sweet Beauty - as it currently sounded. His appraisal included a throwaway remark about the drums being a bit 'Northside'.

This led to a rethink of what I was doing drum-wise, he was right I had let a drumloop dictate the sound of the whole song. It was supposed to sound kinda dirty, not sexual like Marvin Gaye, more like Nirvana but served as a summer pudding. The path that the song was travelling down was making it sound more like a 70's rock radio affair than I had ever planned. This was evident when the grindy bass sound I had selected ages ago no longer fit [Note: I had spent a week after the bassline debacle previously described working out a decent bass guitar part and learning to play it] and was unconsciencously being replaced with a soft Andrexish ditty. 'Whew! a timely rescue' I hear you say and you would be correct cos this little comment led me to rip the drums out and start from close to scratch, completely change the lead guitar and allowed me to get back to the pudding I wanted.

During the next week(by Mojave the weeks are passing quickly, my 'song a month' strategem is crumbling like a ginger biscuit from the farmers market) I dabbled in drumage most nights for about 20 mins to 1 hour and by about wednesday I was happy with all parts except the chorus.

So I sent an email to a drummer friend of mine asking for some assistance, which I still awaiting a response (give the guy a break, he travels around, he may not even had access to a computer). I worked out the final touches to the bass and laid it down all nice and dirty like.
So it was on to the retake of the vocals but thats a another blog for A.N.Other (what does that mean? almost everyone says it, is it supposed to be a persons name?) time...

Stay Frosty!

Sweet Bassy

Got a second hand bass guitar yesterday. Worked out a nifty bassline over the course of the last two days amped up over the computer playback.
Tried to record it and now I am in a rage for 2 reasons:-
(1) As soon as I press record I start to play like I have hooves.
(2) When I finally hit a decent take I listened back only to realise my 'nifty' fucking bass line is actually a bit shit.
Need to work on this during the week, me thinks.
OUT!

Autumn a new song

I spent many hours trying to write songs where every line had a specific meaning based somewhere in reality, thinking that truly great songs (which I think you must aspire to write) were all written like that. Very recently I realised how limiting this was in creating something.

I started to just let ideas flow and put them together and let the meaning sort of find itself, if you know what I mean.

For example, I have been writing a new song as the backdrop to the recording stuff, on which this blog was originally based. The song is called 'For longer than a day should last...' this title has been sitting written in my wee song notebook for years and leafing through the pages I noticed that I had tried, unsuccessfully, several times to write it into a song. Reading the line now I don't know exactly what it means, literally, but it conjures a sorta melancholy emotion that I like.

So I got a second hand piano for my birthday a few months ago, and as mentioned previously can barely play it. However, within a couple of weeks of getting it, with my very limited ability, I started to write a song on it. It was quite a simple chord based thing, which I started to hum a melody over the top of thinking about 'autumn' and all that word/time of year/emotion entails. Every so often I threw the word autumn in to keep it going (It is worth noting that the piano was temporarily situated at a window in the living room and the time of year was autumn).

I hadn't written a new song for several years so I wasn't really expecting much to come of this thing. I decided to write 'the autumnal piano thing' on a page of the wee song notebook, it just so happened this random page had a line/verse/quasi-poem (I hate it when people use quasi- in front of words, or pseudo- for that matter but I always have this urge to use it. In fact part of my policy when writing this blog was not to back edit any of it, leave in mistakes etc. Well I broke my own rules on this one, I first tried quasi, then pseudo, then leaving out the poem part altogether, but the urge was too strong and there it is, you can see it there next to the smashed rules, bah)scrawled on it already (running out of space in the wee song notebook) which was about leaves and cars and all the stuff I could see out that window.

Good things?

So we have started recording the second song 'Post LIfe (Good Things?)' it was untitled when I started recording it and is now titled, good eh? It was also unfinished, which may be a running theme of all the songs I attempt to record, sitting here right now I can't think of one that is in the bag, compositional-ly speaking.

I should also note, at this stage, for those of you who have been avidly following the progress of Sweet Beauty, that I laid down the guitar on and was scuppered only when I found out my bass guitar was completely knackered and needed an overhaul to the point where it would cost almost the same (or more still not got the quote in) to buy a new one of similar standard. It sounds ok vocals need work, like completely re-done or ideally sung by a competent singer.

Recording is going pretty well on this one except that my idea to sonically simulate an anxiety attack several time during the song has not worked quite like I had hoped it would. Well it certainly does sound out of place (like it was meant to) but instead of being unsettling and stirring it must come across as funny cos the few people who have heard it have laughed. So I am back to the drawing board on that bit I have a couple of ideas to make it slightly more musical and I will let you know how they go. The intro melody is played on the midi because I can't lay my hands on a pedal steel guitar or a theramin easily. I am beginning to realize what a producer does.

