Influences: Far too many but a few are....Beatles, Clash, Brian Wilson, mozart, Debussey, Stone Roses, Carpenters, Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, New Order, Shack, The Las, Status Quo, Burt Bacharach, The Kinks, Super Furry Animals, Drum and Bass, Synth pop, vocal harmonies and more melodic beautifilicious people and genres!!
Ah FAWM 2021. Are you a blessing not in disguise?? FAWM NO.8 for me!!!
Welcome to a very different Karlos FAWM. Usually i am sat in a hammock in Thailand counting the days until feb 1st with iphone at the ready. Well there's positives to not doing that. Full studio, Winter english sunshine (ahem) and not spending two days getting lost on a flight over to Asia.
So seeing as I have been locked down in Merry Old England for 9 months now (longest in my post school teaching life) I have been writing, recording continuously and have released and album with another one ready to go.
Was worried my juices may be dry for FAWM but surely not 😉
I also been doing more gigs than ever online from my barn balcony in lockdown and inside (its chilly these days). Some are uploaded to youtube but its been so much fun since working out how to put logic through the live stream.
Anyway this year i am also life coach training alongside zoom music lesson teaching so will be pretty full on so am throwing myself out there as a Major collaborator this year. I may well not reach the magical 14 this year but do want to collaborate as much as poss.
So if you need a melody writing with words or not , or is you have a melody and you need music, or if you have ideas you want to throw at me to form a tune, then i am you merry freezing cold england man.
Lots to contemplate this year, but thank god we have music to keep ourselves on a positive , uplifting track.
HUGE HUGS to you all as i am feckin missing them more than most things at the moment
Album released last month link is herehttps://thekarloskollective.bandcamp.com/album/forever-anicca
#1 | Dystopian Me |
52 Feb 1 |
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#2 | Acceptance |
30 Feb 3 |
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#3 | Dance through the storm |
39 Feb 5 |
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#4 | Breaking Free |
25 Feb 9 |
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#5 | ![]() |
28 Feb 12 |
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#6 | Can't say it out loud @acousticmaddie |
24 Feb 12 |
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#7 | Happy Place |
29 Feb 13 |
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#8 | ![]() |
33 7 weeks |
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#9 | ![]() |
26 7 weeks |
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#10 | Valley of Love @natalie |
21 7 weeks |
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#11 | ![]() |
32 7 weeks |
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#12 | Freedom Punks!! ![]() |
14 7 weeks |
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#13 | Feel Alive @lanasolyluna |
24 7 weeks |
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#14 | Acceptance - Sunny Says x The Karlos Kollective @sunnysays |
13 7 weeks |
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#15 | BEAUTIFUL LIE (DIANA) @cts |
3 6 weeks |
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#16 | ![]() |
29 6 weeks |
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#17 | Serenity |
22 6 weeks |
Thanks for listening to my collab song "Until You" with Cindyrella, appreciate it!
That would be the headmaster to, correct? I assume so, if The Smiths have taught me correctly, lol. We leave the difference between spelling a principle and the principal as he is our pal. 🤣😂
Glad you liked my "Nothing but Deluxe" and "Just One". Thanks for your very positive comments on them.
You’re a love for all your mentioning of the Smiths... seriously, you had me at hello! I am in fact playing drums on all my demos this year... ruff playing but it makes me happy! Fortunately, my regular drummers from the before-times are fantastic so I’m spoiled in my regular bands.
Congrats on putting out a COVID album, BTW! I did one too back in December, and I know what a Herculean undertaking it was!
Thank you for listening and commenting on my song "Something Dark" and collab with mikeb "Tears at Midnight", it is appreciated!!
Of course when I added the organ, it was just piano organ and shaker - I had no idea what was coming!
Thanks so much for taking the time to listen to my songs and the lovely comments you’ve made. I appreciate it! Congrats on the win!
Karl thanks for the love! Sorry you had to leave Thailand but the zoom concerts from your barnyard deck sound amazing. Let me know how I can see them!
Helloooooo! Thanks for your comments on Ajax 409 - yes of course, it’s absolutely a real harp! It was such a fun piece to create, and I was delighted that John (AND Mrs Zecoop for the operator part) were so up for it! I know you’re a fellow John-Appreciation-Society member 😉
You are the sweetest! I have lots of listening to catch up on. Hugs to you!
