Day 86

Day 86: Just Because

SAD News

Very soon hopefully I’ll be able to announce some really exciting news, fingers are crossed this end that the stars align.

Also I’m very close to setting up the purchasing system so you can pre-order/buy my first album due for release in September. It’s all written, mostly recorded. I’ve got some brilliant musicians offering their time, I’m so excited I can’t breathe.

I’m in the process of designing a tiered purchase system, if you are interested in helping just pay whatever you can, totally voluntary, because the mp3’s will be available free no matter what.

I just ask one favour, if you are thinking of buying a commercial cd, which has been auto tuned, quantized, processed to the point where a computer might as well have written it, think on this.

I am a sole musician, writing a song a day because I believe I can, and I believe everyone can. Sometimes I just want to go to bed, but I force myself to stay true to the cause. I will succeed and I will create music people can relate to and like, I do it all with a guitar and a pen and nothing else. I work really really hard, and I’m broke.

I’ve been receiving really good feedback and I’m learning scads about the process of creating music. I have plans very soon to perform these songs on a regular basis, stay tuned for news on this, things are happening and building, and I’m bringing you all with me.

K

Day 79

Thanks to Kylena Vigus for sharing lyric duties with me :)

© K. Farrell, K. Vigus

Day 78 Trickery

So I used a bit of trickery in this song to combat writers block. The trick is in the last stanza, but it relates to the four previous stanzas.

There’s nothing we cannot endure if we have to
It’s sometimes hard, but often beautiful
Nothing can stop what we put our minds too
It’s just we don’t always use it for the greater good

It’s not where you live or the things you own
It’s how you live in this world
If one small change can improve someones life
We owe it to ourselves to make things right

People are hurting while we just walk bye
Sometime all it takes is a smile
To show that we care and empathise
It always takes tragedy to open our eyes

Why is there more hate then love
Do we need to have what others have got
There’s hope in my eyes, we can right our wrongs
If we work together and give ourselves

There’s nothing we cannot endure if we have to
It’s not where you live or the things you own
People are hurting while we just walk bye
Lets work together and give ourselves

Day 64

Day 64: Unnamed

Long but worth the read.

Moorook music festival is over, my three days of feeling like a rock star are over, one of the bands I’m in called it a day, which was mutual. We had fun and didn’t take ourselves seriously which was important, and I’ll always be friends and work with each of them.

My Fleetwood Mac tribute band was amazing, there was a lot of hard work put into that band and I was so proud of everyone. I’ve had euphoric moments on stage before, but never throughout a whole set.

My acoustic duo is the bees knees, I’ve never worked with someone where you can just sense what your supposed to do, and what they are doing. I swear tomorrow we could put together 20 new songs and have them learned and gig ready within minutes. I need to tap into that more.

Most of all I love Moorook for the friends I get to see, and I get to jam with. I love playing music and I love that everyone there feels the same, so now I’m home there’s a hole left. Which is why today’s song has such a melancholic feel to it.

Now that some time has freed up I have some plans for SAD, I’m learning very quickly how a song can evolve from a simple acoustic thing to a full song, how to make it work and make simple interesting. So I have a little planning and scheming to do, be scared if you are a musician and you are my friend.

I’m going to be on Adelaide Radio on Monday, I’m not sure how it will go or what Clayton has in store for me, but I promise it will be interesting, I have a lot of opinions on songwriting, on the music industry and it’s direction, and on the reasons for my SAD project. An hour is not enough.

The format is I will perform a song live, you will get to hear 3 recorded songs, and 2 songs of people who have influenced me. I’m seriously considering performing today’s song as the live song, it’s simple, it means something, and it’s one of those songs that I can’t believe I wrote. So I better go record it so you know what I’m talking about.

Spread the word, and thank you everyone for everything. Especially you!

SAD Punk Week

I had a lot of fun putting "F You" together. So I've decided that this weeks theme will be an all punk affair. Punk Rock is my genre of choice believe it or not, music that's played fast and hard appeals to me more than any other.

My favorite bands are "Rise Against", and "Black Flag", and "Frenzal Rhomb" and I could go on and on!

So I'm looking forward to writing six more hard hitting songs for your enjoyment. Can we take bets on how long it takes for me to lose my voice? I'm thinking Wednesday :)

K

Big Smoochie Thank Yous.

