The Journey Of Composing A Song

 

The Journey Of Composing A Song

By Paul McCann

 

1 - From A Word To A Song

For all the great moments of time we often are able to reflect back through the years through a song or a piece of music . We need to give recognition to this gift and its ability for having made such an impact on our lives . Now as we live and breath we have reached an important milestone on the journey . We must stop and celebrate now this connection . You hear a word and it wills a song somehow somewhere , sometime . You hear it and you feel it . Then you listen to it deep in your soul .  
There after you become part of it as it sinks in .

Whatever you do or whoever you are , where ever you go , there is music and song It is life and life is music . It speaks to all of us in different ways .

You may be a politician of as priest , your could be rich or poor , you might hold degrees as a teacher , you might be the champion in sport , you could even be a  master chef but we all recognise the same thing , music and song had made and will make an impact on our lives .

Soldiers who went on a mission to fight for their country were inspired by songs with lyrics that gave them strength in their heart to carry on  Those with religious vocations were assisted with music and song in their spiritual lives . .

In a world where we leave a legacy or build new foundations there are and will be  songs and music there making a connection with an understanding with all we are going through with poverty , famine , hope and love , peace and encouragement  for all these emotional hardships and inspirations have riddled holes in countries all over the world . The works of musicians but poets have found something to write that became a song and they were recorded and heard in the past and will continue to be listened to in the future . Songwriters and storytellers share an image of what life is like or was like and their recordings are for this generation and others to come so that others can see and agree or disagree about what was going on or what life was like in a particular time and the place . As a poets and songwriter I feel that I have a  legacy that need to be written .
Leaving a legacy is vital responsibility for all writers to do .

It can be a source of strength and courage for others whenever the world is gripped by wars and conflict , thankfully we all be somehow touched by the words of a song that express how we personally feel . The song can then bear witness to that and in a sense of unity we can see the world through the eyes of a song even though we are different in culture or creed so there can be an answer for us all  .

We must never become lost or confused amidst all the aggression that surrounds us in the world today . To hear or to sing a song or to find the words to write and create a song is something about sharing life and that can invite others from many creeds to be one in that vision of hope . Lat us always continue to sing and write together .
Let us all find songs to sing in an expression of how we see life in the world we live .
Isn’t it really what life is all about  ?

C’est La Vie , the song of mysticism , the song of love we all share in the world .

 

2 -Behind The Scenes Of Recording A Song   

Every songwriter has a story to tell about recording a song or an alum . I would like to share my own journey here of recording an album of ten songs , I thought to myself after writing songs for 40 years it might be a good time to start recording an album in a real studio with a few musician friends and a skilled sound engineer . I did some research and found a place in Mittagong where a studio called LCDA and made a phone call to enquire about availability and cost .
It was February 2022 when I first went over to meet Fito at his recording studio . We spoke about my album and he listened to some of my demo tracks for the songs I wanted to record . We exchanged a few ideas in the  basement of his house that was converted into a recording studio .

There was adequate space with instruments and equipment everywhere .

The concrete floor was covered with Persian rugs , Turkish carpets and a filtered light from lampstands around the room . The walls of the studio had artworks and photographs hanging inside frames like a jigsaw of life making up one picture of his life .

After we talked about the songs I wanted to record he went through them one by one and chose a half dozen that he liked which left around at least 4 more to consider for the album .  I could see that Fito was a perfectionist and I was glad to have his help on my first live studio recording

”If you’re going to do something , you should give it your very best”

He said ,

The following week I started to records the first vocals on one of the tracks and write four new songs for The Storyteller Album .

 

Just as I had began recording the first of the songs for the album in May 2022 I was on my way to the studio and my van broke down . I got out and pushed it steering it at the same time to get off the road and rang Fito ; He was kind enough to pick me up and bring me to his studio . It was pouring rain that evening and after the recording session I took a taxi home .

The first song we worked on was , The Love I Have For You followed by another called Buckets Of Roses which is the oldest song on the album written in 1996 .Some of the songs were slowly starting to come together .

 

Just as things were going well on the album , we were told we had to find another place to live because the owner of the house we rented had sold the place and the new owner wanted to move in . So my family and I began searching for a place to rent in the local area . Everyday we went to inspections of rental properties and applied time and time again without any being approved  . It was very difficult to find a home to rent , so we started to look elsewhere,  outside the area . After a while we had been approved for a place about three quarters of an hours driver from where we were living and started putting everything we owned into boxes .

After we moved to Couridjah I had to travel a long way to the studio .

The Van was still in with the mechanic and needed a reconditioned head .

Recording The Storyteller now was difficult as my partner and I worked together every evening and working out the times to get to the studio wasn’t easy .

Just shortly after moving into the new house we had torrential rain that plummeted out of the sky for six months , flooding all of the areas around us . The creek next to our home overflowed and flooded the area where we lived  . It was impossible to get to work never mind the studio to record .

Later in the year after  the floods subsided I was able to return into the studio with Fito .. I went once a week to the studio record , each session was several hours . Many remixes were made , with new vocals being recorded .

I contacted some old friends to be part of the album and during the first few months some great work was being done by on the arranging of various instruments .  

