Last Modified On Thursday, February 19, 2004 20:28
Anyway, enough waffle from me, hit the buy the album button - if I've done my job right you should hear what I've said better than I can say it....!!
Influences - for overall song writing the Beatles were a massive influence, even as a nipper I'd stop what I was doing if they came on the telly or the radio. In one respect they caused the premature termination of my "career" as a classical guitarist - my guitar teacher (Harry Broad, if you read this please e mail me) lent me Beatles and Hendrix albums and that was the end of that.. incidentally, if you think SKY was a good classical/rock fusion check out the album John Williams made with Blue Mink... Other overall influences, Led Zeppelin - I think The Rain Song has to be in the "Top 10 songs of all time" bracket... Supertramp - Yes, I know some people think the vocals sound poofy, but look beyond that at arrangement, parts, the combination of all those individual (at times) stunning performances, check out "Bloody Well Right" if you don't believe me - there's the artistic content of half an album by the time the guy starts singing !!
No, I didn't have all these songs written before we started recording..
Hidden Meaning, Going Nowhere and That's Alright all happened as we went
along and replaced songs that we'd already lined up. On the
other hand, I wrote No Way in 1987 so there's a fair old spread..
The musical ideas (i.e. the non-lyrical ones) tend to come either from solitary moments spent spanking my plank where I'll come up with a choice riff and build something round it or, sometimes, I just "hear" ideas in my head - I can't really explain it, but if someone could invent an interface that allowed me to record some of the stuff I hear when I'm nodding off to sleep at night it would save me a lot of hassle trying to remember it the next day. Meantime, if you're planning on staying over for Christ's sake remember to bring a spare "lippy" !!
I wrote them with a pen, mostly, - no, seriously, I’m usually inspired to write by personal experiences or circumstances and sometimes by those of people close to me. Once you’ve had the original spark things like rhyming structure and lyrical rhythms are, to a variable degree, dictated by the melody, riff and groove you’re working to. It’s an intense mental challenge juggling all of these factors to create something that makes thought-provoking sense both musically and lyrically whilst still conveying the emotions that inspired you to write in the first place.
If you’re writing from or about personal feelings, never under-estimate
the value of a good Producer to examine the lyric objectively and ensure
that it makes sense to the whole audience…….
| How did you go about writing the Lyrics? |
What was your motivation? |
Where do you get your musical ideas from? |
Did you have all the songs written before you started recording the album? |
What influenced your music/lyrics? |
Finally, guitar players that have influenced you? |
© 2008 Crambo Records |
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Motivation - well, in terms of the album, I've always wanted to record my tunes to the highest standard possible. A major life change and my Producers benevolence made it possible to have a decent go at doing it without the artistic constraints that are sometimes imposed by a major label being financially involved (we're not all necessarily aiming at that "right now" fashion trend commerciality for the masses thing the UK market is so fond of, allegedly) It was also obvious that the financial capability wouldn't necessarily be there forever, so it was now or never basically. As for the motivation behind the songs... they're all about or reflect situations I've encountered and experienced or relationships I've been in. I generally tend to write them as an outlet for my feelings.. it sometimes allows me to say something I couldn't express any other way. I've been writing my own "tunes" since very early childhood, the lyrical thing has developed over the years. I've always enjoyed poetry, whether it be it Keats or some schoolyard limerick like "My Brother Billy" (if you don't know what he was renowned for you must be one of the Flanders kids!!)... I think there's a real challenge in saying what you want to say, getting the rhythm right and making it loosely rhyme without it getting cheesy....
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