1. Who’s disputin.
Starting with this song first as this is the first song that I wrote and produced using cubase pro. I bought a Steinberg midi and audio interface that was bundled with a copy of cubase ai, which I very soon found had so many limitations that I spent out the most money I have ever spent up to that point upgrading cubase ai to cubase pro.
I think of this very sad situation and I reflect on how lucky we are that most of us can life a long and healthy life. But there are so many that do not so we must be thankful for every day we have.
2. Things that we say.
Reflection: well the reflection for this song was fairly straightforward to some degree if you can understand my point of view, and that’s the hard bit. We all get caught up inside our own little world and the important thing is to talk about anything that we are thinking about and depending on who you talk to and what about is how you formulate your own opinions.. so take what you want from this song because it will mean something to you however you understand it.. that is why I am caught in this song forever bound by the opinion you formulate from things that we say.
3. No Drums.
Before I get into this Reflection I want to just explain a bit about how this instrumental piece of my mindscape music was first conceived as a mess about with some new sounds. Well the effects processor I had been using for a long time was a line 6 pod pro multi effects processor rack mount unit so I was recording a wet signal.
I was getting great sounds but to get a more instant change I purchased my most expensive software package “Helix Native” which i record what is called a dry signal, which allows me to change effects without re-recording the track.
Anyway a little bit off track with this one and the simple truth is that this is a pretty good reflection of the music I hear on the inside of my head, so this is a fairly good example of pure music for music’s sake that I could produce.
4. Tragic waste (it’s not fair)
The idea was one I recorded 35 years ago on an acoustic guitar that I decided to use the original chord sequences and turn it into a complete song. I have kept to that and included those same chords on acoustic guitar throughout the song.
This song is really a sad song which is very personal to all the people concerned who are living in a tragically real and worsening situation that I will dedicate to the whole family involved. This is for you and any proceeds from this song will be given to charity.
The Reflection is fairly simple.
Well I started this song wanting it to be minimalistic as possible as with all my early songs seem to be too crammed full of conflicting melodies and with that said I wanted to create the melody with my vocals.
5. My old man and me.
I have always listened to the blues and wanted to put my own sound to my own personal blues.
Following the death of my own father I wrote two songs while I had all the thoughts going around my head trying to make sense of it all.. I wrote this song a couple of weeks afterwards so I was still reflecting on the life I had with my dad in it.
This is tongue and cheek true account of growing up from the age of 2 without my dad as he left and I came looking for him in my mid-teens and worked for him several times but the black cloud he held over me was his continual “all this will be yours one day” he would never show me the running of his business and only wanted the work I did to make him money. so I went off alone and told him I didn’t want what he wanted for me and I have always provided for myself and my own family with my own hard work. His wife of 30 years plus is who should get everything he worked for, as it should be.
6. Laugh with me.
Complicated Reflection. lol
Well I started this song wanting it to be minimalistic as possible as with all my early songs seem to be too crammed full of conflicting melodies and with that said I wanted to create the melody with my vocals.
Originally it didn’t have a chorus and I sent it to someone I hardly know but went to school with, he is a working DJ and suggested that I don’t repeat the 1st verse and to include a chorus. So I included the chorus and included some basic sounds of bells and guitar in the chorus, I sent the revised version which is the current incarnation of this song and haven’t heard a reply back, so the Reflection is very strange as I reached out to someone I was at school with and haven’t seen since then just over 40 years ago.
I heeded his advice which was very good and I thank him for that because I love what I did with this as it was totally out of my comfort zone.
I was listening to a lot of Peter Gabriel songs but did not apply his methods; I did very few takes and very quickly solidified the song as a completely unique song.
7. Our time and space.
Another simple reflection on my own life.
Once again a fairly personal song written for someone very close to my heart.
I kept this song pure and acoustic as possible with a slight Spanish guitar vibe mixed in with acoustic bass and some piano.
8. Sailing on.
Second song I wrote on the death of my dad.
A lot of very strange things happened in the writing and production of this song which I wrote and recorded 2 days before my dad’s funeral.
A few days before I recorded I was plinking away one evening and came up with the idea which I kind of kept playing to get it firmly fixed inside my noggin.
Anyway the Sunday I recorded it everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, the computer did not want to play ball I ended up without my helix native which couldn’t get working for another 2 or 3 days.. so what was supposed to be played on electric guitar I had to record with acoustic guitar and although I could go back and record the song again and get produce it a lot better the vocals are terrible as I was fighting tears as I was singing it the acoustic guitars and acoustic bass and vocals completely dry without any effects.
On reflection the song was supposed to be acoustic and though in my mind I wanted to create an electric guitar sound, something somewhere had other ideas…. spooky…. Lol
9: I tried to dream ….
:::Well this Reflection seems simple to start with but turned out to be quite complicated, as I hope you will see deep into bowels of my mind… lol.
In a mayfly’s breath is supposed to indicate that in the time was short, a mayfly’s life is very short. How quickly does it breathe do you think?
This is obviously a song about past love but I have never stopped loving anyone that I have had the pleasure of sharing moments of passion with and as long as my memory stays intact, that’s how I will be. The shards burned deep is no surprise to me because when I fall ,I fall deep.
In my youth I wasn’t capable of expressing or vocalising that love at all. That’s probably why it failed, when I said anything!
I denied the love I felt and instead just brushed it off instead of telling her that I love her let her slip away without her knowing I loved her or me knowing that she loved me!
I didn’t have the confidence or brains to express it.. everything was black and white in those days and the thought of rejection I suppose.
So I tried to dream….. and still do in a way but I move on collecting these dreams and store them away and reflect on them from time to time knowing and cherishing those time gone by.
Footnote: Just a realisation that note many people don’t think this deep, but most of our communication is not voiced and is expressed in so many other ways. We see, hear and think our way through life much more than people realise. Our perception of the world is not fact but our brain trying to interpret what is going on!:::