Hey thanks Karl for the kind words to Nadia and I! 😀
Thanks, Karl, for the nice comments. Yeah, I do get " like Beach Boys and Beatles" comments. They're the best bands! I don't only like them, but the melodies and chord structures are so inventive. I try to understand how they do it. But it's not so easy.
And clearly, you are a big fan too. 😀
Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments on my music this FAWM. I always value your feedback. I hope you had a great FAWM this year. It looks like you did, judging by all your great new songs. I look forward to 'seeing' you here again next year. In the meantime, have a great year and stay safe. 😀
Thanks for the comments on Never, Never, Never. Curious where you live(d) in Thailand. My wife and I spent a bit more than two years in Phuket. Loved it!
Thanks for the fine comment, mate! We'll do collab, for sure!
nah British folks are cool. Can’t wait to visit someday.
Upstream is all Theresa, her song, her voice and piano. I just wrapped a bit of fairy dust around the package.
Thanks for the kind comments.
Yes! It's probably one of the bigger differences between US and British culture (well there's lots, but you know what we mean...). We always say let's get a coffee in the US, but we also do like tea a lot. Once an Australian said they were off to have tea, and we said, oh that sounds nice, where is the tea shop? And they looked at us like we're idiots...it means having dinner in Australia? ha ha ha Learn something new all the time!
Aww thank you! Not sure if you're familiar with the artist Mirah, but she has a song from 1999-ish where she sings about how she's so lucky she asked someone hey do you want to come up and have a cup of tea, and it's such a great line. Didn't quite steal it, but was somewhat inspired by it. The song is called "Sweepstakes Prize" by the way.
Thank you so much for your lovely thoughtful common on Blueberries & Fennel <3 really appreciate the listen! Well done on an awesome FAWM, and congrats on the win!
I can’t wait to catch up with yours and your friend’s music. Congrats on your amazing FAWM!
I made a quintessentially English FAWM tribute today - I don’t know why but I thought it might appeal to you https://fawm.org/songs/123257/
Hi and thanks for your comments on Let's Get Away! Funny timing as you mentioned after downloading the other tune. I played around with the mix this morning and think that may be my last song. I've got some catching up to do in listening to your songs-- congrats on your finish!
Ah well, maybe next year we make it to the hammock. Until then....BEHAVE! 😉
Thanks for all the listens and comments! Glad we made it to your desktop haha.
I’m so glad it was fun and not a headache. I’m completely blown away by all your styles and creative output. It’s an honour to get the collective treatment. Send me an email, and I’ll send you the demo, just a curiosity now. I did email you before, it’s list in the wires. karl.stanford@hotmail.com
That's fine, brother. If you get a chance, I'd love to hear what you come up with.
Thank you so much for your kind feedback on Francis. <3
hi. Thanks for the comment on my 42 collab. Super interesting story about the stranger stopping you on the street. Some might call that coincidence. I prefer to think that our guides are with us all the time, and if they want to get a message to us, they make sure they give it to us in a clear way that we can understand.
Thank you for listening. Cindy's lyrics are easy to work with. Wow you got 16- can't wait to listen to a few
Love Weighs More Than Gold: You are a complete legend. This is one of those occasions where the cover is better than the original. I say original, the demo sounded like a rip off of the Stones, 19 Nervous Breakdown, covered by Primal Scream.
You have made this 100% yours, everything is elevated to epic proportions. This is definitely your song, and all the credit goes to you. I am so thankful and appreciate being along for the ride. WONDERFUL.
I just listened to Freedom Punks again. (I may listen daily for awhile!)
Thanks for the comments. They're not live drums, although I wish I could play the drums. I've been programming drums for years, so I'm used to it now.
I do use what I think is a very good drum library though: Native Instruments Abbey Road 70s drums.
No sweat, my man, take your time. I was just gonna post it as a lyric-only if you had moved on. All's good!
Hey guy - looks like you're close to the finish line. Checking in to see if you're going to demo the tune we had in the random Collab thread.
Hi Karl, not sure where it’s gone, he it is:
Love Weighs More Than Gold.
