PA Songwriters'/Composers' Association

Timbo1961 – Holy cow do you sound like Peter Gabriel! I like it.  “Alpha-Omega” was really lovely.

MustardSea – I was sad when I saw that no one really responded to your post of your music.  I listened to it – very slow riffs, made me think of what Type O Negative would be like if they weren’t so… well, so negative.  It has a crunchy, eased-back sort of beauty to it, very ambient. The new “By The Sunrise” is very pleasant, too.

pianoman – I’m floored by Ocean Architecture.  This is the whole reason I joined this site in the first place (years ago… before I forgot my password and was “StarsongAgeless”… now I’m busted back down to a n00B).  I love music that takes me places I don’t expect, and this does it beautifully and brutally.  Found Animus on iTunes and bought immediately.

 I then checked out Revolving Maze by Involved.  Again… wow.  “Ingress” starts out beautiful and soaring and builds to something a bit Martian Chronicles Soundtrack-like that tells you the project is going somewhere great.  It delivers lush soundscapes, but more than that – so much comparable music just creates a mood, and that’s it – a constant mood for anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes.  Not so here.  There’s so much motion.  Each track tells its own story rather than standing still on something ear-catching.  It’s so refreshing and emotionally absorbing.  Thank you.  In my day-to-day life, I am surrounded by people who think pop radio is the be-all and end-all of creativity.  Hearing music like this restores my faith in humanity. 

 Now, (still talking to pianoman), I have a question for you – it looks like the track order for Revolving Maze is different on iTunes compared to on Bandcamp.  Is one or the other the intended order?

 Dayvenkirq – I noticed you talked about getting stuck in certain modes, like coming up with hard rock riffs when intending to write for metal music.  I know how you feel.  I’ve found that when something like this happens to me, it means that I need to get that stuff out of my system.  I have to go ahead and write it – finish the song or songs that belong with the hard rock riffs, and then maybe at a later date the metal will come out.  It’s like the 10,000 hour rule – you have to put your time in, even if what you’re producing isn’t what you wish you were.  Sometimes it's agonizing.

 “Does anyone here tend to overthink when they write lyrics? Do you write choruses? Or do you just write stanzas or free verses? Single lines? Do you bother with rhymes? Do all your choruses in a song have the same lyrics?” – With me, there is no single approach that works.  It always starts with something that comes naturally.  It may be a tune on the piano or guitar, or just a few words in my head – or I may get a sudden urge to write a poem.  Usually when I write the poem I just hear the music that would go with it in my head (and then after playing with it for a few years it eventually reaches something like a finished form).

There’s a lot of discussion about thinking on here in regards to writing, and I tend to find that if I’m thinking too much it means I’m done.  I need to take a break.  If I’m not playing music or singing or actually typing/writing words, and am therefore just sitting there thinking, I’ve reached an obstacle and I need to distract myself for at least a little while.

There’s one statement on page 15 that I have to disagree with: “Well, I think that if you really want to cook up something soon, then may I suggest sticking with one style for now? If you want your body of work to be stylistically consistent, look at what the other artists are/were doing.”  This advice would never have worked for me.  I have to do what comes naturally to me at the time, otherwise the end product always sounds forced.

About the “Throwaways” you put up – the first thing I noticed was that the tuning was off.  If your keyboard isn’t working well for tuning, I’d suggest one of those electronic ones that has a light-up scale so that you can be sure you’re on the right pitch.  You do some nice runs on #6.  It sounds like you have the same issue I do with the guitar, which is that no matter how much I practice the strings always buzz.  It drives me insane.

Regenard – I started listening to Supercraft Saga 1 and immediately recognized the opening.  Don’t mean to freak you out!  It was just the first 20 seconds or so.  I’m not sure where else I’d heard it unfortunately, but being a prog fan I’m betting it was in a prog song… most likely Yes, Rush, Nektar, Rick Wakeman, Glass Hammer or Emmerson Lake and Palmer… but actually could also be from a video game, lots of them have prog-like synth stuff happening.    After that first 20 seconds… I greatly enjoyed this piece.  It’s uplifting even in its current midi state.  I’ve never managed to make a midi composition sound even somewhat natural – good for you for doing so.

 Polymorphia – “There's always a niche for honest songwriting.” I agree.  Every time I set out to write something purposefully it falls flat on its face because it’s not really coming from me.  Sometimes, I hear a prog song that technically is very good but just does absolutely nothing for me– it sounds dead, lifeless, emotionless.  I often wonder if it’s because the music was designed for sound only, and didn’t come from some deep instinct inside the composer…  of course, I could be dead wrong.  And I greatly enjoyed “Jeanie with Raven Hair” – it surprised the heck out of me, I thought it was going to be a fairly standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus song based on the start, but it really, really wasn’t.  I love surprises.  Any plans to put this on an album?  After hearing the Dinner Guests’ music, I’m suspecting you are a superb songwriter.

 N-sz – New Song/Old Song: Acoustic guitar chops = awesome!  There’s no way I could play that and sing at the same time.  Love the change around 3:00 and 4:30, nice development.  I would love to hear this one done in a studio setting.  As to both your and others’ comments about your vocals – in the past decade, people seem to be more and more obsessed with vocal “perfection.”  It started, I think, mostly with pop singers, but if you listen to an old album in just about any genre you’ll find that the pitch of the singer is not always that perfect spot on to the pitch within 1% as it now is on just about everything.  This is the double-edged sword of autotune.  It has made many people forget that the human voice is not just about perfection, it is about expression.  Personally, I think you expressed yourself well.  Could you benefit from vocal training and practice? Sure.  But my advice is not to sacrifice the sense of you that comes with your natural voice.

I wish I could hear the last song you put up.  There's some sort of problem with the link.

Pessimist - Wonderful piano parts!  Technically great music, not my personal listening cup of tea, but I usually don't connect much with jazz.  I'm not entirely sure why.