Beccy Owen's Song Blog (Slog?!) @beccyosongs-blog - Tumblr Blog

Day 1

Time to rescue my every expanding bottom and get fit and lean again. I'm interested in strength and energy, not thin per se. I plan to do a 5 mile jog/walk/ramble before breakfast. Then 90 minute cardio after lunch. May swim. Wish me luck!

Songs back online for your listening pleasure

GOOD NEWS! We've now raised over £3k through crowdfunding for the new album, IMAGO, thanks to the generosity of folk and some unique rewards. Chuffed! The album launch is on December 14th in Newcastle upon Tyne (more details here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/244775 You can still sponsor me online by going here: http://www.sponsume.com/project/beccy-owen-new-solo-album-imago-released-2013

In celebration of the success of the crowdfunding project, I thought I'd make most of the songs from the song blog I did at the start of the year available for public consumption again.

https://soundcloud.com/beccyowen

I've left out the songs that are going on IMAGO or the ones I released on the E.P. Drink

Both are available for pre-order/instant download respectively on www.beccyowen.bancamp.com along with my very first album (The Sweetest of Tales...) Thanks again for such amazing support - it's a wonderful feeling and I'm so looking forward to sharing the new music with you.

Loads of love

Beccy x

LAST DAY OF HEARING SONG BLOG

Today is the last day you'll be able to hear the Songathon songs whilst I bunker down and get into New Album Making mode. Share and share alike https://soundcloud.com/beccyowen They'll be back at some point later in the year, and will in the meantime be replaced by the new E.P. Thanks for listening! x

Mostly now on Soundcloud

Hello.

I've been really enjoying playing some of the songs from the Songathon at recent solo gigs. Yesterday I did a lovely gig at Central Gateshead. 4pm on a sunday is a great time to play music for people. Post roast, pre-can't-be-arsed-it's-sunday feeling.

The songs that have 'stuck'and are emerging as part of my live set seem to be:

Dead Language

Boy at the Wedding

Suitcases

and Beached.

So that's four new songs out of a month's daily splurge, and these are also the songs that I think will end up on the new album that I'm making.

Pretty chuffed with that.

Kindling II is also a favourite, and there are a few others that I plan to use in a theatre show I'm writing with my best friend Joanne.

You can hear most of the stuff here:

www.soundcloud.com/beccyowen

Thanks very much for listening, please feel free to comment and I hope to see you at a show sometime soon.

B x

p.s. My band Sharks Took The Rest are on tour in March. Go here for more info:

https://www.facebook.com/sharkstooktherest

Day Sixteen: Appetite

Day Fifteen: Do You One

Day Fourteen: Dead Language

Day Thirteen: Dead Language (rough draft)

Day Twelve: Dead Language (verse and chorus idea)

Words got carved into the mountains We are made of stone Carve me out of the mountains Find me fully grown ----- Voice by Ceri Owain Murphy Percussion: slate from front yard. Additional percussion: roaring fire

#SoundCloud #beccyowen #Songathon

Day Eleven: So Much Slate

Day Ten: Superjail

Day Nine: Find Me Gone

Day Six: Suitcases.

Announcement (not exciting)

Hey y'all,

Just to say that because I don't have regular internet access, I'm only able to upload the songs I'm writing every day as and when. Tumblr only allows for one piece of audio a day, so I'm defecting to Soundcloud, for the purposes of multiple uploads.

Please pop along to my soundcloud site here:

http://soundcloud.com/beccyowen

Day 6 is missing because I haven't had chance to record it yet. It's all a bit messy, but it's there - such is the nature of songathon!

B x

Visit Original Link

Song #4, 4th january 2013

Heavy Water

You're swimming in the slipstream of a loss

Moving your arms through heavy water

When the miles are empty miles

And the going too great a cost

Keep kicking your legs through the heavy water

-----------------------

Ok - so here's the audio of song 4. Recorded back at home in Yorkshire in my bedroom. Previously posted as just lyrics as I have limited internet access at the mo.

Have deleted the other post, for neatness sake.

