Monthly Archives: November 2008

Songs from Everyone’s Invited Receive Live Premiere

November 20, 2008
By

Last night, I performed as part of Transformational Conversations 5th Anniversary Benefit, a fundraiser created by my friend Lisa Giruzzi. Lisa and her husband Bill introduced me to Appreciative Inquiry, which I later came to use for artistic creation, including the creation of Everyone's Invited, both the album as a whole as well as each individual song.

The theme of Lisa’s event was “One Big Dream…Changes Everything!!” With our mutual friend Steph Campbell on vocals, I performed two songs from Everyone's Invited — Go Get It and On the Way. The audience seemed to enjoy the songs, especially the opportunity to sing along with the chorus of Go Get It.

So a couple of the songs from the album have now started a life beyond the album itself, into the world of live performance, and at some point I hope to have video of these performance up here at the site.

Patience, A Little Patience

November 15, 2008
By

I’d intended to have the website all done by last week, and then make a giant announcement to everyone I know everywhere about the album being released this past Tuesday, and then there’d be celebration and huge sales and who knows what.

But some things got in the way!

I had a lot to do to get up and running starting teaching Simply Music. A lot!

And the website just took longer than expected.

And I got a cold. I’ve had it for a week now and it’s still dragging me down.

Ah, well. In the past, I probably would have been really upset about being behind on plans. But I’m learning more and more to take things as they come. And I’ve been so busy lately with the album, the website, Simply Music and a few other things, maybe life is just telling me, take it easy, slow down, no rush.

Meantime, a few people have actually bought the album and a couple of singles, and that’s with pretty much no publicity. So I’d say that’s a good start.

So I’m fine. All in good time. Tada.

Kids Sampling the Songs

November 12, 2008
By

This morning, we had a two-hour delay which turned into a full day off due to, what do they call it?, something like non-weather-related circumstances. It was a bomb threat. In any case, the two kids we watch in the morning were here with my daughter, and they cracked out Everyone's Invited — I didn’t have anything to do with it, I swear :)

They listed to a couple of songs, and then they would listen to each song for about 10 seconds and skip ahead to the next. I wasn’t sure if they were just not liking what they heard or if that’s just how they felt like listening at the moment. I’m fine if it was the first, but I actually think it was the second, since there were a few songs listened to that way that I know for sure my daughter likes.

Part of me was tempted to say, “Hey, why don’t you listen to the whole song?” But I didn’t. Who knows, I thought there must be some use for them in listening that way!

Everyone’s Invited Officially Released Today

November 11, 2008
By

Everyone's Invited, the debut album of The Offhand Band, is officially released today.

Why today? And is it really available?

Good questions.

I had to pick an official release date for getting the album set up through some stores, and Tuesdays are a typical release day for the recording industry. Weeks ago, I knew the manufacturing was supposed to be done on November 6, and it was to take two business days to get some discs to one of the two online stores that will actually sell the physical CDs, and they said it would take one day to get it into the system. Perfect, a Tuesday, November 11.

The album is, in fact, available there today, but apparently only as an MP3 download — it will take a few more days for the physical CD to be available. But as of today, then, the MP3 version is actually available through more than one store, so I’d say that counts as a release. Want the CD but finding it out of stock? Send CDFreedom / Nimbit / CD Baby lots of emails and phone calls so they’ll know to ask for a whole lot more at once instead of only a few at a time! Or you can always buy a CD in person — I’ve got plenty!

Check out the Shop page for information on how and where to get the album on CD and MP3. Enjoy!

The First Sale!

November 10, 2008
By

The album may not be officially released until tomorrow, but there sure are a lot of copies sitting around here. And when a friend comes over and actually asks to buy a copy, well, what am I to do? Sell her one, of course. So, officially, as of today, the grand total number copies sold of Everyone's Invited is… one! That’s one more than I thought would be sold before tomorrow. So hurray :)

Everyone’s Invited

November 9, 2008
By

Play the album here!

[tab:About]
Stuffed with satisfying songs for people big and small, this debut album from The Offhand Band is a creative collection of catchy confections that you’ll savor for some time to come.

Cool for kids, fun for families and even great for the grown on their own, you’ll have a blast hopping with the OHB from one style to the next — pop and rock, R&B and country, old sounds and new, with even the occasional marching band thrown in. And with lyrics hosed with humor, packed with positivity and reveling in reality, you’ll find yourself singing and dancing your way toward making good things happen.

