Music
Direct to Album 1 Demos - Album 2 Songs for M - Album 3 Travels - Album 4 Sketches
Album 5 Southern Man​ - Album Roquefort
At 16 I bought my first guitar. And ended up playing keyboards for over 20 years in several bands - because they had always better guitar players than I was. I wrote about 120 songs since the 1980’s and just recently, in 2023, I started recording them properly. My voice is however not really suitable to sing lead. Luckily I have gifted daughters, who are willing to do the vocals on some of my songs. And: the AI-developments have provided me with new possibilities to masque my voice with another. That makes a huge difference (listen to Album 5, some songs are sung by Tyler, an AI-voice). For the rest: my voice has to do.
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About my songs
Most hits nowadays I call Formula songs: following simple rules and babyfood for the ears. They are more about production than about lyrics or composition: a few chords, repeated over and over with minor changes in beat and melody, and a few soundbites and hooks, also repeated - sometimes even up to over a hundred times in one song. I promise you songs with surprises in melodies - often because of the use of not too standard chord progressions.
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More a lyricist than a composer
I see myself more as a lyricist than as a composer. I try to tell a story from A to Z and while doing so, I apply some old-school rules in rhyming that hardly seem important any more in contemporary songs. A half-alike sounding syllable is not a genuine rhyme. And emphasis should be on the right syllables. If that makes me a grumpy old man - so be it :-).
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That doesn’t mean that I always succeed. But I put in the effort in trying to get there as close as I can. Hope you like my lyrics!
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What style? Well, eh...
I like bands who vary in styles: Queen, the Beatles, 10cc, the Eagles... they all had multiple songwriters and different styles. Also versatile artists, like Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Sting and David Bowie - all who explored many directions. My songs go from pop and rock to bossa nova and country. On album 3 I even tried African and Asian styles to fit the songs. Added to the albums are short descriptions of each song and style. Just choose a few to get an idea.
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About the recordings
All songs are just demo’s, meant to give an impression of what they could sound like. The tracks are not mastered - and my voice is not really suitable to sing the lead. But it will have to do, to get my songs out there.
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You want to make it your own?
If you are a singer, performer, by yourself or in a band, and like some of the lyrics or the whole song, please feel free to make it your own. And let me know what you made it sound like!
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