Episodes

Episode #227: The Prettiest Picture (Song starts at 5:14) I wrote this song for my mother (Mum), back in 1987 {!). I remember like it was yesterday. It was Mother’s Day, in the morning and I’d remembered. I like to give some sort of an original gift, so I thought I’ll paint mum a picture. Yes, I thought I would come up with something suitable in a couple of hours, rock around to Mum’s house in the afternoon and deliver it. Unfortunately the painting just didn’t come together. It wasn’t up to ...

Episode #226: The Smallest Of Dreams (Song starts at 3:47) I found a quite extensive amount of audio of me composing this one. So I’ve included some of it on this episode. As I listened back to the process of the smallest of dreams coming together, I found it fascinating. Often songs come together quickly for me. This one was different. Each time I picked the song up, and gently sung it through, it seemed a new bit revealed itself each time. Even if what I was playing didn’t seem to be heading...

Episode #225: One More Cup (Song starts at 4:27) As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed producing this episode. Earlier this evening, I had a feeling I had some recordings of myself composing One More Cup – somewhere on one of my hard drives… By some sort of miracle, I managed to locate the snippets of audio. I put them all together on a timeline and as I recorded this episode, I listened to each new section in turn, much as the listener would do, discovering what I got up to. I found it at times sur...

Episode #224: Old Horse Grey (Song starts at 3:45 ) There’s a state of mind you get into when you’re doing something creative like writing a song lyric, composing the accompanying music & arranging the instruments during the recording process. You’re right in the moment. Honouring what you’ve already created, you’re asking constant questions to guide you to what’s next. The questions come from feeling. And the answers just seem to appear and fall into place like they were meant to be. Welcome ...

Episode #223: Changing Times (Song starts at 4:18 ) The featured song on this episode is song #7 on the album ‘River Walking’, by Paul Dredge and myself. At the time of recording this episode, the album has not long been out and I’m working my way through the songs. I’ve actually skipped one in the sequence the song ‘Gone Too Soon’ is song #6 on the album. I’ve already recorded an episode featuring this song (do a search on the platform you listen to your podcasts to and you’ll find it – or fo...

Episode #222: River Walking (Song starts at 4.22) This song is the title track of the album by the same name, by Paul Dredge and myself. It was fun looking back to see how ‘River Walking’ came together. Although it was written in sections, by 2 people, in a sort of a call and answer style (which we do, as we’ve lived in different countries for some time). We send the sections online back and forth. I think the finished song sounds like it was written by one person. It’s an example of how much...

Episode #221: Electric Cow. (Song starts at 4:52) I would say the main take away from this particular episode is perhaps this: no matter how strange, how silly, how childlike a creative idea that pops into your head is, I would suggest it’s really important not to dismiss it. In fact, I would say these are perhaps some of the most important sparks of ideas. The unedited & unbridled joy of creativity – the sort of domain that comes so naturally to us as children. I think perhaps that voice, th...

Episode #220: A Quiet Moment (Song starts at 3:31) This episode features the song ‘A Quiet Moment’, composed by Paul Dredge and myself. It’s a song about reflecting back on the history of a friendship, so it’s a quite a personal document, in a way. On that intimate sort of a note, you’ll get to listen to some audio of Paul and I composing and arranging the vocals for this song. So you get hear some of the actual process of a song coming together. The style of ‘2 voices to the fore’ appeals t...

Episode #219: I’ve Loved Life (Song starts at 6:52) On this episode, I’ve featured a song which is track number 2 on the album ‘River Walking’, which I’ve written and recorded with Paul Dredge. The gist of the meaning of I’ve Loved Life is: there’s lots of ups and downs – that’s the way it is. But we’ve got the choice to try to enjoy ourselves along the way. I think we might as well. The rough bits are going be there anyway. The world seems to reflect back what put out there. You take the ups...

Episode #218: All Through The Years (Song starts at 4:05) I’m really enjoying recording these episodes (obviously I wouldn’t be doing it if I wasn’t). It’s my online weekly gig. The song ‘All Through The Years’ ( #541) was written in 2007. To be honest I haven’t thought about it too much through the years. Ha..so many songs, you get busy. Keep composing. So it’s been sitting in my purple book til now. Handwritten in my handwriting – a code most people wouldn’t be able to decipher. Until now. ...

Episode #217: Sunset Swim (Song starts at 5:27) Going back to March 1997, my girlfriend (now my wife) and I had just arrived from New Zealand to settle into the big city of Melbourne, Australia. This was the first song I wrote since we’d left NZ. As the title suggests, this song is inspired by a sunset we experienced in an incredibly beautiful place called Sprits Bay, in the far north of New Zealand. I feel we were so lucky to have stayed there when we did. There was an old camp (just a coup...

Episode #216: Autumn Evenings (Song starts at 5:33) It was a pleasure to rediscover song #261, Autumn Evenings for this episode. I wrote it in 1993. Here we are now, in 2023 – I’ve written about 800 songs now. At the market this week, people were asking me how on earth I managed to do this (not to mention the 1000s of cartoons & hundreds of seascapes). I’ve found having a peaceful space it really helps me to create. I make sure I’m in the mood before I even pick up the brush, the pen, or let...

