I play instruments with strings, though not the guitar! (My main instrument is the harp, but you might also hear some piano, viola or cello, perhaps even a uke...)
This will be my fourth FAWM... (previously @mkd). The first two years I did concept albums (2018 was based around family life, 2019 was based around death and dying). 2020 was the fawm I finally managed to write the musical I’d had in my head for the last few years... I was nervous about doing it, but FAWM was just the sort of push I needed to make me get on with it... and I did! Later that year, a group of performing arts students recorded it remotely in lockdown and I am working on producing the resulting film. (Just Act I)
This year?... I have the germ of an idea brewing (no pun intended!) so we shall see, but right now I’m off to teach my kids, who are off school again as we’re in Lockdown III here in the UK...
Pronouns: She/Her
#1 | Captain Tom |
12 4 weeks |
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#2 | When we're nearly 65 |
13 4 weeks |
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#3 | Yeah Yeah Yeah |
14 4 weeks |
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#4 | 14x14 Exhilaratingly Temptationless |
12 4 weeks |
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#5 | ![]() |
21 4 weeks |
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#6 | Puff Pastry Dragon |
17 4 weeks |
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#7 | ![]() |
35 3 weeks |
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#8 | ![]() |
28 3 weeks |
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#9 | No Weather for Outdoor Games |
12 3 weeks |
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#10 | ![]() |
15 2 weeks |
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#11 | ![]() |
10 2 weeks |
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#12 | Confessions of Blood...........and Doubt @corpsecorps |
1 2 weeks |
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#13 | ![]() ![]() |
21 2 weeks |
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#14 | ![]() |
19 2 weeks |
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#15 | ![]() |
6 2 weeks |
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#16 | ![]() |
18 2 weeks |
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#17 | ![]() ![]() |
11 2 weeks |
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#18 | Where I'd Like to Be |
11 2 weeks |
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#19 | Still Love @rosedeschamps |
8 2 weeks |
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#20 | Space Pirates on a Diet ![]() |
13 1 week |
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#21 | ![]() |
20 1 week |
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#22 | Contemplation |
12 1 week |
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#23 | ![]() |
10 1 week |
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#24 | St Kilda (instrumental demo) @gregthehero |
7 6 days |
I just saw it! Maybe be worried?? 🤣 I like dark stuff, most especially with contrasting happy music! got a uke and a kazoo? I can't not smile when I hear that combo 🤣
Well there's your lyrical inspiration! Hahaha no I would of had a hard time with it myself if not for my band name and imaginaryish bio I had already done when I signed up a few days ago LOL. It kind of wrote itself. That was one of the weekly challenges from either fawm last year or might of been 50/90 that I tried to do and blanked on as well. Couldn't think of anything other than some Descartes quotes. So maybe something there?
Yup I did, and actually other than I'm sure I'll play with the mix some(and probably screw it all up) am done with first song LOL.
Goodness me! My apologies (I didn't even see your bio). I've altered my comment to get rid of "auto" (blush). Siobhan Owen would eat me for breakfast if she heard about it...
Thanks for your comment on "Pyromancer"! Glad you enjoyed it though beeing a sketch with virtual instruments. We will re-record it with real instruments in some weeks. The list of collabos will be long... and longer. I'm looking forward to it.
Thank you for the nice comments. It has led me to a question - how long can a note be sustained on a cello in a single bow direction, without bowing so slowly that the quality of the note degrades..?
Oh my goodness!! I realized that I haven’t stopped by for some listening! Well, today is the day. You did really well!
Do I follow it up with a "I'll get you next time Gadget, next time!" ? LOL Thank you so much for the listen & the comment.
See You In The Shadows…
😀
Thank you so much for your words! There many astonishing things on this collab to me: I don't know @safred , but I was so inspured of his music that this imaginary comes to me ( the lyrics) and he put the words and my vocals and made this beautiful soft and delicate sound to them! This is such an amazing experience to me!
Thanks for your kind words!
Thanks! yeah I've listened to @candle and been amazed for some years now, and knew the guy could flat out belt it out sing with the best of them, but he really blew me away this year, especially once he broke his computer and all his strings and had to start playing acoustic and recording with a webcam 🤣
😀 Thank YOU.
I'm stubborn and stuck with music in one form or another, but I'm sure that mean old Cruella De'Ville looking lady and others like her did more than their fair share to drive people away from music than they ever did help any one along. I was lucky and also got introduced to blues and jazz and bluegrass and even older Native North/South American music, so I quickly threw "theory" out the window by the time I hit my teens 😉 Which is usually just mid 18th century Europeans telling everyone that there's still only one certain way to do things 🤣 but I could prattle about that for hours. I've no doubt you're a great teacher!
