Co-Writing “Crystal Kinda Girl”:
An Opportunity, A Shared Need
Last October, 2023, I joined the online songwriting community SongTown, founded by Clay Mills and Marty Dodson. I had just started getting back into songwriting again, and I wanted to try co-writing, so I posted an ad on the SongTown forum looking for co-writers. I kept checking my inbox every day for responses, but two weeks went by since my post, and I still had no responses. Then, a message popped up in my feed from a songwriter named Ira Denis. Ira was a lyricist and was interested in co-writing with me. When I saw Ira's page, one of her song titles "Crystal Kinda Girl" stood out to me. I checked out the lyrics and saw some really cool lines. I immediately thought we could make a cool song out of these lyrics. I picked up my guitar and began to think up a chord progression and vocal melody for the song that fit the lyrics Ira had written (The initial chord progression ended up being the same one that we used on the final version of the song). I spent the next 45 minutes or so working on this song idea, letting the music naturally be unearthed as my mind became immersed in the story of the "crystal kinda girl" that Ira had written about. I kept many of Ira's lyrics. but changed a few lines here and there, and also added a new section where I felt that it was needed. Within about an hour, the whole song was done; one of those rare writing sessions where everything just seems to flow out naturally.
Writing this song, and working on this collaboration with Ira, has been a meaningful experience for me, both because it is the first real co-write I have done since getting back into songwriting (my first co-write in over 15 years), and because it came at a time when I couldn't find any real opportunities for co-writing with other songwriters. Everyone has to start somewhere, and this was my first opportunity. I have a feeling that Ira feels the same way; I think both of us were looking for someone to give us a shot, and out of that longing for collaborative opportunity, Crystal Kinda Girl was born. Without the music I discovered, Ira's lyrics were only an inspired concept, not a finished song. But without Ira's lyrics, our finished song could never have come together. Just as much as Ira needed a melody writer, I needed a lyricist. We needed each other at that moment, and I like to think we both knew it. Our song “Crystal Kinda Girl” was birthed out of necessity; this shared need, mixed with a little bit of experimentation, a healthy dose of discovery, and a whole lot of wonder.
-Cameron
LINK to clip of Crystal Kinda Girl, releasing in February 2025:
AND, Linktree for our new project, Lights of Egan (our first single release will be out January 24th, 2025):
Soaring acoustic folk/pop meets 70's soft prog rock