Between You and Me

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Episode #166:  Between You and Me   (Song starts at 6:25)

I’m going to take you back to 1994 on this episode, literally.

This week my wife said to me ‘maybe we should have gone on to England ( we’d moved here – Melbourne – in 1997, originally we are from New Zealand. I think we just might get to the UK sometime…).

This made think of the song ‘Between You and Me’. So I thought aha! That’ll do for this week’s podcast episode.

Then I remembered and old cassette tape of me talking in my van at the time I wrote and recorded the demo. Lo and behold I found it straight away in a box in my studio.

So I’ve put together some bits and pieces this week, as I set up the song..and it was fun

As i let the song lead the way, I found myself talking about some of the deeper aspects of life, how there’s so many parallels between learning an art and making it your life and figuring out stuff along the way.

It amazes me what comes off my tongue as I sit at the piano, with the mic on, just going with stream of consciousness.

You build up momentum over the years, when you’re committed to the arts. I am. I wrote 6 songs the day I wrote ‘Between You and Me’…

I think this one’s a good one. I think I might put it on the songs from the podcast album #1. We’ll see.

Of course after the song plays, as usual, I dive into the lyrics, see what’s behind them.

Then I’ll take you through some of the songwriting process – explain some of the steps as we go along.

As I’ve gone along on this podcasting business, it’s amazed me how complicated writing a song really is – the creative process is very involved. And yet it’s simple really.

You just need a good foundation (theory) put into practice (practice), go forward, expect the best – and enjoy yourself along the way.

Being free to create and let go all the way. It’s bit like a recipe for life, really.

It’s a joy, songwriting. And it’s a pleasure to be recording an episode about it each week.

I hope you’re enjoying listening. You’re my audience and I’m so grateful to each and everyone of you for tuning in.

I hope you like this week’s song.

By the way, I’ve got 5 new albums coming along nicely. You’ll get to hear about them of course.

If you’re new hear and you like what you hear on this episode and want to hear more music, I have a dozen albums out solo; and with Paul Dredge (folk rock); and with the Patient Hum band (rock).
You can stream my music on all the usual platforms (Spotify Apple) here’s my bandcamp site — where you can stream, purchase and buy as a gift.

www.petepascoe.bandcamp.com.

And here’s my weekly blog where you can read the song of the weeks lyrics and view my art, if you like,
www.petepascoe.wordpress.com

Ok. Buckle up and come along for a ride.

Enjoy

 

 

 

Bigger

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:39 — 21.7MB)

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Episode #165: Bigger  (Song starts at 4:52)

The lyrics for ‘Bigger’ (song #689) were written in 2015. I remember having them squirrelled away, waiting for the mood to hit me to sit down and write the music – which I did in 2016.

This song has a strong rhythmical element, but it’s absolutely folkrock.

The lyrics all stemmed from the brain wave. ‘It’s bigger than you . . . .and it’s bigger than me’. The pause was always there whenever I thought of the line, before I wrote the music.

While it’s not spoon fed, the gist of the lyrics is this: yes, there are a lot of problems in the world, from personal relationships right through to international relationships between countries. But we’ve just gotta have faith that it will all work out.

How do we find that strength, find that faith? By following our passions, working constantly, which ends up being self therapy, so in effect, we have the power to heal ourselves and that’s the way we are going to heal the world.

So the lyrics are certainly about the bigger picture, then…

The inspiration for this song most likely would have been a news bulletin. I always find them extreme and confronting, when they beam in, as someone’s radio report comes within ear shot.

I tend not to listen to the news reports much. I do keep my ear to the ground – it seems you can read and hear most of which you need to hear about, very quickly, online or via TV, the newspaper, etc.

If we keep an open mind, we can hold a broad, measured view and navigate our way through the world. Everything will turn out ok. That’s what I wanted to say in this song,

In my early 20s, I wanted my music to have healed the world by the time I was, oh, 27… feet not really on the ground, then!

This song comes from an older set of eyes, someone who’s had a bit of experience, has a different view of a similar set of parameters.

The effect of the song, with the strong beat and slide guitar is: there’s a lot of heavy subjects covered here, but it’s delivered in foot tapping way that makes it palatable. Most of the lyrics won’t be caught 1st time around, and that’s just fine by me, as the song writer.

