Hi All,
I decided to dust off the keyboard and start preaching again. I have been pretty lazy of late with this blogging business but i'm trying to change. So what has changed in the last 2 months. Very little, I had 2 weeks in Barcelona(Gaudi is a legend) and Beziers in the south of France. It was quite the break, all I had to worry about was sunburn and what time I had to eat at.
You may be glad to hear that FAWM has reared it's head again. Every year the organizers ask participants to submit polished versions of their FAWM songs for a compilation cd which will be released early next year I think. Naturally I will chance my arm and submit one of the songs. If anybody has any suggestions which song to submit let me know. Feedback was best from the Whistling Windows and it got mentioned by a few other FAWMers in some of the forums it also met the 2 chord trick challenge so it's probably a good candidate. Post your opinions here. I will re-record the song sometime next month. I 'm not sure what the deal is with licensing and that but if I can post it here I will.
I have been plugging away at the open mic on wednesday's in the cellar bar. I will be down tomorrow night if anybody is around. There are a few new songs in the works, I am trying to book the harlem gospel choir before I fully record them otherwise I'll just have to do my "Oh no you di 'nt", 'Gavo from the block ' impression and recorded it in Harmony.
I have nearly finished another instrumental track for my "Masterpieces of Head Massage" compilation cd, this will be aimed strictly at the elevator music market so be warned.
Watch this space for weekly posts.
Peace Out,
Gav.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
April Bluesings
This is a brief communiqué just to let you know I'm still alive (all 2 of you). I have a rough recording of a new song mountain girl, posted to the music player. I haven't had much time to try and sort out a better player yet but it will happen eventually. This PhD business is keeping me busy. So feel free to comment or rant. Hope you like it. It's fairly bare, but i have some plans for harmonies and slide guitars, there is a nice groove in it.
Gav.
Gav.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Post Fawm Euphoria
Well Fawm is over and like a boat cut from it's moorings i drift aimless again. I managed a modest 5 songs with the bones of about three others unrecorded. The feedback was great, got lots of it, lots of good comments and then not so much bad comments, I think ye all clamed up when ye heard the stuff you weren't mad about.
So what I have learned is this, it's very possible to sit down and write an album's worth of material in a month especially if you are doing it full-time, I had about 2-3 hours in the evening to write, record, post and blog and managed to equal the number of songs i had written in the past three years (my instrumental period). I guess you learn from similar tasks done in relatively quick succession because your not as likely to forget your mistakes.
There were a few great songwriters on the site who gave some excellent feedback. Phil Norman and Burr Settles (who started FAWM) have some great songs. You should check them out. The benefit of having so many heads sit down and do the same thing and be forced to post regularly is huge, everybody seems to get clued in very quickly to what works and what doesn't. Even if you write 14 crap songs thats 14 crap songs you were going to have to write anyway before you write the good stuff. It really is a win win exercise. And it applies to all types of writing, the Fawm idea was borrowed from a poetry writing month or novel writing month.
So if you're itching to write some music, or poetry or paint but are lacking gumption get on to one of these forums, everybody is in the same boat. The criticsim is very constructive and positive.
I'm going to keep up the pace of the songwriting and will continue to post it here. It's doing a lot for my interest and my outlook, everything adopts an angle when you think in terms of trying to reproduce what you see in an original light. It's like capitalizing on everyday experiences, something fairly ordinary can get your imagination going. Then i'll look at re-recording the stuff properly if i can meet some good musicians to play on an album, using some of the Fawm songs and some of new stuff. I may do a bit of playing in the cellar at some stage. I bumped into the regular acoustic duo they have there they do a cracking version of tom waits' ice-cream man, they said there is a bit of work going.
So in summary, thanks for all your feedback, the musical momentum will continue as fast as i can maintain it. I'll continue to post new music to the blog, i will also get a proper player with all the Fawm songs and others up, this one song job doesn't cut the mustard. I think the FAWM site will be active for a while, if you want to download some of the tracks.
Thanks again,
Be good,
Gav.
So what I have learned is this, it's very possible to sit down and write an album's worth of material in a month especially if you are doing it full-time, I had about 2-3 hours in the evening to write, record, post and blog and managed to equal the number of songs i had written in the past three years (my instrumental period). I guess you learn from similar tasks done in relatively quick succession because your not as likely to forget your mistakes.
There were a few great songwriters on the site who gave some excellent feedback. Phil Norman and Burr Settles (who started FAWM) have some great songs. You should check them out. The benefit of having so many heads sit down and do the same thing and be forced to post regularly is huge, everybody seems to get clued in very quickly to what works and what doesn't. Even if you write 14 crap songs thats 14 crap songs you were going to have to write anyway before you write the good stuff. It really is a win win exercise. And it applies to all types of writing, the Fawm idea was borrowed from a poetry writing month or novel writing month.
