First of all, a belated Happy Easter to those of my readers who celebrate. Though I am a member of “the tribe”, I participated in my share of Easter egg hunts in my youth. I have a fuzzy memory of one Easter, a long time ago, when my mother hid a dozen boiled eggs in our house. After the hunt, my sister and I had found only eleven eggs. Somehow, that twelfth egg remained undiscovered for several months, until someone turned on a seldom-used lamp, and it began to stink like nothing we’d ever smelled before.
In the “enough-about-me-what-do-YOU-think-of-me” department, I recently had one of the most rewarding experiences of my songwriting career. Anybody who has heard one of my songs knows that they seriously lack proper production. All too often, when I have recorded a song I wrote, the comments from my friends have had a familiar theme: “Well, Jamie, that MIGHT be a good song, but it’s hard to tell, because you so hopelessly suck as a performer.” I think several of my songs are pretty good, but writing a good song and performing it are often two very different things. Dylan is a gifted writer, but his voice sounds like a dying moose. He can get away with that, but I need all the help I can get.
In the past, I’ve had some unsatisfactory experiences having demos produced. A demo should be a fair representation of how you want your songs to sound, but demo guys don’t always share your vision. I think that happens a lot in the arts … an artist creates something - a song, or a book, or a painting - and then some so-called expert tells him or her how to make money by changing it. Some of those experts are effective, but as often as not, they simply ruin what was once very good. One of my biggest problems with pop music today is that it represents the antithesis of creativity. It seems to me as if everything has been passed through some kind of song homogenizer … the same insipid lyrics, the same forgettable melody lines, the same synthesized drum beat, the same Mariah Carey trill-laden voices. Even rap has become pop-sanitized. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d hear some English drum machine band from the Eighties (music I used to hate) and think to myself, “Gee that didn’t sound half bad … maybe I should give Flock of Seagulls another chance!”. Whatever happened to pop anthems like Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” or Deep Purple’s “Hush” or Spirit’s “I Got a Line on You”?
Recently, I had a small hand in producing the first demo of which I am truly proud. For the first time ever, I’ve heard one of my songs played the way I’d hoped it would be performed. The best part was that I was able to watch the process from beginning to end, and to be a creative part of it. You may have heard me praise my singer/songwriter friend Bobby Cameron. He’s one of a handful of unique Canadian musician/songwriters who have so far fallen through the cracks of a myopic and fickle music industry. Luckily, with the advent of digital music and the internet, the listening public can decide for themselves. Bobby’s getting a lot of hits on his website www.bobbycameron.com and on his www.myspace.com/bobbycameron site, and I think his “buzz” may finally be building. Click on either of these sites to learn more about Bobby and to hear samples of his music. I was extremely excited when he agreed to produce a demo of several of my songs, and a few weeks ago, we just about finished the first song, entitled “Strange Holiday”. Though this is merely a demo, without all the bells and whistles of elaborate production, Bobby nailed that song, and he made me proud to have written it. It’s odd, because out of the 120+ songs I’ve written to date, “Strange Holiday” was one of the last songs I would have chosen to demo. I wrote it fifteen years ago, and I never dreamed it would come alive the way it has with Bobby’s creative influence. While recognition and compensation are generally considered to be the benchmarks of success in songwriting, I can honestly say that nothing so far in this creative process has been as satisfying as hearing a song I wrote professionally performed.
Final comments about the changing trends in the music industry: In the past month or so, Shauna and I have been exposed to some unbelievably talented artists through the Internet. With the advent of sites like MySpace.com, and YouTube, free, world-wide forums for anybody to broadcast their “story” (bio, music, writing, etc.), there are finally places on the Internet where the public can pick and choose. I hope that the enormous sums of money now being spent to promote mediocrity in pop music will eventually be diverted to promote more worthy artists, or in some way provide a suitable venue for those artists. A few months ago, I’d never heard of an Aussie guitarist named John Butler, now the John Butler Trio is one of my favorite bands, and their popularity is quickly building in the States. Their new-found fame is in large part due to Internet exposure, not to mention a brilliant live act. I think this massive cyberspace forum for alternatives to the Timberlake’s and the Puff Diddley’s will eventually level the playing field. A talented band with good songs and a good live act might now have a better chance to break the chains of anonymity. Perhaps we can even wrest the music industry market from the undeveloped hands of twelve year-olds and return it to the adults.