When I did eventually write the music, it came very, very quickly. I recorded a quick demo of one of the verses (which includes the main hook  – chorus line, if you like – must be one of the quickest choruses in history, if that’s the case. I include that demo verse in this episode.

The full version on this episode is track# 4 on the album ‘The Untrodden Track’, by myself and Paul Dredge – which I am unashamedly plugging here. In this day and age it falls to the artist to also provide the ‘bark’ and the ‘vehicle for the bark’, in terms of getting the song heard and noticed. There’s a lot of traffic on that internet.

I’m stoked with the album. I have faith in the songs and I love the arrangements. I think it’s a great listen.

Lookout for more lyric videos for songs from this album on my YouTube channel Pete Pascoe Art and Music.

It’s streaming now, all over the place (ad break over).

Ok, relax and let me entertain you as I sit at my piano and tell you all about Bigger

Enjoy!

Destiny

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Episode #164: Destiny  (Song starts at 4:31)

Today has been a beautiful, pristine autumn day. The sort of day where you breathe the air in and think ‘Yes, it’s good to be alive’.

On that note, that’s what I was thinking back in 1991, when I wrote song #198.

But I was also considering the big picture…some things were coming through on the news about conflicts between people and between countries.

I’m pretty much a pacifist, I think. The thought of violence is abhorrent to me.

So I wrote this song, thinking about my future…what sort a future awaited me/us.

Back then I was very keen on sharing my music and art. On reflection, I’m not too sure how successful I was at that. I did gig a lot – and record, but the internet wasn’t there to help back then.

I have been working hard these last 164 weeks, sharing a song on this podcast and sharing paintings, cartoons and writing on my blog, videos on YouTube (my channel is Pete Pascoe Art Music), etc..

Songs sometimes appear to come along ‘out of time’… in 1991, I was asking some big questions about humanity – questions that were equally apt for now – I suppose the lyrics could suit any age, really.

Back then, to a degree, I didn’t really have the language for some of it, given I’d been lucky to grow up in New Zealand, in the relatively peaceful South Pacific. But what I really felt was: it was definitely time for creative endeavours to take centre stage and lift us in a positive manner, leading on into a positive future.

This was a lyrics first, music second song. This was the way I worked back then.

These days, it’s often both music and words at the same time, but I still do write lyrics when I feel inclined – perhaps when I might be away from the piano, and the mood hits me.

It is nice to sit at the piano a few days later, leaf through a few pages and see what’s on offer.

One set of lyrics will often catch my eye and away I go.

What happens? I play, for want of a better word. I allow instinct to take the wheel. All the theory is there as a support, something to draw on. I know how chords interact, what melody notes will fit where.

However, when I’m ‘winging’ a melody, the technical aspects drop to the background. I allow things like emotion to lead the way.

It’s a balance. The theory, as it were, is there like a massive support network.

Anyway, back in 1991, the news came on. Reports about conflicts between people, between countries…. And thought to myself why? Why would we do this? This is what inspired ‘Destiny’.

And I also thought: what do I want to do with my life?… and that pretty much became a line in the chorus.

But I turned it around and asked a question: ‘What do you want to do with your life?’

Looking at the song today, I realised, as an artist, I was directly asking a question of my audience. Interesting..

I’m not sure how often I’ve done this.. I think it’s quite an effective thing to do, engaging the audience (the song Secret Lullabies comes to mind).

I think this song is going to appear on the first ‘Songs from the Song and a Chat Podcast’ album – I’m planning to record piano vocal albums of songs from this podcast. That’ll be fun.

Even with songs that I might have already released on a band album, a piano vocal take and can be a good creative thing to record.

So, back to the beautiful day today, which is was in my neck of the woods.

Right now as ever, there is conflict in the world. But in my day, my surroundings, its was all beaches and sunshine, for which I feel very grateful, indeed.

The way I handle it is: I put as much time and energy as I can muster into producing more music and art – and I’m working equally hard at sharing it each week.

I hope you enjoy the old demo of ‘Destiny’ (piano/vocal). It was fascinating for me to ‘roll’ the old tape and listen back to a much a younger me asking some questions and making some statements.

