Alun Parry Singer Songwriter: March 2007

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Saturday, March 17, 2007

Introducing Mr Chad Draper

I'd like to introduce everyone to Chad Draper who will be playing bass with me from now on. He's a good lad and an excellent musician and I'm pleased to have him on board.

Thanks too to everyone who auditioned. You were all great but obviously I could only choose one.

Chad is a music student at one of Liverpool's leading universities and you'll see him around at my gigs. Thanks too to my good mate Stuart Todd for linking us up.

11:10 AM | Permalink |

Monday, March 12, 2007

Enough With The Love Songs Already!

Wherever I go people say to me that I'm a political songwriter. It's not a label that I object to. I'm firmly on the left and that world view is clearly reflected in my songs. But I'd say that I was more a songwriter who writes about life. So my songs tend to be "about" something. Not in the sense that they are Das Kapital set to music, but that they tell a story of some sort.

Yet I can sometimes get self conscious about this. When I plan a set I'll look through it and think "oh dear, everything is a song ABOUT something". I worry that, even though the songs are more slice of life and told with a humorous bent, that I'm putting too much onto my audience. Maybe they don't want songs that are about something!!

Yet I've realised that, in fact, when I worry that a song is "about something" I'm really saying "this is not a love song."

Love songs predominate in the world of music. So if its not a love song its considered to be "about something."

And I'll be honest. I'm sick of love songs. They have their place, sure. But given that writers surely will be inspired to write about life, how is it that so many writers talk about love pretty much constantly?

I'm trying to think of the conversations I have with friends. What do we talk about? What do we think about?

If songs are an accurate reflection then we're all chatting away like a group session from Relate, whining away at our respective love lives and romantic conundrums.

But in fact we aren't. We chat about how crap our jobs are, or about the match, or about something in the news, or about something funny that happened the other day, or about something going on in the lives of a mutual friend, or about how their kids are, or a good film or a great book or music or something. Very occasionally we will talk about love related issues. And it's not because we all have some macho veneer that we use to shield ourselves from each other. I don't have those kind of mates.

So if songs reflect our lives, why are they almost all about love. Personally I've had enough.

Is it that commercialism demands that lyrics are frothy and uncontroversial? And what is more sweet and fluffy than "I love you"?

Is it that the love song is now so commonplace and with its' feet so firmly under the musical table that the easy option is for writers to pen something that involves the dreaded lurrrv?

Maybe I'm being tough on the old love song. After all, it's easier to create when surfing on the crest of a powerful emotion, and unrequited love is certainly the kind of misery that can get the creative juices flowing.

But I find love song after love song after love song, well, a bit dull I suppose.

"This is a song about a girl".

"This next song is about another girl."

"This next one is about some other girl I used to see."

It gets a bit tiresome. And the irritating thing is that if someone wrote song after song like that about any other subject they'd be pigeon holed and branded (rightly in my view) as one dimensional.

"This is a song about the combustion engine."

"Here's another song about the combustion engine."

"Here's yet another song.." Oh well you get my drift.

Yet if someone is one dimensionally writing about love, they escape this fate and I don't see why.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not railing against love songs per se. Love is part of life. But thats the key phrase. PART of life. So surely they should feature rather than dominate?

As a listener, I increasingly find myself switching off whenever someone comes on stage and gives me a love song. Especially because the person who was on before them did exactly the same. I think it makes it harder for that artist to catch my attention as a result. The song has to be extraordinarily beautiful or catchy to win me over.

And then there is the added issue of the dominance of male voices in popular music. Thankfully I've found this less of an issue on the Liverpool acoustic music scene which is teeming with talented female artists. But beyond that, is it healthy for us culturally to only get one side of the story about a topic that involves both men and women?

Do I really want to hear yet another testosterone fuelled rant about the supposedly awful woman who most recently had the misfortune to be romantically involved with him?

For me, the answer is not really. And not if that's what the last song was about too. And definitely not if the next song is more of the same. Perhaps this is why I tend to find love songs from female artists that bit more interesting, though even here I could name some that overdo it.

I look back over my recent album, which is naturally forming the core of my live set at the moment, and make a note of what they're about.

A comical number about (oh dear!) love. A song about living in the city. An observation on how good looking people have life that little bit easier. A tribute to Woody Guthrie's philosophy of songwriting. A story of a guy in a dull job tempted into crime. Another about fatherhood and distorted views of masculinity. A ballad urging people to follow their dreams. A comical demand to go drinking on a Thursday night. An anti deportation anthem. And a folk tale about two people from different backgrounds thrown together.

There's not much love topics in there, and even where there is its a sideways look rather than a pledge of devotion. So you can see why I can often get self doubting about the nature of the material.

But the more I think of it, the more I get reassured that I might have got the balance right after all. If I'm writing and singing about life, then pinings of love and failed romance should only feature, not overwhelm.

Leave your comments. I want to know what you think!

12:38 PM | Permalink |

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Welcome to my blog

If you've stumbled upon this page by accident, you may well be wondering what a blog is. So for the uninitiated (me until five minutes ago!!) a blog is short for a weblog. Hmmm, not much clearer is it!

Let me try again. A blog/weblog or whatever you want to call it is just an easy way for me to chat away with you in a more indepth way than my website alone is able to. It's kind of like a diary of thoughts and opinions and reflections as I gig my way around.

So how is that different to a mere website? The key difference is that you can subscribe to this. Don't fret - its free to subscribe. It simply means that instead of having to check whether it has been updated, the blog technology will tell you when it's updated. Good eh!

My aim is to be able to fill you in on some of the more interesting things that happen to me as I plod my way happily around the music venues of the UK, and also to let you know some of my thoughts on the music industry and other things which may vex or inspire me along the way.

It should be fun and a good way to keep in touch with each other. I'll be posting my first proper set of thoughts in a few day's time so until then, keep dancing, and keep saving the world!

7:08 AM | Permalink |

Introducing Mr Chad Draper

Enough With The Love Songs Already!

Welcome to my blog

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