Saturday, November 03, 2007

crazy, losing our mind

While i like writing songs, I've never been good enough to play in a band or sing in public. Its a solo activity unless you have guitar kakis. A guitar kaki is someone to go to the beach with, drink coconut juice, sing some songs and extract the poetry which is life. It doesn't matter if you don't play well or sing badly, they would still cheer you on. After all, that is what guitar kakis are for.

I left a comment on the Rambling Librarian's music blog about a song he arranged through Garage Band. I thought it sounded great. I wanted to be his friend and have his guitar mojo rub off on me. He introduced me a group of songwriters called Songcraft. It started several months ago, when a guy called Jeremy inspired by the film 'Music and Lyrics' rented a room in the Substation for songwriters to gather once a month. He didn't know how many would turn up but turn up, they did. There are at least 8 regulars now.

I joined in on the 5th session. The format is an open mic. If you have a song to share, you share. If you just want to listen, you are most welcome too. For people who write songs in the isolation of their own bedrooms, it is a big-big thing to share to more than an audience of zero.

Which brings me to my latest song which can be heard in the Songcraft recap - warts and all - bad chord changes and croaky singing. The song was uncompleted for the longest time. If not for this group, I would not have found the inspiration to complete it.

what if love was just a word
a flower that won't bloom
a touch that you could never feel
a moment that was lost

how can you express
the colour and the sound
red is red and blue is blue
so why can't i have you

never to wander too far
never to wake up and find
what you were dreaming
it could be real
its passing like a cloud
what if love was just a word

maybe like the stars that come out in the night
shine so bright
and fill the sky
too far away to find

====

Sometimes I wonder why make up songs. To what end being this emo and spending late nights into the creation of songs?

But finding this bunch of songwriting kakis affirms that I am not the only one sweating blood and emotion into a song. We are all just as crazy losing our mind over this.

5 Comments:

Blogger Ivan Chew said...

If you think your "live" singing is bad, wait till you hear mine!

Why do we say it's "crazy" when we spend time on a hobby but we don't necessarily say it's crazy when we bring office work into our personal time? :)

We bunch of amateurs inevitably ask ourselves the same question: "Why make up songs? And to what end?"

I think we write songs ultimately to comfort ourselves, in the broadest sense.

Oh, I'm not sure if I have any guitar mojo! Conversely, I want to learn how you play your jazz chords!!! :)

2:27 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

"Sometimes I wonder why make up songs. To what end being this emo and spending late nights into the creation of songs?"
I like :)

5:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Firstly, great song as usual. I really liked it. The lyrics are fantastic.

I really like your explanation of what a "guitar kaki" is, haha! Very cool. I wish I could find some guitar kakis of my own one day.

Lastly, erm...I couldn't help but notice that your blog post title would make a nice song title!

5:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

to celebrate being emo!

sometimes, words are just too much and i rather prefer them in a song. :)

4:10 AM  
Blogger Carrie said...

ivan - i'll teach you the chords i know, if you show me how to play lead. And yeah, its comforting to come up with music and lyrics to situations which we can't make sense of.

b - so you know what I mean :)

jeremy - you may not realise but I've adopted you lot as guitar kakis. Really appreciate the support.

imp - no shame in being emo huh. Should just celebrate it!

9:30 AM  

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