All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.

[emutemusic]

Hi there,

 

I'm totally new here, I chose to use this quote on songwriting by Steve Earle as the post subject, I just love quotes, short bursts of valuable human knowledge and experience! I'll follow @john's format for my post so I'll be answering your questions John!

1. Do you sing, play an instrument or instruments?

 

What instruments? I play drums, piano, I sing and I am a songwriter.

 

When did you start playing? I started playing when I was 14 years old. 

 

Did you teach yourself? I went to music school alongside my normal school, music college, and then music university. BA in Music Performance, MA in Music Performance.

 

2. Are you in a band or bands?

 

What is the name of the band? I have been in many bands and played with/for many artists as a drummer. Some well known people are: Bias Boshell (Moody Blues), Scott James (Stereophonics), Svetlana Vassileva (Moby Europe), and supported Arthur Lee's Love and PP Arnold. Played with a few famous Greek artists too. My own project is called E-Mute and it's an alternative rock project. My music was featured on Music Week, the Indie Rock Cafe and Soundcloud.

 

What do you play? When I perform my songs live I play piano, sing and I also have a few drums next to the piano, playing a few drum duet stuff with the drummer. 

 

What other instruments are in the band? Drums, bass, guitar, sometimes synthesizers and backing vox. It is not a band. Different musicians help me out to perform live.

 

Do you have a band website? Of course. All of us need to have our own website nowadays! http://www.emute-music.com/

 

3. Do you write songs?

 

Do you write lyrics, music or both? Both! I started writing everything on my own after a bad experience when my band with Scott James split up. 

 

Do you have a writing partner? Years ago, when I was in the band with Scott he was my writing partner and .... songwriting teacher... I learned so much then. But since then I kind of went off to do my own thing musically. 

 

4. Do you record your music?

 

Do you use a home studio? If so what gear do you use? I do use a home studio, nothing too fancy, a Mac, Logic and GarageBand, a decent audio interface, pre-amp and a few good mics. I prefer using GarageBand I find the interface ''songwriting friendly''.

 

Do you use a recording studio? I do. Once I'm done with the recordings at home, I take the files in the recording studio and either write all other instruments on top of the home studio tracks or I re-record everything. It depends. For my last EP I went for a live raw full live band sound. 

 

Do you have music available on the web? if so where? Everywhere. iTunes, Spotify, my website... We have to be everywhere these days.

 

5. What other roles do you perform in the music business?

 

Management? Label owner? Publishing? Promotion? Other? I am very experienced with social media and social media marketing. 

 

6. Are you a tech head? 

A little bit yes. Until recently I was also working for Google as a Google trainer. Useful knowledge for... social media marketing and music marketing I suppose. It was a fun job. 

7. What country do you live in?

I moved from London to Austria. My girlfriend is Austrian so we decided to move here in Salzburg. I am originally from Athens.

8. What are your ambitions?

To develope even further as a musician and as a person. 

9. Do you draw/paint/write stories/computer art/dance or other creative pursuit?

Me and my girlfriend are running a jewellery business. All jewellery is handmade by us, we have a small (but well equipped) workshop and when I'm not playing music I'm ... hammering away...

What are your pastimes?

Watching good documentaries, reading about history and exercising. 

10. What would you like to get out of Songstuff?

I just want to meet like-minded songwriters. Here in Salzburg I don't know a lot of people yet and especially musicians. It feels a bit lonely (musically...) but at the same time, it has been very productive with music here. I have much more time in my hands... 

 

Thanks for reading!

Theo

 

[teek]

Hi , a very entertaining read , thank you , i consider myself a newbie , so i will say welcome on my own behalf , i will leave the "official" welcome to a mod, or long term member  

 

p.s.  as for your opening statement , I DON'T CONSIDER MYSELF INCLUDED IN  THAT STATEMENT , i do not copy others songs , i write lyrics that come from inspiration 

[teek]

Ooops .  put my foot in it again , apologies for people thinking that i took offense to Theo's quote ,   All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us ,   i merely disagree , somewhat ,   but i agree more with the second part of his headline ,  

 

My point was / is , just because we were inspired by a song to make a song , that is not rewriting the song , 

[MonoStone]

16 hours ago, teek said:

All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us

 

Not sure about that one... maybe it needs further explanation...

[MonoStone]

8 hours ago, tunesmithth said:

Not every statement of opinion calls for universal agreement & endless discussion.

We already have 1 Mosh Pit.

 

Yep and I've spent waaay too much time in there!

 

Welcome to Songstuff Theo!

[emutemusic]

On 27/07/2016 at 2:59 PM, tunesmithth said:

Pleased to meet you Theo....welcome to the site!

 

BTW I understood your point about our tendency to mimic artistic influences, more-so in the beginning...less as we begin to develop our own artistic style.

I agree! Whether we do it consciously, or subconsciously...we all mimic to some degree. Why member Teek took offense at that statement, I don't know.

 

Enjoy the site!

 

Tom

Thanks Tom! Yes, we learn from the best, then we start to have our own voice. Even with a simple quarter note beat on the drums. How many times have we heard that? But then every drummer will play the same groove slightly different! 

[emutemusic]

On 28/07/2016 at 0:16 AM, Jenn said:

 

All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.

 

I am new to the craft and I would have to agree with this.. not so much with the "it's part of learning the craft" cause a craft is put together and not really learned, i guess. I take influences consciously and subconsciously all the time from mainly my favorite songs, but also other songs that i may not have even listened to in several years. though even if i tried everything i could to mimic a song, i dont think i ever could because its my interpretation if that makes sense. its like seeing something old in new light.. and then trying to show that to everyone else.

even a cover, we are rewriting the song in our own manner and therefore, in our own voice. i dont know if other people agree. but this is me.

It's insipiration Jenn. As long as we don't copy/paste and use an idea creatively we're alright. The idea of a verse chorus verse double chorus form has been out there for a while and we keep using it. Someone originally came up with it of course...!

[emutemusic]

On 28/07/2016 at 0:19 AM, teek said:

Ooops .  put my foot in it again , apologies for people thinking that i took offense to Theo's quote ,   All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us ,   i merely disagree , somewhat ,   but i agree more with the second part of his headline ,  

 

My point was / is , just because we were inspired by a song to make a song , that is not rewriting the song , 

You said the magic word... Inspired. Totally different to the word stealing hahaha!

[emutemusic]

16 hours ago, MonoStone said:

 

Yep and I've spent waaay too much time in there!

 

Welcome to Songstuff Theo!

Thank you very much!

[Janeva]

Hi Theo

 

Welcome to Songstuff.

 

A great introduction - I hope you enjoy being here on the site.

 

Janeva