I like this picture of me, it's from an iPhone app that takes photos of people and converts them into people from the "past". Cool.

Lastly, I work on a lot of accapella songs. this is basically because I find writing words very challenging. Sometimes I want to be creative and quickly come up with a tune and not have to bother with words. I think the quality of my music is not so great when I use accapellas, but I am getting better and am challenging myself to make accapellas sound like my "own", ie like I would have written. So I do several things, like change the tempo, speed of vocals, use certain effects, cut words, paste this, cut that,etc until I get the effect I am after. So accapella works great as a song writing tool if you are not too interested in writing words - I am, but it takes too much effort sometimes. The song in my link below is an example accapella with my own music layered on top. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=1100646 I hope you get something from these comments!! cheers Vince

There are many ways to write songs, and it all depends on what type of song you wanna write. When Im writing funk, I hear a bass line in my head or Ill sing a bass line when Im going for a walk. The trick is to remember the bass line as it can be easily forgotton if you get distracted. I hum the tune into my mobile phone which has voice recording, it souds terrible, but I get the picture and the tune is not forgotton. then I get on my computer, and start trying to reproduce that bass line. Sometimes I come up with a bass line which is a little different from what I was humming and it will sound good. this will become a variation of the humming sound (ie humming bass sound is the verse, and perhaps the slightly modified version is the chorus or bridge), or perhaps if I like it that much, the two different bass lines become two different songs, so both are stored, and can be worked on at different times. Once I really know my bassline, then the drums and synths just fall into place for me, so do the vocals. The vocals are interesting because once I get the music down, I get a microfone and add loads of reverb and just start singing any old crap, until I hear a tune or something which sounds good. This is a PURE creative process and why I love writing music so much. You just dont know what will come out of that vocal, and its your baby. Once you agree on the vocal, you should then turn the mumbling of the vocal into actual words. This is the hardest part for me, because it very hard to write words that are not stupid sounding and also not too shallow, the balance is important, the words need to mean something even if the words are not as important as the music. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY, a cool Janet Jackson song from the 80's is basically pounding funk song, built on a bass line and drums, yet, the words are meaningful and go with the tune. The same can be said about most of the best funk songs out there. So, with words, take your time. Some words I have written have taken me years, and Im not joking, sometimes I completely re-write the chorus just to get the right words, which are so important to me. The above is one way, when I write funk its firstly bass/drum and then everything else. However, if I am writing a ballad or a MOR song, then I will (strangely) feel more comfortable writing the words first, but only after I have thought of the chorus and verse. I usually do this when I go for long walks - somehow walking gets my creative juices flowing and I am able to come back home with a really cool sounding chorus, which is generally a hum or me mumbling. I take note of the sound, and then focus, really focus on words - as per funk song above, the words in a ballad are even harder because they have to be succinct, they have to be deep, but not patronising and they have to be sincere. Sincerety is the most important trait in finding good words, honesty comes through to the listener and is the one big thing when writing a ballad. So basically, if you have a great tune and really good words for a ballad, I think the rest falls into place, that is the drums, bass, keys, guitar, etc. Still there is a lot of work to do to arrange all these sounds, but the basics are words and tune.

its been so long since i posted these songs on soundclick - i really feel that i should add something new soon, not that anyone will listen to it, but it would be nice to see the progress I've made since then (ie nothing), but I feel more mature so I hope to make something a little more interesting!!