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Aidy - Songwriting Thread
Hey I'm currently writing and recording a new song each week for a year, started on the 1st Jan. Here's this weeks:
Why Aren't You Happy Why aren't you happy? Aren't you happy anymore? You used to be so understanding But now these dragons are just falling on the floor It seems you seem to care about These things you never cared about You never seemed to care about before Do you remember? When everybody used to call you by your name? Right before your anger Started to manifest itself into your pain We drove to hospital We ran the last few yards Whilst you complained of pins and needles in your arm You can have a listen to the song itself at www.Aidy.com it's in the 'Song A Week' section :-) |
Interesting idea. I would definetly do it too if I had the space/time.
I listened to it on your website and I absolutely loved this song, by the way. |
Cheers for a feedback Conan :-) here's this weeks song:
Stupidity This is the end of progress This is the end of you This is the end of everything that came to be, was true Hello stupidity, my best friend How have you been? I didn't think I'd see you here again But as the wheels touched down, you set me on the ground And left me on the runway once again I tried to walk away this time I didn't know you'd wanna fly I was left alone here to pretend Early stands in 73 I know how hard the jail can be The towers fell in total sympathy You're self obsessed, sarcastic, though your heart's enthusiastic I don't think I like you anymore Suicide seemed too extreme Makes you want to be like me I don't think I like you anymore Hello stupidity my friend You left me on the runway once again Once again you can download the track from Aidy.com in the Song A Week section. |
Not Your Day
Well there's a monkey in my pocket
And he's biting chunks off me And along with this commotion There's bullets raining down on me But I'll go through all the motions If you pay me twice the price It's all about the money man so hey It's just not your day Well I know this girl called Jenny And she's waiting there for me She's tied up in a back room And they torture her for me Check out the recording here |
Killing God
It won't be long
We're nearly half way there Walk like an animal To hold an animal's stare Thinking it thru We'll turn it all around You do it right It won't make a sound Oh, what's that? Did your morals come flying back? I can't do it Carrying on We're going two by two Into a cloud on the outskirts We're doing fine by you Guns in the back I never felt this way Tamboring logic and genius Lost in the haze Listen to it here |
Hi Aidy,
I listened to these four songs of yours and enjoyed them! You're already on week 19, I see, and keeping your pace up, or perhaps I should say just focusing your usual creative output into these music releases. It's nice you offer them for free. I listened to "Not Your Day" first because I was curious about the monkey in the pocket biting chunks off you. Your lyrics tend to be rather surrealistic, I think, although "Why aren't you happy" makes sense to me. I like the sound of your songs, but agree with what you wrote about the songs: "The more I do this project, the less I seem to actually understand what my songs are about." That amused me, but I also felt the same listening to the songs. I think if some of your lyrics made more sense (to me) then your songs would work even better, because the meaning of the words and the sound of the songs would work synergistically together. I listen to the songs and enjoy them, but when they are done I think, what was that all about? So my mind isn't fully satisfied. My favorite of these four is "Killing God," since I like the line that sounds sarcastic to me: "Oh, what's that? Did your morals come flying back?"--and I like the sound of the song very much, especially the instrumental section with distortion in the middle of the piece. I just wish I understood more of the song. Even when I cast through my mind for metaphorical interpretations of some of the lines in "Killing God," I end up with a blank, though I can come up with some ideas. For example, maybe the second verse that begins, "Carrying on," means people just live their lives without introspection. Then you use a Biblical Noah's ark reference, perhaps to suggest people just do what they feel they need to do, which the gun in the back could represent, but that you (the singer) never felt content with this. Then I don't know what the word "tamboring" means so I get confused. I still enjoyed the songs very much and plan to listen to more. Like Conan said, your project is an interesting one. You must be having a lot of fun doing this! |
Hey Vegangelica,
Thanks for taking the time to listen and give me all that feedback! That word you asked about, I think you may be referring to the phrase 'tamborine logic' it just came out of mouth, and I really liked the way it sounded in the sentence, so I left it in there, I almost start to make senseof the songs after I've written them. I'm combining a lot of scratch lyrics with some literal stuff, which is making the songs more abstract and sometimes it's easier to write about personal things in a more abstract manner. Though if the meaning to anything in particular is bugging you then feel free to ask, and I'll do my best to explain any weirdness. Either on here, or drop me an email via my site. Thanks again :-) |
Thought I'd have a go at writing a happy song that makes some kind of logical sense, as a song writing exercise, and I came up with the possibly bland notion of someone walking home from work and enjoying the experience so much he "smiles" I'm not that enamoured with this one, but here you go:
SMILE I smile For the 3 mile Walk home everyday, half five, sun or rain I smile There's happiness in solitude I'm walking all alone I'm walking out the office and I'm switching off my phone If anybody wants me they can get me when I'm home But for fifteen little minutes I just want to be alone The sun is always shining In the corner of my mind Past dilapidated buildings, they're collapsing over time Another boring work day, where I'm treated so unfair But for fifteen little minutes, I just don't care I'm walking over crossings And I'm turning at the lights Walking down the high street, where I spend my drunken nights I start to reminisce, when I was 16 I came here every weekend with a fake id You can listen to it here |
I couldn't open up the song on my computer without changing security settings, Aidy, so I'll wait to listen until I get on another computer.
