Self Tort
Self Tort
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Category: New Song Post

New Collab with Carol Douglas


By selftort, 2008-09-10

Carol sent me the lyrics for a Two Grand Wager some time ago. Although the structure and the melody pretty much jumped off the lyric page at me it's taken a little while to get it all together.<br /><br />It's based on a true story, although Carol's subsequent research has revealed that the wager was only 800 pounds. But at the current conversion rate that pretty much equates to $2,000AU, and anyway Two grand" scans better than "eight hundred pound sterling".<br /><br />Not sure of the present mix. The violins, violas, cellos and accordions may be a little bit too far below the guitars, and I'm not convinced about some of my guitar work. So feel free to offer any suggestions for improvement.<br /><br />Cheers<br /><br />Brian

New CrC track (Gary Carciello, Self Tort, Doctor C)

Doctor C took on board the task of reinventing my old track Six O'Clock Swill and has done a fantastic job. This is a complete change of focus from a former 6/8 track to a bluesy shuffle compete with Doc's trademark keyboards and stellar guitar work from Gary.<br /><br />It's now less about the evils of drink and more of a "drinking song".<br /><br />Thanks Doc and Gary. Love working with you guys. That's four tracks doneso we're well on the way towards a CrC CD. BTW if anyone can come up with a better name than CrC let us know.<br /><br />Cheers<br /><br />Brian

Posted in: CrC | 3 comments

<p>Thanks again to Mike, Dazed and all the mixposure crew for the opportunity to participate in yesterday's Centre State Presentation on Mike's SNR radio show.</p>
<p>It was a real buzz to have so many fellow members in the chatroom and I thank you all for the really kind comments.</p>
<p>Those who were there at the time might remember that Mike played "Light the Flame" from my debut CD "N.I.C". I had only realised a couple of days ago that I've hardly posted any of the tracks from that CD on mixposure. So to avoid any accusation that Mike is outsourcing tracks for his show I thought I'd better post "Light the Flame".</p>
<p>Apologies for dropping out from time to time during the show. We were in the wilds of northern NSW, heading to a "hippy market" and despite my assurances to my daughter that my laptop modem had never been out of range for service.....well it had to happen then, didn't it.</p>
<p>Thanks again. And if you haven't had the opportunity of picking up Mike's show you're missing a great opportunity to listen to some great music and share some wonderful camaraderie with your fellow members in the chat-room.</p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>Brian</p>

Posted in: 2008 Blog 1 | 6 comments

Celebration Time


By selftort, 2008-04-17

I've received two pieces of great news today, involving members of ims.

Firstly Alexis Van Eeckhout has become a proud grandfather again with the birth of Julian born 18 April, 2008. Alexis assures me that mother and child are both well, although as Julian took his time in coming the grandparents are a bit stressed.

Secondly, Corrado Rossi posted a blog on myspace today celebrating that his composition "Where" had been chosen the Best Classical Song for 2007 on IACmusic.com. Here's the text of Corrado's blog:

Happy to share with all my friends this great news!
My song "Where" has won the Golden Kayak on IACmusic.com for the Best Classical Song of 2007
Considering I had also 4 final nominations, this was a beautiful result for me.
Thanks to everyone for the support and... enjoy the song!

http://iacmusic.com/artist.aspx?ID=18319


Congratulations to Alexis and Corrado on their great news and achievements.

Cheers

Brian

New Collab - A Paris Tale with Rapster - mastered by DiCarlo

This new collab with Rapster has a bit of history to it. I've set it out in the info section if you're interested in reading it. It's based on a short "news article" I found in a Murdoch rag in the mid 70s. I part finished writing it, then abandoned it as it was appearing likely that it would take about 10 minutes to complete the story.

Pulled it out of the drawer last year and came up with the idea to add a rap section to speed the storytelling up a bit. Rapster (Joey) agreed to join in and to do the rap sections, adding some additional words of his own.

The track was mastered by Di Carlo who did another fantastic job on this. This is the third track that Di has mastered for me and his work has on each occasion been top-rate. Not only is his work of a high standard, but his prices are very, very competitive. Thanks again, Di. It won't be the last time I use you, bro.

Thanks, Joey for being involved in this and for waiting patiently (ok, maybe at times not all that patiently) for me to post it.