Nobody knows you
Nobody cares
All the kings horses
And all the kings men
Are in trouble
They’re in trouble again
Wake me up
When it’s all over
The world outside
Is getting smaller everyday
As the sun burns a hole in the sky
The sun burns a hole in the sky
Everybody knows, yeah
Love weighs more than gold
Everybody knows, yeah
Love weighs more than gold
If you ever find yourself on your own
A long way from home
All alone
There ain’t no use in feeling sad
Cause all we had
Weighs much more than gold
Everybody knows, yeah
Love weighs more than gold
Everybody knows, yeah
Love weighs more than gold
Hey! Thanks so much for listening back to Captain Tom - seems like a world ago! Appreciate your lovely comment!
Hey Karl, thanks for taking a look.
The title is Love Weighs More Than Gold. Karl.
Hey Karl, sorry to bother you, I have some words that I would like to send you if you are up for it. You can do as you wish with them. If they don’t inspire I would not be offended. If you don’t fancy it, that’s fine. I’m easy. It would be good to have you sprinkle your magic on them.
Thank you for your kind comments on Silent Hill Rebirth! I was especially pleased that you want to go find a comedy to watch now - our go to in this house is Miranda after a particularly gnarly horror 😉
Oh no! Much chillier than Thailand this time of year I presume 😞 May we have the ability to chill out on sunny beaches again soon!
"Wicked energy to this and didn't at all expect how this turned out. That vocal again is just soul pummeling. The chord progressions in this are so unexpected. Top work"
You just made my day. Thank you, brother 😀
Hi! Just emailed the file. 😀
Lol don’t burn the house down 😉
Hey, hey, just wanted to let you know I am still working on the vox, but will get them to you soon!
Thanks for the comment on 'Tears at Midnight'!
Thx for the kind words on The Forever Dance.it was fun to do.
I was going for tha tNeil Young/ Blue Rodeo vibe...you nailed it..good ear.
I’m really glad you enjoyed Pine Needles. Thanks! Production is not something I’ve been able to put a lot of time into and I would be thrilled to hear what you could do, if you’re interested. I recorded to a metronome at 115, I think.
Twitch is fun; it took me a few weeks of obsessively tweaking things to get things working reliably but they're very supportive of newbies with plenty of resources to take you through learning the ropes.
And the burst of noise at the 1:38 point in "How it started --" is the BBC Symphony Orchestra Core library: horns, oboes and bassoons on three separate tracks, all going for it. And cellos, too. It's quite a step up from the free "Discover" version.
You have *no idea* how happy I am to learn that it was a real person playing. Marvellous.
Onward it goes....
Thanks for your beautiful comments on Be Careful What You Wish For, Karlos! X
Glad you liked the Funky Fairies of the Forest! I was really pleased with the journey that took me on. So pleased (I think it was the trumpet line that inspired the title... ) that I followed it up with a "Saucy Sirens of the Sea" song.. which kind of suggests a new story which is amazing really.
Yep, got it. Cheers Karl. I'll have a listen tomorrow, but won't be able to get to work on it until Monday because it's Lyns's birthday on Sunday so I'm taking the weekend off from FAWM.
Heya Karl. Sure, send it over, and if it seems like it will work with my (limited) vocal range I'll give it a go. Thanks for asking 👍
The muted brass is part of Native Instruments' Cuba package. All the instruments and percussion in that opening verse were from that. It's pretty cool though I very much doubt I'll have much call for it in future!
Energy! Good stuff if you have to drive all night with the radio blaring!
Open to collabs
Yup funky fairies ! If u don't like I will understand
Did you hear the funk thing that morphed out of the riff you sent . you probably hate it, but I thought you might be interested to know..
Haha!!! You have great ideas yourself 😀
Thank you so much Karl for your beautiful comment on my collaboration with Chris on Castle in the sky. It was amazing to hear Chris's vocals and read his amazing lyrics. Thank you for your support.
Nadia
Thank you so much for your comment on Trigger You! Pretty chuffed with that!
Woooo!
Thanks for your comment on "Going my way". Glad you enjoyed this track! I hope I can finish it this year.
I'm happy that there are so many possibilities for writing songs with instruments you don't play. But in my honest opinion you still have to understand how the instruments work. I tried playing guitar and bass for 3 weeks each. It was harder than expected. I gave up with that F major barre chord xD Most is about practise but I'm not patient enough! I literally stuck on keys, never learned how to use pedals and play properly with the left hand. At least I know how to play in theory. OK I played on " Going my way" but I don't succeed in playing Coldplay for example.
That's why I'm a better songwriter than instrumentalist making it really hard to turn my songs into reality. I am glad to have found this community!
