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!

Silent Stream

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:24 — 21.6MB)

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Episode #156: The Silent Stream  (Song starts at 27:16)

I was sitting at the piano and found myself starting to compose a song.

Then I had the idea to stop, head into my studio and write the song, while recording the process. I’m glad I did.

Earlier in the week, I was sitting beside a stream, where I was camping. You’ll get to hear the sound of the stream bubbling along. For this episode, I read a piece of writing which I wrote when I was sitting in the sun. I Describe the process of walking up a stream, trout fishing:

‘Fishing a stretch of river that might take 5 minutes to walk beside can take an hour to fish properly. It’s seemingly timeless time, a meditation for the senses. The quiet music of the river and the bird calls, the dusty green of the bush against a powder blue sky. It’s a great way to start the day…’

The point of sharing this writing with you is to try to show how being out in nature really relaxes me. It gets me into the relaxed meditative state required to write a song. It fills the well.

I mention the song ‘Timeless Time’ by Paul Dredge and myself. It’s about this (from the album ‘Walking Through A Dream’  – streaming now on: Spotify, Apple Music, etc. here it is on bandcamp  https://petepascoe.bandcamp.com/track/timeless-time ).

Back at home, the lyrics came along unexpectedly, as a result of me sitting outside, listening to nature – but there’s no stream in my backyard.. so I thought… sitting by the silent stream… hmm, the creative realm? Watching the clouds drifting by?…so I wrote the lines that came to mind.

Then the next day, I sat at the piano and just let a riff happen. It had the peace of a river sort of feeling. So I had a sing. Then I paused the process to setup the studio to record this episode.

There’s a line ‘til the minutes have no meaning’.  While finding the river audio, I stumbled across some audio of myself talking about this idea, the week before I went camping. That surprised me as a couple of weeks later, the concept came through clearly and ended up in the song.

So songs can begin with ideas that sort of just pop into your mind, out of sequence on a timeline. As a creative person, you sense it’s one of those moments, so you record it or write it down somehow.

The beginning of this song was a series of moments like that. Then I got into the studio and steered it through to a point of being a good demo.

Join me on this podcast …fishing, at a stream; at the table in my backyard; in the piano room where I teach; at the piano in my lounge…. and in the studio as I write a song this week.

Eventually, at the end I sing the finished song (and play it on the piano).

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed recording basically how I write a song from ‘go to whoa’.

It’s a relaxed, entertaining 30 minutes of chat, with lots of piano,

The lyrics to ‘Silent Stream’, the painting I mention and more writing from the morning spent beside the stream are all on my my blog this week. Here’s the link.

Creations in music and art https://petepascoe.wordpress.com/

Enjoy.

Share The Blues

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Episode #155: Share The Blues  (Song starts at 3:25 & 26:46)

I’ve had an interesting time recording this episode: I got into my studio early, thinking I’d be clever, get the job done and get an early night. …yeh, right! Not.

I ended up recording a ‘produced’/arranged demo, with some different sounds, which took me a while. Consequently, it was a very late bedtime. It was recorded pretty late at night.

What inspired this song was the feeling of waking up at dawn. This is actually the song I was thinking of when I picked out ‘Drift Away’ for last week’s episode.

A similar mood, but different melodies.

There’s a bit more of me in this song (perhaps more personal than ‘Drift Away’) …there’s a line “ there’s a personal limit in us all ”. Yep, we all go through stuff, it’s great to be able to get things off the shoulders and put it into art.

As it turns out, I recorded another version of ‘Share the Blues’ – a piano vocal take – at the end of the episode. It happened on the spur of the moment. Listening back now, I think the piano/vocal version is stronger. The melody changed in the chorus.  Oh well, it was fun recording the other earlier take and there’s some interesting ideas on it. Perhaps it would be interesting to turn this into a duet sometime. 

All songs are a work in progress until they’re released.

Variety with my songwriting has been a real key for me. I’ve been very lucky with some long term residencies … actually I mention ‘Loves Me Like A Rock’ by Paul Simon.  Paul Dredge (long term songwriting buddy) and I were singing and playing it live one night – after a huge day of trout fishing and driving. We got to the gig. Someone turned the lights up and then the next thing we knew, the camera was rolling.

