Relaxation music, meditation music, ambient music…

Call it whatever you like, I’ve always wanted to create, record and perform this type of music ever since my ears heard Brian Eno’s “Music For Airports” and “Music For Films”.

For a start I love Brian Eno and anything he touches however, I was always entranced by his notion that music could be created specifically for the background but, it was artistic at the same time.

A muzak free zone of beautifully blended ambience in which you can say goodbye to the Kenny G inspired Soprano Sax melodies.

I recently completed a project for Pam Mitchell, recording and doing the graphics for a series of five Guided Meditation CD’s. It was a lot of fun and it gave me the opportunity to really muck around in my home recording studio composing some ambient music of my own starting from scratch.

I also did all of the CD artwork as well which turned out pretty well if I say so myself.

Below are some music samples. It’s not Brian Eno, but it’s a start…

You can find more information about these guided meditation CD’s at Pam Mitchell’s website – www.relaxationforhealthandwellbeing.com

Watch this space, more is coming…

Peace,

Corey

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Now I am a self confessed WordPress fanboy and have been for many years but for a little while now I’ve had my eye on another blogging platform to expand my online presence with.

It’s called Posterous.

My understanding of Posterous is that it was developed to allow people to post online via email but it also has an online interface that can be used as well however, the main feature that really got me interested in exploring it more was its AutoPost function.

The AutoPost function allows what I post on my Posterous blog to appear automatically on other blogging platforms and social networking sites that I subscribe to. Once I publish a post, it will be automatically updated on the following sites:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• FriendFeed
• Identica
• Google Buzz
• LinkedIn
• Jaiku
• Plurk
• Flickr
• Picasa
• Vimeo
• YouTube
• Tumblr
• Blogger
• LiveJournal
• WP.Com
• Xanga

This excited me because this system allows me to post items of interest and relevance on Songwriting, Music Business and Home Recording that I find on the web and have that information appear at multiple points online while at the same time, these multiple points all link into this site.

Essentially, I expand my online presence without too much effort while creating incoming links to Corey Stewart Online (good for SEO) plus, interesting and relevant information is being circulated to those who want to read it.

The secondary reason for doing this is that through posting the relevant news of the day based on my topics of interest plus the wide ranging ideas of others I will become more inspired myself and therefore my own blogging/songwriting activity will increase.

Everybody wins!

This is of course an experiment that I’ll be monitoring very closely. I want to find out if I get an increase in traffic numbers, email subscription numbers and Google juice but I’ll make sure I keep you all up to date with the ongoing results.

Peace,

Corey

PS: The first post on Posterous can be found HERE

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Today is the last day of January which means tomorrow, being the first day of February is the start of FAWM 2011.

For those who don’t know, FAWM stands for February Album Writing Month and the deal is, to write an albums worth of material in the month of February, which is set at 14 songs in 28 days. You can find out more about this brilliant songwriting concept by going to www.fawm.org.

On the FAWM website it describes the concept in this way:

“This is the club. Each February, FAWM.ORG forges a collaborative community where thousands of musicians of all walks and skill levels write an album’s worth of material in the shortest month of the year. That’s roughly one tune every other day. “Fawmers” are a mix of music professionals, students, homemakers, and folks who work dayjobs but rock nightclubs.”

In theory, the idea of FAWM being the kick-up-the-arse to my songwriting process holds true but in reality it hasn’t been that way which is my fault totally but this year I’m hoping that my songwriting output for FAWM 2011 will be much better than in previous years.

Later on in the year the guys at FAWM also run something called 50/90 (50 Songs In 90 Days) which will run from July to October 2011 but I’ll cross that bridge when the time comes.

I must keep telling myself that FAWM is not a contest and no-one gets judged, it’s a concept which is designed to test my songwriting process.

Am I ready to tackle inspiration, the muse head-on?

I’m going to give it a go this year, are you? Let me know if you do too.

Peace,

Corey

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• Don’t Turn To Me Now
• Don’t Want To Let You Go
• Jigsaw
• Just One Kiss
• Nothing Stands In Your Way
• Seeing Stars
• We Can’t Be Together Anymore
• What Have We Got To Lose?

Another thing that I’ve started to do now is to keep track of what parts and/or what songs have been completed in the recording process.