I thought the lyrics were cute because they *are* describing something so simple and commonplace. I like the way the lyrics end with the fake id memory. Including that little bit of personal trivia amused me and makes the song sound even more real. Also, I like the image of the dilapidated buildings. Wait. A 3 mile walk. Doesn't that take an hour?! That's a pretty long walk if the person goes to and from work on foot, an hour one way. ;) Maybe the person carpools to get to work, and so just has to walk home. "High street" sounds so...so...Cambridge. Your walks there are definitely more pleasant than my city walks, I bet. |
After I wrote it I did actually realise that 3 miles should take longer to walk, but then thought "oh well, no one'll" notice. How wrong I was ;-)
Cambridge is a great city to walk thru, although I drive to work. |
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Speed of the Fastest Human, Walking (I converted m/s to miles/hour to discover this! I fear I *am* the "no one" who will notice these sorts of things in lyrics! :D ) |
Well, I love the fact that you've noticed and that you've gone to the effort of converting in order to make sense of the whole thing :-)
This weeks song is about Mario Kart, I wrote it for my friend Hodge who actually now has the world's fastest ever lap time on The Rainbow Road, so this song is actually built for speed ;-) HODGE PLAYS MARIO KART Hodge Plays Mario Kart! On the S N E S He doesn't like to leave his flat He doesn't like to socialize, talk, chat He just sits alone in a darkened room With the curtains draw, to a beeping tune He likes to rattle round the Rainbow Road Bowser, Amber, Accelerate, Go! He likes to get his special start He doesn't like the other games He doesn't ever want to upgrade He walks his dog on a bit of string He drinks Skol, and he loves to binge On Tommy Tucker's Donner Kebabs He likes to get his special start You can hear it here |
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You wrote about the song at your website: "I'm also attempting bland pop songs with no naughty words. Here's one I knocked up this week." Ha ha! I did think this one was a little bland, one reason perhaps being that it had no bridge (it just had the chorus and verses), so it didn't have a change within it to break up the song. (Still, it was a very nice song...I enjoyed it.) Hmmm...*have* you up to now been doing non-bland pop songs with naughty words? ;) Which ones are those? I'll have to make sure to listen to those... :D I did very much like the instrumental section near the end before the repeated chorus. You create a nice, resonant feeling with your songs...but they aren't cluttered with too many different melodic lines, if that makes sense. They stay interesting because there are enough changes and overlapping in the instrumentals, but the songs still have a light feel to them. I also noticed your "accent" more clearly for the first time, which of course wouldn't be an accent to you but is to me. Sometime I should create a song in a fake British accent just for fun, because it does sound neat, *I* think. Usually I can't hear the accent when people from England sing songs...but I could hear it in yours. I think you did some gutteral stops, such as in "dilapida'ed" and "li'ul" (for "little"). And I think you said "wi" instead of "with." Interesting. Is that a typical accent for your location? I'd like to hear you sing a song with a fake American accent. I'll listen to your next one now! "Hodge Plays Mario Kart" -- now, the previous song was unintentionally about a world-record walker ;) and this is about your world-record Mario Kart player friend! I like the liveliness of the song and the yihees and yipees! Nice driving beat. It sounds as if you are often using some audio effect that kind of mechanizes your voice a little in your songs. Which audio effect are you using? Is it chorus with reverb plus something else? What is the something else? Are you just cutting out some frequencies? Again, I like the variety of sounds you use in your songs, which help the songs sound different from each other. Say, if haven't watched Schmidti's "Hippy Bike" song, you might enjoy that! It's also a song about a funny, odd topic. Aidy, have you done a serious song with clean vocals...that is, very few effects, just a little reverb? You seem to like a more alternative sound rather than, say, singing like Celine Dion (*not* my favorite singer). But have you tried doing say, an R&B song or a soul song, just for fun? What about a classical sounding song? Maybe that would feel too constraining, since I imagine you just want to do songs that sound like *your* songs and not intentionally like anybody else's. |
Yeah, I know what you mean about the lack of a bridge, I struggled to come up with anything and due to the deadlines I've imposed on myself, it went out the door without one, although saying that, without the deadline it probably wouldn't have even got this far ;-)
