Home Straight

Episode #196: Home Straight  (Song starts at  2:40) This episode’s song would be a ‘protest song’ about the way we are not looking after the world & how out of touch with nature we have become. Every now and then a song like this sneaks up on me. When it happens, I just go with the flow. It’s a great way to let off some steam. It’s also a very creative & effective way of dealing with some big feelings. The trick is, it doesn’t hurt anyone. It’s a great place to put anger, the arts - because we can harness all that sometimes explosive energy and release it very quickly, rather than doing something pointless and destructive like booting a washing basket or something, you end up creating a piece of art. The handy thing is, the resulting piece of art/music can then be a very positive thing to have brought into the world. It might be song with legs - a song that might resonate with others who’ve felt the same big feelings about a certain issue. In this case, what inspired me to put pen to paper initially was this: those of you that have been following my podcast know that I get out in nature to reset. Particularly, I find being by the water does it for me. Yes, I’m a fisherman, but a successful trip out for me might be 2 caught and released wee ones. It’s really about observing nature. More than that, I’ve discovered it’s about being connected to the bigger picture. A feeling of connectedness and optimism and energy are often the things I return home with - the catch - hey, maybe that’s an idea for a song. That’s how creativity works. Once you makes a start, you’re in the flow and one creative idea leads to another. Anyway back to what inspired this song, I looked up from my favourite fishing spot to see what appeared to be an oil rig of some description in the Port Phillip Bay (here in Melbourne, Australia). Alarm bells. But then it turns out apparently it was just ‘resting there’, hmm… That got me on to thinking about all the ways we are not doing great things to this beautiful world we live in. All the lyrics just came through my pen, a strong meter helped. It gave me the momentum & helped with the flow, the phrasing. In no time at all I’d filled 2 A4 pages with verses and choruses. When it came to writing the music a couple of days later, it was the feeling that came through the words that reignited the energy, the passion to get the job done. The melody and chords and song structure all came with a rush, very naturally. I had to force myself to stop and jot down my ideas then carry on, back in the flow. The result is: song #628 fits me like a glove. In terms of the vocal range, the style ( the words are very ‘me’), the melody has natural highs and lows, the chords and the bass line all make sense. I think that’s the best sort of song: the most ‘natural’. You can chip away and construct from bits and pieces , but quite often, the end result can be a song that sounds a little contrived. In my experience, these songs can be frustrating to record, as the energy doesn’t seem to flow. It’s an endlessly fascinating process to be talking about each week. I’ve just been away camping at the beach for a week. It was bliss, just letting the somewhat unseasonable sort of changeable weather roll around me (and ‘through’ me, it seemed, eg: the night I tried 2 casts in a howling 70km wind that got up from nowhere). I include a couple of minutes of chat, which I recorded back home at my local beach the other night. On the spur of the moment, I added some piano music as I listened back to it. I find it very relaxing to listen to these podcast episodes. I have a Seascape exhibition opening shortly, so I’ve been up til 3am painting. I like to review my work, so as I painted, I listened to 3 randomly selected podcast episodes in a row: Crossroads, In The Scheme Of Things and I wish. I found them to be interesting,