Pianos,Tchaikovsky, and rulers........soooo many knuckle slaps..... I'd of loved to rock a recorder 🤣
Thanks for the comments, and well done on a great February! The quality of your output is so high, it blows my mind! I shall endeavour to listen to the ones I've not heard over the next few weeks.
Can I also whole-heartedly and unreservedly apologise for my crimes against the cello on my last song, too? I toyed with seeing if you'd be up for a late collaboration on it, but it was about 4pm on Sunday 28th, and I figured that would be beyond rude, so I just hacked away at it instead. Suspect an actual cellist would be fairly horrified by what I'd done..!
That's cool. Sorry I'm crap at rules, so it's probably more complicated written down than it actually should be. it's just an agreement by happy parties (people might not actually have encountered) to reciprocate comments one at a time... tit4tat.... anyway, sorry for any stress, have a great day! 😀
Sorry to hear that, but ok, I'll take you off the list right now. Have a great spring and I'll see you at 50/90 I hope.
Hi. Thanks for reaching out. The good thing about FAWM is that no matter what time of night, someone was on the forums, even if it wasn't a thread you were participating in. Someone was doing the same thing as you that very moment.
We will get through this but for many of us, it is getting critically important to be allowed to see people again.
Our drummer just sent me a text with a couple more gigs for our covers band for later on in the year...so we'll have to get a couple of rehearsals in...we'll be rustier than the Titanic's anchor...
Yeah, I just crossed the threshhold to the land of three digits. 😁
Hello. Thanks for the lovely comment on Maybe! And my my... you’ve been busy. 23... 😯👏
Thanks for your feedback on Just Waking Up... I actually recorded the bassoon orchestra on a track. It is a simple 12 bar blues. Thanks again.
Hi...I'm doing OK, thanks! You've done incredibly well. I've got a couple more instrumentals in the bag...but will likely run out of time on the lyrics for them...I don't want to write anything else I'm not happy with...but I'm quite pleased with what I managed, really...and loved our song in particular!
The comment was well-deserved - it is a stunning song. I don't like downloading FAWM songs as they're generally demos and people might wish to do something more formal with them and should paid for their efforts. But when the song's that good, and there's a 'download' option, then I'm afraid I'm going to hit the button. I would happily buy an album of it. It is in my top two favourite songs of the year (@wolfkier's Then Comes Five being the other).
How nice it is to hear the language of our ancestors in a beautiful song. (zecoop"s mother and grandmother were both Evans's) I believe some of them were from Aberyswif (spelling?). A very nice piece of work.
*signs up for the MKDB fan club*
Thanks for the comment on Edge of Town. I'm glad I could paint a picture for you 😀
If that was luck it was the kind of luck Mozart had all the time (ie pure musical instinct).
And on collabs, I think my FAWM history has been a development. The first two years were about exploring songwriting again from a personal perspective, then by last year I was feeling confident enough to want to release some of those songs so both last year and this have been about concentrating on getting enough songs in the bag to be able to make a decent selection.
I think what I have now is enough confidence that I can do that during a FAWM to allow myself to have a bit of fun at the same time. So, whatever I decide to focus on next time around, I'll definitely make sure I make room for collaboration in the month.
And thanks for the invitation to do so. You're the first FAWMer to have done so in the last four years, and it'd be a delight to work with you on something. I'm looking forward to it.
Ah collaborations! I tend to spend so much of my limited time in February just concentrating on my own things I've been reluctant so far to do collaborations, but I'm beginning to come around to doing them, I think.
Hit me up next Feb, and we'll see!
Thanks!
THANK you for pointing out all of the things I really hoped folks would notice in “Yeah Yeah Yeah” ❤️😁
As if that wasn’t great enough, I discover you are ALSO a things-with-strings hoarder, AND one of those is the beloved viola which began my musical journey. Consider yourself watchlisted.
To stringed things and alto clefs and best friends that I haven’t yet met!
Yeah I couldn't think of a better ending for that 🤣 When listening again this morning, the pew pew pews just made me laugh all anew as well. Don't know why I had forgotten. My dog did hear it this morning though and it did perk him up, he shook his head, grunted and started gnawing his toy with some gusto. So you found some combination of Hz and noise that does get a dog that's very accustomed to hearing lots of craziness to pay attention! Well done!
Thank you for your kind words regarding my family. We have had a lot of fun with FAWM. John got me into this about 11 years ago. It's fun to find something to get the heart of an old codger of 84 going.
