Chris Breen - Lyricist - Songwriter
Hi! I'm Chris Breen, a Lyricist/Songwriter from the UK, co-writing across most popular music genres (pop, pop-rock, dance, indie, rock, ballads, acoustic, jazz, new country and show styles). I tend to concentrate more on the lyric writing nowadays, working with a growing number of up-and-coming songwriters & artists. Recently, I've started writing and co-writing top-lines (melody and lyrics) to producers' backing tracks, sometimes co-writing these with Paul Jeffery (see Paul's SoundClick page as well). I'm always open to work on more projects, so please check out the sample MP3s of some of my more recent work and feel free to get in touch. Have a look at the Lyrico Website too! ()
Tell me about your history? How did you get where you are now?
I've just signed a global licensing deal with Motiv8 on a co-write (with Paul Jeffery and Dance DJ Sharon Sullivan). It's a track called Summer Love. Fingers crossed!
I'm also in negotiations on a single song agreement with an independent publisher. That's a track co-written with a brilliant Norwegian writer/producer called Torgeir Bjordal.
Have you performed live in front of an audience? Any special memories?
No... not at present. I'd like to get back into gigging (it's been 10 years since I did it seriously and the last proper one was live on the BBC!). Really, I want to concentrate on songwriting... but if the opportunity to dust off the guitar and do a bit of rhythm playing and backing vocals came along...
Your musical influences
I just love good songs. My tastes are too eclectic to mention but a few key artists, I guess. Anything from Simon and Garfunkel to Heavy Rock with Crowded House, Radiohead, Coldplay, the Police, The Beatles, Stones, Thin Lizzy, Van Halen, Queen and a few hundred solo artists along the way! I just love music and good songs!
What equipment do you use?
A pad of paper and a biro for lyric writing! Sometimes I go really high-tech and work on the Mac/iTunes for hours looping and listening to MP3 backing tracks and arrangements. I guess that's the hard part, working to an arrangement that's complete apart from the lyrics and trying to get the story across without changing the melody line at all! I also supply lyrics first and that can be a different challenge...
I'll demo stuff up if called for (perhaps as a guide for a session singer) and for that I'll use a good condenser mic, ProTools LE and an MBox. If I'm working on a whole song I'll use a selection of Acoustic and Electric guitars, soft-synths (Reason, Atmosphere etc.) and I tend to use Waves for reverbs and EQ.
Anything else?
Please check out the Lyrico Website (http://www.lyrico.co.uk/) and if you've got a writing project, particularly if it's an album you're working on and you need a lyricist, feel free to get in touch. I don't charge fees: it's all standard royalty share stuff (I've been a PRS/UK PRO member for around 15 years). Also, if you're a dance or pop producer working on back tracks and you need top-lines writing, I can write and demo those up at my studio, either working on my own or co-writing with other co-writer(s)/ composers, often Paul Jeffery.
