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)