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SONGS
2009-02-10 16:28:55
Songwriting.
Formula,hooks,feedback.
When I first started to write songs I used to bang on the old piano at home,I would sit there for hours aggravating the neighbours and then when I connected to something my Dad would call out "thats good",the moment I got the call i'd jump into the car and drive over to my publisher in Bond st,giving him a quick call before hand.In the office(normally parking on yellow lines outside,no time to park in case the song went out of my head and getting huge amounts of tickets!!)I raced to the piano and played the ideas, sometimes to great feedback and sometimes not.
When it was favourable a studio would be booked and in I would go with the band and make music.
It is very different now.If you said to a publisher ive got a song I would like to play you live on a piano he would probably have a laugh.Which, despite the old fashioned process is a pity because building a song needs that vital raw energy which I feel in many ways has got lost somewhere.
Feedback, as early as you can find it, is so important,somehow when you get that, it confirms you have something special and that in turn adds to your confidence in bringing it to fruition.And then a song is born.
But before you get to the feedback stage you need to develop a "formula".This can be pretty much any way you develop it but it is unique to you.
Next, depending on what you want from the music you write you then need the integral ingredient "THE HOOK"
For me, writing always with a commercial edge I look for the hook as quickly as possible and then work around it.
It is the hook that people get caught by in most songs and therefore the part which is that,that the world may love you for.All of us writers aspire toward that guiding star of possibility and makes the journey exciting.
O, there is one other extremely important magical bit..... The "ESSENCE" this is that something intangible
that you play a song time and time again for. You are connecting to that deep river that went on in the writer when it was in the conception stage.Sometimes it can reveal itself in a general overall feel and sometimes you might glimpse it in one bar in the song somewhere,and you hold your breath knowing its about to come.This is the realm of the unknown,unseen it is something you cannot quite grasp,fleeting, touch it and you will not be able to stop success.Good luck in finding it!!
Interview

 

 

Dennis Conoley

 

 

Area of expertise:
Songwriting.

Experience summary:

Record deals with Pye, DJM, GTO, RCA, WEA

Publishing Deals: Famous Chappells, Acuff Rose, Warner Chappells 

Worked with Marc Bolan (TRex), Steve Harley (Cockney Rebel), Billy Ray Martin, Loretta Heywood (Bomb The Bass), Amy Richards (Bassment Jaxx)

 

 

Where did it start?
Worked with John Williams on the film Goodbye Mr Chips- as a singer. 

What are you working on now?
Loads.


Career highlight to date...
Tracks with German artist Billy Ray Martin. Working with Marc Bolan at Abbey Road Studios- he played guitar on my tracks.

Name dropping...

Who have you worked with?
Marc Bolan. Steve Harley, Hans Zimmer, Billy Ray Martin, Loretta Heywood, Gary Grainger (Faces), 

Random...

The first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning was...

Take me to the "Open Spaces"

 

 

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