If you want to hear one of the songs with more naughty words check out Charlie Brown or 10 Trafalgar Rd, which you can see here: YouTube - AidyMusic's Channel the video actually got on TV in the UK. I think a fake British accent would go well with your songs, you remind me a little bit of a guy I know called Steve Bradshaw who used to play in a band called Warmed Up Cold, I've just forwarded him a link to your MySpace in fact, he does a lot of folky stuff. I think my accent is fairly typical for where I'm, just on the outskirts of London, but I'll let you know if I branch out into RnB or attempting an American accent :-) Vocal effects wise, I just play around with random effects until I find something I like, in general I have EQ, Compression, reverb. Sometimes I twiddle the EQ so my voice has that telepone effect, like in the Mario Kart song and I also normally double up my vocals too. How about you? What kind of recording set up are you using, seems like you're a bit of a multi-instrumentalist? |
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I had difficulty hearing the "naughty" words in 10 Trafalgar Rd...or perhaps I was distracted by the amusing pictures of toilet-bowel cleaning and nose-hair clipping ;)...but I could definitely see your affinity for what we prudes call the "f-word" in Charlie Brown! Quote:
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Let's see...I'm using a Tascam US-1641 audio interface, which I like because it has more than 8 inputs, so I can mic my drums with six microphones (or more, if I wished). Now I'll be all set to record them well with only my lack of proficiency and imagination as the things holding me back! Oh, yes, I guess I am a multi-instrumentalist, though that doesn't mean I play the instruments with great skill! The only instrument I feel very comfortable with is the violin, since I've been playing that since I was 8. And I play the clarinet but am out of practice. My favorite instrument is the electric guitar, which I started playing 1 1/2 years ago. Mmm. :) Happy day it is when I play! Again, I don't necessarily play well (I read an "Electric Guitar for Dummies" book and watched a few youtube videos as my training)...but I love playing and experimenting to find different chords. What are you doing for the drums for your weekly songs, Aidy? I see when you perform you have a drum player, but what about for your solo songs? |
Well, for recording all the drums are done mainly in Reason, or I'll borrow a drummer if I'm venturing into a studio :-)
Live I'm kind of like a revolving door band, and I surround myself with random musician friends, when I need to do the whole band thing, otherwise it's just me and my acoustic guitar. And here's todays song :-) Simple Song I've got these trainers with a tick They're nearly 10 years old I only wear them when it's raining outside They're the only ones without holes Next to them there's a vacuum with nearly 15 days worth of filth It's my housemates turn to empty that thing But I'll just do it myself In the lounge there's a big TV I don't like it that much It's the death of all conversation The unsociable touch I spend most of my time in the front room of this house I've got this little wooden man and he's carrying a wooden cow Next to my bed there's a clock And it makes my girlfriend shout It beeps every hour on the hour So I had to take the batteries out Under that there's a big pile of books And I'd read them if I could But after spending all day on computer screens My eyes don't work so good I spend most of my time in the front room of this house I've got this picture of Oasis and they're sitting on a comfortable couch There's an indoor pond downstairs That I don't understand It was left there by an architect With some grandiose plan At the bottom of the stairs theres a mirror In circle on the wall It was left there by the architect And it looks pretty cool You can listen to it here And if you want to see a cheap video featuring the items I'm singing about you can see that here |
Experimenting with more "universal lyrics" at the moment, writing about heartbreak and deep feelings is fairly difficult when you don't really feel that way, and songs of this nature normally make me cringe, but like they say, it's good to leave your comfort zone once in a while ;-) Oh yeah, I also wanted to have a third verse where everything kind of resolves itself!
Pain in my heart She stood up, I sat down I said what's wrong with you now? Cos you're not saying anything, and I don't know what to do So she started to speak She said are you the devil? I said what? Cos you don't feel anything You don't seem to feel anything And I've got this pain in my heart I've got this pain in my heart She stood proud, I stood low I don't want you to go Cos I feel everything, and I know that's news to you I've got feelings and stuff I've got a heartbeat and blood That pumps through my veins Doesn't that make us the same? She said let me explain Blood don't make us the same If you feel it inside, then you've got to confide In my heart and in my soul Not because you've been told But because you love me And because you need me You can have a listen to it here |
Having myself a little rest, and back to my comfort zone of obscure lyrics and naughty words.
