No Light On This Song

With the previous song “Do you want him”, I took a tape of it into Phil at the local music shop and played it.  He thought it was pretty good and ready to go on the shelf right then.  Just a pity I only had one copy.

With that boost of confidence I started on my next piece, "Always the same".

After spending a couple of weeks on the lyrics, I went back into the studio.

Once in the studio the construction of the song started out wrong and continued along that way, topped off by my first voice recording.  In hindsight the tempo of the song didn’t match what I had envisaged for the mood I wanted to create.

Thus, this recording is the song that will never see the light of day, but has given me the idea which lends itself to me putting all the lyrics of this first album on line. This lyric web site is also for people who want to know the words to these songs as well as for people who want to read it as poetry, and no music.

 
Also if any musician’s wanted to use any of the lyrics and put their own musical spin on them then we can work something out. Also if any musicians want lyrics written for them, they can contact me.

I’ll upload each tracks lyrics on line a short time before uploading the song until the concluding fifteenth track of this album.

The name of the site is the title I would have given to this album if it had been released: www.asimplisticstart.blogspot.co.nz

The First Track On Studio Equipment

Knowing after that first visit that it would look like I would be doing one song per session of studio time, I set about writing my next track.

From a conversation with Alan, the other sets of lyrics weren’t up to par. With this next song, I introduced the idea of a girl I liked that was going out with someone else but not being treated that good by him. I remember standing at an old dresser in my bedroom with a tape machine on it and singing into the recorder, and tapping a pen as a kind of drum beat.

Taking this out to Alan, he proceeded to record it with a drum track, base, vocal and other
instruments. The resulting action produced the song “Do you want him”.

Check it out at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0pcliNdNRA&context=C4eb23f6ADvjVQa1PpcFMKoEdVVgRqsaVos9tZ0z4_fbXPH1ruprU=

Before I Continue...

Before I continue with this journey, I must be up front, these are basic songs sometimes recorded on a tape recorder, but most were done through recording equipment at the studio and written from a musically uneducated view at the age of 18 going on 19. If you can accept a basic old style of song and know that the lyric is from a young persons’ view who hadn’t written a song before, then I wish you happy listening.

Remember sometimes the simple songs tend to stick with us more.

Also I only sung on two of the songs, one, that will never see the light of day.

The First Recorded Song

Travelling to the studio my excitement grew!

I was thinking, would I be heading back along this road in a few hours with some songs on tape?

I met the owner of the recording studio, Alan, he read some of my lyrics, picked one and started to pull it apart and put it back together in a better shape and form.

Many of my original lyrics were kept, with a couple of lines he really liked, "Winners strive to succeed, Losers strive to subside".

On this track, different to most of my future recordings, it only consisted of a basic vocal, guitar and drum track recorded on a standard tape player, but this gave birth to my first recorded song, "Winners & Losers".

You can listen to this original recording at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBbefokBLcA&feature=g-upl&context=G265fc8dAUAAAAAAAAAA

Booking the time in South Taranaki

A few days after that singing fiasco, I was talking to someone and they advised, even though you may not be able to sing, there are other ways of gettting your songs out there.

I ws intrigued, even though the dream of standing on stage in front of thousands of people cheering and singing along had evaporated, the dream of making a possible living out of songs had taken a different turn.

Asking a guy named "Phil" at my local music shop what I could do, he told me that there was a recording studio right there in South Taranaki, under the shadow of the mountain.

Still with my ten sets of lyrics in tact, I made the call and explained my situation, and booked some studio time for the next week.

Finally I thought maybe this is a step in the direction I'm meant to be taking?

Singing??

Over that next week, I wrote what I thought was ten songs, just the lyrics, no music at that stage.

I was quite proud of myself, I figured that was easy!

Of course I had very little idea about structure of songs, certain words hitting certain marks to make the song more powerful and memorable.

My next objective was to find someone who could put music to these words.

Luckily, I had a friend who had played music for a long time to enlist the help of. I gave him a few sets of the lyrics to work on and see what he could come up with.

At the same time I knew I needed to see some personal progress. So to help with my voice, I sought out a singing coach.

Now travelling to the appointment I had high hopes. Feeling nervous, I knocked at the front door.

I can't remember who answered or how I came to be inside, it was all a bit of a blur.

All I can remember is starting to sing the national anthem and then being told to come back in a few years when my voice had matured.

What a crushing blow for a hopeful pop or rock star!

The Creative Journey of Justin Williams

Hands up who knew what they wanted to do when they left school?

Way back in 1992, on my last day of having to do the 8.40 to 3.20 days, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Apart from jokingly organising being a business man with a friend in a maths class, rather than doing maths, there was no real clear direction as to where I wanted to head professionally.

Travelling back to that last day of school, half an hour after I got home, I thought song writer!

I had enjoyed watching interviews of my favourite artists and loved music, still do.

But when you don’t know how to play an instrument or sing then it makes it pretty difficult.

I seem to remember when in a music class someone said I couldn’t sing so that put me off singing in public, but still thought doing music would be great.

Expressing things in my life through lyrics & sounds.