Hope you enjoy it.

Alexis' Birthday


By selftort, 2008-03-22
Alexis' Birthday

I may be Self Dorking, but unless I've got the date wrong, I think a little birdie told me that today is Alexis' birthday.

I know he's not around here a lot these days, but for those who have had the benefit of his musical knowledge, collabed with him or just listened to his wonderful "fresh jazz" music it's a day to celebrate.

Many happy returns, my dear friend. I've chosen my image where I'm raising a drink.....it seems to suit both my reputation and the occasion.


Cheers

Brian

Posted in: Alexis | 2 comments

Some thoughts on 1968


By selftort, 2008-03-06
Some thoughts on 1968

Just some random thoughts that occurred as a result of a gig I played last week.

It was a 40th birthday party. I’d played a 40th late last year and the birthday boy had asked me to play some songs from the year of his birth. I agreed to do so, but was horrified when I checked the net and found the top song of the year was Snoopy versus the Red Baron, with To Sir To Love and The Last Waltz not far behind..

Ultimately I was able to cobble a set together including Gimme Some Loving, Brown Eyed Girl, Happy Together, I’m A Believer, Whiter Shade of Pale, Paper Sun, Gimme Little Sign, Friday On My Mind, River Deep Mountain High, I’m A Man and some others.

Now I’m not saying that the music in 1967 was crap. Clearly there was a lot of good music about. But it seemed to be surrounded by a fair amount of schlock.

For last weeks gig I had an embarrassment of choice. I did one keyboard bracket which included, for example, Hey Jude, Hole in My Shoe, Dock of the Bay, Daydream Believer (okay some schlock in 1968) , Baby Now That I’ve Found You, Midnight Confessions, Heard It Through the Grapevine, Lady Madonna, and then follow it up with a guitar bracket that included Jumping Jack Flash, Sunshine of Your Love, White Room, All Along the Watchtower, Elevator Driver, Itchycoo Park, Mighty Quinn, Lazy Sunday Afternoon, Piece of My Heart , Baby Come Back, Hold On I’m Coming, Fire, On The Road Again.

All in all, it occurred to me that in the space of 12 months things had got a lot heavier and rockier. Obviously the release by Bobby Golsboro of “Honey” militates against my argument. And as I’m in Australia and music hits us months after it’s hit the States and Europe some of those that I’ve included in the 1968 list were probably hits elsewhere in 1967.

But I just found it curious that between the two years there seem to be so many more tracks from 1968 that I consider to be classics than the year before. And 1968 was also a very torrid year in political terms with student riots in Paris, the Democratic Convention etc.

Just some random thoughts that I thought I would share.


Cheers

Brian

Six O'Clock Swill


By selftort, 2008-03-04
Six O'Clock Swill

Back in times before I was legally able to drink (way back), our licensing laws provided that hotels had to shut at 6pm. Women weren’t allowed in tbe bars (unless they were serving beer).

Notwithstanding the undoubted “good intentions” in attempting to limit access to alcohol, the reality was that pubs were packed to the gunnels each afternoon with blokes wanting to throw as much amber liquid down their throats as time would allow.

The era became known as the “Six O’Clock Swill”

During my time at uni I worked in a sheep skin/cow hide factory. The laws had been liberalised by them but I starkly remember each lunchtime going up to the pub with my mates and devouring 4 schooners of beer in an attempt to eradicate what had gone before and what was likely to occur thereafter.

“Six O’Clcok Swill” was the first song I recorded as a solo artist. A “full production” version was included in my original CD “N.I.C” and I recorded an acoustic version for inclusion in my soon to be released “A Tort Stripped Bare” acoustic CD.

In January, 2008 I attended a seminar given by Pat Pattison from Berklee U (don’t tell Rapster, he’s got a thing about Berklee). It was the most instructive two days I’ve ever been involved in. Pat is a wonderful communicator. At the lunch break on the first day I rang my wife and said words to the effect of: “I can’t believe it. I’ve learned more in the last 2 hours about songwriting than I’ve learnt in the last 30 years”.

After imparting his wisdom to us, Pat devoted the afternoon session of the second day to giving critiques on the work of those participating. I chose to do this song, even though Pat had warned against doing a “song that you’ve released on a CD”. I was happy with the original version but was interested to see if there was more in it.

