How We Do Things
Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus.
It’s a formula that works and those very constraints can lead to creativity. But if we stay too comfortable, for too long, with the old formulas, we can suddenly find ourselves in a world that has moved on to something different.
Of course nothing wrong with sticking with what we know per se. But creative people, in a changing world, will always be more motivated to push the boundaries of how we do things.
Because that’s definitely…
More fun. More interesting.
And when the world is changing in bad ways, perhaps it is also…
More compassionate. More courageous.
Not just how we write a song. How we do anything.
Room Sized
When I talk about hosting Homesongs, people sometimes say that they would like to do it but they have not got a big enough living room.
That might be subtext for not really wanting to do it of course. Which is fine.
But does the size of your living room really matter?
From the point of view of the vast majority artists who want to play Homesong gigs, a small and attentive audience is definitely better than no audience at all. It’s also better than a larger audience who aren’t paying any attention.
Personally we are lucky now to have a fairly large room for hosting. It is ideal. But not so long ago we lived in a tiny terrace house with our 4 children at the time. And I know we could have squeezed 15 people in there with a few cushions on the floor - though we never did back then because the concept of home gigs wasn’t in my vocabulary at the time.
An audience of 15 is a gig.
You don’t need a Tardis to host a homesong. Just a home.
See My Baby Jive
I think I was on holiday at the time, walking through a fairground with my parents. That was when I remember hearing my very first pop song, at about the age of 7 or 8. It was See My Baby Jive by Wizard. Either that or Long Haired Lover From Liverpool by Jimmy Osmond. But I won’t inflict that one on you.
There was never any pop music in our house though, until I was allowed to watch TOTP’s at about the age of 13. But it is amazing how the music and events we experience when we are young seem to stay with us for life.
I’d like to think though that we can keep making memories with music through the whole of our lives. And I totally disagree with the idea that our creativity declines as we get older.
I think there are great tunes up for grabs in the stratosphere at any age . And lyrics that perhaps range a little wider and possess a bit more wisdom.
But I hope none of us ever lose that elation, or the sheer optimism we had, when we first saw our baby jive.
Oh my!
Learning To Walk
Once upon a time I learnt to walk.
It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Took many months of fallings and failings.
Every single one of the hundreds of muscles I was trying to use needed its own personal and extended training session. Repeated over and over. It seemed to take forever before I was standing on my own two feet and actually moving myself from one place to another.
I was only wee at the time though. You’d think that learning new things would get easier with age and experience, wouldn’t you?
But it turns out that the same rules still apply.
Hey Buddy!
At the restart of our live Homesong gigs we had two artists coming down and sharing the stage.
This happened mainly because I had a lot of people wanting to perform. But from the feedback of the performers themselves, and from my own impressions, I thought it worked really well. The finances earned by the artists, though shared, were still more than adequate; it was nice to have the variety from a listeners perspective; and there was an undoubted sense of togetherness.
Which makes me think that linking up might be a way forward. Certainly from a personal point of view I like the idea of sharing these gigs. The role of Singer/Songwriter can be a lonely one. And it might be easier to motivate ourselves to spread the word, and find new Homesong hosts, in twos and threes rather than on our lonesomes.
Anyway, I’m in the process of trying to repeat the experience here in Kintyre. Coming up at the beginning of November, Kevin Farrell and Gary Carey of H4Life are coming up for some gigs. Yeah!
But if you know of anyone who might wish to host such a thing where you are, then please get in touch. Personally I’m up for travelling to help find new home venues, and I’m sure that many others among the H4Life crowd would be too.
I suspect building a network of home gigs, especially in these beginning stages, is going to come down to the efforts of those of us who are performers. Either hosting them ourselves, finding people to host locally, or travelling to play at existing home venues and then encouraging them to become part of a wider network.
These things don’t happen when we work alone. But they can if we work together.