Magazines You're backed into a corner About to hit the floor The life you want, you've half forgot But you always wanted more And now you're feeling lonely And you're working everyday Everybody wants to **** you But no one wants to stay I'll love you like a sister If that's all that you want But everybody's happy And I want one more song And now you're feeling lonely Yeah, you're lonely like before But now you know what love it It's in that magazine you baught You're still feeling lonely And the pain won't go away It's time for you to end it In that old familiar way You can have a listen to it here |
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I liked the naughty lyrics up to the point where the bold ends, when I felt the loneliness part took over and the descent to suicide seemed more trite than I expected. I enjoyed the acoustic guitar in the song, which was mellower than many of yours. Given the suicide, I felt the song's ending was fitting, since it just stopped with the last word. A tiny correction in your lyrics: the spelling of "baught" should be "bought," unless you Brits spell even more oddly than I thought you did! ;) By the way, congratulations on being halfway through your project's year. My vote is also that obsession-compulsion may be at work. ;) However, I prefer to call it a "great attention span" whenever I so choose to label myself. Oh, and I made a guess about Gimpy's dancing!! I hope I win the big bucks. |
We don't spell it any differently in the UK, it's just poor spelling on my part ;-)
I actually didn't realise it was about a suicide until you just mentioned it, the song was made up of scratch lyrics, but it "time for you to end it" does make it sound like that. That's really quite bleak! Thanks for the congrats, sorry you didn't win, maybe next time! |
Fallen
I saw your clothes and I saw your car Racked it up added APR You wear a fur coat and a diamond ring But you don’t own a god damn thing You spent it all You smoked, drank and drove it all And your friends they watched you fall Designer labels and a Rolex watch You’re a cliché in a world that’s not You can’t see the effects of sin The ice is breaking it’s wearing thin You spent it all You smoked, drank and drove it all And your friends they watched you fall You spent it all You smoked, drank and drove it all And your friends they watched you fall Midnight phone call and a kicked in door You’re outnumbered and you’re knocked to the floor A twisted knife blade and a blow to your head It won’t be long now you’ll soon be dead You spent it all You smoked, drank and drove it all And your friends they watched you fall You spent You Smoked You drank You drove And your friends they watched you fall Click here to listen |
Aidy, I listened to "Fallen" and it was nice, but THEN I listened to "Smoke Rings"...Ha Ha! And that one appealed to me much more. You do bizarre well, you quirky person. ;) Poor Carrie! Poor upset Stuart! My, Stuart has a very high voice! God's participation in the song was an added bonus.
I wonder...what would God have in store for someone who fakes the god's voice in a silly song about resurrecting a rotting corpse who likes to hug? |
I think God would be okay with it ;-) Haven't posted any lyrics recently, so here's one about ambition, with plenty of rhyming couplets.
Race Cars I've got too much time left on my hands That's okay though, you know I've got plans I really wanna be a race car driver I wanna drive those cars Or maybe move to Hollywood Become an agent to the stars I've got all these dreams inside my head Hope that some of them come true before I'm dead Cos I really wanna be a race driver I wanna drive those cars Or maybe be an astronaut And fly to space and maybe visit Mars Or maybe I'll just sit here at my desk, and watch the world go past Cos even though I wanna be a race car driver, I'll never drive those cars Have a listen to it here. |
^ I love the lush sound of the instrumentals, Aidy! And the banjo (?) strumming. Real banjo? Niiiice. The sound of the song is more serious than I expected from the lyrics...it makes them feel a little more meaningful than I expected.
Your lyrics made me expect pure humor, especially because of the last two lines: Quote:
Some examples of Jack Handey's "deep" thoughts that remind me of yours: "The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw." "If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let ‘em go, because, man, they're gone." "If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting." And here you can watch some others to get the full effect!: |
Wow, I really liked Race Cars a lot. Really good stuff.
Your voice reminds me of someone, but I can't quite put my finger on just who that is. I like it, though. I'll go back and listen to some more of your stuff, because it sounds really great to me. Well done! |
Cheers Phanastasio, appreciate the kind word! You may be thinking of Billy Corgan, I seem to get that comparison fairly often.