So if you're itching to write some music, or poetry or paint but are lacking gumption get on to one of these forums, everybody is in the same boat. The criticsim is very constructive and positive.
I'm going to keep up the pace of the songwriting and will continue to post it here. It's doing a lot for my interest and my outlook, everything adopts an angle when you think in terms of trying to reproduce what you see in an original light. It's like capitalizing on everyday experiences, something fairly ordinary can get your imagination going. Then i'll look at re-recording the stuff properly if i can meet some good musicians to play on an album, using some of the Fawm songs and some of new stuff. I may do a bit of playing in the cellar at some stage. I bumped into the regular acoustic duo they have there they do a cracking version of tom waits' ice-cream man, they said there is a bit of work going.
So in summary, thanks for all your feedback, the musical momentum will continue as fast as i can maintain it. I'll continue to post new music to the blog, i will also get a proper player with all the Fawm songs and others up, this one song job doesn't cut the mustard. I think the FAWM site will be active for a while, if you want to download some of the tracks.
Thanks again,
Be good,
Gav.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Fawm #5 - le dernier Faume?
Hi all,
The latest FAWM post is up. It's called the Weavers of Ardragh and can be heard from the player to the right. You can get the song with the lyrics at the FAWM site here .It's a little of departure in terms of style. It's a proper ballad, folk type song. Ardragh is a small town near the Donegal coast in the northwest of Ireland. I saw archive footage a couple of weeks ago about three bachelor brothers who worked as weavers there all their lives. I wrote and recorded this all last night, the emphasis is more on the story and melody, there's not much groove to it. Just guitar and vocals. I hope you like it, I thoroughly enjoyed writing this one, it's my first song with some sort of explicit Irish content in it.
I have the bones of FAWM#6 done, but i'm not sure if i'll get time to record and upload it, the deadline is midnight tonight. Thanks again for all of your comments and e-mails they have been a really great boost. As always feel free to post here or e-mail.
Enjoy,
Gav.
The latest FAWM post is up. It's called the Weavers of Ardragh and can be heard from the player to the right. You can get the song with the lyrics at the FAWM site here .It's a little of departure in terms of style. It's a proper ballad, folk type song. Ardragh is a small town near the Donegal coast in the northwest of Ireland. I saw archive footage a couple of weeks ago about three bachelor brothers who worked as weavers there all their lives. I wrote and recorded this all last night, the emphasis is more on the story and melody, there's not much groove to it. Just guitar and vocals. I hope you like it, I thoroughly enjoyed writing this one, it's my first song with some sort of explicit Irish content in it.
I have the bones of FAWM#6 done, but i'm not sure if i'll get time to record and upload it, the deadline is midnight tonight. Thanks again for all of your comments and e-mails they have been a really great boost. As always feel free to post here or e-mail.
Enjoy,
Gav.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Fawm #4
Hi all,
I've just finished writing and recording my fourth song for February Album Writing month. It's called "The chapel and the Stream" it's about an aged drifter and his wife arguing over who was responsible for them marrying. It's another bluesy/gospel type song with an emphasis on rythym and harmony. I've lost my objectivity as far as this one is concerned so I'm dependent on feedback.
It's posted on the music player to the right and also at my FAWM page where you can also get the lyrics. It was written as part of the week 3 challenge for fawm. The challenge was to write a duet or a song about something shown from two perspectives, hence the harmonies and shift in lyrical perspective in the second verse. So I think the song accomplishes it to a reasonable degree but whether or not it makes for good listening is another day's work. There are only 3 more days of FAWM left so I obviously won't be hitting the 14 track mark I may get one other song done.
As always, feel free to post your comments below, or e-mail etc.
Be good,
Gav.
P.S. I just discovered there are forums on FAWM where you can discuss different aspects of the FAWM experience. I found this in the "best unheard fawmers/fawm songs" forum by a songwriter called Maeflower:
"Man, it's been a while since I took the time to listen to people's tracks and I am BLOWN AWAY by the quality of what everyone's writing. Here's one that knocked the two-chord challenge out of the park...by Gavin Corley/Bureaudio called Whistling Windows. It's told from the point of view of an apartment building, and the harmonies are to die for!"
and yes i did go looking for my name in this forum.....
I've just finished writing and recording my fourth song for February Album Writing month. It's called "The chapel and the Stream" it's about an aged drifter and his wife arguing over who was responsible for them marrying. It's another bluesy/gospel type song with an emphasis on rythym and harmony. I've lost my objectivity as far as this one is concerned so I'm dependent on feedback.
