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 and David Bowie 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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