Thank you Kylena Vigus, Peter Vawser, Alan Carr and especially Nigel Bourn for helping me achieve something I never thought I would do. Recording my first original song.

I'm aware of the time and effort everyone has put into just this one song, in fact it's unbelievable the amount of time gone into it.

It's been a strange experience, a good kind of strange. Writing something, watching it grow, recording it and letting go of it is the most amazing experience, and unfortunately one I want to experience more of. I need to give back to my friends though, so I'm now thinking of fundraising ideas to fuel my addiction in a way that properly compensates everyone involved.

I'm thinking lamingtons...

I think I've caught a dangerous bug, watch out world.

K

http://sadforayear.net/music/HoldingOn.mp3

The birth of "Holding On"

So this weekend as well as having another successful gig with the "Special K's" The amazing acoustic duo I'm in, I also properly recorded one of my previous SAD songs with a band and everything.

Here's some history...

"Holding On" was written at 10am on a Saturday morning just before band rehearsal, the previous days I had been sick with manflu and had written some pretty dark songs. I wanted to write something a little more hopeful and uplifting. At that time it was always just another one of my SAD songs. I really wanted to sing a duet with Kylena, so I emailed her a draft recording and suggested the parts she could sing.

At rehearsal I was nervous and didn't really want to ask the guys to jam it with me but Kylena pushed it, "I never thanked her for that, so thanks Ky". We jammed it about 4 times, each time it got better. I didn't direct anyone, it was just a group of musicians, feeling the song and putting something of themselves into it. It was time to move on, and I was pretty happy how it turned out. The Birth of a song is an amazing thing to be a part of!

What came out of that little session was something I never imagined, this little ditty I wrote in an hour grew into something completely different. After posting the jam recording as the song of that day I received some really nice feedback, I can't say much other to say I received an email from someone with quite a reputation in the industry suggesting I record it properly and send it to him.

So that's what we did, with Nigel Bourn driving the desk at his fantastic room with a really high ceiling (we call it the chapel). We bashed it out. It took a lot longer to record then I thought it would, and we could have spent a lot longer on it. The end product is going to be amazing.

We are still trying to get the final mix the best we can then you can hear the end result. I'm really happy and proud of that song, yes it's a song I wrote but it became more than that the minute others contributed, and I couldn't have asked for better musicians to give part of themselves.

I honestly think "Holding On", when played acoustic just by myself sounds a lot like any of my other songs. It really starts me thinking what they would sound like with a full band behind them, but that's for another day if at all.

Stay tuned, I'll post it as soon as it's cooked all the way through.

K

Introducing Johnny Williams

I thought a good way to keep songs flowing was to every now and then run a theme. So this week for 7 days I will be writing about the life and death of Johnny Williams, a fictional creation.

I have no idea which way his life will turn, what he will do or how he will meet his demise. So anything could happen depending on the day, stay tuned and see what develops.

Last night was the first installment called “The Birth of Johnny Williams”, I’ve written it in a special way, can you tell who’s perspective the song is written in?


K

Day 24: Spain

Day 24: Spain

Day 24

I feel bad that I have Neglected Bronagh's request for a Spain inspired song. So that's the theme of todays song. I'm not sure what to think of it, so I think I will start a poll and see what the general consensus is. Maybe it will grow on me.

I'm still crook, but my voice is getting better so I gave it a work out, sure a lot of it's monotone but I tried out the vibrato and opened up my resonance. Not that you will notice with my shitty laptop mic, but I know it's there. I'm still a bit pitchy, but hey I am sick :) (No not in the head, well maybe a little.)

Day 23 WIP

Oops,

I inadvertently upset some people today regarding the Blues. To say I was put in my place was an understatement, but that's cool. I'm happy to be put in my place when people think I'm misplaced, and as such todays song will be a blues inpired song with a twist.

Coupled with the fact that I'm home ill, and in a really foul mood, you would expect this song to be easy :P

Day 22 WIP

So first of my Dropped D tuned songs coming. I don't play dropped D too often, but I decided it was time for a dark song.

Haven't written the lyrics yet. It was going to be a Bin Ladenesque song by request, but I'm over that for the moment so I'll revisit it when the juicy details get released.. I have a request for a song about Spain, and although I've never been I probably know enough to give it a crack. Zorro was from spain right? :P

I just think since I'm feeling a little poorly I'll just write a song about feeling poorly today.