 

Around the end of 2022 we were having issues in the home with the septic tank frequently overflowing causing health issues and other concerns for us and the estate agent were not helpful in any way in trying to assist . The owner had also illegally built a kitchen and made extensions with council approval and we had been told at any stage we could be evicted from our home as all of the work had not been approved or inspected by council for the development . We had no  sympathy from out real estate and had to seek an early escape from our lease with the NSW Civil Administration hearing that passed the case over in our favour . Now we were once more looking for a place to live . It was December 2022 . The new year came and went and we kept viewing rental homes within a fifty mile radius and once again every application we made was not approved .

 

Meanwhile back in the studio the Storyteller album was making slow progress my van was still not fixed and I was writing four new songs for the Storyteller  album , “Love Is Strong”: ‘Shine On” “Its A Gift and Sweet Karma “  

The lyrics came very quickly for each song and Fito began mapping our arrangements for those songs .

There were always good input by Fito making suggestions with a view to the arrangements . He had a gift and could hear various instruments on the tracks and felt what direction each song should go .

There were now a possible ten songs selected for the album “The Storyteller”
Some of the songs on the album were personal recollections of people and places and some old friends helped me with the recordings . Dave Debs from Bowral  came into the studio one evening and played some six string guitar fills adding some blues harp on to a  track  . I’ve known Dave for 30 years when in 1996 we went to a folk session at the Blue Boar Inn on Thursday

Nights . Dave has a passion for singing and songwriting as well and was very generous with his time on my album . An Irish whistle player Johnny Spillane came up from Wollongong to add his magic on the album and with him Jason Rosewarn came to add his Irish Bodhran . Mark Oates and his brilliant  fiddle was added to three of the tracks and now many of the tracks were expanding in their overall sound , Michael Dayoz added his slide guitar , Clare Idris from Canberra provided Flute , Daniel Melillan on the sticks with most tracks and his keyboards prevalent through the album . Darren Powel on Frugal Horn, Chris Hayden from Bundanoon added some mandolin, Tania Doria some harmony vocal on one of the tracks brought a added colour as well to one of the songs and Fito continuing to monitor and arrange everything on his mixing desk at LCDA Studio .

We were moving house again at this p

 

oint and again began looking extensively for a place to rent .

After much searching and applying we found a place in March 2024 and at the same time The Storyteller album was ready for its final mastering .

 

3 – Finding New Songs To Record

There is another journey for songwriters and musicians to go on when seeking new songs and then finding new songs to record . This process needs no plan , it just happens naturally . For me its just like the song chooses the moment to be found ,

No time can be set aside for this to happen , there is no method or procedure . ‘

It is all part of the serendipity factor . My own experience of this was at a jamming session on a farm in the country where some friends often get together for an unrehearsed music session called Jam tripping  . Here is where I found some new songs to record in what once was once an old shearing shed at a farm in New South Wales has now become a recording studio . The old floors is now covered with Turkish carpets the shed is luminated by coloured filtered lights and bookcases full of old vinyl records and other interesting books and photographs to add intrigue to the interior . Antique chairs and sofas are placed in quiet corners capturing another presence to this musical jigsaw of music on the farm . Once or twice a year musicians arrive for a weekend of jamming and making music .

Anything can happen during these sessions , there’s blues fused with jazz and rock and roll with a touch of soul and lots of unrehearsed music of all that happens during the jam session . On the recent session there , I played along with some of these brilliant musicians who were inspirational and encouraging . In there presence I was inspired with some new lyrics that ended up being used with some new song’s that were brought into the studio at the farm and recorded with Fito at the controls . He introduced some harmonies and with some help from family and friends they were all mixed into the arrangements with “The Streets Of The Soul ‘ ‘Street Walking Man “ and The Fights On Me “

Its easy to feel that there is something special happening there at the farm studio when your start to record songs and how fast they all come together . 

These three new songs all happened like a gift in a box that had been dropped out of the sky and ended up at our feet in a place where sheep were once sheared and men had been covered in sweat and dust with no room to move and now a few things have changed with the efforts of men and women pouring out lyrics and singing along with a little blood sweat and tears for good measure . The end result however is well worth the wait with well some well recorded songs captured with some excellent musicians standing on their feet with guitars , frugal horn trumpets and saxophones and others in front of microphones , then the men and women in front of keyboards and drums carving out tracks for Fito to mix and arrange at the recently reallocated studio on a farm in New South Wales where many black sheep have found a home among gum trees and alpacas . 

In 2025 music is alive on the farm and musicians and singers are arriving at the studio door looking to record their music and songs in a place that allows plenty of breathing space and places to wander and ramble while making music .
During this time a good friend and fellow songwriter Adam who lived on the farm for a while helped me arrange and produce two new songs “Downhill Wirth No Brakes and The Breakdown Blues” and there was on the way to my next album with five new songs that fell out of the sky in a week or two .

Now there has to be another album for me that will be produced at the studio on the farm with the charm of people who are dedicated to music and have the know how to bring a sense of magic into each song . This journey of composing songs is personal and hopefully will be part of the legacy I can leave for other people to understand the process of what happens along the way to making new recordings .

Summing up there is no end to the journey only new songs to find anywhere , anytime .

 

By Paul McCann