Sadie's Sister

Here's another FAWM song I'm really proud of. This time though I can't take the credit - it's a cowrite with the outrageously talented Stuart Kidd from Glasgow, who you can hear on lead vox, acoustic guitar, drums and suitably 'dead sounding' Macca approved bass. I played some electric guitar and piano (but only cos all the good instruments were taken!)

As you can probably guess from the title, we really got our Beatles mojo working...
Download Sadie's Sister here

Other FAWM songs
Other free songs by Matt Blick

Don't Bug Me

Just posted what's technically my 9th FAWM song and for a stupid little tune about a flu bug - I'm pretty pleased with it

you can download it here and get all the other FAWM songs here

Even more free songs by Matt Blick

Open Mic: Salutation Inn: 23 Feb 2012

Had a great time tonight at the Open Mic at the Salutation Inn run by the very affable Rich Kirton. Bowman & Hull treated us to some classic rhythm and blues, there was a great Ukelele player whose name I didn't catch and I played the following -

Brother Bull
Let's Build An Airport
The Ballad Of NDC 

(click on the links for free downloads - and leave me a message if you were there!)

Other free songs by Matt Blick

Writing Songs with - Noel Fielding And The Goons

Watching Noel Fielding's new show Luxury Comedy I was blown away by his level of inventiveness, It seemed like every millimetre of the show was packed with originality - sets, dialogue, costumes, characterisation, plot (or lack of) and crazy DIY special effects.

And yet it didn't make me laugh.

When you find yourself desperately trying to like something is a good exercise to ask why. Sometimes it's peer pressure (everyone says Mozart's a genius) sometimes it's a shared history/loyalty with the band (who's gonna carry the grumpy millionaire shoegazer banner now?) sometimes it's financial (I just took out a second mortgage for this Brian Wilson box set).

Luxury Comedy would be the kind of show that The Goons would be making if they were around now. I love the Goons. I LOVE the Goons. Why do I connect with this show that ended before I was even born, but not it's descendant? Am I like some weirdo who prefers hanging out with his schoolmate's dad?

The Goon Show was a bizarre blend of surrealism, subtle anti establishment satire and corny old musical hall jokes. In the midst of the whacked out nonsense there was often a gag with a mental age of 3. And that for me is the key. Because the corny jokes were something to latch onto until you got acclimatised to the surreal atmosphere.

And that's our songwriting lesson.

If you're seeking to go out on a limb in your songwriting make sure there is some familiar landmark that your listeners can grab onto.

Wanna have your song use multiple time signatures? At the same time? Maybe have really simple lyrics that everyone can relate to. Or want to set your thesis about product placement in the history of colonial Nigeria to music? Try using a simple chord progression and melody. Is you medley complex and atonal? Don't play it on a saw.

Or do. If you must.

But whenever you find yourself climbing to the tippy top branch of the crazy tree or falling down the rabbit hole of artistic self indulgence, remember to put in a some familiar little detail, something that reminds your listeners of home. A simple sign that says "You Are Here".

Postscript: At the very do the weird part a couple of times in a row. "Repetition makes the strange familiar" - Nicholas Tozier

Free songs by Matt Blick

Valentine's Day And Holi - Day

If my wife's life was a sitcom, yesterdays episode could have been titled "I bought my husband a DVD and tickets to see Dara O'Briain and all I got was this lousy song".

Today I am full of cold and I've written a song about Holidays (which brings my FAWM total to 5) and a blog post about what Noel Fielding and The Goons can teach us about songwriting.

You can download both songs here.

Other free songs by Matt Blick

That Box

For FAWM song number 3 we have a tune about one young man's obsession with the contents of the sex education teachers resources box at school, played on a box. It's right there on the FAWM download page

But why would you waste time on my meagre offerings when you could download yourself the brilliant Champion Of The Game Of Love by Chris Henson. I cannot describe to you how funny, and how well written it is. So I won't try. Just go get it. Now.

By the way - by the time you read this I will be heavy with Birthday. Yep one year older. And about 45 songs wiser. Hallelujah.