The file size tip was indeed helpful and I managed to upload in the end when I dropped the bit rate for the mp3 file, so thanks again.
Thanks for the tip on the file size. I didn't realise there was a file limit. I'll try to make it smaller and re-upload
ARG! I Just finished my segment! Apologies!
Loved captain Tom song . An utter pleasure to listen to . Thank you for writing
Ha! Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for the Welsh reading of the sign. If I am unable to get to this with the time left this FAWM, I will bank it for next FAWM!
Hello! You tipped me off on this Welsh sign. Could you help me with pronunciation of the Welsh?
Welsh...
“Tra bydd golau coch sefwch yma”
Official translation for road sign purposes:
“When red light shows wait here.”
Actual literal translation:
“While the light is red, stand here”
🤣 You're alright! Oh I listened to that soundcloud track you had with the pencil scratches and the rolling drum beater thing. That was a really cool concept and nicely executed! I try to just listen to new fawm music during the month, but I couldn't help myself there haha.
Nice! I thought those were actual pick scrapes or a bow, guess not too far off 😁. I'll have to play it for my dog see what he thinks. Though he only howls along when I play a harmonica live, he could care less about recordings. It's the cat that gets sketchy about weird noises you'd think he'd be used to it by now. I would apologize for the loudness, but it would be insincere 🤣
Thanks! that was quite a wonderful corpse!
Thanks so much for stitching!!! Do you have an original file of the EC or MP3 that you could send me and then I could also post on my page!
No worries! It was funny! He overreacts to movies/shows, but usually doesn't react if it isn't an authentic animal sound. So kudos on tricking him!
Fixed it, thanks!
Yeah i defo tend to channel my Noel G in lots of songs. especially the big ballady type ones. Thanks so much for listening. Have whacked the words up now. Phewee there was a lot 😉
You're welcome
I'm really enjoy your inventiveness!
Hi there.. and the next skirmish had a lyre in it (the tale of orpheus.. ) so if you want to stop by and listen to this and make a loop ( or a few loops - I think its BPM101 or thereabouts .. or basically whatever takes your fancy) similar in tempo... https://fawm.org/songs/120244/.. I think it would still whatever happened be a final piece as a kind of recitation.. but it might have a few more breaks for music.. for filling in (in free prose) any bits of the story forgotten that need to be caught up on.. and suchlike. Thanks!!!! I've got an accound on soundtrap if that's of interest... its possible to collab online.. I dont know if the second person needs a full account.. Otherwise, just email me, or upload to souncloud private - tcking the downloadable option - and mark unlisted..
Thank you for your appreciation and kind comments on 'Maldives' it's a lingering dream for me 😀
Hello again !!! I sent you a reply to your email, asking a question 😀 (not about your recording - I love it). Let me know your answer please, so that I can let them know !! lol
Heya 😀
Yes I am very happy for a FAWM collab on Bugs Bite. I do however already have a cowriter for post FAWM for this one (not a FAWMer), so it can't be used online commercially etc etc post FAWM. Is that ok with you ? If so add away !!!
Hiya, yep fine. Busy week on several fronts and a creatively frustrating one, but I've got something new bubbling. All good.
Ta for checking in.
Just *amazing*, my friend. Blown away. Please post!
Thank you 😀
Out and about for the next bit but looking forward to listening!
Thanks for your comment on "Interview!"
Right now I have to wait to see if I get the second interview, but it was my first full interview in a second language and I never had to stop for clarification, and the interviewer laughed and chatted a bit, so I at least think it went well.
Got it!
Thx for the comment on New String very kind. Sometimes an improv it a good thing.
Wooo!
Hi! Thanks so much for your kind words for my 10x10 Whistling Suite! As I wrote in the description I just improvised the lines. The research for a suitable musical form(at) and all those different dances took me much longer than to record the whole thing.
Thanks! If others are interested that would be fun!
👏
Thanks for your comment on Disney (didn’t prepare us for our 30s) I had a lot of fun with the concept!
We made a great song I reckon! If that had been all I’d gotten out of FAWM it would still all have been worthwhile. As soon as I got your vocal, I knew you’d sent me a little bit of magic...thanks!
Ps your new song is a knockout!
Just saw they were from New Orleans, might be nursing a stay at home Fat Tuesday hangover 🤣 It worse comes to worse and don't hear back and time is running out you can always just add an end-part or ask for another volunteer I suppose.