It's posted on the music player to the right and also at my FAWM page where you can also get the lyrics. It was written as part of the week 3 challenge for fawm. The challenge was to write a duet or a song about something shown from two perspectives, hence the harmonies and shift in lyrical perspective in the second verse. So I think the song accomplishes it to a reasonable degree but whether or not it makes for good listening is another day's work. There are only 3 more days of FAWM left so I obviously won't be hitting the 14 track mark I may get one other song done.
As always, feel free to post your comments below, or e-mail etc.
Be good,
Gav.
P.S. I just discovered there are forums on FAWM where you can discuss different aspects of the FAWM experience. I found this in the "best unheard fawmers/fawm songs" forum by a songwriter called Maeflower:
"Man, it's been a while since I took the time to listen to people's tracks and I am BLOWN AWAY by the quality of what everyone's writing. Here's one that knocked the two-chord challenge out of the park...by Gavin Corley/Bureaudio called Whistling Windows. It's told from the point of view of an apartment building, and the harmonies are to die for!"
and yes i did go looking for my name in this forum.....
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Fawm Song #3
Hi all,
Sorry for the delay with the latest Fawm song. As usual it is posted to the right. It's called whistling windows. It was a doozy to write i had to use only 2 chords as part of a weekly Fawm challenge. So my take on it was to do a kind of bluesy, rythymic song that's not too dependent on chord transitions. The blind boys of alabama do this kind of thing a lot to great effect, Hence my three part harmony. Let me know what you think of it. (harmonies or otherwise).
On another note i have started in Galway, i'm living out on Taylor's Hill a 15 minute walk from town. I have a jog on the prom at salthill this morning, the sea is pretty impressive even at it's greyest and angriest. There will be plenty of stuff to sing about by the looks of things. The city is overrun with musos and drunk students (it's ragweek), So there is a lot of debauchery and carousing. We say one guy on his knees having a full blown barking competition with some woman's dog yesterday. There are some good gigs on in the roisin dubh, yann tiersen (of amelie fame, happy dude to the right) is playing in april amongst others. I think i'm going to get along nicely here...
Hit me with your comments.
Be good,
Gav.
Sorry for the delay with the latest Fawm song. As usual it is posted to the right. It's called whistling windows. It was a doozy to write i had to use only 2 chords as part of a weekly Fawm challenge. So my take on it was to do a kind of bluesy, rythymic song that's not too dependent on chord transitions. The blind boys of alabama do this kind of thing a lot to great effect, Hence my three part harmony. Let me know what you think of it. (harmonies or otherwise).
On another note i have started in Galway, i'm living out on Taylor's Hill a 15 minute walk from town. I have a jog on the prom at salthill this morning, the sea is pretty impressive even at it's greyest and angriest. There will be plenty of stuff to sing about by the looks of things. The city is overrun with musos and drunk students (it's ragweek), So there is a lot of debauchery and carousing. We say one guy on his knees having a full blown barking competition with some woman's dog yesterday. There are some good gigs on in the roisin dubh, yann tiersen (of amelie fame, happy dude to the right) is playing in april amongst others. I think i'm going to get along nicely here...
Hit me with your comments.
Be good,
Gav.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
InterFAWM communiqué
Apologies for the delay with this post. I promised regular updates at least every monday but the life of an aspiring busker is a busy one full of ponderments and wonderings to be absorbed and 'crafted' into musical bite-sized mars bars only to be devoured by your good selves. I understand just how devastating it can be to be deprived of the bubbling genius that is my blog. I feel your pain.
Anyway... You will have to wait a little while for more musical posts. I'm between houses at the moment. I have a place in Galway but will be in Limerick for the next week so my recording gear is in the obvious location of Ennis. I'm still writing though, and plan to have another two songs done by friday. As soon as they are recorded i will post them here and at the FAWM.org website. I'm looking forward to finally making the move to the salty city.
I'm planning on writing a great little number about being bitter and single on account of the day that's it in it tomorrow. I'll call it the loneliest lemon in limerick. (thank you tabloids for some honest schooling in alliteration). Watch this space....
Anyway... You will have to wait a little while for more musical posts. I'm between houses at the moment. I have a place in Galway but will be in Limerick for the next week so my recording gear is in the obvious location of Ennis. I'm still writing though, and plan to have another two songs done by friday. As soon as they are recorded i will post them here and at the FAWM.org website. I'm looking forward to finally making the move to the salty city.
I'm planning on writing a great little number about being bitter and single on account of the day that's it in it tomorrow. I'll call it the loneliest lemon in limerick. (thank you tabloids for some honest schooling in alliteration). Watch this space....
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