Here’s the youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG6Fsw_ssAg

The residencies were so much fun. They also gave me time to get to know myself as a songwriter. This process takes time and it requires freedom, which is precisely what I’ve had plenty of for so many years.

Yep, I’d say I’ve been lucky, but I continue to strive to hang on to my freedom. It’s a challenge and there are sacrifices along the way. But for me it’s a rich path, creatively speaking.

I think perhaps I wrote the lyrics for ‘Share The Blues’ immediately after ‘Drift Away’. I often used to write in bunch in bunches of 2 or 3.  Writing one lot would awaken my pen (my voice), so I would make the most of being ‘in the zone’.

Being in this creative state, it feels like a slightly altered reality, come to think it. You’re a time traveller; an observer; you get to sort of view things from another person’s view point at times. It really does have the effect of opening your mind to new possibilities.

Perhaps that’s why I love composing songs so much.

It continues to be a pleasure to be sharing them and talking about the songs/ the creative process in general, here.

I hope you enjoy ‘Share The Blues’. I enjoyed singing the 2nd version (look out for it at the end of this episode.

Drift Away

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:49 — 21.8MB)

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Episode #154: Drift Away  (Song starts at 3:03)

I took a drive this evening. I live on the outskirts of Melbourne, on the Mornington Peninsula, out in the country. I wasn’t sure where I was going… just following my nose. As it turns out, it lead to a nice quiet beach where gentle waves were lapping. I took a walk and when I got back to my car, I was thinking about a song… ‘Drift Away’.

Well, I was remembering the melody, not the words. I thought ‘Drift Away’ (which I later found in my song book – song #157, written in 1991)) was going to be the melody I was hearing in my head at the beach.

But no! It was another song, completely. So I thought what the heck. Let’s do this one…

When you’re on a trip like that, not sure of where you’re going, that’s how it feels when you’re composing a song: there’s a sense of adventure & quite often a peaceful feeling – at least there is for me.

You’re on the breath, you’ve got some momentum. In fact, that’s all you really need to start: a feeling, a mood…and away you go.

As I had a quick try at singing the song before I recorded this episode, as usual, I could ‘hear’ other musical elements (besides the piano & voice). So I couldn’t resist it, I recorded a quick arrangement.

That’s been one of the pleasures, recording these episodes: discovering songs I’d forgotten about, or just reworking a line or two on a song that I thought perhaps wasn’t really up to scratch. Fixing one or 2 words can make all the difference.

‘Drift Away’ was inspired by a morning I can clearly remember.

I woke just as dawn was breaking. The light drifted across the slate grey sky. It was a quiet moody morning. I’d pulled the curtains back to watch the sunrise.

It was so nice to be awake. I had no place to be that day, so there wasn’t that feeling of “Oh no, what am I doing awake? I’ve gotta get back to sleep”. No, this was the opposite of that of that feeling.

There’s one line ‘ take the time to send your fears away’ that catches the ear. I underlined it with a slight harmonic change in the music.

How do you send fears away? By doing the opposite: visualising positive scenarios & outcomes. So I was setting myself up for the day..

Catching that sort of feeling was easy enough in the lyrics. The words came quickly. When it came to the music, the first couple of chords set the mood and away I went.

I haven’t looked at ‘Drift Away’ for years. It was a pleasure to rediscover this song. As I say, it’s a peaceful one.

In fact, the feeling of the song rolled over into the entire episode & I found myself I reciting the words as a bit of spoken poetry on the spur of the moment.

Later on the episode, I recount the drive in the country I had this evening, as I improvise some piano music.

It all leads me to a mistake on the keys of my piano. So using this unexpected note, I demonstrate how I then might compose another song..one song can lead so easily to the next.

The first couple of chords were like that, notes that I hadn’t played like that before quickly lead me into the song,

Drift Away came together quite quickly, then. this is the way it seems to work for me, particularly when I’m writing music to lyrics which have been rewritten,

I do mention a song which did take me a couple of hours to finish: ‘Molly Brown’. This one came to me as a fully formed melody and chords – a piano piece – except I called it someone ( blank) ‘Brown’, definitely a female energy. And I also knew it would be a song about a historical event.

Then it came to me to write about theTitanic. I resisted the idea because it’s certainly already been done.