It shouldn't be too long now before I can post a song for public consumption.

OUT!

Inner Voices?

Singing your own songs is hard, I find. For a kick off you have no point to aim for, no note to commit yourself to or drop away from.
This proved even more difficult when singing in a silent room, on my own. Not normally bothered by this type of thing, I found myself feeling quite self conscious when attempting to belt it out.

I started by sitting down with the mic in a stand which failed, badly. I assessed the reason for the failure was because I wasn't trying hard enough, too lax. So I stood up, mic still in stand and went for it again. Better, yes, good, no. Standing up, Mic in hand, very slight gyration of the hips? YESSSS!!! So after a few takes decided that was enough for one day.

Postscript: Listened with fresh ears a few days later and it turns out that one was pish too.

Hey, Ho! Lets Go!

I am a good chunk through recording the first song 'Sweet Beauty'. Having selected a suitable drumbeat, I looked at the words and music, everything was completed except a sort-of middle-8ish bit against which all that was noted was the word 'late' and 'George Harrisony bit'. I think whenever I played the song previously I just fudged that bit 'til enough time passed to get back on to the verse. So I looked through my complex filing system of song notes (post-its stuck to books, books, work diary pages, A4 sheets etc) which have been jammed into boxes, laid in piles and stuck on shelves. Stored in various locations I eventually found out what these cryptic clues meant (I think) and set about writing down a definitive version.

You see my problem is that I rarely finish songs I get them up to a point where they are finish-able and my brain ticks it off. I think I am more into the creation of the songs rather than playing the finished article or maybe its some deep rooted psychological issue I have thats obvious to other people, who knows?

Anyway, recording a song its pretty tricky stuff - I started with a nice simple acoustic guitar track. This went pretty well a couple of mistakes but it was in time and meant I could really get cracking.

I mentioned my piano skills were lacking so I fannied about for ages with this cos I only had one firm idea for the piano line which was for the bridge. I wanted to check out the possibilities for some keyboards so I kinda layered on bass bits, high bits and some minor league tickling. The outcome was 4 piano tracks which any semi-competent piano player could easily achieve drunk with one hand, but it was done and I was happy cos I could listen back to a rhythmic thing.

Next post Singing (oof!) Lead Guitar (ouch!) and Bass....tbc.

Starting with Sweet Beauty

So here we go.
I have started to record the first of, hopefully, many songs. The main hurdle for me is that I am doing it myself so I need to learn how to play all the instruments and how to make decent drums on the computer etc.

The first song I decided to record is called Sweet Beauty. It is one of my more conventional rock numbers and I don't think its one of my best overall.

I thought that this would be a good starting place for 3 main reasons
(1) I have a strange affection for it, particularly the lyrics.
(2) I had the most fully formed idea of how it would sound and importantly how I could achieve it.
(3) It required the least piano, which I can barely play yet.

This song was mostly written about 5 years ago and in quite interesting circumstances, and it sort of marked the beginning of me making a conscious effort to write songs from a very personal perspective.
Sweet Beauty in particular has resonance for this reason, it remains, probably, my most personal work to date.

What is interesting about the lyrics is that they were written half before and half after a major 'incident' in my life. It was an incident that I had no idea was going to happen and probably changed my perspective forever and what is amazing about this song is that the lyrics written before the incident made more sense after the incident.

I had the lyrics fully written for ages looking for music and melody, so as a starting point I decided to bastardise the chords from a song I had written years before about getting hammered and having a good time when I was in a band. I liked the poetry of taking something that meant a lot when I was younger and marrying it to my newfound sensibilities.

Right thats the introduction, if you are still reading well done if you are not, get it right up ye!

The next post will be about have my first few recording 'sessions' went down.

OUT!
MMP

Starting off

This blog is my attempt to document trying to make an album of my own songs.

I have finally gathered the skills (debatable), songs (mostly written) and the equipment to do it, so now I have no excuse. I aim to put music where my mouth is see how it sounds outside my head and my house which are the only places these songs exist, to turn what could easily be described as nothing in a something.

I spent a long time telling people (and myself) that I only write songs for me as somesort of therapy, and to an extent this is true, but I read a quote which resonated, along the lines of '...if you can create somekind of art and don't then you are an arsehole' well I may be an arsehole but I don't want to be one for this reason.

I always wondered why people write blogs which it unlikely that anyone would be interested in reading. I think the reason I have decided to do it is to create the potential for people, other than me, to care if I actually make this music.

So, periodically I plan to post my progress,thoughts, maybe some pictures and if the technology permits, possibly the finished songs. I hope if you do read this it won't be that much of a waste of time and feel free to let me know hings/stuff if you so desire.

OUT!
MMP