After you’ve perhaps listened to this episode, if you want to hear more, there’s another 160 odd episodes + I have 12 albums streaming, in a variety of genres, with different people and solo, plus I’m producing a lot of art. So I have a fair bit online for you to look at and listen to. I’m big on lyrics, so I’ve started making lyric videos again, which I allude to on this episode as my song ‘Time Won’t Wait ‘(new lyric video up now) has perhaps a similar message to ‘Destiny’.

You can check lots out each week at www.petepascoe.wordpress.com. There are always links to my work on different platforms here. It’s not a bad place to start, if you’re reading about my music (and art) for the first time, here.

Speaking of which, thanks for reading this and I hope you enjoy having a listen to the ‘Destiny’ episode. Here we go….

Living In The Movies

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Episode #163:  Living In The Movies  (Song starts at 3:28)

Ever feel like you’re living in a movie? – you know, when things just seem to go weird and you think “You couldn’t write this stuff…”.

That’s how I felt back in 1992, when I composed ‘Living In The Movies’. At the time I was playing 5 nights a week in a piano bar, with Paul Dredge, my longtime friend and co composer.

It’s funny, earlier tonight, my wife and I visited our neighbour, who had some friends over. Long story short, I ended up on the piano, being ‘Mr Pianoman’. It was a great night & brought back memories of the residency with Paul, back in NZ.

It lead on to me playing my songs, talking about the paintings and the podcast.

At the end of the evening, someone asked me what I was about to do.I said I’d finish a painting then record a podcast episode. They couldn’t believe it. But that’s me, I’m a night owl – and I’ve got a ‘bit on’, you might say.

And I was a night owl, back in 1992, performing in the evenings.

When you hold down a successful residency, you’re sticking your neck out a bit.

Which can be very good. Or not so good.

There’s a thing called the tall poppy syndrome. I think society can be pretty good at supporting an artist as they grow, then waiting for a moment or an episode where the artist might record a less than great song, or perhaps a dramatic event that may be magnified/distorted by the media.

For me, in the piano bar, it was like being under a microscope: there was no stage line, as such. Complete strangers could come and talk in my ear and tell me their deepest secrets as I played and sang a song (much to Paul’s amusement, as sat next to me playing bass or guitar). What could be a simple conversation could be misconstrued by an observer…

The piano bar – the music – was my ‘rock’, so to speak. Something I could rely on, in amongst all the ups and downs of growing up and performing every night (and it still is a ‘rock’ for me).

About this time, I started to see some synchronicity in the movies, a parallel (to me at least), of what was happening in my life and what was happening on the screen…

And I thought.. hmm, yes I think that’s a good idea for a song.

So I picked up my pen at about 4am, after walking home on an early spring morning after the gig and a spot of night clubbing.

It’s a great way to get things off your shoulders. Apart from that, as I wrote, I started to think about how hard it would to be a popular movie star. Then the next day, the press leap on some rumour, or the movie star appears in a movie that bombs at the box office.

Sometimes a pack mentality sort of kicks in and the tide rapidly turns on the artist.

So I introduced more about that aspect with the lyrics, rather than what may or may not having been going on in my life at the time.

I think the result is the lyrics might have a wider, more global appeal.

On this episode, I talk about how I brought the song together, composing each section & what spurred me on to the next part.

I really enjoyed recording a quick piano/ vocal demo as part of the show. I stopped and overdubbed some strings and vocal harmony…

Now I’m thinking song #240, which was just languishing in the shadows of my a page in my songbook, could become an ‘up’ guitar driven rock song, to present to the band (P.P. & The Patient Hum) to perform and record. That’d be fun.

So it’s a good idea as an artist not to give up on something that’s ‘not quite there’. The same thing happened with the sunset painting which I’d left it unfinished when I started recording the podcast episode. I‘d been painting in circles, not progressing, unsatisfied with it.

Afterward, just as I was leaving the studio, I picked up the brush and lo and behold, with a few brush strokes, the sunset sky came together quickly.

It can be the same with a song: a few tweaks and the whole feeling of the song can be transformed.

As I share my processes and thoughts on the art of songwriting, one of the benefits of this podcast: I’m effectively on an ‘online’ stage here, so there’s a need to ‘knock of the rough edges’, to present a song that’s finished enough to appeal to the ear in the moment.

