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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