Loving the Deep thoughts Vegangelica, especially the Disney Land one. Here's this weeks song, something slightly more poppy! Make It Happen The only thing that I ever did wrong and I won’t try to hide it And so we walk from the sunset and you said I know that I like it Why did you do it? Why did you do it to this one? I’ll get you through it I’ll get you through it again, but If you really want it You’ve gotta make it happen The only mistake that you’ll ever make is the chances you don’t take Live your life day by day, till you know that it’s too late Hold your breath till your face turns blue and then jump in the deep end Swim around for a lap or two and I’ll call you my friend You can have a listen to it here |
Okay, I actually put out a Facebook and Twitter post asking people to come up with random lyrics, and then put them all together to make the following song, check out the video of it here: YouTube - Aidy.com Video Blog #40 - Dustpan Love
Dustpan Love I was killed by Karma But I see by touch I'm a creep but it's just another phase For a pure black manequin Isn't that how David Bowie used to write Or maybe, it's just another Halycon dream Karmadillo beat me up last Thursday Now I'm feeling rough And all I really wanted was a touch Of dustpan love Then my chiropodist said no to glee So I killed a man with VBV Mud pies, in Heathrow once again Olu's gonna clean it Guess I should've seen it Stilgoe was the greatest man I've ever known But I lost him to a 404 I was wrapped in velvet But I'm in full view Hiding from the fact that I chose you Like a disappearing hero in the wind Application declined You've already done mine No where is the place to be When your personal signal starts to fail |
Not really a massive amount of lyrics in this one, but felt the need to post it here anyway, this is my collaboration with the talented Vegangelica!
The vocals were originally used on another song that's still in the studio, but here's something I came up with by sampling and tweaking some random parts. YouTube - Aidy.com Video Blog #43 - Destination SOA |
Not Enough Hours In The Day
I know he's not your friend at the end of the day But won't you lift your glass anyway I've had enough of your **** and my times running out And they don't want you here anyway I've got no dog in this fight, got no hat in the ring But I won't watch you throw it all away I won't stop until my heart stops beating There's not enough hours in the day You kept your head down low and I tried to be good But I'm as good as I can ever be I know we dance to nobody, but nobody's here to stay And so we walked down fast to the steps where they wait And then the scissors cut it all away You can hear it here: YouTube - Aidy.com Video Blog #46 - Not Enough Hours in the Day |
Great work Aidy, and an awesome project. Keep it up!
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Cheers David, appreciate it :-)
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I Used To Be Cool
Benzadrine and life's a dream, that's what you used to say You used to go forever, till the night time turned to day They tagged you with a pay cheque, they tagged you with a loan And now you're on the outskirts in your shackle of a home You tell your kids at every hitch, that hey I Used to be cool And now you're out on Friday night, but just for one or two Got to get up early, lots of pointless things to do You used to have a go at us for doing just the same And now the shoes on the other foot Excuses running lame And when we have a go at you, you always seem to say I used to be cool Listen here: YouTube - Aidy.com Video Blog #47 - I Used To Be Cool |
Wow. "I Used To Be Cool" is the first track I've ever listened to by you and I love it. I love the lyrics, your voice, everything about it. If you've read any of my lyrics or posts, you know this is nowhere near my style, so I think it's a pretty big deal if I enjoy something like this. I'm gonna listen to more of your stuff when I have the time. Keep it up!
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Listening to "Not Your Day". I quite like it a lot. Very mellow and laid back!
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Nice i love it!!!!
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Loving your music. Really like that we can download them for free too - nice touch! :) Just listened to "Why Aren't You Happy?" and I immediately thought of Kill Hannah for some reason - I think you have a similar voice. That's a compliment btw!
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i went to your site and couldn't find why aren't you happy in song of the week. but looks like this was posted many weeks ago. i instead clicked save your floppy. good stuff! and may i say, one song a week? i envy that so much. very prolific. i take entirely too long on songs
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Hey guys, thanks for all feedback! Really appreciate it. You should be able to navigate to the older songs via the links at the bottom of the page, maybe next year I'll arrange them all into one playlist to make things easier. I've put a load of stuff onto SoundCloud here:
AidyMusic - Song A Week on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free You should be able to get 'Why Aren't You Happy' there it was song 15 :-) I'm working on the final track Song 53 at the moment, had no idea when I started the project that there are actually 53 Fridays in 2010! |
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Job well done. :) |
Thanks :-)
ps, I still have our collaboration in the mix for 2011! |
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