Blah Laden

Ok I suppose I have to write a song about this. So I shall.

No matter what you may think of him, and he obviously masterminded an attack on American soil, he was when all is said and done a living breathing human being. Are we any better because we killed him, short answer is no. Long answer; we are no better than he was. We are as murderous as he, it's a shameful day for the human race, yet again!

So I shall write a love song!

Day 20 fun

I took inspiration for this song from Lyn Murphy who posted on my wall.

So I played around and had a bit of fun in garage band today. This is an accumulation of 4 hours work to get it to this stage. It certainly makes sense why it takes so long in a recording studio. You may find my sync is slightly off in the video, but it's as close as I could get it in the time I had.

All tracks where recorded separately, vocals where done in one take with only one slight hiccup at the beginning. I know I look like a tosser singing, but hey, that's just how I roll.

I probably wont record like this very often, it extremely time consuming, but it is quite fun. If I had more time I would have re recorded most tracks, programmed better drum fills etc. But I'm still happy with it.

Enjoy and spread the word.

Struggle Town part 1

Part 1 'cause I'm sure I'll have more.

I have band rehearsal today, I've not written any lyrics, and been shopping all morning. I have no idea when I will have time to write, play and record todays song! But I will, it will probably be a short one, and it may be later tonight. But fear not it will come!

Soon I will put the call out for ideas for songs, so stay tuned for that, it's not that I'm running out of ideas, I just think it will be fun to have some interactivity. So stay tuned, and spread the word :)

Grumpy K

Ladies and gentlemen, I couldn't care less about the royal wedding. It looks like I'm alone, as the majority of people will be watching tonight. I promise you though I will not, and in twenty years when someone asks what I was doing when William and Kate got married, I will reply "Aren't they the two that got divorced not long after and she mysteriously died in a car crash?".

Point is I don't care, but I care that people care... I really do, it's like the world has been hypnotised by two people getting married.

"But he's the future king", people will say. My reply to that is...

"So what, what does it mean to be King of England anyway, he wont have powers to do anything, he'll just live of the tax payers, visit lots of places and sound pompous".

I just don't get it, I don't understand the hype. If we put this energy into feeding the hungry, ending tyranny, or 'insert worthy cause here' then we would live in a world I would want to raise my children in. At the moment all I see is two twats getting married who will be divorced in a few years anyway. Yay us!

This is the subject of today's slightly angry song...

Day 17 WIP

One of my absolute heroes in this world is Amanda Palmer, some would know her from her work with the "Dresden Dolls". The reason I admire her so much is of course her music, but it's also the way she's used social networking to promote herself and her music. Her style is described as "Punk Cabaret", it's not for everyone, but it's different, it's real, and there's not an auto-tune in sight.

I had the pleasure not long ago of taking my daughter to one of her shows at the recent "Fringe Festival". Amanda had set up an impromptu stage out in the parklands, and just played. We heard it, recognized her immediately and rushed down to watch. Here is one person, playing a keyboard captivating an audience, most of which would have never heard her before. Most musicians would be in the green room, smoking, snorting, drinking. Not Amanda, she saw an opportunity to promote her music and jumped on it.

She finished her set so we walked up through the park to the entrance so we could go to her official show. As we reached a set of pedestrian lights there she was, waiting at the lights to cross. We where right next to her, like a meter away, and I couldn't speak. I wanted to say hello, I wanted to congratulate her on her music, and not selling out to the major record companies. I had a million things I could have said to her, I said nothing. I just stood there awestruck. An opportunity lost forever...

This is the subject of todays song.

Days like these

After a long night waiting for my turn at an 'Open mike', watching the small crowd steadily leave as they one by one have their shot, and then finally when I have my turn I precede to under perform, it's days like these I question why.

I'm not happy with my song, I'm not happy with how I performed, and I feel despondent today.

The small crowd was appreciative and I'm getting good feedback from people. Then again a punter isn't going to just come up to me and say I suck. There must be a better way to get noticed, maybe it's time to seek different 'open mikes'. I feel a strong pull of loyalty to the Gov though, maybe I'm scared of the unknown. I'll ask around about other nights and see what comes out of it.

Maybe I'm just tired from my 6 hours sleep.

Enjoy the song, spread the word.

Coming Soon

Hold 10