Two steps

This weekend I formed a band and wrote a song

I'd started with the chorus riff last weekend, when I was playing guitar while watching TV and thought it would sound good through a fuzz pedal.

When the Disquiet Junto instructions arrived I set to work, writing lyrics and structuring a rough version of the song with MIDI.

Then I played along with that and gave myself three takes on each instrument.

These parts were combined and, as the song took shape, I needed less editing.

The lyrics formed around the line that I used to remember the riff, and they go:

I am ready to unlearn almost everything

board up the windows of this building

a Do Not Disturb sign hangs on the door

while I’m sleeping through all your phone calls




Life’s like a stranger all over again

the most beautiful thing is finding a friend

going around, ups and downs, no truth

feels like my life plays in a loop





Whenever it feels like I'm taking

two steps forward

I know I’ll be making

one step back





As a kid I’d always say that I’m almost done

so I’ve been training for this moment and then some

this is a time when I never complete stuff

leave the edges uncut, torn and rough




stop imagining myself sinking like a brick

let’s throw it all out and see what will stick

what if every movement was strengthening?

I want to be a building that bends with the wind

Gentle Sentinel

Yesterday I had an urge to write a song and the following lyrics arrived on the page

As river red gums placed on the plains for many centuries
my life as a eucalypt that knows the river flows across a wide red land
in squiggles of creeks, still of billabongs and in hills of sand
waters have wandered and cast aside the few sentinels that stand

Along these ways Gugabul the mighty cod is known to journey home
over one hundred kilometres to a river bend they know
do the fish know sometimes we seek a truth when the answer will wait
at a place we've known and in absence has grown my love
absence has grown my love

Gentle sentinel
standing through time
roots laid in the dark
holder of the heart

In darkness of the soil our roots are intertwined
through the vastness of the ground I found a reservoir await
with my fingers I create the boundary of my physical state
cupped as a vessel sailing the curves of the hills we overtake

Hot winds blow with the hard light of the sun
the excited chatter of birds that know no one
don't let jealousy tremble your limbs as a leaf would shake
you only need to fear what the axe can take my love
fear what the axe can take my love

Passage of time

Revisiting old songs and found lyrics I hadn't recorded

Here's the original recording, which didn't include the singing as I wasn't confident my voice could carry the melody.



Yesterday I rewrote the verses after the chorus and created a new backing track, so that I can include the song on my next album: SING.

Someone once said that time is like a river
because even if you stand in the flow
you just can’t go
back to that sliver of river again

My father likes to say that time is the fourth dimension
as everything exists in at least four ways
height, width, depth and when
then again

I think everything exists in history
whether it’s the thoughts of you or me while we all breathe
it’s context bringing us together
and then

it’s times like these that we share more than the air
because no one really cares how much you know
until they know how much you care
so share


Light fades from day
Time runs away
These words are past their date to use
even if I could choose
to stay with you


Don’t think I recognised the window in your chest
now there’s a tightness in my throat
describing letters that you wrote
and the beating of my heart is on my breath

It’s not like we’re alike in not liking
the same kind of times
as though they were different lives
our stars will align to glow in their sign again

The moral of the story is it’s a moral story
that’s now cliched and boring
put to music I’m performing
filling the air that we share with my care

Knowing the movement of the stars feels like a kind of curse
but when the power comes along
I can right this minor wrong
let’s put the universe into reverse with song


Day forms from light
shadows hiding night
intentions on new moon
taking form in verse and tune
our time passed too soon

Burn it all away

If I were Elton John, then Alicia Boyd might be my Bernie Taupin

I adore her writing, particularly the imagery and vulnerability.

When I was considering lyrics for a chord progression I'd found on my ukulele, I turned to her blog.

The piece that grabbed my interest described smudging, which is an activity my beloved has been indulging a lot lately.

Then I recorded myself singing Alicia's words:



The next day, I listened back and thought how unlikely those words sounded coming from my mouth.

So I decided to write lyrics that incorporated Alicia's writing, as well as my own experiences -- particularly the role of Burns, which is where I met Alicia.

Light the fire and fan the flame
I sense the heat to feel the pain
draw the smoke that fills the air
smudge the image that I wear

To hit the bare self underneath
cough while trying not the breathe
the sacred fire blurs our world
allows my spirit to unfurl 

(Chorus)
Watch our world burn away
from ash we will grow again
in the embers in the coals
we know the spark that’s burning in our souls 

Our bodies mask how we appear
look beyond the flesh veneer
know that I am your own kind
in my heart I do not mind 

In the dark we’re free to dream
black charcoal makes us clean
naked branches without leaves
makes the space to grow new trees
(Chorus, first verse, chorus, end)

Then I recorded a quick demo to hear how they sound:



This week I used this video for the Disquiet Junto project, which involved glitching.

