“It’s been such a long time it’s been much too long”

Considering the writing for this collection of songs began immediately after ‘Unchained’ was made available in June 2011, it’s been a longer road than I expected! Waiting for a miracle indeed.

Becoming a dad again in the autumn of that year put things on hold for a good while, as might be reasonably expected. I then became involved with songwriting collaborations and what with one thing and another, it’s been a five year wait. Just call me Peter Gabriel. Or Kate Bush. Etc…,.

Trying to survive being a songwriter in these times is a strange business. I find current chart music pretty ‘orrible . Attempting to write for that market has become a soulless exercise which has little to do with creativity. It’s like a competition between what may as well be double-glazing salesmen.

Ten people writing a few lines of lyric or melody, with the artist added to the credits.

The results of this method are plain to see…charts full of the same song chopped into slightly different pieces, made by formulaic producers, made available by companies with no interest in music, to a public who think it’s all worthless and should be free. Why should they believe otherwise with that on offer?

I have some admiration for the likes of Rob Davis (once of 70’s hitmakers Mud, and writer of such songs as ‘Can’t get you out of my head’ for Kylie) and Jem Godfrey (‘Whole again’ for Atomic Kitten and formed progressive rock group Frost*), but the pop business gets less interesting with each passing year.

So the songwriter/composer of 2017 has to diversify a bit, unless you’re doing ‘You’stuff. The ‘You’ stuff is where the fruits of your real creativity are to be found.

Anyway, the ‘Waiting for a miracle’ album is my version of what I still call ‘pop’. You might not! When I originally did ‘Unchained’, it was only meant as demos of songs intended for others. I’ve broken away from that idea and I’m keeping those songs as separate projects. So, I’ve put this album out as a singer/songwriter because they’re ‘me’ songs. Am I making any sense? Probably not!

Perhaps I’ll put out an album of some songs I have written for other people to sing, and hopefully you’ll see the difference.

Back in a bit…