HPFTW

HARRY POTTER!
HARRY POTTER!
HARRY POTTER!
HARRY POTTER!
HARRY POTTER!


HARRY POTTER!!


I'm so inspired right now! I need to be singing! <3

Seriously?

An example of a time I wanted to be taken seriously

I am quite confident that I don't take myself too seriously. As I go about my life I literally police myself about it. Recently though, I've worried that I try too hard not to take myself seriously. Perhaps I should start, because if I don't, who will. It's possibly a symptom of what we in Ireland consider a very Irish mentality. We don't like to make it seem like we're anything out of the ordinary. We would like to make it seem that what we do or what we have achieved is just a trifle, that it was nothing. And if anyone acts like they worked hard for what they have, we consider them to be snobs and tend to be suspicious of them.

"Ireland is a nation of begrudgers," is a phrase that is tossed around quite freely here. And it's true. And I often worry that if I were to just explode my sense of containment, to say the really arty, stupid things that come into my head, people would think that I'm assuming another personality and doing it for attention. The reason I've been thinking about it more recently is because I want to be an artist. There is, obviously, a type of artist that is very coy and cunning about everything that they say. I would at least enjoy a period of unpoliced freedom to say and create whatever I like.

I'm always drawn to song-writers who don't follow the rules. Marina and the Diamonds, Regina Spektor, Elbow, Florence and the Machine, Lily Allen. In art class at school, I used to detest when I was making something I was excited about and my teacher would tell me how to fix it and what I shouldn't do. It's that age-old argument of "What is art?" At that point I just wanted the freedom to explore my abilities and what worked and what didn't.

That's what I want now. I'm writing all these slightly absurd lyrics. (One song is actually inspired by the Absurdest play "The Sandbox" by Albee.) And songs about the change that has happened, the way I understand my brain, the people I know and how I feel about what's occurring (<---pop reference!) Even though the speed at which I'm turning out complete songs isn't what I'd hoped, I'm still getting into the lyrics which I always found the hardest part.

In the end, if I start Tweeting or blogging completely teenage things and just seeming a bit pretentious, please don't hate me. I probably won't even get past my self-preservation reflex anyway, but I thought I'd just jot it down... in case.

Not a Slacker!

(At the risk of sounding American:) I HAVE TOTALLY NOT BEEN SLACKING OFF!

I've written a LOT of sets of lyrics and thought an awful lot about things. Tomorrow I'll be back in the music room and it will be fabulous.

It's interesting, this project. It's particularly interesting that ALL my lyrics are about the time in life when you are young and expected to understand what the heck is going on and who you are and what you want to spend the rest of your life doing. That time that I hope I'm coming out the other side of. So, I'm going to write some music for those songs and choose something else to write a song about. Last night I forced myself to write about something else. And I was quite happy with the result. But let's see how it is with music. :)

When I'm out and about, of even doing something as mundane as peeling carrots, I seem to have these great sparks of inspiration for songs. But I forget them almost as soon as I'm finished what I'm doing. Ah, so fickle is the nature of creativity.

OKAY SO BACK TOMORROW AND WITH LOTS TO SHOW ;)

Bumpy Road

I am extremely unwell. All my energy today went into doing work-work. (As opposed to work.) At the moment I am going to concentrate on battling this chest, throat and sinus infection. But hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to write again. Listening to myself rasping on the last two recordings is driving me around the twist!


Naturally I'm really inspired at this time of not being able to write. ;)

I am enjoying this spoon's face.

<3

Song numero 2

Well. Body has decided that now is the best time to have a chest/sinus/throat infection. So in case you were wondering why Song Numero 1 was so breathy, this is probably the reason. I mean, I can't be 100% sure, but the evidence is certainly pointing that way.

Today and yesterday I learned a few things:

1: If I want to be a musician, I will have to live...
     a) Not under a flight path
     b) Not next to neighbours with a strange LOVE of construction

2: Don't leave the condenser mic on top of the piano because it WILL fall down and give me a heart attack.

3: I'm going to have to work harder at writing non minor melodies. I just don't know how to do this. Maybe I should collaborate with someone happy.


So I didn't write anything yesterday because I was in bed except for when I had to teach. I've nearly finished the entire series Gavin and Stacey. It's amazing. I love it. This means I'm one song behind. When I feel better I'm going to have to catch up.


Okay, so here's today's offering. Please excuse my DISGUSTING voice and any ambient noise such as men with electric saws outside. It's not very finished, it's more of an idea that I've recorded.





Start out closed and almost frozen,
When you go your mind will open
Letting in all sorts of crazy
Things but will you let them win?

Shoeless art, attack the heart and
Deconstruct what already does
not make any sense and put your
Hand up so that you can gain a

Feeling that you know what's going
On the inside you feel so bewildered
Spoons and cows and toes and
Political blanket-throws...

NaSoWriMo: 30 songs in 30 days!

Cathrin Cowdrey, me, Laura Crow @ a show we played in Cumbria, UK on Saturday

I have an announcement to make. It's quite serious. I do hope you're sitting down. Are you ready?

I'm coming out.... as a singer-songwriter. It's my career choice.

As you may already know, it is November, AKA: NaNoWriMo or "National Novel Writing Month." As a former participant, I understand how fantastic and awful writing 50, 000 words in thirty days can be. When I considered the month of November, examining my schedule I realized that I can't do this. Not in a negative way. It's just not the right time for me. I need to be focusing my creative energies in improving my songwriting skills and creating a body of work that I'm proud of.


And so I have invented NaSoWriMo.

Because I am trying to improve, your input, constructive criticism and comments would be VERY much appreciated. And before you say anything about how awful the recording is, I know. But it's the song we're looking at, not the terrible recording. Kthanks.

I'm going to design some sort of meme-style form to remind me what's surrounding the songs.

This song is for everyone I've ever met.




INSIDE:
Feel this star inside your soul
And know that I'm not the one
That holds the holds the answers 
To what's haunting you
Stop looking around, 
It can't be found

CHORUS:
Inside the darkness 
You have found
A way to keep the ground 
Beneath your feet
One move and you'll collapse
The pieces of you don't quite match...

All you want is someone to
Believe in you
To help you through
Things are not so easy now
Nothing's clear
The path is what you fear


CHORUS:
Inside the darkness 
You have found
A way to keep the ground 
Beneath your feet
One move and you'll collapse
The pieces of you don't quite match...

Can't move, can't see
Feel this star and start to breathe




CHORUS:
Inside the darkness 
You have found
A way to keep the ground 
Beneath your feet
One move and you'll collapse
The pieces of you don't quite match...