On that note, if you’re enjoying this podcast (and thanks so much for those of you who’ve been along for the ride for some time now), please do feel free to contact me to let me know perhaps what you’d like to hear more of on the episodes.

It’s an evolving podcast. I’m just following my nose, having fun, allowing the song and the creativity to lead the way..

Ok here we go – off to the movies. Let’s see where we end up…

Ready

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Episode #162: Ready    (Song starts at 4.55)

On these episodes, I’ve often talked about the peace you can find in the outdoors, preferably near water for me.

I’ve found by getting outdoors, I manage to still my mind and quickly get into the creative state, the zone required to write a song.

This episode pretty much shatters that peace, in a good way (I think).

Looking back, the song ‘Ready’ was probably the result of a build up of tension for me, in my mid to late 20s. It’s a guitar/band driven rocker.

I was so ready… ready to make some major changes in my life. I was ready to record, ready for a major romance, ready for …life.

So I was ready to sort of cut loose in some way.

I was ready to do that again this week, when the band (Pete Pascoe and The Patient Hum) played an outdoor gig. I ‘cut loose’ and unleashed a lot of energy, as the front man. It’s fun, that’s for sure.

A lot of positive energy can come through from somewhere when you perform, compose and record.

Back in 1994, in NZ, my band weren’t with me at the time I wrote ‘Ready’. I was out there, on my own and I was determined not to give in.

In fact, I was just getting started.

So I wrote the words as I sat in my van, overlooking the ocean. Then I drove home and composed what turned out to be a 3 or 4 chord guitar based rock song – on the piano.

The old demo I found is on a tape that’s seen better days, so the sound quality is a bit ‘iffy’, this time. But the recording has a certain sort of feeling about it.

When I recorded this demo, it was my first time that I had a real studio all to myself. I was given permission to use it between 10pm and dawn for a couple of weeks.

I didn’t really know how to work much of the gear, but I set myself of completing an albums worth of recordings in the fortnight – and I did.

I realised I had an opportunity to put on tape what was on my mind, without any input for anyone else.

No band? No problem… I programmed some drums and played some drum fills live, played keyboard bass, piano and organ.

One evening as I was recording the vocals a guitarist knocked on the studio door. He liked what he heard, went home, grabbed his gear and recorded all the guitars in one night. So much fun.

All this from came about by writing about an experience ‘I’d rather forget’. Some things that don’t appear to be so great at the time can actually be the catalyst to get you moving.

And I did.

And I haven’t stopped.

Right now, I’ve never been busier as a creative person. The new Patient Hum band album is really taking shape. I’m producing that, painting big seascapes, blogging, making videos, half way through more albums. Making sheet music, video courses. It’s all ‘go’.

With 800 songs up my sleeve, I’m enjoying this way of sharing them.

By the way, I mention these 2 on this episode: Zed Brookes and Andrew Johnstone. Their latest album is here: www.brookesjohnstone.bandcamp.com

You can check out 12 of my albums on www.petepascoe.bandcamp.com, or they’re streaming on Spotify, etc.

Or… there’s the 160 songs on this podcast of course (you can scoot straight to the song on each episode if you wish. I mention the time it plays, as above).

This week’s blog post has the lyrics, more music and art – including this weeks seascape painting. It’s all go around here. www.petepascoe.wordpress.com

And I’m ready – for more.

Hope you enjoy Ready. It was a fun episode to record.

Ready? Here we go…. back to 1994! Let’s look at song #343.

Low Tide

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Episode #161: Low Tide  (Song starts at 4:23)

Welcome to another episode. Today we are looking at the song #556, ‘Low Tide’.

Last night I was out fishing. I did a quick recording while I was there, rod in hand at the beach at night. You can hear it on this episode.

Being out in nature really blows the cobwebs away. It clears my mind, it seems brings in energy. When I return home, I’m rejuvenated. The world seems to be an even better place.

So head out to my studio and get stuck into some seascape painting or some song writing…

…like the morning, in 2011, when I sat at my piano and looked at some handwritten lyrics.  I came up with some chords and a riff straight away.

Earlier that day, I’d had pretty dark bad dream, right before I’d woken up. So I’d been moved to pick up my pen. The words that I’d written turned out to be the lyrics

On the episode, I mention the book The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. One of the great things Julia suggests is morning pages. The idea is you wake up and write down whatever comes through.

