john

Why this album? Why now? Fairytales and Fears is in many ways a reaction to my previous album (Paper Thunderstorm). That album had more people involved, and and co-ordinating everything added time and a bit stress to every stem, so it was released nearly two years after I had originally planned. I kept writing songs through all of that, partly to stay sane! Have you enjoyed the process of making the album? I loved making this album, from start to finish. Part of that was the flexibility of doing more things myself. But also the style of the music was something I really needed: time to think, time for introspection. Even the more energetic songs come from that same place - Carcassonge's inspiration came while playing board games with family, and Lazarus by leaving a job that was stressing me out. Where was it recorded? I recorded the whole thing at home. I don't have a fancy studio setup, I have a small collection of kit that I like and that feels familiar (a Zoom H6, an AKG C1000S, and a pair of Rode NT1-As). A studio engineer could tell me all the ways the sound could be improved, and when I get a dedicated music space next year I'll put all that into practice - but for this project, I was happy to just use what I had. Was anyone else involved in writing, recording or producing the songs? It wasn't a completely solo effort - the most obvious element is the cello featured on four of the tracks, which was performed by Alison Berry. My sister also co-wrote the lyrics to Carcassonge, and that was a really good collaboration. What has been most challenging? The most challenging bit was probably recording the vocals, but not for reasons I expected. I was in the first few months of a new job, which was a bit tiring - it turns out most steps I could still do while a bit tired, but performing vocals wasn't as forgiving. Do you have a favourite song on the album? It's hard to pick a favourite song from the album, but there's definitely one which is the most personal. I Just Know is the closest to a classic love song I've written, and it's still a little apocalyptic. However, it was inspired very genuinely by my partner - and even though I'm really happy with how it came out on the album, the truest version was the one I performed at our wedding. A close second is Good Examples, which is about my problems with the rules of conventional masculinity. Will you be gigging or touring? I've only fairly recently been putting proper effort into getting my music and my name out there. I realised that I want to share it, that I want people to enjoy it, so I'm straying outside of my comfort zone (which is creating music) and trying to perform more. One of the goals of this album was to create songs which I could plausibly perform live by myself. Would you have any advice for would-be artists or songwriters wanting to follow in your footsteps? I'm not sure what advice I could give for anyone else making music. I spent most of my time doing only what felt natural - that's not really a good route to building an audience who will appreciate what you're doing, though! So I guess the only advice I'd have is: get yourself out there earlier than I did. Make sure someone knows your name, even if at first it's just as "the person who performed after me a that open-mic night yesterday". Where can your album be bought? Fairytales and Fears is on Bandcamp, Spotify, Amazon Music, and many other online services. View full interview

Who are your main musical influences? Tori Amos, Bjork, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Elliot Smith, Bright Eyes, Fiona Apple, Radiohead Which of your own songs is your favorite? Sonnet. It’s a more recent one and I feel like it has the perfect blend sweetness and complexity. It has some borrowed elements from an early song of mine that I had put away, so it was nice to bring that one back out and re-write it into something more solid and (hopefully) timeless. What are your musical plans for 2017-2018? I’ll be working mostly with my bands to get more music written, recorded, and submitted into catalogs for licensing. I hope to have an album’s worth of songs recorded for distribution for each band by the end of 2018, along with my own solo EP of 5 songs I’ve been trying to get professionally recorded. If you could pass on a nugget of wisdom to the next musical generation, what would it be? If you want to play music for a living, start early and don’t let yourself get sidetracked with other things. Life is fast and before you know it you’ll be in your 30’s wondering what happened to your 20s…that important decade is when you make a lot of important life decisions, and while it seems like it will last forever, it actually doesn't. Surprise! Does being a member of Songstuff help you with your music? Yes, immensely! I’ve gotten incredibly honest and detailed feedback that I haven’t found anywhere else. In my experience, family members and friends generally don’t have much constructive to say, because they don’t care or don’t want to hurt your feelings. I was able to use Songstuff to get valuable tips that have helped me expand my own skills, to know what works and what doesn’t, and to move forward from that. It has also helped me to listen better to other musicians. Part of the trade-off of joining Songstuff is that if you want constructive feedback, you need to listen and give valuable feedback to others. The reciprocity is incredibly valuable. I have learned not only from the feedback of others, but also from being compelled to construct my own feedback by listening better to detail and examining other people's music in a way I wouldn’t normally. View full interview