The original version of the song was written in “third person” about a character “Ted”. He was a composite of people I’d worked in the sheep skin factory with.

Pat’s initial comments were quite flattering. He seemed to genuinely like the song. But he raised the point that this was a song about someone that the listeners didn’t know and who, realistically, given the lyrics, they probably didn’t want to get to know all that well.

He suggested changing the focus of the song to “first person” and I did a run through, changing the lyrics where appropriate. There was no doubt that this made the song more powerful. But as Pat said, you’re not going t be able to sell it in Nashville in that form because no one’s going to want to get up on stage and sing that he’s a drunken philanderer.

So we tried it, at Pat’s suggestion, in the second person focus. That’s how it this version is recorded. To me it gives the song a much more personal edge.

But Pat wasn’t done yet. He highlighted the chorus as the best part of the song and the part that shouldn’t be changed. He then invited me to tap out the rhythm of the verse lyrics (in the original version) while he tapped out the rhythm of the chorus lyrics. This exercise revealed that the rhythms for both the verse and chorus were pretty much identical.

If the chorus was the standout, in Pat’s logic, why give the game away in the verse. His suggestion: the original verses and chorus contained lots of words, lots of short note. Get rid of some words or notes from the verses, or trade short notes for long notes, so that the spotlight comes on in the verse.

I’ve been very longwinded about this blog for a reason. On this and other sites that I’ve been on there are some incredibly talented people putting up some fine music. There are a lot of shonks out there wanting to take our money for their creative assistance..

For those wishing to aspire to songwriting I cannot recommend too highly attending one or more of Pat’s courses. It’s not a case of teaching you how to write by numbers. Pat works on the basis of using techniques to draw the real emotion into the song. The word commercial was used only once during the seminar, and by a participant, not Pat. The participant had indicated that a change suggested by Pay had made the song of another participant “more commercial”, but Pat’s response was “Yes, it does. But only because it make the person listening feel the emotions that the writer’s trying to convey”.

If you get the chance to participate in one of Pat’s seminars, or are interested in the assistance he can give to us as writer, feel free to PM me. He’s coming back to Oz in June and July and I will be lining up to participate.


Anyway, if you’re still reading this my rewritten acoustic version of “Six O’Clock Swill” is now up. Would be interested in your comments, particularly from those that know the original version.



Cheers

Brian

Posted in: Blog 02/2 | 2 comments

Thanks for Your Help


By selftort, 2008-02-19
Thanks for Your Help

Thanks for all of the kind suggestions regarding the problem I had last week with my 8 track. The pin in the little hole worked to remove the existing CD but unfortunately I think I should have come in hear earlier as it looks like my own abortive efforts ruined the drive. I've dropped the recorder over to a friend in the hope that he can retrieve my demo of "That's It I've Had Enough". Sorry I missed the cut off date. Couldn't make the radio show either but I'm slowly catching up on the entries in the listening room.

While I'm waiting to get that track back, thought I'd post another track from the acoustic session I did last December. A lot of mixposure people will have heard the original version of "Mid Life Crisis" from my CD "N.I.C" which I had posted at mix. I've tried to convert it into an acoustic version. Without the bass, drums and keyboard, and without a guitar solo, it probably needs a middle 8, so I'll try working on that.

Apologies for any glitches in the performance. It was a "one take" and it's not a song that I normally do live in acoustic sets. Hopefully a bit of fun, particularly for those in my "age demographic".

Cheers and thanks again for all the earlier suggestions.


Brian

Best Man - Old Track/New Post


By selftort, 2007-11-13
Best Man - Old Track/New Post

<p>I haven&#39;t had as much time as I would like to spend in here since I joined, but I&#39;d like to thank everyone who has been in touch with me and my music.</p><p>Things should be settling down a bit in coming weeks. I&#39;ve done a bit of reviewing this afternoon and will hopefully catch up on any responses and return reviews in the next day or so.</p><p>I have just uploaded a new track on the site, although, it will be known to a number of mixposure members. It&#39;s &quot;Best Man&quot; the first track from my debut CD, &quot;N.I.C&quot;. Over coming weeks I&#39;ll be posting a combination of tracks from the CD and other tracks that had been posted at mixposure, together with some new stuff.</p><p>Cheers</p><p>Brian</p>

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