Most often you are just clearing your thoughts. Sometimes snippets of ideas seem to come through that seem to come from somewhere else.

That’s the moment you sit up and take notice. A couple of things seem to be happening. You are inspired, dipping into somewhere within and from somewhere else. The other thing that is happening is you’re discovering your own voice.

It’s a long road, the unfolding process that is a life in the arts. There is no ‘getting there’ – and if you do, it’s a fleeting moment of (perhaps) success before you go “well, that was good. What’s next”?

For me, composing a song like ‘Low Tide’ moment like that.

Generally, I come up with some chords and perhaps a riff, and then you sing over the top of it, and then you realise you’ve come up with something you like.

So you then become secretary. And write down what you’ve just composed. It can be a bit like recalling a dream. You can’t force it, but if you just sort of wait, the music comes back to you. Then you write it down.

So, back to this morning in 2011, ‘bad dream’. . I’m glad I wrote the words down when I woke up, caught my thoughts as they came through, I turned a murky feeling (which stayed with me for a few hours) into something good.

The title low tide only came to me after I’d written 12 lines. That’s the way I work: I often just start writing and something almost always come through

‘Low Tide’ became a song I like to listen to – and I like to perform it with my band.

On this episode, the version you’ll get to hear the album cut from the album ‘This World Offers You’ – by ‘Pascoe’, as we were known back then ( it’s now Pete Pascoe and The Patient Hum.)

You can check it out on www.petepascoe.bandcamp.com

There’s a live version on my YouTube channel Pete Pascoe Art and Music

Here’s my blog. The lyrics from Low Tide are here ( + other music and art): www.petepascoe.wordpress.com

I hope you enjoy hearing more about how the song came together. I also draw attention to the underlying themes that are woven into the lyrics. As I sit at my piano, it’s fun, demonstrating the songwriting process.

Enjoy.

Maybe Sunday

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Episode #160: Maybe Sunday   (Song starts at 4:45)

During the recording of an episode a few weeks back, the lyrics to ‘Maybe Sunday’ fell out of my song book. I said at the time “Hmmm maybe I should do an episode about writing that song.”

Today I picked up an old cassette tape an I discovered an old demo of ‘Maybe Sunday’. That clinched it.

This episode has turned into a quite a light and breezy episode, which is probably a reflection of this song.

While it’s a song of perhaps longing, wondering and dreaming, the style I wrote in was really a mid tempo sort of song with acoustic guitar strumming in mind.

Creating a song is an exercise in being lost in the moment. Well, lost to the world around me, but for me, it’s not a case of being lost. Every action and thought is quite a decisive thing.

It’s like ‘playing with a purpose’- and letting go of the outcome. It’s a great of example of just enjoying the ‘doing’. Perhaps that’s a big key of songwriting.

There’s an element of performance, I think, too. You lift yourself, you trust yourself: that your fingers on the keys are going to do good things, as you improvise and accompaniment for an as yet imagined melody – which you then ‘wing’ over the top.

It’s a fascinating process. It’s fun analysing aspects of what is really quite a complicated thing. For me it’s instinctive. How can that be?

Having the theory and playing chops under your belt certainly gives you confidence – and this: freedom. You’re free to have fun. I think having fun is huge part of the songwriting process.

So I wrote the lyrics one evening, back in 1993. Wow, I’ve just realised that was 30 years ago (goes silent for a moment) … time passing is not something I dwell on too often.

That’s one of the great things about being a very active creative person, fully engaged in a number of disciplines. You are so often fully engaging so much of yourself in the moment, the past and future are forgotten about for the moment.

This amount of focus is the key. But for me, it’s not sort of furiously involved, it’s a gentle engagement, it’s free feeling and – again – it’s fun. A joy, if you well.

At the time I wrote ‘Maybe Sunday’, I was alone, thinking about someone – a potential romance, wondering whether it was going to happen.

At the same time my life was rapidly changing. I’d left town, was as free as I’d ever been. I was gigging when I could, fishing when I felt like it and… songwriting.

This sense of personal freedom is something that I constant allude to in my blog writing, as it turns out.

On that note, I’m very grateful I’ve chosen this creative path. Yes it has its challenges, but it is just so rewarding.