Hey Gang It’s great to see you getting stuck in to this subject! It has cheered me up no end. I’ve deliberately stayed away to let the topic evolve relatively organically. It’s also heartening to see a good number of ideas the staff have been looking at being examined, and refreshing to see a few we haven’t discussed. I drafted a long post but I want to give it a little thought before I post it. It has much about strategy and direction in it... and some ideas we have been working on that pull together some of the stuff you talk about here... I can happily confirm, the site needs money lol Much of what mentioned is being talked about with staff, but you have also brought up some interesting perspectives and some great ideas we had not thought of The site needs a make over, some re-branding and a coordinated campaign. We need help. Clubs are ideal for the open mic and a member run mosh pit. Also for genre based activity. Clubs give you the ability to create a membership with it’s own forum, blog, calendar and gallery etc. There are 4 levels of visibility from fully public to private (except mods can see what is going on). We have been talking of pod casts and radio station for some time. Your comments and ideas are still appreciated and useful, The Showcase board is an easy one. I will maybe break some of these discussions into their own topics. We lack legal expertise regarding broadcasting, and selling your music in our shop (yes we have a shop being built ) We need funds. We need staff, site volunteers, and a willingness among regulars to take part and to support initiatives. We need broader community support, and a degree of trust. Songstuff has never been about selling the idea of fame, but we do want to improve knowledge, understanding, etc. Importantly, I want the site to make a big difference in helping members achieve better results. That could be regarding songwriting, production, or in finding fans, or making a living from music. I think this site gives a lot for free. It, I, ask almost nothing. If we work together to make Songstuff better for all of us, that is far better than us pulling against each other. We should include you, our members, more in ongoing developments and ideas. Yes, there is a larger vision, some of you may know some of it, if not all, and yes it could be outlined here. Many individual suggestions I think could happily be discussed here on a public board and there is no issue with everyone and anyone knowing. But the details of other aspects of discussions would definitely be better kept to a more private platform for now, even if only to stop our competitor sites getting a hold of some awesome ideas! Lol Regarding the Songstuff community, I would far rather we were in it together than fostered an us and them mentality. Cheers John

Hi Newosqie, welcome to Songstuff!

Hey Janice Good to have you aboard! Where are you based?

I thought I should just say that

Can I also point out that until Tim's post ONE member, Mike, had left. I am not even sure why. Rudi, the second member in question, is taking a break, we know not how long. He may be back he may not. I would prefer neither to have left, but I can't do anything about that. Neither member raised an issue about the community with me. Not a word. Not leading up to Mike's departure, or leading up to Rudi's break. Neither has contacted me since. I don't feel it my place to go chasing them for an explanation either. Tim, I am probably guilty of clicking on links you post and not responding... in truth I rarely get to respond, because 1) my time tends to be greatly limited and 2) I tend to write books, not posts. Feeling unappreciated sucks. I tend to think a number of members feel like that about the site. They appreciate individual members while not appreciating or valuing what makes that relationship possible. Indeed, going by some member's attitudes a few months ago, some feel entitled. I was screamed at (literally) because I changed a few things to try and respond to regularly reported issues by making some changes. I only recently opened up donations, as you know, and I have my own crap going on in my life.... so it was like a slap in the face. It really hurt at the time. But people are people, forums or not. I happen to think our members are generally pretty damn good alll in. Members move on. New ones join. I have no idea why Mike left, and no rel idea why it had such an effect on Rudi. Tom had stepped down... but not left, though maybe he thought abut it.... here he is. A few months ago Hobosage left... and he's back. Mike? I can't guess. Honestly, much as I would like all to stick around and enjoy the place... I know our community is generally good, but it can't be all things, to all people, all the time. That is an expectation nothing can fulfil. The thing is, I know most members are not like as unappreciative as the very, very few but very, very loud entitled screamers of a few months ago. I know many value what they get in this community. I know they value the relationships they have here. I know many have stuff going on in life, some worse than others at any one point. Sometimes that boils over, and sometimes it is the familiar and the close that gets it in the neck. Sometimes we all make easy targets. Most members value the site and the relationships they make here, far more than they have told me, or let on to each other. As said before, we get out of a community what we put into it. Tim, you may feel neglected at times, but you have also had some very genuine and very meaningful interactions here. You have put a lot into Songstuff over the piece, but reading your post you sound as down on yourself as any individual or indeed the community. If you need to talk, hit me up. Just like I don't go talking about my own woes to everyone, I try not to dwell on those of others either. I don't think that is why people come here. They come to talk to friends, sure, but they mainly come to talk about their passion. Making music. It isn't that I don't have time for you. I barely have time for myself. It isn't that I don't respond to you, anymore than I respond to myself. That said, I must need to make a better effort. I go back to my point earlier. One member has left that we know of. Let's not make it what it isn't. An avalanche. As mentioned by others, we are making changes to the community. Hopefully you guys will be on board. Members are becoming more involved in the site... and that helps free me up, and helps develop new interesting, valuable things for our community. Let's not talk the community down, or put it out it's perceived misery. We have something good here, something with potential, something that most members do value. Can we not just enjoy it and make the most of it? You guys seem to be saying that is what you want. just my two cents. Can we get back to our music? Please say yes.

