The song is finished and now has a title. This one ranks up there as one of the hardest ones to complete. As usual, there were a couple times when giving up was a strong possibility. There was more time spent researching than the actual writing and recording. I wish I had a little more time for the fun part of recording, but it is what it is and I’ve grown to like this one a lot just the way it is.
The first topic I tried to go with was about the masses of people leaving the state of California. I came up with a title called California Leaving then thought it was more geared towards the sequel song in the last SpinTunes. I think it’s still a good idea and I might finish that one off.
This is the story that the song is based on.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/06/28/afghanistan.hotel.guest/index.html?npt=NP1
There are other articles based on the same event but this ones sums it up nice and quick.
Here are the usual links. Listen to all the songs here. Vote for your 5 favorites here
New challenge has been posted for the next SpinTunes. This is from the SpinTunes site:
“BREAKING NEWS! – You‘re writing a topical song. The challenge is pretty wide open, but there are some restrictions. Topical is going to be defined as something from a headline in a newspaper no older than 2 weeks from today. You can use your local newspaper or a major publication. You‘re even allowed to use the online versions of major publications.”
Day 1: Spent doing a ton of yard work and not getting anything accomplished on the song. Had questions answered on what was considered a headline. This is another one of those researchy songs sort of like the secondary historical figures challenge. These songs require a lot of work to not only find a topic that is interesting but also make it sound like a song and not a research paper. So far no ideas yet today. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Day 2: Tomorrow came and went. Nothing solid yet. I do have one potential song idea and will have to go with that if I can’t find anything today. Also have a bit of the chord progression worked out. Recording starts tomorrow and should finish up on Thursday if all goes well.
Day 3: Had a few ideas thrown at me today. One looks promising but running out of time. Since its a holiday weekend, this song needs to be completed no later than Friday.
Day 4: Found a completely different topic to write about. Also tossed away music I was going to use. Going with just an acoustic with this…so far….I think. I never know how things will eventually turn out. Just wingin’ it like I normally do. Now I have a complete song. Music and lyrics. Have a little more than a day to get this recorded.
Day5: This song is ranking up there as one of those “I feel like this is work” songs. Can’t wait to get this one done. Had the entire acoustic guitar recorded then realized I was recording into the wrong side of the condenser microphone. Back to the beginning. At least the song is completely written out.
Day 6: Today was one of those looooooooooooong days in the studio. The entire song is recorded and edited. No drums in this one. No bass either. Wish I had time. The bass has been one of my favorite instruments to play lately.
Day 7: It’s mixing day! Not that much left to do actually. I usually do some mixing as I’m recording so a lot has been done. This is the final day I’ll be working on this. Very little time this weekend.
SpinTunes 3 is officially underway. Out of the 60 competitors, 37 have submitted an entry, and at the time of this post, there are also 7 shadow entries (songs submitted after the deadline or from anyone who hasn’t officially signed up). These Round 1 songs are great! Many different genres are represented, sure to put a smile on anyone’s face. The voting goes through June 25th so go place your votes for your 5 favorite songs. As much as I disagree and dislike it, the voting actually counts this time as being one of the judges for the first 2 rounds.
The Challenge: If You’re Happy And You Know It Raise The Dead – Write a happy song about death.
The song I put out there was the second one I wrote. The first song I started writing didn’t flesh out in time and got canned for now. I still kind of like it and I’ll probably finish and release it after SpinTunes. Drag Me Down came about directly from the first line I’ve been singing in my head for awhile but never really got past that. It’s been stuck in my head since I nearly drowned taking a shower a couple months ago. Alright, slight exaggeration, but somehow I managed to inhale a water droplet or 2 and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. I’ve had plenty of experience taking showers and this shouldn’t happen, so I guess I’m not that good at it yet. Anyway, the song is NOT about me taking a shower, but about a man who finds his true love out at sea and can only be with her if he dies. Nothing fancy shmancy going on here. I considered toying with the idea of having the mermaid convince the lovesick man into jumping in the water so she could devour him, since that’s what mermaids do, but didn’t think that would come off as being happy. Happy for her, but more of an evil song than anything. And since I promised a happy song about mermaids in a previous post from my song Frostbite, here ya go. No fooling around here folks! Well…maybe just a little bit. 
You can listen to the songs by clicking on the Raise The Dead picture (created by fantastic song writer @Dr_Lindyke) to the right. You can vote for 5 of your favorites by clicking on the SpinTunes logo to the left. For now, you can find my song here. I’m working on a remix of Drag Me Down now and will embed into this post when complete.
It’s finally here. The third round of SpinTunes! The field of performers is amazingly large AND amazingly awesome. 60 to be exact, or as close to exact as I can be. Not only are the performers awesome but the judges are fantastic as well. I haven’t been writing or recording that much lately and hopefully this will get me motivated to break me out of this funk. I was thinking about taking on a songwriting partner for this SpinTunes but didn’t have enough time to get that going. In the future, there is a chance that I will be writing with a partner which is something that I’ve been looking forward to for awhile. So, have fun with SpinTunes3. Ogle at the new spiffy logo and enjoy all the songs. Good luck everybody!
Here’s a song I wrote more than a year ago for Song Fight. It was never finished and kind of just sat there for a long time until I rediscovered it on my hard drive. I have a lot of these unfinished songs. Most of them should and will remain unfinished but this one I kind of liked. It was originally way too long so I cut it down and I could never get the bass line right, but now I think I finally got something that works. There were also parts where it kind of felt empty so I added a small string section. I never used them before in any song and I think they came out ok with some guidance from a friend. And yeah. I know. It’s a sad song. Sorry 
Sometimes these things need to happen before going onto the next adventure. Maybe I’ll write a happy song about mermaids next to wash off the sadness. Here ya go.
Frostbite
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You can download here: http://christophercogott.bandcamp.com/album/christopher-cogott