It's a mellotron sample. It's the e-bow guitar patch but with the tape sample reversed!
Cheers Karl. Absolutely no timing in this song. It’s all about feel, that’s my excuse. I really had a hard time getting just the guitar down whilst leaving space for the words. Pick or strum, never shall they meet.
Thanks man....no really, I just needed to chuck it all out and start out with nothing again. I just tried to keep it as simple as I could, as more plugins just meant more plugins and more mud. It worked out though. Thanks for the comment, kind sir. I will check back for some listening....
hit me up at kristiab(AT)me.com and we can toss some ideas!
Happy to lend some vocals 😀. Thanks for thinking of me.
this a snapshot of my FAWM note;
collab karlos? something beatles-y?
wanna do something about those question marks?
Thank you for the very kind feedback on "As the Sun Goes Down".
Helloo! Thanks for your comment on No Weather for Outdoor Games! So I started with the poem, then added the harp harmonics... then the toy piano/glock sounds, then the synth bass... and then it still needed something more. I then sat at the piano and noodled a one-take. All on the same chord... intentionally loose timing (by not thinking too hard and allowing it to flow rather than actively avoiding being in time). Glad you liked it!
This one almost had me weeping for Phayam. Listen if you get a chance. It’s so lovely! https://fawm.org/songs/116912/
Cheers Karl. The chords have been around for awhile, and I did have some words that I recorded. Fortunately Ig vanished from my phone. The original was a bit clumsy, two sets of words making two different choruses.
Thanks a bunch for your comments on Distracted. I feel like all of my songs this month are starting to sound the same but am hoping to have a couple that may stick. I’d be honored to collaborate on a song together if it ends up working out!
Hey Karlos!
Glad you liked my opening piece Invocation. Yes that was a roundback mandolin circa 1910! It's a beaute. I don't play the instrument but it was perfect in it's tone for what I wanted. So glad you enjoyed it!
Hey, my email address is simon at simonashby dot com.
Thanks.
Thanks for the return, I had fun doing that track, trying to rock out a bit - just followed you on Soundcloud - nice to connect via this forum
Ha, thanks for your comments - I’m of the school of thought that when you pick up your guitar and an odd noise comes out of it - if you can’t make a song from it you are not trying hard enough!! Music is like animal parts - really you shouldn’t throw anything away...
im just skipping around on the six notes of scriabins cosmic chord
Not that close: Barnsley.. but I used to be in a band up your way..we only did a couple of gigs but lots of rehearsals 😀 I love that neck of the woods..
Why not... I just saw you're only up the road in Bakewell. I'll be waiting
I haven't had any time to do much, although I LOVE the riff you sent. Feel free to send them both out to the masses. 😀
Where's the riff?
ref the downlaods...you ahve to actually click the button on soundcloud's song page "permissions" tab to actually allow downloads. When you do,a download icon will appear in the top righthand corner of the screen that comes up here (FAWM) with your cover art, below the soundcloud logon and immediately left of the "share" button. Otherwise it can't be downloaded!
Thanks for your kind comments Karlos
You can email me at birdboy06 (att) gmail (dott) com
Lol, double comment
Thanks for the comments! I’m excited to hear a take on a bass line for “I’ve Got a Secret.” Let me know if you need anything from me.
Thanks for the comments! I’m excited to hear a take on a bass line for “I’ve Got a Secret.” Let me know if you need anything from me.
Hahaha lol at my fucks sounding remotely posh in this 😂 and John Lennon? Hahaha well, I have no idea what you mean about how the song came out rhythm wise but I’ll take it for sure!! 😁😁
Oh sweetie hope you really feel better now. I look forward to hear it.
Thanks KARL (great name). If only I could sing. Dan has done some cracking vocals for me. It’s weird sending songs over and not being able to talk Dan through the phrasing. He’s doing a grand job.
I HOPE YOU ARE FEELING BETTER!!!!!! Thanks so much for listening to "eyes wide." I so appreciate your kind words, Karl!
thx a lot for comment on "I`m So Perfect" That make me smile!
Hi and thanks so much for a wonderful kind comment on "Suzanne." I'm so glad that you liked it!
Thanks for your kind comment - really appreciate it
Aw bless you - thank you for your kind words on The Lost and Found 😀 I didn't want to do a political one really but it was obviously wanting to be written! Hope you are coping as well as can be expected under the current shower!