A rich emotional time
Hello there,
Thirty-one years ago, I wrote my first song, Every Moment. I had just proposed to Ruth, so it was an emotionally rich time for me. The song came to me, with melody and lyrics, and I wrote the notes and lyrics in my journal.
Lost in time: the forgotten song
I was captivated by it. But I didn’t know, back then, how songs move from a private moment of inspiration to a completed, recorded song. And so the song lay unsung and forgotten for more than three decades.
Resurrecting the melody
Until, that is, I was writing my second memoir. While wading through old journals, I stumbled upon it. I had totally forgotten about it. But reading the rough musical notes and lyrics I had penned, I made out what the melody had been. I remembered it and the song came alive again, 30 years later, which I felt was a good sign.
The collaborators: Andrea and Bryan
In autumn 2022, I took it to two of my songwriting collaborators, Andrea Patron, a multi-talented Italian musician living in Estonia, and an amazing singer in the UK, Bryan Matthews, also known as The Rayne.
Creating a song structure
They brought their musical expertise and professional experience, creating a structure for the song. We decided to limit it to a repeated chorus and the B section. Bryan recorded a demo.
Brett Perkins’ impact
In November 2022, I played Every Moment to award-winning, career songwriter Brett Perkins. I’d met him during a songwriting workshop he had presented, organised by IMRO. Perkins loved the song. He was bopping along as soon as I started playing it. He found it ‘sweet, unpretentious, old school’, reminiscent of ‘Lennon and McCartney’s When I’m 64’. He said that the B section – which The Rayne had created – was ‘brilliant musically’. He had suggestions about the structure and offered feedback on the lyrics
Refining the song
Andrea, Bryan and I considered his feedback and we continued to work on the song. After several more months of work, Bryan did another demo. I thought it was brilliant but Andrea, from his lifetime in music, had further inspired suggestions. Bryan did a third demo.
Knowing when it’s completed
How do you know when a song is finished? When all collaborators are delighted with it. When you know, you know. And when we heard The Rayne’s third demo, we all three of us knew our song was finished. Each of us was smiling and happy. We loved it.
Upcoming release and publication
For me, it’s a very special song, having been conceived the same week that I proposed to Ruth. It lay in gestation for 30 years. With the essential collaboration of Andrea and The Rayne, it is now completed. It will finally be born when it’s released on 20 October, just days before the publication, on 7 November 2023, of my second memoir, Saved by a Woman.
Happy days!