Episode #215: Righto (Song starts at 4:10) It struck me tonight as I recorded this episode, how grateful I am to be doing this. It is such a buzz, letting the song lead the way as I look at the creative process of how a song comes together. Don’t worry, you don’t need to have any musical theory up your sleeve to enjoy the show. I believe the creative domain is an inclusive one. The more the merrier. Ok Righto, song #262 was written in 1993. The recording you’ll hear on this episode became th...

Episode #214: Trust To Receive. (Song starts at 7:12) Hi there & welcome to another episode. Here we are, looking at another song again, in a ‘songwriter speaks’ style – inclusive, casual fun, entertaining.… this time it’s Trust To Receive, song #105. Composed in 1989! Again this week, this song popped into my mind. I knew it was in the ‘green book’ (my 1st old book of handwritten songs)…as an experiment, I held the book upside down and back to front, flicked the pages once – and it opened, su...

Episode #213: Revolving Door (Song starts at 5:42) I’d completely forgotten about song #453, from 1999, Revolving Door. Well, it isn’t 1999 now! The years have certainly whizzed by. The great thing about being a songwriter (or doing any creative activity) is, it gets you ‘in the moment’ – the moment where your sense of self is put a side somehow. You are so focussed on your art, you’ve let go completely. In that moment you’re inspired. A song becomes a document of a series of moments like thi...

Episode #212: New World Dawning (Song starts at 6:22) I really enjoyed writing song #207, New World Dawning, back in 1992. The lines ‘I never thought I’d cry tears You can buy at the chemist’ Were never going to shake the foundations of anyone’s world, but that was my opening gambit (I was talking about the saline solution I used with my contact lenses). Undeterred, I carried on. The words came and they lead on to an expansive sort of a world view. A world that felt like it was yet to exist: ...

Episode #211: Got Away On Me Again (song starts at 4:02). Welcome to another episode. Picture me sitting at my piano, with the microphone on. Before me I have my songbooks. I’ve picked out a song Got Away On Me Again (Song # 663, written in 2017). Yes, I have a song to sing, which is nice to be able to present and talk about. I’ve written quite a few over the years. It’s nice to have them up my sleeve. The real pleasure has been the time spent creating them. There’s a line in the this song. T...

Episode #210: Forever (Song starts at 4:20) I went outside tonight, just before I recorded this episode. The stars are incredible aren’t they? Infinite. Makes you realise how insignificant we are, really. I like to think we all count. We all made up part of the universe. Those sorts of big thoughts are the sorts of things I was thinking when I wrote Forever, song#85. It was 1988. I had a gig at the ski fields in New Zealand. I was playing the piano and singing in the evenings. Apart from thi...

Episode #209: A Certain Kind Of (Song starts at 4:41 ) This song, #213, is in a different style to the piano vocal ones that have made up the bulk of the songs featured on this podcast. It was written in 1992 by myself and with Paul Dredge on guitar. So it’s a guitar + voices song. Writing with Paul, when we are in the same room, is great fun. Having had a brief chat about the lyrics, what sort of mood style might suit, Paul will start playing a riff or some chords on his acoustic guitar. I ha...

Episode #208: Country Gentleman Jack (song starts at 4:30) Back in 1993, I was the piano man at Wairakei resort, in New Zealand’s north island, near Taupo – beautiful place. Outside of my regular entertainment in the restaurant hours, I wrote songs like this one: Country Gentleman Jack, song #319. As part of the contract, I was also hired to play piano vocal music for conventions. One particular calm winters evening, I found myself in the scene, playing away, equal parts lost in the music and...

Episode #207: Better Late Than Never (Song starts at 4:30) This song (#659), came about back in 2017. I was on my way to work and there was a bit of difficulty getting there, due to the public transport not exactly running smoothly. I was off to teach piano for the day ( I’ve been a piano teacher now for probably about 15 years. I teach as a contractor in a primary school. I teach 24 private lessons in 2 fairly intense days (I’m working steadily on video courses. More on this later). Anyway, ...

Episode #206: Whirlpool (Song starts at 5:20) I enjoyed recording a demo for this episode. It’s such good fun when I do this. It occurs to me as I write these show notes, it’s been a great way to archive some old songs (and of course putting them together with a show that gives them a context. A context? Con : more than one. Text: story. That’s one of the things that makes a song interesting and engaging. That over used word the ‘back story’… I guess that’s actually a step on from the song it...

Episode #205: Piece This Star Together (Song starts at 4.45) I find it endlessly fascinating, thinking about where a song might come from. ‘Piece This Star Together’ came from something my grandfather, Harry, said. My mum passed it on to me, when I was a youngster (bit of wisdom, I think): ‘We’ve all got a little piece of the star within us all and we’ve just got to piece this star together’. It resonated in me and it remained in me. Years later, in Melbourne, Australia in 1998, the phrase/ co...

Episode #204: The Setting Sun. (Song starts at 4:12) In the studio, I opened the songbook book and thought ‘Hey, why haven’t I featured Setting Sun on on an episode yet? It’s been sitting there since 2013’. So here we go. I thought I’d have a sing and play through the song, but I did a quick search of my hard drive and found an old piano vocal demo. It’s got lots of energy. A snapshot of a moment in time. That’s what makes demos great. So where does a song come from? Looking at my song book, ...