I've hit a point where I'm at a crossroads.
I can take a selection of my work, the Dozen plus songs I've written I'm reasonably happy with and try and learn to play all the parts properly, spend time rehearsing, re-writing and eventually recording them. Then learn to mix and produce properly. Then put them together as an album, learn to master.........market........distribute....advertise....become a one man Sony / EMI!!!
OR
Just keep writing songs.
Now I enjoy writing and being creative, but I feel that I'm only really doing half the process.
Of course we all want our songs to be heard and to as wide an audience as possible and to do that we really need to get every aspect of the song right.
1. The song must have that X factor. (You know what I mean)
2. It must be played well and with the correct groove / feel.
3. It must be recorded properly.
4. It must be mixed properly.
5. Advertising and marketing (Quote "kill yourself" Bill Hicks
)
So....how much time do I have to spend practising to get my skills in all these aspects up to the required level. Assuming I could?
OK I hear you cry....Put a band together!
Well, about 10 years ago I was in a band playing pubs. We were playing covers, but unusual stuff like Robin Trower, Rory Gallagher and Santana so it was unknown to most of the audience. It went down well, but as the Bass player pointed out..... the youngsters were looking at a band their fathers age playing music their fathers listened to!
So that options a non starter and any young band is playing their own stuff.
Now assuming I've found the band that are willing to take on my stuff, how much money do I spend on rehearsals, engineers and producers and the things I can't do right now?
OK, so I've shared.....now here's the challenge.
I've seen a couple of posts on this forum by "musicians" hiring out their talents.
So what if, on this forum, between us we could get a talent pool together. Work on the Creative Commons principle. Everyone to their talents.
Instrumentalists play, recording experts share their tips, producers produce.
Take a song and divide it up between the people best equipped to develop it and share the success pro-rata.
Look at it this way. I'm not going to pay a drummer £100 to put a drum part on one of my songs, but I'll quite happily give that same drummer 10% of the profit if that song makes money.
We have the internet. Sharing large files is not difficult. We, for the most part are amateurs, so we do what we can and no blame attached for uncompleted stuff as we all have other commitments. NO CONTRACTS NO DEMANDS, just "I'd like to do this part",or "I've an idea for this song you wrote", or "I need a piano part here" or "I liked your playing on so and so could you put something to this?".
The only rule is "MY SONG, MY DECISION, NO PREJUDICE, FAIR SHARES". You don't get paid by the hour you get paid by success and the enjoyment of being communally creative!
Now...I'm well aware that there are many issues with what I'm proposing and I welcome discussion on the detail, but as a trial......here's the BIG challenge.
Inspired by the Xmas song competition, do you think we, on this forum could get....say 6 plus songs produced to near broadcast quality......to lobby the BBC for entry into next years .......... EUROVISION?