I guess 🤣 I suppose you can rename it if you want. I was going to call it The Great Wizards Plan For World Domination After Huffing Too Much Donkey Dust or something, but figured I go with something that was actually somewhat lyrical in it as well haha.
thankyou for your kind comment on my song!!
It was a great helicopter! 🤣 I really do wish I still had all my old keyboards, I had some really "bad" ones that made such great noise, and now they're expensive since they're "cool" and "vintage" haha
Thanks, I love how that one came together! It was actually fun to stitch up and I hate the editing process usually 🤣 How did you make that fairy dust powered helicopter noise btw? I'm intrigued, and have this desire for a harp to wire up with piezos and completely play all wrong now hahaha, but they're soooooooo big! Portability was one of the reasons I started playing more guitar instead of drums years ago.
I'm hoping to get to our project either this evening or tomorrow evening. Being Ash Wednesday it's a full day for me so we'll see!
thanks for clarifying it was your phone creating sounds i was picturing a laptop. great harmonies!!!
So glad you liked my "Indigo Flame" - I might do another colour sometime. Brilliant idea to take those pretentious names of colours and offer them to people out to do some real creative work 😉
luv that photo of you in the 'last gig' your outfit reminds me of an avant garde artist in NYC back in the day named "Moon Doggie"....look forward to listening to your music.
Ha!
Re corpses - I think the anticipation is a big part of it. 😀 Hope you're similarly surprised and pleased by yours.
Just enjoyed your Clown Show collab too. That's not the kind of song I ever imagined you singing, but it's brilliant! This is the kind of stuff FAWM is for.
Yeah, but you should see it...
Thanks! It was a bit of an odd challenge but I think it turned out really well.
Glad you enjoyed it! And yeah, I had a lot of fun with that 10x10. 😁
No I haven't got that last bit yet. I should probably check to see how that's going 🤣, and good on that other one changing, those are usually my favorite corpses that turn into a very poorly played version of that old telephone game, where someone messes it up on purpose🤣
I found out during 50/90 the doggie likes to sing, but its only with a harmonica(which I play very poorly on the best of days) so got most of that drowned out, he'll follow pitch(better than I can) and pretty much stay on rhythm too. I'm sure there are some reversed bits in there, got a new pedal recently that will do live reverse, and have had a reverse reverb for a while. I can't seem to leave it alone 😁 Yeah that 10x10 was a bit of you breaking out of a box, at least compared to the tracks of yours I've listened to so far, great stuff though!
Thank You for the lovely vocals you sent me!
Sounds like a good idea. I will make sure I tune my guitar to A440 before recording. LOL
Yeah, so I think I'm enough through my list of commitments to start planning something with you now! What sort of thing would you like to do?
Thank you so much for you lovely comments on our song 😊
In Canada, it’s not art if it doesn’t make you slightly depressed. True story. I live in America now and as we were building our repertoire my jazz pianist eventually told me I had to start choosing happier songs. 😃 I can’t take it out of my compositions tho. Bred in the bone. (Examples anything by Margaret Atwood, the group of seven painters, and harvest moon by Neil young. Also Amelia Curran. She’s from my home province and her work is devastating (which is the Canadian word for beautiful lol)
Thanks for your kind comment on my jazz number!
That's why they call them challenges, right?
Mine was an interesting challenge in terms of what I had to work with, but that's all part of the fun. 😁 It all seems to be moving along smoothly. Very intrgued to see how it turns out.
Ha! Not directly, although it does make me a bit headachy. I just realised I was going to need a reset soon and it seemed a good day to have it.
Have your corpses been exhumed yet?
I emailed you my segment of the Anything Goes Exquisite Corpse #3 - thanks for stitching!
The Sunlight/Moonlight part gave me goosebumps when i heard it. 😀
Yes! At the beginning I signed up to a few of the challenges. Never done a corpse before so I'm looking forward to this one. Little bit daunted by the acoustic one they've already put up, it was really good!
Good luck with yours!
Thank you for the lovely offer...I'd love you to do something on one of my songs...I'll try to get something together!
Thank you so much for your comment on Yeah Yeah Yeah I Remember.
Thank you for your kind words on sirensong . Looking forward to listening to yours.
Ha, yes, I did have a lot of fun with it. It was a skirmish so it's all a bit rushed and definitely a bit on the silly side. I always do at least one of those every year it seems.
Awesome! That's shaping up to be a good one. I already don't remember what I did for it, but the others have been great, so it'll be a bit of a surprise when I get to stitching it together for me as well 😁
Sounds good. I've got a few 'i's to dot and 't's to cross first but hopefully within the week I'll be caught up enough that we can do something together!