At the moment I’m using a crudely drawn graph (as shown below) but I know that the neatness monster inside will force me to create a graph in Open Office or something like that.

After today I’m going to need to start thinking about getting Victor, the keyboard player in to do his tracks but first I’ll need to work out what songs need keys recorded before electric guitar.

An example of a song needing this process would be “Missing You Already” as my vision for the song dictates that it’s to be primarily a piano piece, similar to something that The Whitlams would do.

I’ve had a little bit of a head cold for the last few days so I’m hoping that my voice is ready for today. It feels good but getting the voice recorded can be a different beast altogether.

A few hours after I finish in the studio I’ll be doing a 20-30 minute guest spot at the Night Voices Open Mic at The Garage which starts at 7pm. If anything my voice will be nicely warmed up for that.

Now I’m off to get ready for the day ahead, wish me luck.

Peace,

Corey

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In an attempt to streamline my blogging activities and consolidate my online footprint, I’ve decided to add an articles page to Corey Stewart Online.

I’ll be doing this by phasing out my earlier blogs Songwriting Zen, Orangutang Music and Corey Stewart Songwriting Tips and amalgamating all of my content into the Corey Stewart Online articles page.

This is something I have outlined in a previous post.

As well as my own content I’ll also be putting up what I would consider, really informative songwriting, music business and home recording articles that I find through my continuous online research into such topics but don’t worry, I’ll make sure I get the appropriate permissions from the original authors before putting them online.

Creating an articles page on this site and filling it with my past content is just another way that I can simplify my online activity, therefore allowing me to focus on my goals more effectively.

I’ve always been curious about article marketing and how it could help me as an online musician. Now I have my chance to put some theories to the test but I’ll tell you more about that in a later post.

BTW, If you have written or, you know of any content dealing with songwriting, music business or home recording that you want to recommend me put up on Corey Stewart Online, then please contact me.

I’d love to hear from you.

Peace,

Corey

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Recently I caught up with an old friend of mine Jeff Smith whom I had lost contact with for about 8 years.

When we finally caught up it was lovely to discover that there was none of the awkwardness or guilt that sometimes comes with a reconnection with a good friend after a long time apart, we just picked up where we left off and interacted as if we saw each other yesterday.

Besides fulfilling a need to reconnect with an old friend, I contacted Jeff to let him know that a song we wrote together way back when called “Billboard Angel” was going to be part of the next SCALA CD release.

I can’t remember how Jeff and I first met but what I do know is that he’s an amazing guitarist, studio engineer and an all round nice guy with unique perspectives on life which make for great conversation and for writing really good songs.

It’s through reconnecting with Jeff that I’ve become really inspired to get stuck into my home studio setup and start recording my songwriting ideas again, something I very thankful for.

I want to finish this post today with another example of a song that Jeff and I wrote. It’s called “Groove With You” and it touches on the concept of two people who just can’t seem to connect fully even though they adore each other. I just love the funkiness of the song.

Enjoy!

Peace,

Corey

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The song evolved from a conversation that we had in which the concept of having too much choice in this world was discussed. From that conversation the first two lines of the song were born and the rest was written from there.

Enjoy,

Back To Basics
© 2010 C. Stewart/A. Miller

There is so much choice out there
I could so easily lose my way
I could give into temptation, find a new sensation
Each and every single day

There is so much noise out there
I can’t hear a single word you say
There is no communication, but too much information
Swimming around in my brain

Chorus
Let’s get back to basics, keeping only what we need
Let’s get back to basics, what is it we really need?
Let’s get back to basics, looking for simplicity
So let’s get back to basics

It’s a complicated world
It’s so hard just keeping up with the pace
Could it be that maybe, everyone’s gone crazy
Or am I just a hopeless case?

People just don’t seem to care
About anyone else but themselves
No one takes the time to simplify their lives
And compassion can take care of itself

Chorus

You don’t need to try it, you don’t need to buy it
This need to just acquire, it only gives us nothing but trouble
You don’t need the clutter just to make yourself feel better
You cannot take it with you after all is said and done

There is so much choice out there
I could so easily lose my way
I could give into temptation, find a new sensation
Each and every single day

Chorus

Corey

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By the end of 2009 I found myself in a real bind creatively. There were no completed songs on the horizon but lots and lots of songwriting ideas archived away on paper or recorded as MP3′s somewhere on my computer. As a way to inject new perspectives into my songwriting process I said to myself that this year I’d start collaborating more with others and see how it transpires.