I left my computer charger at my sisters (there's always something!), so the vocals for this are recorded on the fairly duff, built-in little number on my MacBook Air (mustn't grumble...!)

It's very rough, and rushed, as is the nature of this entire exercise...it's the one I've spent the least time on compositionally and recording-wise as term is about to kick in and there's a lot of non-slog related things to do...still, it hushes my perfectionism as this blog is all about going 'splurge', working with what I've got, and letting go: without reservation. Banishing the inner critic definitely easier on days where I have more time. Having said that, last time I did this some of my favourite songs came out of days when I only had 10 minutes to go from writing to recording to posting....

Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.

More to follow

Beccy x

Visit Original Link

Song #3, 3rd January 2013.

Thoth (instrumental)

———

Written and recorded on my niece’s upright piano in the dining room.

Today we got the bus into Oxford to go check out the The Ashmolean Museum. The allotments we saw by the road on the way were completely flooded. All that work. Made us feel a bit sad to see people’s efforts at self-sufficiency submerged by brutal, relentless rainwater. Nature working against nature. The birds were enjoying it though, and horses were drinking from it further down. We talked about what the collective noun for herons was. The internet told us it was a ‘siege’. A siege of herons. Nice.

At The Ashmolean my sister and I focused on the floor with the Ancient artefacts, the musical instruments and the textiles, to serve our respective interests. For me, going to museums is an opportunity to collect language. I took notes. I liked the mummies best, the care and effort people took into wrapping the bandages. The imagination it took to construct such complex and cohesive belief systems. We’ve been doing it for ever.

There was an artwork next to the mummies where the layers of a baby mummy’s CT scan had been drawn onto 100 layers of glass. This blew both mine and my sister’s bulbs. I’ve tried to attach an image below.

My sister liked the crocodile with human ears. What’s the relationship there, I wonder!?

ANYWAY. On the bus, I suggested that for today’s song we could all do a bit of an improvised piece together utilising some of the different instruments my sister has in her house. My sister seemed very unsure about this suggestion, despite being an accomplished pianist herself, so I ‘reassured’ her by saying ‘don’t worry, it’s an experiment, there’s no right or wrong answer!’. At which point she looked even more unsure.

Sometimes I forget that whilst some might like to follow intuition and for there to be no right or wrong answer (me: right brain dominant?) there are also some of us who favour logic and for there to be ‘black and white’ (my sister: left brain dominant?). I don’t think this makes one type of person more or less creative, or that we are all exclusively one of the other, just that we have different approaches to making things and different comfort zones (my sis is a bit of a legendary lace and quilt maker but says she prefers to follow a pattern than create one…so far anyway!). SO, I suggested a more structured, mathematical approach to generating ideas, with borders and rules. Like a lace pattern of sorts. Result: Instant facial relaxation and approving nods.

So. Got home. Worked with my nephew Samm on creating a melodic ‘code’. We took the alphabet and correlated each letter to the ascending scale of Dminor. i.e.

A B C D E F G H I J K…

d e f g a a# c# d e f g…

Then we used the code and matched each letter in Samm’s name and my name (including middle ones) to create two long lines of melody…after that I did a bit of right-brain decision-making with Samm’s help about things like rhythms, tempos, bassline, feel, time signature, etc. and, of course, the theme was inspired by the notes I took in the museum. Summoned Thoth. God of writing, who is depicted both as a baboon-headed deity and an ibis. This seemed appropriate (certainly more appropriate than our original title which was ‘Dwarfish Baboon-Headed Deity’….didn’t quite seem right for the atmosphere of the piece that emerged)

Not sure why I’ve waffled so much today. Probably because the museum was overstimulating, I am feeling quite inspired and because the song has no words. That’s out of MY comfort zone I suppose!

Thanks to Samm for his sterling input and discernment. You can check out his super cool band, Icarus Project, here:

http://daughteruk.bandcamp.com/album/icarus-project-phoenix-ep

Tired now. Blethered enough. Home to Yorkshire tomorrow.

Enjoy,

Beccy x

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