The Red Button Is Calling Me…
For a number of years I’ve had a lovely routine of recording my monthly releases every Thursday morning with a great sound engineer, arranger, and musician called Sam Hales. He uses a room in our house as a studio and teaching room, so we both get a win out of the situation. I’m writing this minutes before we meet up.
It helps to have the routine. It helps to have the deadline (release is always 4th of the month, hence the Fee Comes Fourth title I use). And it's a real blessing to be able to turn my songs into recordings on a regular basis, with someone who knows what they are doing.
Not everybody can be so lucky with all of this stuff (particularly with having a Sam!) but as songwriters, especially the amateurs among us, I think it’s important to have an outlet and a routine of some kind with our creations.
Anyway, got to head. The Red Button awaits, and who knows what will happen. That’s always exciting.
A88A
We call them guilty confessions.
Things that we like, but we’re not supposed to like them. Because? Well, they’re not cool or hip or boys don’t like that, girls don’t like that….I dunno. It’s never made sense to me.
You like what you like.
I liked Abba back in the day. They gave me some sweet melodies to cry to as I gazed upon my non-existent romantic life. Yeah, I know, but you can’t change the truth.
And I like the fact that they’ve written and recorded some new songs, just now. In fact I like the songs. Do I still cry when I hear them? Hell, yeah.
They won’t be playing a Homesong anytime soon, but here’s a link to some classic NEW Abba.
It’s my blog, and I don’t care.
Doing The Things We Love
Apple very kindly just told me that my screen time was up last week.
I don’t know what you find, but for me there is a definite correlation between that fact, and the old endorphin levels. My moods and outlook take a downturn when a computer screen dominates my hours. I’m pretty sure the science backs that up.
Things that have an opposite and upward effect for me: singing, playing geetar, walking, writing a song, preparing food, reading a book, watching the birds, playing games with the family.
It’s a simple lesson in life that so often goes unheeded:
Life is short. Spend more time doing the things you love.
Somewhere, Out There
Last weekend was a wonderful time of Homesongs and other musical adventures. It was lovely to meet Norman and Rosie and Tommy, whom I' had previously only “met” online through H4Life. And it was the connections with them and their music, and their connections with the people who came to listen, that made the whole experience such a joy.
Afterwards I got a very uplifting email from Norman. I quote it in part below. For me it expresses a reflection of the dilemma that many performing songwriters, myself included, experience. The question we ask:
Is there a relevant place for me and my music somewhere out there?
Norman sent me his email after I’d sent through money he was owed from the weekend:
”the money was never the point, it was the spirit of Homesong, which you brought to life for us all to see. I'm so grateful. To be honest, as I was telling Rosie and Tommy in Tarbert, I'd planned in my mind that next year with the new Heaven Sent album would probably be the end of me performing. I just didn't think I had it in me. This weekend has seen the performer step forward in a way I never expected to see, and actually connecting with people who'd never heard my stuff. And I think it brought out the best in Rosie and Tommy too - just the quality of attention that people brought and the lovely sense of community among the audience themselves.”
Norman has written further about the weekend in a great blog with pictures - Mulling Over Kintyre (groan!). And have a listen to the great songs on his website too. He’s my kind of songwriter.
100 Words
If you’re an artist who has played a Homesongs4Life online set or a live Homesong gig then, with your cooperation, I would like to put up your performer profile on the website. All I need is a maximum of 100 words, a decent photo, and a link to your music.
Artists who have an upcoming home gig will be moved to the top spot, as and when. For now I will put them up as you send them to me.
See roughly what it will look like here.
And below are my 100 words:
“Neither music, nor life, should be a lonely journey. And if it is, the journey can change”.
Hi, I’m David and I’ve been writing songs forever. Songs about life and death and everything in between. I record a new one every month, and send it out to anyone on my email list.
I’m also the founder of Homesong, and gigs in houses are my favourite way to perform and hear songs. Through my music I want to connect with people who believe that the world can become a kinder and more compassionate place for us all.
Sad Songs Say
“Sad songs say so much” according to the Rocket Man himself.
