Queen St – Song and a Chat

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:53 — 21.9MB)

Episode #89 Queen St (Song starts at 6;58)

This is the podcast where you get to hear how it feels to be a songwriter.

How do I do this? What I do I talk about?

The answers seem to come as I follow my nose, as I record what comes into my mind in the moment.

As a songwriter, you instinctively know when to jot notes down, when a phrase catches your ear in a certain way. It might be something that someone says in passing, or a sentence or two that just pop into your mind..

For that to happen, I find I need to make room for those sort of moments. To make room, in my head, to clear the slate a bit, I like getting out into nature.

On this week’s episode, I take you with me down at the beach to catch that bit of fresh air.

The song Queen St came about after I jotted down the sights I could recall from earlier in the day: at lunchtime on a Friday, Paul Dredge and I set up to busk rather hopefully – outside a bank. In Queens St, the main Street of Auckland’s CBD, in New Zealand,

Later on, as soon as I sang and played the first line, that’s when I knew I had a song. All you really need to do is make a start. Songwriting is so much like painting (which I do as well – you can check out a painting I did today of Sorrento, via, Australia, here: www.petepascoe.wordpress.com).

The start gives you the feeling. That’s number one. It gives you energy and a reason to write the next line, which leads on to the next …and … pretty soon you’ve got a whole page of lyrics to work with.

This song was one of those ‘words first, music second’ songs. I always used to write songs like that. These days I mainly find myself writing the music & words at the same time, which is fun.

As I recorded this episode, I was trying to recall what age I was when I wrote the song, I said 19 or 20, but it was more like 27.

Paul Dredge and I were on the road. It was a free, fun time in our lives. I think that sense of freedom comes through in this song.

Ok, join me now for a half hour chat, with some music and some new music for you to listen to. There’s some very nice vocal harmonies on this recording.

Here we go…