I hope you will give Bobby Cameron a listen; I expect to get an MP3 of “Strange Holiday” up on a site soon for any and all to hear. Long live the Internet!
Happy Easter … and remember, find all of those eggs, or you’ll be sorry!
–Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
In the “enough-about-me-what-do-YOU-think-of-me” department, I recently had one of the most rewarding experiences of my songwriting career. Anybody who has heard one of my songs knows that they seriously lack proper production. All too often, when I have recorded a song I wrote, the comments from my friends have had a familiar theme: “Well, Jamie, that MIGHT be a good song, but it’s hard to tell, because you so hopelessly suck as a performer.” I think several of my songs are pretty good, but writing a good song and performing it are often two very different things. Dylan is a gifted writer, but his voice sounds like a dying moose. He can get away with that, but I need all the help I can get.
In the past, I’ve had some unsatisfactory experiences having demos produced. A demo should be a fair representation of how you want your songs to sound, but demo guys don’t always share your vision. I think that happens a lot in the arts … an artist creates something - a song, or a book, or a painting - and then some so-called expert tells him or her how to make money by changing it. Some of those experts are effective, but as often as not, they simply ruin what was once very good. One of my biggest problems with pop music today is that it represents the antithesis of creativity. It seems to me as if everything has been passed through some kind of song homogenizer … the same insipid lyrics, the same forgettable melody lines, the same synthesized drum beat, the same Mariah Carey trill-laden voices. Even rap has become pop-sanitized. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d hear some English drum machine band from the Eighties (music I used to hate) and think to myself, “Gee that didn’t sound half bad … maybe I should give Flock of Seagulls another chance!”. Whatever happened to pop anthems like Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” or Deep Purple’s “Hush” or Spirit’s “I Got a Line on You”?
Recently, I had a small hand in producing the first demo of which I am truly proud. For the first time ever, I’ve heard one of my songs played the way I’d hoped it would be performed. The best part was that I was able to watch the process from beginning to end, and to be a creative part of it. You may have heard me praise my singer/songwriter friend Bobby Cameron. He’s one of a handful of unique Canadian musician/songwriters who have so far fallen through the cracks of a myopic and fickle music industry. Luckily, with the advent of digital music and the internet, the listening public can decide for themselves. Bobby’s getting a lot of hits on his website www.bobbycameron.com and on his www.myspace.com/bobbycameron site, and I think his “buzz” may finally be building. Click on either of these sites to learn more about Bobby and to hear samples of his music. I was extremely excited when he agreed to produce a demo of several of my songs, and a few weeks ago, we just about finished the first song, entitled “Strange Holiday”. Though this is merely a demo, without all the bells and whistles of elaborate production, Bobby nailed that song, and he made me proud to have written it. It’s odd, because out of the 120+ songs I’ve written to date, “Strange Holiday” was one of the last songs I would have chosen to demo. I wrote it fifteen years ago, and I never dreamed it would come alive the way it has with Bobby’s creative influence. While recognition and compensation are generally considered to be the benchmarks of success in songwriting, I can honestly say that nothing so far in this creative process has been as satisfying as hearing a song I wrote professionally performed.
Final comments about the changing trends in the music industry: In the past month or so, Shauna and I have been exposed to some unbelievably talented artists through the Internet. With the advent of sites like MySpace.com, and YouTube, free, world-wide forums for anybody to broadcast their “story” (bio, music, writing, etc.), there are finally places on the Internet where the public can pick and choose. I hope that the enormous sums of money now being spent to promote mediocrity in pop music will eventually be diverted to promote more worthy artists, or in some way provide a suitable venue for those artists. A few months ago, I’d never heard of an Aussie guitarist named John Butler, now the John Butler Trio is one of my favorite bands, and their popularity is quickly building in the States. Their new-found fame is in large part due to Internet exposure, not to mention a brilliant live act. I think this massive cyberspace forum for alternatives to the Timberlake’s and the Puff Diddley’s will eventually level the playing field. A talented band with good songs and a good live act might now have a better chance to break the chains of anonymity. Perhaps we can even wrest the music industry market from the undeveloped hands of twelve year-olds and return it to the adults.
I hope you will give Bobby Cameron a listen; I expect to get an MP3 of “Strange Holiday” up on a site soon for any and all to hear. Long live the Internet!
Happy Easter … and remember, find all of those eggs, or you’ll be sorry!
–Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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