Other free songs by Matt Blick

Monkey Business

FAWM song 2 - I Got The Jungle (Right?) is up on the FAWM page it's a quasi rap from the point of view of an ape built over a sample of my daughter telling me about her school work, so - same old same old...

How could I forget that Let's Build An Airport was featured on one of the FAWM compilation albums 14 Songs in 28 Days Vol. 7.2 - There's 21 other songs on it, including the solid gold classic Hate To Be That Guy by Chris Henson. You can buy it for $5 (about £3:28) here.


Other free songs by Matt Blick

ReFAWMED

Well life's been busy compadres. Being slap bang in the middle of recording my first solo EP, trying to set up websites, and various other sites, keep Beatles Songwriting Academy ticking over, do the odd gig with Aistaguca and work be a dad yadda yadda there was NO WAY I was really going to be able to take part in FAWM this year.

But then I remembered something I had written on Beatles Songwriting Academy

The norm for today’s artists seems to be that they are either writing OR recording OR touring. Letting the studio or the road disrupt the habit of writing is a problem somewhat unique to SONGwriters.


Of course the band stopped touring in ’66 but The Beatles didn’t regard recording as a legitimate reason to take a break from songwriting either (which makes sense as they were always recording). And I’m not referring to the way many successful bands enter the studio with unfinished songs (though they were guilty of that too). I mean continuing to write new songs even as they were laying down songs they’d just finished.


Assistant producer Chris Thomas remembers Harrison playing Something to him on the harpsichord while they were recording Piggies for the White Album. McCartney gave Lennon a preview of MMT’s The Fool On The Hill while writing With A Little Help From My Friends for Sgt Pepper.

So George Harrison shamed encouraged me into it. After all I haven't written a song for a whole month! So I'm using FAWM to keep the wheels turning producing all manner or weird tracks (AKA business as usual) even as I concentrate on the EP. And I'll be gathering all the new tracks on an ultra lofi album called NonconFAWMist Vol.2

Yep that's me being artistic with my first attempt using GIMP (AKA Photoshop for poor people). But that is not me on the cover.

You can check out the first song, a setting of Psalm 22 called Israel's Praise right here

Other free songs by Matt Blick

Music In Simian Motion

Working with me (on drums) requires an unreasonable tolerance for chaos. Strange how that contrasts with my composer gig, which is autistically meticulous. When I get on my drums I'm not the urbane but brisk professional anymore. I'm a hairy-assed silverback swinging through the trees.

Stewart Copeland: Strange Things Happen p. 262

Stewart Copeland puts the cause of drummer equality back a hundred years by comparing percussionists to gorillas.

Seriously though, I just finished reading Stewart's book and found it very entertaining. He has a way with words and a great store of anecdotes. Playing in school fundraiser supergroup The Grateful Dads with Gene Simmons and Steve Stills, drumming inside a lion cage and getting Rage Against The Machine to group hug while singing Kumbaya, it's never boring!

Here's some classic Copeland

Other free songs by Matt Blick

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Songwriters - I Need Your Help!

I'm writing a post for Beatles Songwriting Academy and need some examples of songs that mirror in their music something that is mentioned in the lyrics

It could be something as simple as

Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) - the line 'sends shivers down my spine' is followed by a few hits on a ride cymbal

or literal like

Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) - where he plays the chord progression he is describing in the lyrics ("it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth" etc)

or an overall feel as in

Run To The Hills and The Trooper (Iron Maiden) - where the galloping rhythm reflects the Native American warriors and Russian calvary themes

or anything in between.

Any ideas?

Free songs by Matt Blick

Studio Update #1

So here's the plan for 2012. (Place "I'm going to attempt to" before ever phrase and "this is subject to change" after).