Wild At Heart

Recently I returned to the film Wild At Heart, which has been a favourite since I first used a fake ID to buy tickets to see it at the cinema

I remembered an idea to use lines from the film in a song and added them to lyrics about how I met my partner, Jo:


Thinking back to when we met
years ago but I can’t forget
a staring woman, I couldn’t ignore her
you later told me you could see my aura

After that I kept seeing you in town
seemed like you were always around
you then confessed it was engineering
inventing ways so that you could be near me

It wasn’t easy but you persisted
your thoughtful charm overcame my resistance
you opened my mind with the things you said
then found a way into my bed


This whole world’s wild at heart and weird on top
If you’re truly wild at heart you won’t turn away from your dreams
 

There we were talking in the dark
I touched your arm and I felt a spark
a fairy tale cliche but I do believe
then I knew you were the one for me

It was strange how I became bewitched
and it was like our roles then switched
I asked you to marry me you said get in line
you’re here for a good time not a long time

This whole world’s wild at heart and weird on top
If you’re truly wild at heart you won’t turn away from your dreams
This whole world’s wild at heart and weird on top
If you’re truly wild at heart don’t run away from love


Now I've tried the song using different chords on my ukulele:

Lush and juicy fully holding love

Wrote a song this morning drawing on words from women I know



One has written with a line from one of my dreams, so it feels kinda appropriate to be uniting our experiences in a way.

I'd like to acknowledge the chorus contains words from Waking Inanna, while the second and third verses draw on Tales from a Neon Light Diamond.

Last night in a dream
a mother said to me
the child doesn’t know
that he’s asleep

afterwards I cried
just the moon and I
walked the streets and reconciled
my inner child


now I am closer to knowing
the form I fever for
know there is a lush and juicy,
fully holding love


This hand is shaking
at the thought of reaching out
I think of myself as a helper
not one being helped out

This hand I am waving
could say hello or goodbye
and with it the words I am saving
are hold me while I cry



now I am closer to knowing
the form I fever for
know there is a lush and juicy,
fully holding love


This gap we must bridge
seemed the hardest thing to do
barely had energy to function
let alone reach out to you

but I am learning to think about my needs
tell when I’m not okay
and know you will listen
to what I have to say


now I am closer to knowing
the form I fever for
know there is a lush and juicy,
fully holding love

Ghostly melody

Recently Naviar Records shared my 'Ghsotly melody' haiku with their community of musicians.

For my response I drew on other haiku I've written, compiling a collection and jamming on the ukulele until the following lyrics took shape:

Sleep a dark rough sea
shipwreck surrounding mystery
she hides
many things

Ripples reflecting streaming light
a thought surfacing in the night
both shallow and deep
rivers of consciousness while we sleep

Under morning glow
magpies gently chortle song
brightening my day
while the shadows are long

Ghostly melody
follow me into my day
fragment of a dream
won’t you please stay

Cockatoos exclaim
echoing among river red gums
morning has broken
and so am I

On the dry dawn breeze
a chattering in the trees
if birds knew words
I’d hear headlines

Ghostly melody
follow me into my day
fragment of a dream
come what may

Riding as dusk falls
nostalgia induced shopping malls
looking backwards
while moving ahead

Materialise
handwritten words on a page
watching thoughts appear
feeling my age

As days flutter by
they must feel like full lifetimes
to a butterfly

Ghostly melody
follow me into my day
fragment of a dream
leading me astray

Hairy panic

Hairy panic is an Australian tumbleweed and it's in the news at present for inundating Wangaratta.

The news story in the link above says it's not a fire risk but I've found it's great for starting fires because it burns like petrol.

Hairy panic seems like a funny name until you experience it caught in your pants. Then it feels like something crawling up your leg.

This photo was taken in 2008, when there was a massive build-up of the dried weed at the property where I was living outside Wagga. You can see it totally obscures me.

I wrote these lyrics for a song at that time and I think I should finally get to recording it because there were chords too.

I'm a tumbling weed
my life is floating on the breeze
no choice but let the wind blow
and determine where I go

Rolling on the ground
I creep without making a sound
shake a spindly arm
and catch my seed in your palm

(Prechorus)
With a breath on the breeze
I inhale and it frees

Caught pushed against a wall
I'll erupt and then I'll fall
taking opportunity
wherever the wind is moving me

You'll never know what I've faced
to reach this resting place
when the summer has come and gone
my kind will roll along

(Prechorus)
(Chorus)
Accept the change, weather the rains
and live to roll another day
Wherever I go, the grass will grow
and I live to roll another day

Driver Unknown

Screech of car tyres on a Saturday night
Sickening thud makes me turn on the light
Pick up the phone, dial an ambulance quick
They’ll let cops know someone’s been hit