From the music to the words and whatever may be in between, with nobody talking down, you’ll be lifted up by these songs that everyone can truly appreciate and enjoy together. Tell your friends… tell your enemies… tell everyone… because whatever your shape or size, happy or sad, hopeful or mad, the OHB is having a party, and Everyone’s Invited!
[tab:Songs]
%%wpcs-everyones-invited-track-list%%
[tab:Story]

Making the Album with Appreciative Inquiry and the Internal Family Systems Model

I’d wanted for a long time to create entertainment that kids and adults could enjoy together, but that would also get across some things I’ve learned that I wish I knew earlier. With both of these aspects, everyone, but especially kids, could not only have a great time with it but might also learn some things that could make a positive difference for them. The “learning” stuff, though, would mostly stay out of the way of keeping things entertaining and enjoyable in themselves. As a musician and songwriter, it seemed to make sense to start with an album of original songs.

I thought it would be great to use a couple of things I’d learned about to actually help me make the album itself. The first was Appreciative Inquiry. There’s a lot one can say about AI. It was created as a way for organizations to generate positive change, bringing life to human systems. Working with Howard Ditkoff on coaching, consulting and training company Emergent Associates, LLC, we found a lot of novel ways to apply AI, including the fact that it was great at fostering creative projects like works of art.

For nearly every project I’ve done since then, I’ve used AI, from writing songs to building websites to creating services that I’d provide, including a number of services in which I actually help other people use AI for themselves. Several months before starting work on the album, I did an AI to come up with the name of the band. Actually starting to make the album itself, I started with an AI for the project as a whole — it would be just the first of many AIs I would do for the album.

The other main thing I used was my understanding of the Internal Family Systems model of the human mind. IFS shows us how, inside, we’ve all got different parts. They each think and feel different things, and they form a sort of family inside of us. Sometimes they don’t get along, and we can end up with mixed feelings, confusion or all sorts of other difficulties. The more we get to know our parts and the more they can relate well with each other, the healthier and more satisfied we can be.

Howard and I actually learned about IFS when we started seeing some ways in which AI wasn’t working the way we thought it should. When we did AIs on ourselves or other individuals, there wasn’t always inspiration to see through the plans that were created. Sometimes, we felt just the opposite, really disliking what was coming out of the AI. Eventually, we realized there was a problem in doing AI on individuals. AIs are always done on a system, and the entire system is supposed to be present or at least represented, to make sure that every part is contributing and working together with the rest. Seeing ourselves having very mixed feelings about certain AIs, it occurred to us that maybe the whole system had never really been present in the first place when doing AIs on individuals. We talk to the person, but were we getting the whole story the AI needed? Looking into the notion of people having different parts of themselves and how some of them may not always make themselves known, we came across IFS, which shared a number of things with AI, including talking about how important it is that all parts become known and involved. AI and IFS seemed to really complement each other. Over time, I’d gotten to know a dozen of my own internal family members.

When it came time to write the album, though, I found I was having a lot of trouble starting. I was really nervous somehow. Was it because it had been so long since I’d started a project of this size, or because this was the first time I was ever making an album and looking to actually see something through from writing to sellable product?

It turned out that one part was really concerned about the project because she’d (yes, our parts can be male or female!) often felt left out of things before. That concern led her to stand in the way of the project moving forward. It occurred to me to ask her if there was something in particular she wanted the album to say. Next thing I knew, we were doing an AI to write the album’s first song: Getting Somewhere. And if you read the lyrics, you can see they have everything to do the concern about leaving nobody behind, because making sure everyone plays their part is the best way for a group to make good things happen.

After this, I wasn’t concerned or nervous at all about beginning work on the album — it had already been started! Soon enough, it became clear that other parts had different opinions about what would be a worthwhile topic to write a song about for a kids’ album. So it seemed like the obvious thing to do was for each to write its own song. I did a separate AI for each. Before I knew it, I had an album.

