The “Seeing Stars” Songbook

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Corey Stewart

In the spirit of keeping you all in the loop with what I’m doing, I just wanted to run something by you all… It’s an idea for a different type of product or merchandise?

It will be called the “Seeing Stars” Songbook.

It would be a book with the lyrics and chords for all of the songs on my “Seeing Stars” CD on one page and a detailed description of what the song is about and how it was written on the other page.

I reckon it would be something a bit different to have available at the CD launch however, what do you think about this idea?

Is there anything else you’d like to see in the songbook?
Would this be something you’d be interested in owning?
If so, how much would you be willing to pay for such a product?

I’m looking forward to your honest and candid feedback as always…

Peace,

Corey

The RPM Challenge 2012

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Corey Stewart

I’ve just signed up for yet another songwriting challenge called the RPM Challenge. This time you write and record an album (defined as a minimum of 10 songs) during the month of February.

I know some people that for some reason find these concepts as anti-inspirational but personally, I use these songwriting challenges as a great way to just immerse myself into the spirit of unbridled creativity.

It’s a great way to stand up to your inner critic and besides, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with writing songs just for the sake of writing them.

If you’re interested in checking out some more info regarding the RPM Challenge, just go to www.rpmchallenge.com, have a look for yourself and perhaps sign up and have a go. What have you got to lose?

I know I will be tackling it and I’ll keep you all posted with my progress.

Peace,

Corey

Getting Ready For FAWM 2012

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Corey Stewart

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London

Man, we’re at the end of January already… Where did it go?

I don’t know where it went but I do know that the beginning of February is also the beginning of FAWM which stands for February Album Writing Month.

I’ll cleaning up my creative space, contacting all of my collaborators and sharpening my pencil for this one.

I know I’ve mentioned FAWM (and my lack of success in it) before in the past but for those of you that don’t know FAWM is a songwriting event that challenges the participant to write 14 songs in the 28 days of February.

However, seeing that 2012 is a leap year the challenge is now to write 14.5 songs in 29 days. The other 0.5 being an extra collaboration with someone new.

Here is some more information about FAWM taken from www.fawm.org

“The FAWM challenge is simple: 14½ songs in 29 days. Why?

If it is inspiration you are after, then FAWM is your club. Each February, this website forges a collaborative community of thousands of musicians worldwide, from all walks and skill levels.

We take on the challenge of writing an album’s worth of new music in the shortest month of the year.”

Interested? Then go to www.fawm.org and join up, immerse yourself into the community and enjoy the ride.

I know I will.

Peace,

Corey

The Second Time Around – Song Video

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Corey Stewart

As promised here is the video presentation used at the CD launch of “The Second Time Around” a song written by myself, Heather Frahn and members of the Community Re-Entry Program at Flinders University as outlined in a previous post.

Here it is for you to enjoy.

Here is some more information about the Musical Brainwaves project from the YouTube page…

Musical Brainwaves was a group song-writing project with members from the Community Re-Entry Program at Flinders University in 2011. Collaborating with songwriters Heather Frahn and Corey Stewart the members contributed their own song lyrics, voices and artwork expressing positive viewpoints about their lives.

The creation of the song “The Second Time Around” brought much celebration of the things that inspire life and wellbeing.

CRP Members: Ben Howell, Cherrie Almond, Ron Brooks, Bernadette Circtzki, Joelene Schmerl, Adam Houston, Ralph Kloss, Zeke Langsford, Peter Coulter, Gary Irons, John Weston, Peter Guidera, Joanne King, Andrew King, Jayne Linke, Darryl Thompson, Cele Richardson, Meg Bartel, Luna Aboulhosn, Janma Gazmere, Jasmine Grace, Matthew Thomas, Karina Wight, Margaret Ellis, Christiana Wu, Louisa Schettini

Musical Brain Waves was facilitated by Corey Stewart and Heather Frahn, with visual art assistance from Jasmine Grace. Recording and Music Production by Corey Stewart and Heather Frahn © 2011.

With thanks to Charmaine Mahar, Jaime Gardner and Roger Rees for their support for this project.

Let me know what you think.

Peace,

Corey

Never Again Will I Be Afraid Of Words

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Corey Stewart

One of my primary songwriting goals of 2011 is to never be afraid of words again.

Ideally, what this means for me is that by conquering my fear of words or, more accurately, the fear of my words (and therefore me, as a person) being judged by others, I will be able to increase my songwriting output by finishing all of my half completed songwriting ideas because at the moment a distinct lack of lyrical material is what is standing in the way of me completing my current batch of songwriting ideas.

I have no real idea how I came to the conclusion that writing lyrics is not one of my strong points but that is how I was seeing myself as a musician first and a lyricist (a very distant) second.

I know that the above statement is not true however, I have said it to myself so many times now that my subconscious believes it. It’s like I’m fulfilling some sort of prophesy about my (lack of) songwriting process.

The biggest problem I have with my with lyric writing process is that I self censor far too early in the piece. I need to give myself the permission to put down on paper whatever comes to me, to write what is inside of me no matter whether I consider it crap or not and no matter how bad it might look on paper.

For some reason I’ve succumbed to the belief that I have nothing of value to say to the world through my lyrics. What a way to sabotage my songwriting and my creativity as a whole.

Yes, I’m pretty good at that.

Even though words have the power to change things and therefore, need to be treated with the respect they deserve, they can’t hurt me and my so called fear of them should not silence me.

The best thing I can do is to roll up my sleeves and just write. I know that by doing this I will conquer my fear of words.

One song at a time…

Peace,

Corey