I made this pledge to myself because I have experienced first hand the joys of collaboration.

I’ve written songs with other artists in the past with some really good results but the collaborator contact has been too intermittent for my liking, either I’ve been too busy to keep up the writing relationship or, the other party had something get in the way.

That’s okay, that’s life but now that I have my home recording setup ready to go my desire to write songs with others has been re-ignited and my first collaborator (more like a test subject) in this new phase of my songwriting process is my good friend Adrian Miller.

I’ve known Adrian for a while now and always admired his lyrics and his very broad musical tastes. As musical ideas come to me more than lyrical ones I thought that collaborating with Adrian would be able to address my lack of lyrical inspiration.

It has and much more. We’ve written three songs so far and look I forward to penning even more. I’ll be putting them on the site very, very soon

I enjoy the backwards and forwards bouncing of musical and lyrical ideas and the conversations that evolve from that. For me, collaboration actually forces me to think about (and analyse at times), my songwriting process because no two songwriting styles are truly the same and the inevitable comparisons of each others songwriting styles makes for fascinating insights.

Creativity is a fickle beast sometimes and having a little help from your friends can achieve great results.

Peace,

Corey

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Today is the first day of July which in Australia means that it’s the start of a new financial year which also means that its tax time and APRA live performance returns submission time, yet another couple of large tasks to put onto the ‘to-do’ list however, it has been a very busy week so far.

Monday night was a SCALA board meeting, Tuesday night was Synchronicity Police rehearsal, Wednesday night I was MC’ing the Open Mic @ The Dan and tonight I’m MC’ing the monthly Open Mic @ The Third Cork. Amazingly enough, I get Friday off because of a cancelled gig. Phew!

What was the point of all that? Nothing really, I just wanted to get some things off my chest and to put in some text-links to other projects that I’m involved with but I do want to tell you what happened yesterday. It was a home recording studio nightmare.

You see, yesterday I managed to wipe all of the Logic Pro 9 audio loops from my hard drive. I don’t know how I did it but I’m going to be spending all day re-installing Logic Studio.

How cool is that? Not!

I was doing some recording with good friend and songwriting collaborator Adrian Miller and I immediately had a brilliant idea… Lets use a drum loop from the audio loops library.

I thought it would be as simple as dragging and dropping the loop “Lo-Fi Country Loop 9″ into the prepared audio track but, even though the file was visible on the screen, I press play and it wasn’t working. After half and hour of mucking around I was at the point where I had the problem well and truly licked however, I clicked the wrong dropdown menu function and all of the loops vanished. I went cold and my insides freaked out a little.

I shut down, restarted and opened up a previously recorded song hoping for a miracle but still, no loops but I did get a nice little message saying that there were indeed no loops installed in the library and that I need to use the discs provided to rectify the issue.

Thank goodness I have the full legal copy of Logic Studio.

Now I hear you ask “what lessons have you learnt from this experience?” Well, reading the manual from time to time comes to mind but the most important thing I realised was that if I don’t know it, don’t click it.

I know what Phil Spector would’ve done if he were in my shoes… Is there a gun in the house?

Peace,

Corey

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Now, with the final piece of the home studio puzzle purchased and installed a fortnight ago I have achieved my dream. Here’s a couple of piccies for you.

The engine room

The main keyboard (with Barry in the background)

At the moment I’m using:

• 27″ iMac using Logic Pro 9
• Presonus Firbird audio interface
• Fostex monitor speakers
• Rode NT3
• Rode NT1000
• M-Studio MIDI keyboard
• Some Casio digital piano
• Alesis SR16 drum machine
• Line 6 POD X3

I must admit, the learning curve I’m experiencing has been very, very steep and there have been times that I’ve thrown my hands up in air in frustration convinced that I’m “never going to get this” but if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from all of this is that you learn a lot about yourself when you’re faced with a huge challenge.

I’m going to put some home recording experiments online very soon so feel free to send me feedback but in the meantime, the rain is pelting outside so I’m going to fire the home studio up and make some more music.

Peace,

Corey

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