Now, over the years I’ve written hours and hours of music, and I often go digging through it all when I work on a new project, looking for which pieces seem appropriate to make use of. With this album, though, I started basically from scratch. The only thing I had in mind at all before the first AI for the album was the basic idea for the song Naked Time and the fact that I thought it would work well as an upbeat rhythm and blues tune. Even after the first album-as-a-whole AI, I had just a handful of ideas for songs. After the way the first song came about, I was curious to see just how far AI and IFS could take me, so I dove in and let those processes essentially guide the project.

As I did this, I found it was pretty easy to get each part’s ideas on what they wanted to write about. Something I found interesting was how some parts wanted to write about things that seemed more obvious based on their personality while some picked topics that at first seemed pretty unpredictable based on who they are. When I thought about it, though, those unpredictable topics tended to be things the part maybe had been missing out on or even avoiding for a long time. Not coincidentally, I’m sure, many of the songs have to do directly with what AI and IFS are about.

Either way, with a strong focus always on what each song would be about, I worked almost always on lyrics first with music following. Very different from how I’ve almost always worked before, writing music and then fitting lyrics to the tune. I was a little concerned about how — or even whether — the music would come along, because music often seemed to require lots of exploration and inspiration before I could come up with something I thought worth using. But now, basically every time, if I wrote lyrics first, music just flowed out afterward. More often than not, it seemed to pop out of nowhere. It was the kind of experience I’ve often heard about from other artists but hadn’t often experienced myself — and it made me feel like AI and IFS were really helping me tap into something. Most of the songs took only several hours to write from beginning to end, or at most a couple of days. Ideas, lyrics, music, done. The songs were all written during January and February 2008.

After the first few songs, I noticed that I’d been playing with a few different musical styles and that, coincidentally, the songs were written in different keys. I decided to purposely try to explore many more different musical styles, letting each song take on its own stylistic personality, just like the lyrics were being written by 12 very different parts of myself. Since there are 12 notes in Western music, I thought it would be neat to have each song in a different key as yet another nod to the unique contributions of the 12 parts. Though a few songs later needed to change keys to accommodate vocal ranges, in the end all 12 keys stuck.

Given how the very first song came about, as I wrote the rest of the album, I thought a lot about how both AI and IFS make clear that the best results come from getting all the parts of a system to participate. Because these two approaches played such an important role in making the album, it seemed like a natural thing to call the album something related to them. I thought about kids and what things might relate to both kids and this notion of requesting everyone get involved. Parties and party invitations occurred to me. All my parts were invited to participate as equals, each contributing a song, as if they’d all been asked to the same party. “Everyone’s Invited” became an obvious title.

From kids’ parties, the image of cupcakes popped into my head, and the fact that cupcakes can often be made in a 12-cup muffin pan. It didn’t take long to connect that to the other ways the number 12 had come into play — 12 parts, 12 songs, 12 styles, 12 keys. That gave me the idea for the artwork: a muffin pan filled with 12 cupcakes, each decorated like a person’s face, but all showing very different expressions, ranging across a full spectrum of emotions. Because the best results come from getting everyone involved — not only the happy and pleasant ones but even the sad ones, the angry ones, the awkward ones, everyone. Everyone was invited. And this seemed like a fun image to get that across. Graphic artist Erik Battey was fantastic to work with in bringing life to and expanding on those ideas throughout the album’s packaging.

With all the different things they — we! — came up with to write about, hopefully there’d be something for everyone to enjoy in the album. You’ll find the story of how each part wrote each song in the individual song posts. You might enjoy learning the rest of the story as it happened, following not the track list but the order in which the songs were actually written. Here’s the complete chronological order, and at the bottom of each song’s story you’ll find a link to the story of whatever song was written next, so you’ll be able to easily follow the entire tale from beginning to end.

The Vocals

There’s plenty more to the making of the album, but most of the rest makes for a pretty dull story. Initial arrangements in March/April 2008, searching for a vocalist in May/June, recording vocals and tending to lots of things other than the album in July/August, mixing in September/October with some final vocal recording in October, then mastering and manufacturing in October/November. Mostly lots of sitting in front of a computer and doing a lot of technical and businessy things, blah blah blah. The only other part that seems worth talking about in any detail here is the vocals, and in particular the lead vocalist.