As a writer of some sad songs, and because sad songs generally come from a sad place, I find it is often therapeutic to write them.
But personal therapy isn’t good justification for putting a song “out there”.
Why inflict my misery on anybody else?
I think it works when a song says “You’re not alone. That thing you feel, or you’ve experienced. I’ve felt it too”. And of course, the music can sometimes express that better than the lyric even. But, as is true for every kind of song, too much information can drain all the life and sense of connection. Sparse metaphor will often do the job better than gory detail.
As a performer I’d much rather be putting a smile on folk’s faces.
But sometime we all need to let the sadness out.
Mr John does have a point.
Changes To HomeSongs4Life
So a decision has been made. After this month of September we are going to have a more strip backed HomeSongs4Life.
I’d initially planned to see the weekday sessions carry on to the end of the year, but at the moment it’s feeling a little bit like it has run it’s course in the present format.
This is partly due to a recent run of bad luck - fresh technical issues and unavoidable cancellations - but also because everybody, including myself, is rejoicing at being able to play live again, and wanting to spend more time to take and make those opportunities.
I don’t want the online thing to outstay it’s welcome, either with artists or with the potential audience. But neither do I see it as a dead duck. For instance the Facebook following continues to grow, although actual audience numbers for gigs has dropped off recently.
Anyway, for better or worse, in October we will begin having just the one online gig a week, every Wednesday, and adding a new and experimental session once a month where we bring a handful of artists together to sing a couple of songs and chat together.
The purpose of the online gigs was partly as a stop-gap for artists and original music lovers. But the main purpose has always been to promote the idea and reality of real live Homesong gigs.
That remains the goal, and I’m constantly trying to find the best way to make Homesong gigs happen. To make them a normal thing. So please watch this space and continue to support if you can.
I continue to believe whole-heartedly in the value of music in the community, and in encouraging us all to take a bit of responsibility to make that happen in a better way.
What, No Pics?!
We did have a Homesong here last Friday.
But you wouldn’t know it.
Nobody got there phone out to take a picture, as far as I’m aware. That wasn’t a request I made. It just didn’t happen. I had half-heartedly thought about doing some video, seeing as it was the first live Homesong in two years. But, it would have felt like an intrusion.
Sometimes it really is just about being there in the moment.
Sometimes it’s nice to allow our little grey cells to make the memories.
What’s The Next Song?
I’ve got a friend who wants to build a wee house for himself and his young family. He’s not got much money, but he’s got the shell of an old cottage, and he’s got the will to make it happen.
But despite a lot of work and effort, that project has hardly got off the ground yet. Everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong.
He’s a very sanguine fella though, and deals with setbacks simply by moving on to the next possibility. Such a great attitude. And although much younger than myself there are times when I simply need to follow his lead:
When things go wrong, write the next song.
Ploughing For Joy
When the Joy feels a long way off, I tend to think it might be time to
Slow down, or
Stop, or
Change direction, or
Have a sleep, or
Write a song.
Life is too short to just plough on regardless.
Even though ploughing on for a while is sometimes necessary.
The Morning After
So how was it for us ?
It was wonderful thank you.
But we were there, and you, I’m very sorry to say, can never really know.
Neither words, nor video, would do it justice. You did actually have to BE THERE.
And, you know, I do believe it’s those live, unrepeatable, moments that make life special.
Excited
I ‘m excited to be having live music back in our living room tonight. With the windows open.
-I’m excited because I always enjoy it once I know I’ve got an audience for the musicians to play too.
-I’m excited because I’m going to be meeting two fellow singer-songwriters who I’ve got to know in that strange internetery way without actually meeting them in the flesh.
-I’m excited because they’re excited.
-I’m excited because the audience are going to hear songs that in the main they’ve never heard before, and it will have it’s own magical moments as every homesong gig before has.
-And I’m excited because music will be bringing people together in our community. In a home. And that always helps to break down barriers, create new relationships, and build connections of trust and friendship.
We need this more than ever in our increasingly volatile world.
Where ever we live.