I enjoy composing in different genres. On this episode I mention and play a bit of Albertine for the album ‘The Unfolding’ – Gentle piano solo.

Then there’s ‘Mobile Phone’…from the album ‘The Roughest Cut’ – total rock.

I also paint seascapes, and draw cartoons animals …yes, there’s variety in my days.

I mention these other things as I did say I’d put my blog in the show notes: www.petepascoe.wordpress.com

I hope you enjoy hearing about how ‘Maybe Sunday’ came together.

Here we go…

Nowhere Now Here

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Episode #159: Nowhere Now here  (Song starts at 5:21 & 25:51)

There was a bit of rain on the roof tonight as I recorded this podcast. It was a nice morning, but it turned into a really ‘steel grey sky’ sort of day, which is the opening gambit for the lyrics of ‘Nowhere Now Here’.

This week’s blog post (which I wrote earlier today) took on a theme of rain, & I also painted a squally looking seascape. So it’s been a nice creative sort of a day.

Before I started, I sat at my table in the backyard, with my cat. I recorded a quick spoken observation about how important it is for me to sit quietly in nature to get myself into the creative zone, open those creative thoughts (which you’ll hear on this episode).

‘Nowhere Now Here’ started out life at a Melbourne beach (in Sandringham). My children were playing in a boat shape we dug out of the sand. It amazes me how quickly and completely children disappear into another world.

It’s not unlike the songwriting state, come to think of it. Very much like it, actually. The whole imaginary world, it’s so real. You go there, leaving behind what’s going on in the moment.

I do it so often, it comes very naturally to me, for me. It’s such a joy and it’s certainly not something I take for granted.

So I wrote the page of lyrics and then joined my children in the imaginary sandy boat.

The music for ‘Nowhere Now Here’ is co written by Paul Dredge (NZ). It is from an album of ours called Tasman Bridge, which includes songs we co-wrote in different countries.

In this case, I wrote the verse and mid sections. Paul answered with the chorus and bridge.

It is such good fun, sharing the process with Paul. We have done thousands of gigs together, so we know each other’s musical styles very well.

But there was something there straight away. The first gig Paul & I did, we harmonised on Homeward Bound by Paul Simon. The voices blended so well, it was so easy – and that’s the way it’s remained. The same with the songwriting: we’re ‘on the same page’.

On this episode, I perform a piano vocal version, which was fun – I can’t remember the last time I played it.

I also include the album track which clearly shows the different sections (written by each person). We sang lead on the sections we wrote. As we had 5 evenings to learn each other’s songs and record them, we quickly realised it would make sense to do this.

I have a video for this song up on YouTube my channel is Pete Pascoe Art and Music. Here’s the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM919PyLzgo&list=PL5WTg3pdJlzj1fmDMsW6BZophZfXu4QiC&index=4

And you can find the lyrics & the painting I did today on my blog www.petepascoe.Wordpress.com

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it.

Thanks for checking out my podcast. If you’re new here, my plan is to put you in the shoes of a songwriter, looking at the process. But this is no dry tutorial sort of podcast. Yes, I do analyse the music and words, but it’s a very relaxed and inclusive vibe, with an emphasis on entertainment.

Enjoy.

Halfway There

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Episode #158: Halfway There   (Song starts at 4:06)

The song ‘Halfway There’ was written in a place called Kuratau, New Zealand. It’s a beautiful peaceful place, situated by Lake Taupo. A river runs silently below the bluff which is covered in the dark green of New Zealand bush and it flows into the majestic Lake Taupo. The tuis and bellbirds calls float on the semi alpine air.

We (we being myself and Paul Dredge, my great friend and co-composer)  had decided we needed to hit the road, get outta town and have a break – for as long as it took.…

We’d been playing 5 nights at a great gig for a few years, in a piano bar, playing as a duo. We’d loved it, but we just felt like it was time for a change.

The emphatic peace of Taupo called to us. It had a profound effect on us. Soothed the nerves, and we settled into some song writing – and some tennis, fishing, darts, etc ,which I talk about on this episode.

The riff to ‘Halfway There’ (song #249), came to me as I quietly played my electric piano one evening. We had the big floor to ceiling glass doors rolled back, so the sound of the summer evening floated in.