Go to the road, see a catastrophe
Body on bonnet, smashed through windscreen
Car door is open and engine is on
Whoever did this has already gone

Shattered bone
Broken home
Police report driver unknown

Cars must throw punches ‘cause this looks a brawl
Mounted the kerb and crashed into a wall
Lying limp with a smashed in head
No blood is bleeding, he’s already dead

Shattered bone
Broken home
Police report driver unknown

That accidents happen does not sound right
When they’re avoided with proper foresight
How can you hope to make sense of this scene?
Drunken driver of a brutal machine

Shattered bone
Broken home
Police report driver unknown
Driver unknown

It's a mystery

It's a mystery
how it comes to me
hidden like a rip
draw me down to it

Visions come to me
of what might soon be
but if I let it slip
I'll be undone through it

When there's only one truth to know
you know I don't know
when there's only facts to show
you know I don't know

What I can't articulate
doesn't mean it has no weight
words are only substitutes
for things they represent

Fuzzy outline at best
like headlights behind a crest
shapes moving in the dark
feeding fear into my heart

When there's only one truth to know
you know I don't know
when there's only facts to show
you know I don't know

Raucous chorus

Wrote these lyrics for a song that will be part of a series of multimedia presentations planned for the close of Leeton's centenary next month:

As dusk arrives dark fills the sky
winged silhouettes cry as they fly
A raucous chorus overhead
fight for a branch to be their bed

First wave squawks and behaves wild
like teenagers, gallah juveniles
Next arrive quiet pairs
gliding stately through the air

And I envy how they fly
from tree to tree all their life
And I envy how they fly
let me be free in my life

Leeton trees a temporary home
Who knows where else they roam
but when they roost I stand in awe
as the river red gums are all full

And I envy how they fly
from tree to tree all their life
And I envy how they fly
let me be free in my life

March into the archives : Blue Moon

An old notebook reveals the 1994 origins of the lyrics for one of my better tunes, Blue Moon. The chorus was written in 2008 while recording VISCERA for the RPM Challenge, which was a great deadline to ensure I produced a bunch of music.

Blue Moon by ShowcaseJase

Do you remember the blue moon?
it was the night you made me swoon

Old flame never tamed
still alive in my chest
your name sounding plain
still quickens my breath

It aches a whisper quakes
on a soon remembered lip
as the thought is finished quickly
my guard no longer slipped

Why should you even care?
about something that was never there

Do you remember the blue moon?
it was the night you made me swoon
you probably never knew
you were in another room

Ease back from that flash
brought from the depth of my past
to steal back into
a self-conscious laugh

For your memory will still exist
after this moment has passed
It's my lacklustre tale
romantic half-mast

Why should you even care?
about something that was never there

Do you remember the blue moon?
it was the night you made me swoon
you probably never knew
you were in another room
dancing to a different tune
with some other dude

Blue Moon (Jase's single take) by ShowcaseJase

Above is a solo version of the song. My favourite is this instrumental gutar triggered by a drum loop and effected version:
Blue Moon by bassling

Gently borrowed

Gentle Borrower by ShowcaseJase

This is Gentle Borrower from the 2008 RPM Challenge. It's the first recording of the track I wrote about copyright and musical inspiration. It was inspired by one of the most potent essays I've read about music -- Bettered by the Borrower by John Oswald. As I read it I jotted down ideas and later thought they would make good lyrics.

We share in ears
vibrations in air
it's more primal than blues
this form we share

I am a sound
a song that is true
this music that flows through me
can flow through you too

Gentle borrower
transform me
gentle borrower
transform me

Brainstorm elation
marks transformation
save condemnation for
straight imitation

There are more than these notes
there are more than these keys
an infinite soundscape
needs your diversity

Gentle borrower
transform me
gentle borrower
transform me

Here is a version of the song we recorded live using the wires as a reverb on the vocals by singing into a can, like one of the telephones you'd make with two cans and a string.



Below is my bassling remix of Gentle Borrower. If you click on the downward arrow you can download it.

Gentle Borrower (basslingspulsingwiresmix) by bassling

Facebook

Another sentimental tune I recorded for the RPM Challenge. Jo sang for me again and I attempted to play all the instruments and engineer also.

Facebook by ShowcaseJase

Lying down feeling low
Feel like I've got further to go
Shaking around in a sweat
Replay the scene of my regret

If I had known
If I had known

Find myself all alone
Inside the guilt a private show
Springtime day on tape delay
Replay the smile you gave me again

If I had known what now I know
How memories fade and regrets grow
Might have known to make the time
Might have known I could make you mine

Pull myself from the depth
Leave it behind and catch my breath
Shake the past and stand refreshed
Leave the memory I should repress

If I had known what now I know
How memories fade and regrets grow
Might have known to make the time
Might have known I could make you mine