Broken Up October 31, 2009
Posted by Mark in Song Posts.Tags: download, mp3, Music, song, songwriting
4 comments
Happy Halloween, everyone… I’m about to head out to Halloween activities, but I thought I’d post Michael’s and my latest creation before I do.
This song has been written over the past couple of years, with minor tweaks here and there along the way. This is the first song we’re posting with a full band arrangement, so please comment on what parts of it you like or don’t like.
Check after the song links for a picture of me, Mark, in my Halloween costume =)
Right-click here and choose “Save” to download: Broken Up
Girl Rock Band October 24, 2009
Posted by Mark in Song Posts.Tags: download, mp3, Music, song, songwriting
1 comment so far
Here’s another song, posted as promised on Saturday morning, California time (and yes, I realize I’m cutting it close, but c’mon, it’s Saturday morning).
This song, Girl Rock Band, was mostly finished lyrically a couple of years ago and was written in a single night. I had gone out to a coffee shop in San Francsico and seen an amateur girl rock band. They were just starting out, so their music wasn’t all that great, but they still had an adoring crowd of guy fans.
Inspired by that experience, I went home and wrote the lyrics to Girl Rock Band and recorded a rough version of it that night. A few months later, Michael took that version, shifted around some parts, created a bridge, and completed the song quite nicely.
Girl Rock Band isn’t quite as serious of a song as Please Come Home To Me, but it kind of reminds me of songs like Girl All The Bad Guys Want, by Bowling for Soup. So I don’t think it’s too silly to be considered a real (non-humor) song, but let us know what you think.
Right-click here and choose “Save” to download: Girl Rock Band
Quick update October 23, 2009
Posted by Mark in General.add a comment
It’s been a busy week for both Michael and me, so we haven’t had a ton of time to work on new songs throughout the week.
Michael’s been driving between Portland and California, trying to finish moving to California. And I’ve been practicing with a rapidly-formed work band to play at a company Diwali celebration this Friday (tomorrow).
The work band has been practicing every night, trying to master 11 songs for an hour-long performance. Tonight, we finally ran through the whole set twice without falling apart, so I think we’ll be ready to put on a decent show tomorrow.
The Indian music that we’re playing is pretty interesting… Several of the songs are male/female duets, and tricks are played with the chord structure so that the female verse is the same chord pattern as the male verse but just twice as stretched out. And there are interesting chord rhythms, etc. — maybe Michael and I will try to work some of these ideas into a future song.
Anyway, that’s what we’ve been up to. Thanks everyone for their comments. We also posted Please Come Home To Me for review at http://www.musicmarketing.net/forum/topics/song-review-please-come-home, so you can see what people have said about it there (just one review so far).
We hope to post another song to the blog this Saturday morning, so stay tuned =)
What works for us October 18, 2009
Posted by Mark in General.3 comments
I think every songwriter or songwriting team does things a little differently… Michael and I have been trying recently to identify what our ideal writing process is — something where we don’t get stuck with writer’s block or get frustrated with any songs.
One approach we’ve been trying recently is Michael will play and sing the chorus to a song he’s been stuck writing for years, and I’ll try to improvise lyrics for minutes at a time while he plays verse chords on guitar. We’ll record the whole improv session and then listen to it afterwards for any clever or insightful lyrics that stick out from the jumble. The tricky thing is picking out good song lyrics that still get the point of the song across without just stringing together words that sound nice.
We just took a break from a songwriting session right now, where I improvised lyrics to songs tentatively called “Christine” and “Hey Down There.” So maybe you’ll see something about those in the near future.
While I’m using this break to write this blog entry, Michael’s using it to cook himself another 6-egg omelette — got to keep those guitar fingers fueled.
Anyway — we’ve gotten some good feedback on Please Come Home To Me so far from friends via email, but if you have any opinions on the first song we posted, please leave a comment and tell us.
Please Come Home To Me October 17, 2009
Posted by Mark in Song Posts.Tags: download, mp3, Music, song, songwriting
3 comments
This is the first song we’re posting on this blog. It was written over the last month. I was at home alone one night and played these three simple chords in a way that just made me feel somewhat sad and lonely and angry all at once. The words “Please Come Home To Me” sprang to mind, and I recorded a first cut and immediately sent it to Michael.
Michael heard it, liked it, and started work on improving the melody, adding more musical sections… Recently Michael came down from Portland to visit, I took 2 days off work to song-write with him, and we came up with the 3rd verse and some of the bridge, and we realized the song was done.
So here’s a recording taken just a few days ago.
Right-click here and choose “Save” to download: Please Come Home To Me
Songwriting: The beginning… October 17, 2009
Posted by Mark in General.add a comment
Hi! Welcome to our corner of the web, where we’ll be sharing updates on our songwriting efforts and releasing recordings. This is a joint effort between Michael Stephenson and Mark Johnson, who have been writing music together since Spring 2002. Recently, we’ve been re-focusing our efforts, and we want to share the results more widely.
Please feel free to comment on all posts — we’re encouraging audience participation here. Expect a lot of updates over the next few weeks — we hope you enjoy what you hear.
Writers Of Song 