Our surroundings really do have an effect on what we get up to. The riff just sounds like the country, somehow.

Then I opened my mouth and sang. What were the words about?

Well, there was another person whom we both thought would fit in with our music very nicely – a 3rd voice, as it were.

The lyrics are really just floating images and thoughts about this Idea, how it might be if it happened. So I ended up with another song.

Eventually, Paul and I found another residency which I also I talk about this on this episode. It did involve a gorilla suit and a lion suit, one evening! The things you find yourself getting up to when you perform a living.

Our van Hercules was so reliable, all the miles we covered, the hours spent driving along with the windows open, the signs and the smells of the New Zealand countryside – all very soothing.

This is the mood that came through really strongly in ‘Halfway There’.

I really enjoyed singing and playing this for the episode. It was also fun. Looking at the lyrics afterwards, seeing how the words came to be & what each line pertains to.

Composing music, it’s like you’re walking 2 paths (or more) at the same time, letting your mind be free, creatively speaking – at the same time, you keep your mind on the theory, what notes might be a logical choice to sing next, what chord or bass note, the tempo, etc. It all happens so naturally for me and it happens very quickly, for which I’m extremely grateful.

It’s a real pleasure to be sharing the songs and having a chat each week on this podcast. I hope you enjoy what’s turned out to be another very relaxed episode.

Here we go, join me in the country in New Zealand, in 1993. Let’s see what happened…

Never Throw A Day Away

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Episode #157: Never Throw A Day Away   (Song starts at 4:27) 

Featuring a song from the recent album The Untrodden Track by myself and Paul Dredge. I include the album track on this episode.

I never throw a day away. I can’t afford to. I’m really committed to this artistic path. It’s my passion, it’s the way I make a living. So I’m busy.

‘Never Throw A Day Away’ began at a bus shelter. I was on my way home, after a long day. It was the end of a changeable day, weather wise. It was a bit chilly, but there was a hint of spring in the air. I’d just missed my bus, after I got off my train and ran..but off my bus went.

What did I do? I picked my pen up, looked around me and started writing about what I was looking at: a seagull approached me like a soul out of the night, gleaming white; the hint of spring in the air; the dulcet tones of the city; the dark cloud, like a hanging shroud…

It went on .. the puddles were a reminder of a changeable day…. Which lead, finally to the line: ‘Still, I’ve never known one you’d ever throw away’.

I’m an optimist. That’s my approach, for some reason. As a youngster we didn’t have much, growing up (I don’t feel like I ‘missed out’. I was loved, we had fun).

But my soccer boots were second hand… and different to all the other kids. No matter. When I tied those old puma boots on, the pliable leather spoke to me, told me I could do great things.

When I perform, I put on an imaginary superman sort of suit …when I compose, I get into my ‘can do’ mindset. It’s not arrogance, or being overconfident…it’s just getting yourself into the zone where you know you can do it. It’s a quiet confidence, based on work done.

Like when you address a golf ball and get into the ‘now’ – it’s the same at the piano, with lyrics in front of me, away I go. There’s also this: I plan to have fun, whatever happens…

When you start writing, you have no idea how the song is going to go. Sometimes it all comes together.

I’m pleased I’ve committed to writing songs for so long. I’m passionate..this one is song #661. It’s just what I do.

I love arranging and recording my songs,. This one worked really well for Paul Dredge and I. I love his lead guitar at the end. It really got the build up I wanted and I enjoyed arranging (keyboard) strings too. I had Dire Straits and Supertramp in mind… I love the dynamics of their recordings.

It’s important to have role models. It’s equally important to take the time to find your own original voice.

I’m glad I picked up my pen, and started writing what turned out to be another song. I’m also glad I recorded this episode, too. I hope you enjoy hearing how the song came together.

Here’s my blog www.petepascoe.Wordpress.com. (Creations in music and art ) ..you can read the lyrics of this song here, and view this week’s seascape painting, which I painted earlier today.

It’s great to be on this creative path. If you’d like to sign up for my email list, that’d also be great: info@petepascoe.com. You won’t miss a thing that way: new albums, podcast episodes, sheet music, paintings, gigs, etc. …there’s plenty more coming up,

Ok, on with the show… enjoy!