Made It Through

Episode #112: Made It Through   (Song starts at 7:31)

This song caught my eye to feature in this week’s episode. 

Each week when it comes time to record another episode, I enjoy just going with the flow. I leap in there and see what happens.

The threads appear as I go along and we just sort of see where chatting about the song takes us each week. It’s always a fun and there are always pleasant surprises. 

Sometimes my songs are based on reality, sometimes they’re sort of ‘made up’. 

The lyrics of today’s song just started out as a mystery. There was just a feeling I had..a bit of an Autumn/sad feeling. Once I’d sung a couple of verses of things that sprung to mind (about an imaginary person who (apparently) was going through a rough time, with a relationship), a musical interlude gave me time to reflect on my relationship with my now wife and I thought how bad it would feel if we sailed into (imaginary) troubled waters…and it lead me to the title… Made It Through.

As I record this episode, a bit of weather kicks in and you can hear it on the microphone. Most recording sessions would be cancelled as I have a tin roof and it’s not a soundproof room. But what the heck. I kept the tape rolling. And I’m glad I did. We made it through.

This song #623, started with a nice piano riff that came through my fingers one autumn afternoon, as I sat at the piano, waiting to teach an adult student. 

It really pays to write these things down. Not rocket science, but then… I’ve learned through experience. I’ve composed something and then a week later, I’ve looked blankly at a page of nonsensical minimal squiggles that meant absolutely nothing to me.

As a songwriter, I’ve been prolific over the years – just because I really love the process of writing a song – and I’ve been good at writing them down too. 

It’s nice to be introducing some songs here….sharing them in a very raw form, with a backstory and lots of other chat. 

Tonight I had the idea I’d record albums of songs from this podcast. Piano/vocal versions. That’d be fun. And produce the sheet music, etc…

I love how creative projects can lead on unexpectedly to another one. 

That’s how songs like ‘Made It Through’ happen. Each section leads to another that wouldn’t have came to be, if it hadn’t been for the first bit. 

Once I had the riff together, and sat with it.. Words started to come through. So sang and wrote them down and sang some more, and so on… 

It’s a fascinating process. 

Want to join me for more? Like to hear the piano/vocal version of this song, sung live in the studio?  Here we go…

By the way you can read the lyrics in this week’s blog post, and see the podcast episode art, if it doesn’t appear on the platform where you listen to your podcasts. 

www.petepascoe.wordpress.com.  Also I mention my paintings. You can view lots of seascapes here: www.petepascoe.com. I have an exhibition coming up later this year. So I’m painting flat out, presently. I put my brush down to record this episode. I’m glad I did. 

It’s always very much a pleasure to record episodes for this podcast. It’s been a very positive addition to weekly proceedings for me, I hope it is for you, too. I hope you’re enjoying tuning in each week.