Chocolate Biscuit Princess – Song and a Chat

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:09 — 21.4MB)

Episode #1: Chocolate Biscuit Princess – (Song at 7:58)

Welcome to my first podcast – ever! Hi there, my name is Pete Pascoe I’m a songwriter. I’ve written 800 songs. I had the idea that an ongoing series of podcasts would be a great place to present demos of songs – old and new – that might not otherwise get out there in the world.

Each week, I’ll present another a song ( if you want to only listen to the song, the time where the song plays will be in each title). First of all, I’ll give you the backstory, where the song came from, perhaps what I was up to at the time….what inspired the song, (yep, you’ll get the inside info).

Having set the scene, the tape hiss kicks in and…the demo plays. Sometimes on the original demo, you catch some sort of magic that you don’t then manage to find in the studio when re-recording the song later. It’s this sort of…indefinable feeling that we all strive for in art and music. I’ll then do some lyric analysis, and finish up with the songwriting tips. I plan for this to go on..well, for quite some time – there are 800 songs to choose from!

Ok , on with the show : Chocolate Biscuit Princess. Song # 171. Written in 1991 and demoed the same year.

The title? A good friend of mine shared a house with a young lady who somehow reminded me of what I thought an English princess from a couple of centuries ago might look like. Some of her mannerisms seemed quite…royal too. Apparently her food intake was minimal. The bulk of her diet being chocolate biscuits. The song writer in me said “aha!” surely there’s a song to be had here.

The recording : piano/vocals (as most of my offerings on this podcast will be), in one take, playing a baby grand late one evening, in a piano bar where I used to work. One day I’ll record this with a small string section – a suitable arrangement for a royal performance!

Then I segue into the songwriting segment. On this first podcast, there’s a sense of exploration happening as I’m deciding on how to present these podcasts. I’m finding my way along. I did consider re-recording it, but I like the spontaneity and honesty that often happens in the first take. I hope you enjoy it.