thelevellers

I've been a huge fan of a particular podcast for a few years now - I initially got into it when struggling with insomnia as it is a good balance of funny and interesting, without being too much of either to stop me going to sleep if it's going to happen, but will keep me entertained if not. The podcast's shtick is a comedian interviewing other comedians about their comedy - not being funny (though inevitably they often are), and digging into the nitty-gritty of being a comedian. A lot of the things I've learned are applicable to any creative field really, and the general attitude that almost ALL comics seem to have is super applicable to all human life really - PULL YOUR FINGER OUT AND TRY! I'm feeling kinda ranty, so strap in for a long read, sorry Another couple of points that come up a lot (and is finally relevant to my post, rather than just going on about a podcast I like), are: 1: You only truly get good when you find your voice. 2: The best material is usually the stuff you do for *you* rather than trying to triangulate to what the audience wants. Slight expansion on each: 1: This applies more to comic I think, but have found myself thinking more and more that it applies to musicians too. I found I didn't hate my voice by doing Starsailor covers, because I was mimicking the artists I covered, rather than making them my own, and as such I was mimicking (*googles the name*) James Walsh's style - which is to belt it out a fair bit. Letting it out and going for it is the best way to make your voice sound better, so I found myself thinking 'hmmm, maybe I could do this singing thing with a bit of practice'. Fast forward a few years and I eventually had some actual lessons, and have been relaxing into being able to sing reasonably confidently ever since. The more I sing and experiment the more I am finding my voice, and indeed my musical style - which is a lot more metal than I ever would have predicted with my roots in punk and folk..! The more I find my voice, the happier the material I produce makes me. However, that doesn't necessarily jibe with what people want to hear... 2: Often on the podcast a comedian says that the moment they stopped trying to appeal to *everyone*, they improved massively. Because you *can't* please everyone, there's no possible way to do that. But if you make what *you* would want to see/listen to, or makes you laugh, then the problem is simply finding your audience. It can sometimes be that actually more people will enjoy it, or at least that the people who do like it will REALLY like it, rather than just tolerate it. But - and I think this applies more to music probably - that can be self-limiting, as you might also put some people off. Anyway. Just something I've been thinking a lot, particularly since returning here as I realised that quite often with musicians, the focus is on making something commercially 'good', based on a set of rules. Is that what we want to do? Is that what we need to do? Surely the most respected artists are those that *break* the mould, rather than those that fit themselves snugly into it? That said, respect doesn't always mean money, and fundamentally you need some of that if it's going to be your career... Although if you're mainly in it for the money, why not be a wedding cover-band playing the classics? Oooh, and I totally read an interesting thing about standing out to people when sending stuff in: Listening to the inbox And The Comedian's Comedian podcast Enough waffle from me! MORE than enough... As you were! Rohan

It's all about working at your pace - if you're brain works in the way that a song a day sounds fun, give it a try! If not (like me - sounds like a bleedin' nightmare!) no need to feel like you're not working hard! I've got around 20 from 10-15 years of songwriting - but there was a phase of around 7 years when I wrote nothing! Well, arranged some folk tunes and the like, but no real songwriting. Lyrics are definitely the hard part for me - although matching words to music whichever comes first is always a challenge, I find! Cheers, Rohan

Hello - as the others said, get stuck in! I will give most things a listen regardless of genre - can't always give useful critique on some stuff, or will add a disclaimer to say it's not usually my thing, but usually try at least! That said, I'm MUCH more heavy rock/riff metal than my EP would suggest - it's just much easier to get acoustic stuff recorded - especially in a 'home studio' set up... Looking forward to hearing your stuff!

So I've recently hit a decent seam of inspiration and started posting on here again for the first time in *YEARS* (as some of you may have noticed). I realised that as it's been more than 10 years (slightly concerned it might be nearing 15?!) since my last introduction, I might introduce myself again - I am a fairly different person, and the membership of the forum is pretty different, too! I'm currently working at being a woodworker making various household goods and trying to sell them at various markets locally as well as online (though I'm not great at doing either so far, so we'll see...), on the side I do a bit of flat pack furniture assembly cause it's adult Lego to me and I can't quite believe people pay me to do it for them! I've got here via an engineering apprenticeship plus a few years at Rolls-Royce (gas turbines/jet engines), followed by a fairly major brain malfunction leaving me chronically depressed and anxious for the last 3 years. Not that you could possibly have guessed that from the lyrical content of my recent songs! On the side I am trying to make a (largely acoustic) folk-metal band happen, somewhat successfully so far, although I'm not really the right person to be the lynch pin in organising anything. We knuckled down while snowed in and recorded an EP earlier in the year - you can find it via the website linked below. I'm also trying to get songs out of my head for a solo project, or just a non-folk originals band, which is the main reason I'm back on here again. Feedback on lyrics and a place to talk about songwriting in general is super helpful in staying inspired, I find! At least when you're not performing/recording much. Although I did put an EP together last summer, which again is linked below in my signature! So that's me, pretty much - there's other details, but you gotta maintain some mystery, right?! Cheers, Rohan

I never had a stand out moment - I had an older sister who played music at me, so I just always had it around and loved it! Started out with a mix of mostly Beatles, Levellers and Offspring - with a healthy dose of brit-pop/rock! One stand out for me, though, was when I first head The Urban Folk Quartet, cause that was when I thought 'you know what? I might want to play folk music more!' and I'm now on my second folk band, having been to a few workshops with UFQ (if you're in the UK and vaguely near Birmingham they do workshops days on occasion that are well worth it if you're a bit of a folky!). This is from their first album:

Fair point, although I'm not convinced my style would be lyrical in that sense... Regardless, it did make me re-evaluate my lyrics - not necessarily the quality, but the quantity! Especially when I think about how effective a song with even only one repeated verse can be - short and sweet can be good, you don't need to be super verbose! Starise and Glammerocity hit on two sides of my regular problem - I'm not great at matching music to lyrics, or lyrics to music! I often find fitting lyrics to music is constricting and I get demoralised when I can't make my thoughts fit. But equally, starting with a blank slate musically and a solid idea of the lyrics is definitely hard! Slowly getting better at both, though... I'm interested/amused to see someone is the opposite of me on needing to be understood, though! I find lyric writing is my best outlet for what's stuck in my head, despite finding it a never ending battle of not-quite-getting-it-right. My less than amazing musical abilities are probably part of the issue there, though - I have a tendency of ending up with mismatching mood between lyrics and music. Can work on occasion, though!

More specifically, does feeling like a poor/mediocre lyricist make you a better/harder working one? It's been in my mind ever since someone at an open mic said my songs were 'really lyrical', when that's the last thing I would think to say about myself! But then I thought about it and realised that I have developed a habit of writing lyrics that end up being a 4/5 minute song... It also reminded me of an interview with one of my favourite songwriters, where he said he didn't think he was a particularly good lyricist, but tried his best. This is someone who has crafted several of the most pleasing to hear/read/sing lyrics I've come across! (come on, 'when you're a multi-headed hell hound, with a reputation for rage, the sympathies of those you meet are hard to engage' rolls off the tongue in a noisy pleasing way! From Flipron - Cerberus is as Cerberus does') Any way. That's my brain worm for today! 😁

I joined this site to improve one lyric - 5 (or more?!) years later and I've learned loads, written more and had a lot of fun with the great community on here! Love it! Rohan

Oooh, and to make it even better, you can now enjoy the story, as there are English subtitles available on youtube: I don't know what it is about the song, but I have watched it last thing at night for the last three days - and usually I hate re-listening to the same song like that. Really do love it...