But the next day, on the internet a story came up unexpectedly about Molly Brown, who survived the sinking of the titanic. Amazing. Ok. I wasn’t going to fight that. So I found a dry account of her quite remarkable life, found there was a story to tell or retell… I created lyrics, imagining scenes based on the online account of her life. Here’s the link…Molly Brown podcast episode #76

So that way a completely different approach to songwriting to how ‘Drift Away’ came about.

I guess it’s a matter of just being open to possibilities, not ‘blocking’ any ideas. You learn a whole lot of theory, have it up your sleeve and just let go. Most importantly, think: ..play – with feeling. That would be the key I think, when you are engaged in a creative process.

Ok, would you like to hear more? Sit back and drift away with me for half an hour.

Lyrics are on my blog (petepascoe.wordpress.com), as usual, plus the painting I did of the the beach where I walked in the late afternoon sun.

Enjoy!

Work Song

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:16 — 21.5MB)

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Episode #153: Work Song   (Song starts at 2:24)

We are heading back in time on this episode, way back to 1986 when I wrote ‘Work Song’. This was song #11.

At the time. I was working in a music shop – a short stint, as it turned out. I really wasn’t cut out to do the 9 to 5 thing. ‘Work Song’ is a statement to that effect.

I recorded a version live for this episode. It was nice to sing and play this one, after all these years. It brought back so many memories.

I was young then. Determined to take my music somewhere, already committed to living a creative life.

In the lyrics there’s a line: ‘If you choose to live by the clock, it gives you no time for love’ . It pretty much summed up the idea that we’ll miss all the special moments &  life will just pass us by if we get lost in some pastime (a job) that we are not passionate about.

This thought came to me loud and clear back then. I thought ‘Hey, I think I’ll write a song about this idea, and so the the lyrics took shape.

A few Weeks later, I was trying out a brand new keyboard (one of the perks of the job). It was a Korg DW8000. It was a beautiful sounding keyboard, with lots of inspiring sounds.

As I pushed the buttons, selecting the preset sounds, I improvised little pieces . One of these riffs struck me as quite strong, so when I got home that night, I sat at my piano, recalled the riff and wrote it down.

Then I remembered the lyrics I had written recently. They were sitting on the piano, waiting.

As usual, it all came together quickly. Before I knew it another song was born.

So I duly wrote into my exercise book. Little did I know one day I’d be recording a podcast episode about it, having now written 800+ songs.

The songwriting is driven by passion. Well, it is for me. Songwriting is not something I wonder whether or not I’ll carry on with. It’s part of each week. It sneaks up on me after a few days and a melody comes through my fingers from somewhere.

I spent a lot of my life being a piano man at night, and a songwriter in the day time. I don’t regret a minute of it.

I wrote my memoirs of my piano man days and I have a work in progress version up on a blog, which I stumbled across today (I mention this on the episode, so, as promised, here’s the link.The Hazy Line – Memoirs of a Piano Man

I also mention the songs ‘Old Hat in The Sun’ and ‘Don’t Live Your Life In One Day’ (a song completely improvised/composed live a previous episode): Old Hat In The Sun

Here’s my weekly blog with the lyrics and the painting of the week too. www.petepascoe.wordpress.com

It’s a creative life. It’s a rich life. I really enjoy sitting at my piano, with the mic, talking about the creative process.

I love entertaining, it’s what I do. So this podcast is an entertaining weekly look at how it feels, how I go about writing a song – and you get to hear a new song each week. …. like ‘Work Song’.

Hope you enjoy the episode. Here we go…

Diamond Of A Moment

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Episode #152: Diamond Of A Moment  (Song plays at 3:15)

Before I recorded this episode, I had a fairly raucous, loud band practice for a couple of hours,

In contrast, Diamond Of A Moment is a very gentle ballad. This turned out to be a very relaxed episode.

It was pleasure to sing and play the song. I hadn’t sung it for years.  I decided to add a vocal harmony, a cello/bass string sound and another string part.

Song #466, Diamond Of A Moment was written back in 1998.  I enjoyed rediscovering this song, delving into the lyrics and music, recalling what inspired it.

When I wrote the lyrics, initially I let my pen have it’s say. Just whatever pops into mind/whatever comes through my pen is where I start. In this case: ‘Some of my favourite diamonds are the dew drops on leaves. They last but a few moments, or hours, depending on the day.’

Sure it’s a little ‘woofy’, perhaps,  but I didn’t dismiss my work and it lead on to something more substantial.

There’s a risk you might never finish anything when you’re a creative person. The key is to put aside the judgement, just enjoy the process.

Usually when I do this I end up looking back at my work, perhaps waking up the next day, sitting at the piano and rediscovering the song and generally I think “Well, I’m glad I took the time to do this.”

These are the moments. We have the option whether or not to catch thoughts, the melodies. No one’s making me do this. I’ve composed 800 songs purely because of the joy it gives me (and of course for the pleasure it gives others).

I have a blog. Like this podcast, I publish a post weekly. This week’s blog post is called ‘Those Little Moments’ (www.petepascoe.wordpress.com)

So I thought that was a nice ‘tie-in’ with the essence of what this song is about: sort of distilling all the complicated twists and turns of life down into an observation that eventually our tears become the dewdrops.

As I look into how the music came together, I demonstrate on the piano and I interject with spoken word observations in between singing the lines.

It’s fun to go between the analytical thinking and the creative thinking,

It’s a very gentle process, songwriting – at least it is for me. It’s complicated..all the music theory is like a support network underlying every musical idea. But I go about intuitively, in a very quick, free manner.

Where do melodies come from? It sure is a mystery, which I’m sure not looking to take away..as if I could. Chords dictate which notes are good to sing, and a melody can dictate which harmonic options are going to work, in terms of accompaniment.

It’s like in the moment you’re the director of the whole band. At least that’s the way I think. I can hear the strings, the bass guitar, the guitars, the backing vocals, the drums, the whole arrangement.

It comes in ‘fully arranged’ sounding phrases to me, as I build the sections of songs and put them together.

It’s a bit like you’re waiting for a story to come through and I’m telling my version.

Ok, here we go, hear how the song came together, some anecdotes, etc. and of course you’ll get to hear a new song.

Also on my blog you can read the lyrics, view my painting of the week which I mentioned on this episode. My writing, art and music are an evolving interrelated series of processes. It’s all a joy to me and it’s great to share some spoken word, singing and piano playing here on this podcast.

If you’re tuning in to listen each week, thank you so much. I hope you’re enjoying the podcast as much as I enjoy recording the episodes.

Enjoy!

Mystery

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:35 — 22.4MB)

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Episode #151: Mystery  (Song starts at 3:24 )

This song (#499) was originally titled ‘The Medium’ I wrote it about the time I went to visit a clairvoyant person for the 1st time.

I decided to change it to ‘Mystery’ at a later date. I guess I thought the new title might get the song listened to more.

Crash Test Dummies had a song about this subject, on a great album of theirs God Shuffled His Feet. I suppose that sort of gave me permission to write something similar.

To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what I would talk about when this song popped this week. It’s a very personal thing to experience and I think it pays to be discerning in terms of what you choose to share at times.

As it turns out, it was easy to talk about the experience I had.

The crux of this song is in the chorus where I sing ‘ I want to say thank you’ – because that’s precisely what I wanted to say to this person who helped at a time when I really needed a hand.

It was a nice feeling, singing and playing this gentle song as part of this episode. It flowed easily.

That’s my memory of how the song came through, to. The words came easily, first. The last couple of verses came to me as a reflection of this time later in my life. It was such an interesting experience.

We tend to view ourselves a certain way for part of our life, then something happens and we unfold a little more and our perspective changes.

This song is about a time of some personal transformation in my twenties. I was searching, really – finding my own path.

The music came very quickly, as easily as the words.

The two parts sound very natural, then. Not forced. Which I think is a big part of what could be deemed to be a successful bit of songwriting.

I’m pleased I shared this song. It’s been tucked away for years, although, I did sell about 30 copies of an album I called ‘12 Quiet Songs’ in 2005. Back then, I’d recently found a great Jimmy Webb album, ‘10 Easy Pieces’. I can really relate to Jimmy Webb’s song writing style. He sang his songs on this album himself ( his songs have been recorded and released by all sorts of wonderful artists such as Glen Campbell).

Maybe I’ll re-record this album again, one day. That’d be fun.

This is one of the things about recording the episodes for this podcast. It’s all a work in progress. I’m enjoying the complete unknown aspect about each episode, as I’m talking and playing without a script or more than a general plan of having a chat and sharing a song.

It is indeed a mystery how the episodes come together, much like songwriting.

I’m looking to bring some light to the songwriting process. I’m not looking to take away the mystery, though – as if I could.

It does surprise me how complicated the process is. For me, it’s something that’s been self taught, really. After singing lots of Elton John and Paul Simon, etc, I felt like I’d like to give this songwriting thing a go back in my teens.

Which is just what I did …and here I am years down the track, having composed about 800 songs.

It’s nice to be sharing and taking about the songs here.

I hope you enjoy hearing about the song Mystery as much as I enjoyed recording the episode.

Here we go….

Carry Me On

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:41 — 22.4MB)

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Episode #150: Carry Me On  (Song starts at 3:13)

Hi, on this episode we are looking at Carry Me On, song #237, composed 1992 (you can find it online as part of the album ‘Righto’, on www.petepascoe.bandcamp.com. I will remix it one day and it put it on the other streaming platforms).

I’ll also take you underwater with some snapper.  I live on the Mornington peninsula, Melbourne, Australia and take a dip in the Port Phillip bay quite often.

Most of all though, I’ve looked at where the song came from, how it was composed.

In this case it was a ‘words first, music 2nd’ sort of song. Co-written by myself and mr Paul Dredge, great friend and longtime co-songwriter.

Picture Paul and I having a cuppa, In Paul’s lounge, back in 1992 in NZ. Paul, having had a brief look at the lyrics, leaps into the opening riff on his acoustic guitar. I ‘wing’ a melody as I hold the lyrics sheet, watching Paul play.

In this moment we are totally free, tuning into what the other is offering. It’s a bit like like ‘theatre sports’, where neither actor blocks the other. The idea then is: the story evolves naturally, being plucked out of thin air by two creative souls.

We are communicating fully in the moment without speaking, while listening closely to the music that the other person is producing.  We are both improvising in the moment, based on knowledge of the theory of music & visual clues – but most of all, we are just following ‘the feeling’ – where the melody, chords and dynamics appear to be guiding us.

It’s a fascinating process to delve into. I do it on this podcast in a very relaxed, inclusive manner. This is no dry tutorial. I’m not here to tell you how to write as song. But I do share some ideas on how I do compose.

I asked Paul to share his memories about the song, so I’ve included some audio from him (by the way we are 8 songs into our new Folk Rock album. Although he lives in another country, we still write and record, via the internet. Check out ‘The Untrodden Track’, our last album.).

You’ll also hear about our 1996 mountain rock performance. An outdoor festival in Manawatu, NZ. Joe Satriani was the headline act – heady stuff for a relatively young band.

I start to compose another song on this episode, again (I must go back through the episodes and finish some of these off). I find myself demonstrating on the keys and this leads naturally into the composing process, so I go with it when it happens on this podcast.

Here’s my weekly blog, where you can find the lyrics to ‘Carry Me On’, my new seascape painting which I touch on, plus lots of other goodies. www.petepascoe.Wordpress.com

If all this sounds pretty good to you, please do email me (info@petepascoe.com) to join my email list. You won’t miss a thing that way.

Also, if you do enjoy this episode, there’s another 149 episodes to discover. Please do leave a favourable review and share this with people whom you think may be interested. Thank you in advance.

Ok , without further ado let’s get into Carry Me On. Sit back, relax and allow me to entertain you!

Hope and Forgiveness

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Episode #149: Hope and Forgiveness  (song starts at  8:44  &  28:28)

As I recorded this episode, I was feeling so energised. The creative flow was happening. I’ve just been away camping for 2 weeks. Being out in nature really does it for me. 2 weeks was a complete reset.

I take you to my campsite, sitting outside my tent as I talk about the Australian animals that we were surrounded by, the peace, the sound of the ocean.

Then, in contrast, I take you on the train in the city, where people’s faces had ‘barren fixed stares’ … because this is when I wrote the lyrics to ‘Hope and Forgiveness’.

I talk about the scenes and the people I was looking at as I was writing the lyrics & then we look at how the music came together.

This podcast is about creativity, in general. But it’s also turning out to be a podcast about living positively & enjoying life. That’s what I do.