Record a 4 track EP and 1 extra bonus track to give away
Title: Everything We Lost In The Fall Rootless/Artless
Base it around electric guitar and vocals with one or two eclectic instrument choices per track
Con as many friends and family as I can into playing, photographing, doing artwork etc
Release in early Mar (this is already feeling too optimistic)
Release it (download only) via CD Baby to iTunes, Amazon and probably Rob's Record Mart  too
Con as many friends and family as I can into buying it
Learn a massive amount about putting together a project
Repeat until financial solvency or clinical depression occurs

Right at the tail end of last year I did some pre production at Old Library Studios, Mansfield with producer Mark Allsop, and a couple of weeks ago I laid down guitar tracks for 31/2 songs.

Here's the songs I originally shortlisted

Let's Build An Airport
The Weight Of Glory
Better For Me If I'd Never Been Born (demo of this will be up soon)
[Everything Is] Broken
Brother Bull (I never did a proper demo of this, but will post the live preproduction version)
The Morning After The Day You Saved The World
and two versions of I Got Lost

Having now dropped Weight of Glory and Morning After, five songs remain. The four that fit together best/turn out well will go on the EP.

Simples

I'm really benefitting from having another pair of ears go through the songs with me, and making some edits, subtle and otherwise! My pace of writing has been so quick last year, that some of these tunes were finished, recorded and then never played again!

Any questions let me know.

Here's a sneak peak behind the scenes...

Other free songs by Matt Blick

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The Weight of Glory - Live In The Studio

It's been a long time since I last blogged - I've been playing with Balkan Gypsy Wedding Band Aistaguca (imagine if Kool & The Gang came from Serbia) and I've also started recording an EP!

I did preproduction on 7 tracks with a view to narrowing it down, and here's one that didn't fit in with the mood of the record but still turned out OK - The Weight Of Glory

You can download a live version recorded at Grace Church a few years ago, get the chord sheet or find out what inspired the song

Other free songs by Matt Blick

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Time For A Break

Things have been a bit quiet here blogwise but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. For a music teacher 'tis the season of multiple christmas concerts, school assemblies, and general craziness. Dad of four? You get the picture. But that doesn't mean all songwriting has ceased. On Monday night I was in Old Library Studios doing preproduction for my first solo EP. More about that next year!

I've also finished writing song #47 Better For Me If I'd Never Been Born. A cheery title perhaps, but when I tell you it's about Judas Iscariot it might make more sense. That song's had a long history - I wrote most of the music in 1992.

So with a remix of Tedashii's song Riot and a lullaby/prayer song in the works I hope I may still finish 50 songs this year. I may not get em all recorded, but I'll sum up what I learned from the year of 'writing dangerously' and strike out in a slightly new direction.

Thanks for listening!

  Free songs by Matt Blick

Bonus Mashup: The Intergalactic Wizard

Photo: Steve Burns

For my 46th song project I got distracted from the mashup idea that was distracting me from the song I was writing while I should have been writing another song.

I ended up working on a mashup of The Wizard by Black Sabbath and Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys. I've always thought the second track on The Sabs debut album was unfeasibly funky for a hard rock band. See what you think. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you

The Intergalactic Wizard - mp3

Other free songs by Matt Blick that are nothing like this one

   

From The Archives: I Got Lost

I Got Lost

Fell from grace, right through the cracks

Emotionally raw rock song played on a two string guitar
Download     mp3     Lyrics (pdf)

I lost my way
I lost my path
Lost my bearings
Mislaid the map
Looked for a star
But the night was black
Fell from grace
Right through the cracks


I didn't gain the world
But I lost my soul
Not asking for your pity
Just your hand to hold


I got lost, I got lost
See that face in the mirror?
That isn't me
I got lost, I got lost
Somewhere out there is the person
That I forgot how to be


I gave my all
I bought the shirt
I played the role
Until it hurts
I walked the walk
I towed the line
I stood for truth
And learned to lie


Thought I could save the world
And play a starring role
That dream became so brittle
And much too sharp to hold


I got lost, I got lost...


Pull up the roots
And start again
Tear down these walls
They've been condemned
So many dreams
To feed the fire
Don't waste one tear
For what's left behind


I got lost, I got lost, I got lost

You may also like (Everything) Is Broken or Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick