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Showing posts from March, 2009

Someone Else's Son

The birth and gestation of a new song. I play soccer and yesterday afternoon I was lying exhausted on my bed after my first game of the season. An idea for a song came to me but I was too tired to write it down. I had a snatch of the verse and some feel for the flow of the opening words and phrases. Luckily I still remembered it later on and later that night and into early hours I started to work on it again. Background setting: I was given a present of a very small leather notebook but the paper inserts were difficult to locate so on a whim I bought a small notepad and it fitted perfectly. Its about 3 inches tall by 1.75 wide and has a small pen in an elastic loop on the side- a poet's/lyricists dream item for perfect pocket use. I used this handy-pad to quickly jot down the words while I sat in my work chair. Lyric's I got a verse and stumbled upon a part 1 and 2 for the chorus. This was all written words at this stage (no music just yet) . Second verse I abandoned that scr

ASCAP 1 day conference Q&A Feedback

ASCAP NY SESSIONS Q&A Name: John Munnelly Band: Laughjohnlaugh Latest album: Unreleased ( Music available on myspace and on my EPK) Website: http://www.myspace. com/laughjohnlaugh EPK: http://www.sonicbids.com/ epk/epk.aspx?epk_id=103702 BLOG: http://laughjohnlaugh. com/ 1. Why did you decide to attend ASCAP NY Sessions? First of all I liked the name - I make music - that's what I do and aspire to better at doing with other musicians similar to me. I wanted to join ASCAP - They seem to me to be more Artist centered ( than perhaps BMI/SESAC etc) so I wanted to meet with some ASCAP staff face to face and get to know them as persons before I finally signed up. I also wanted to try the 1 day conference locally in order to see if the longer 3-day conference out on other coast is a worthwhile investment of my time and resources. 2. What was the most important thing you took away from the one-day conference? Its a very human business after all - I think it gets a bad rap from tim

SonicBids- Good or Bad?

SonicBids and TAXI - PAY to PLAY Sonic Bids is a membership site that allows you to build an online Press Kit and search for gigs and songwriting opportunities. In Sonic Bids case the user joins the site usually to enter some kind of competition to get a gig or enter a songwriting competition. Seems OK so far but we the members still have to pay another entry fee for the opportunity. Perhaps I'm a malcontent ( I can be a pain if needs insist) but nothing much comes of the investment of funds except it seems that the already impoverished musician lays out even more money to pay to play. Pro's and Con's THE EPK Electronic Press Kit does tell you how many hits it has received and is not a bad thing at all in itself but you should get something so is that it? What seems to me to be happening is that the musician is getting stiffed in the deal. The Promoter gets some cash and the site gets cash but what do I get Oh Oh What do I get! as the Buzzcocks asked once upon a time. I wo