I recorded piano solo album #5 the other night, (a version of ‘Hope and Forgiveness’ will be on it – just piano, no singing). I’m working on the sheet music too, so that will be available online later this year.

I also talk about one of my seascape paintings that sold last week,  and one I did on the spot while camping, while simultaneously whacking huge Australian horseflies that chose to chomp into my back and legs as I painted. Yep, you’ve got to be determined and focussed and passionate to be on the creative path – which I am

It’s one of the reasons I enjoy recording these episodes each week, sitting in my studio with my piano and chatting about what springs to mind. It gets me into performance mode – and that’s a big part of song writing mode.

There’s plenty on offer this week. Wallabies, tiger snakes, melody, humour… look out!

This week’s episode is a 2 for 1 deal: You’ll hear the audio from a YouTube video of me singing at the piano, (part of a Live From The Lounge online concert from during covid lockdowns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnzXPzljm3s),

At the end you’ll hear the album cut: track 2 from the album ‘Walking Through A Dream’ – streaming now. (Featuring Mr Paul Dredge on guitars, bass and vocal harmony. This was our 4th album).

On Bandcamp you can see photos, lyrics, stream music and buy songs for yourself or send it as a gift… https://petepascoe.bandcamp.com/

Here’s my blog too www.petepascoe.wordpress.com (lyrics to the song here, art, links to much more online – which I hope you’ll enjoy as much as listening to this episode.

Here we go, ‘Hope and Forgiveness’…rolling!

Man in The Mountain

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Episode #148: Man In The Mountain   (Song starts at 5:06 & 7:36)   

Welcome to a time travelling adventure. On this episode, we’re going back to 1988. That’s one of the great things about being a songwriter. You get to move about in time within a song. You get to act, imagine, be emotional and tell stories. It’s a blast.

I enjoy composing a variety of music. I’ve sold 5000 CDs of mellow piano solo pieces, I enjoy singer songwriter, rock, folk rock genres and so on…

‘Man In The Mountain’ is a wild old song which I composed one rainy day. At the time, I was mid way through an entertaining stint at a restaurant at the Whakapapa ski fields at Mt Ruapehu, in New Zealand.

I took my keyboard back to my cabin each night. It was great synthesiser (Roland D50) which had marvellous sounds on it.

If I’d written this song on the piano I imagine it would’ve turned out quite differently.

For this episode, I recorded a mellow piano/vocal version. I followed it immediately with the old demo I recorded on 4 tracks – lifted from an album by Paul Dredge and myself ( ‘What It Is’. The total release was about 20 cassettes. Probably just as well, as we were finding our way, teaching ourselves how to record, how to arrange songs, but we had fun – and we were learning).

You’ll hear that the old demo could do with a remix. Oh well. Again, it was fun, it had a certain sort of manic energy, which suited the lyrics.

The piano vocal version is more understated affair. It’s a little more haunting and mellow, which I enjoyed recording.

I keep a diary. It ‘clears the slate’, keeps my pen free and ready to write song lyrics. I catch what comes through and really just ‘get to get out of the way’, doing my best to be a secretary as the words tumble in. I’m really in the flow when this is happening.

Fast forward a few days and I’ll have a stack of lyrics awaiting my attention. like back in 1988: “Hmm, man in the mountain.. oh that’s right… this is a bit whacky ‘ a thousand animals crawl at night like thoughts in my mind..’ obviously a love song. I’ll pick this synth sound and see where I can take it”…

So you bring energy and intention with you as you compose.

The words suggest a musical style, but a lot has to do with how you are feeling as to what sort of song you end up with.

It’s also not a bad idea to try writing with different sounding keyboards (or guitars, or different instruments if you’ve got them up your sleeve).

‘The Man In The Mountain’ (song #76), was fun to write and fun to record. This episode was fun as well. The energy of the old demo spilled over into proceedings – and I’m glad it did.

As usual, there’s humour here – and lots of observations.

Have a listen and step into the shoes of a creative songwriter for 30 minutes. I hope you enjoy the show as much as I enjoyed recording it.

Here’s my blog : www.petepascoe.wordpress.com you can contact me at info@petepascoe.com. I welcome your feedback. If you do enjoy this episode, please be sure to leave a favourable review -and tell your friends about it – thank you in advance!

Pete.