I love experimenting! Musically of course, but not exclusively. Ever restless I love trying something new, learning different things and enhancing my existence in this realm. If this also enables others to enjoy a moment, it enlarges my dopamine levels a thousand fold.
So, what's this ol' codger on about this time? Well, once again I've 'nicked' some drum stems from Emily Dolan Davies, you know, the drummer on ITV's The Voice Kids, tours with Kim Wilde and plays with Roxy Music among others. What I love to do is 'set her drums going' while I'm sat at the piano and see what 'comes out'.
Well, this time this did. It's a bluesy, rocky, dancey sort of thing using minor chords, a synthy echoey lead at the end and in the middle me actually singing (I use the term very loosely). In order to do this, having absolutely no confidence as a singer, I had to delve into my inner Elvis (which I'm sure everyone has), which is plainly evident as you will hear.
So what do I 'sing' about? I had no idea when I set the backing track going and stood in front of the mic. But what came out obviously reflected what was on my mind at the time, probably inspired by the Joe Rogan podcasts I'd been watching. All of a sudden I questioned our perception of reality and asked the listener to contemplate the idea of what our brain tells us through our senses may not actually be the reality of the universe around us, just its interpretation. The concept of the only thing I know to be real for certain is me, all perception is an illusion. Then the line from Gershwin's 'Porgy and Bess', or was it Bronski Beat, came into my head 'it ain't necessarily so', out it came and it seemed to scan.
So, I had a finished song. I sent it to Emily who gave it her blessing. Emily is so nice, she was in a hectic shooting schedule for The Voice Kids but found time to listen and email me back. Emily is a star! Thank you Emily!
Emily's drum website is here: https://emilydrums.com
So, enough waffling here's the track:
I hope you enjoyed it. Look out for its release on streaming platforms on the 24th of March.
Thanks for reading!