Well, once, but we made up

Hi and welcome to Songstuff

Welcome to Songstuff! Dive right in

Hey gang I thought I would start by asking a few questions about song form: How would you rate your knowledge of song forms? Do they have any bearing at all to your writing process? Do you use knowledge of song forms to help guide your decisions? If you do, do you do so formally, or are you just vaguely aware of the restrictions a form uses? Do you know the most common song form you use? If so, what is it?

Hey BC, welcome to Songstuff! An enthusiastic intro, and a great set of influences! Advice? You get out of a community in proportion to what you put into it, So dive right in! Be active, encourage activity and interaction. Critique wise, I firmly believe writers get more from offering critique than from posting their songs for critique, though a good balance of both gives great perspective, and plenty opportunities to learn. Make critique a discussion, not just a set of comments. The best critique has observations, analysis and explained opinions (positive and negative) followed by advice. Keep it about the song, not the writer. Lastly, I would say have fun with it. Cheers John

Hey Jody Welcome to Songstuff

If only!

After review this is now: Showcase Request 20 posts to post your own work. No restriction to reply to someone else’s post. Collection Board 1 previous post, to allow you to create your own topic. There is no restriction on replying

I will be contacting the Gibson/Cakewalk technical director tomorrow, and seeing what I can find out about future direction. Assuming he tells me anything, I will share what I can I was supposed to be reviewing the latest Cakewalk products! Doh!

Actually your post was moved (along with all the rest) to the Collections board, which is for members to showcase their work to fellow members, while the main showcase board will be used for commercial standard releases that the site will showcase. This was how most members were using the showcase board. When we created the board it was created by duplicating the settings of the Showcase Request board (also a new board, just created first. Your song was originally posted to the old showcase board.). The board is meant to be 30 posts before a topic can be made there. The collection board is supposed to be 5. The setting has been updated so you should be able to see your topic and respond. Sorry for the confusion and inconvenience. The new Showcase board is to all intents and purposes a new board too. We are looking at the potential of a radio show to showcase the.seletced songs. Not all reuqests for showcase will be approved. The need for approval based on quality was also always the intention of the original showcase board, just like submitting a work to be showcased on any magazine or radio show... submission is not a guarantee of being showcased. Meanwhile “Collections” will function to showcase those collections to fellow members. We might make it open to public at some point depending on member input. I and other staff will be going through previous showcase submissions and collections board posts such that individual selected songs will either go to the member only showcase request board, the showcase board itself, or where it is a collection post, it will remain on the collection board. Only staff can put something on the showcase board itself. This gives us a board that fulfils the way members were using the board (collections board) and the way it was planned to be (the showcase board itself) The mistake and the lack of communication were down to me having to deal with a number of unplanned things (including taking my father to hospital, which trumps anything I had planned) I will also update the board descriptions to make this clearer. Sorry again!

Sorry a couple of things moved about... tha5 might be the problem.... I will look int9 it

Hey If you happen to have time and interest infinding out what you should be doing before you post finished songs to the internet on your music site, cd baby etc... What To Do Before Posting Your Songs On The Internet The post is pretty old, I will update it asap! Comments here or there (or both!) are very welcome. Please like my page on Facebook and subscribe to my blog! Many Thanks!

Hi Just as a quick reference: US Copyright Laws and Forms Copyright Basics Title 17, Chapter 1, § 114 of the US Copyright Law (First section is about sound recordings) http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#114 Registering Sound Recordings http://www.copyright.gov/register/sound.html Download interactive copyright registration form PDFs http://www.copyright.gov/forms/ Copyright Registration for Derivative Works The two PDFs above are from the “Circulars” section of the US copyright site: https://www.copyright.gov/circs/

Typical icons. Randy Fumbles, Sounds like a porn star lol

They were always on the page... just at the bottom!