I can sing, maybe a bit better than I give myself credit for, but I’m just not really a singer. Whenever I write music, I pretty much always intend to find someone better than myself to do the singing. I found a number of great candidates through HVmusic.com, a great resource for Hudson Valley music. What I hoped to find was a female singer (because I just like how they sound!) who had a great voice, would be able to pull off the variety of musical styles in which I’d written, and would especially be able to do so more as a genuine rock/pop singer as opposed to having more of a musical theatre or cabaret kind of voice. Naturally, I also hoped she’d be a real professional to work with but also fun. And what I really hoped for was to find someone who not only had all these other qualities but also had an appreciation for the ideas behind the lyrics, maybe even a fellow parent who was as interested as I was in natural and healthy ways of parenting, learning and living.

I hit the jackpot with Dianne Mucci, who fit every bit of the description I just gave. A real rock singer, Dianne nevertheless shared with me a love of lots of different kinds of music. When she first sang for me, she showed me that she could learn songs very quickly and also deliver great, varied performances, appropriate for the different styles. We laid down all the vocals in her garage during three recording sessions. Because she was always so prepared, songs at first took only about two hours to do from the moment we started until the moment we’d listened to a complete track we liked. By the final recording session, we were averaging around just one hour per song. She not only gave me the kinds of things I was looking for in each song — she also brought new ideas to the table that I hadn’t considered, and helped greatly in exploring possibilities for background vocals.

On top of all this, she’s just a cool person with a cool family, and she even cooked dinner for me when I’d come to record! I’m really grateful for making the connection with her and so glad that she was a part of the project.

Share your own stories — of art or other things that have inspired you, of how you came to do something artistic or creative, of how the OHB’s songs have impacted you, whatever you like — at the Fan Clan.
[tab:Credits]
Release Date: November 11, 2008
Formats: CD and MP3
Catalog Number: PCA 00001

Compact Disc Credits:

Circle P - Phonorecord Copyright&© 2008 Mark S. Meritt. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.

Released by Potluck Creative Arts, 41 Fraleigh Street, Red Hook, NY 12571.1526, USA / potluckcreativearts.com

Manufactured in the USA. Printed on certified 100% green forestry practices board, minimum 10% post-consumer recycled content, with all vegetable inks.

Layout, band logo and illustrations by Omnirock / omnirock.com

All songs written by and © 2008 Mark S. Meritt (BMI). All rights reserved.

Dianne Mucci – Vocals / myspace.com/sparkleysledgehammer

MSM – Instruments, additional vocals / marksmeritt.com

Produced, arranged, recorded and mixed by MSM in the basement in the village, Red Hook, NY, using a MacBook Pro, MOTU Digital Performer 5.13, Native Instruments Kontakt 3, EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Gold Complete, Quantum Leap Colossus, EastWest/PMI Bösendorfer 290 Grand Piano, and an M-Audio Keystation Pro 88.

Vocals recorded in the garage on the mountain, Bloomingburg, NY.

Mastered and manufactured by Oasis, Delair, NJ / oasiscd.com

Layout, band logo and illustrations by Omnirock / omnirock.com
All illustrations © 2008 Erik Battey. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Mark thanks: Dianne, a welcome collaborator in so many ways; Sophia, who it’s all for; and Jen, who makes it all possible.

Dianne thanks: My inspirations Ron, Blaze and Jett.

For lyrics, music, merchandise, blog, mailing list, conversation and other things weird and/or wonderful, everyone’s invited to theoffhandband.com.

For songwriting workshops, custom-written works, creativity coaching and other music, arts and creativity services you can do with Mark at a distance and in person, visit potluckcreativearts.com.

Lyrics for The Animal School based on the story published by ArtScroll / Mesorah Publications, Ltd., in turn based on the original story by George H. Reavis, now in the public domain.
[tab:Buy]

Everyone’s Invited — CD Album

Last modified on 1970-03-17 16:00:09 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

The OHB loves: CD Baby

Also available at these stores and more:

Everyone’s Invited — MP3 Album

Last modified on 1970-03-17 15:59:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

The OHB loves: CD Baby
Also available at these stores and more:

NapsterRhapsody

[tab:Donate]
I work hard on the songs and the site, giving away a lot of stuff for free. If I could make a living by making art, I could make — and give away — even more. That could actually happen if everyone who listened contributed just a little bit. If you’ve enjoyed some of my free music or other content — on the site, through downloads, however — why not take a second and make a contribution to support me in making more? Just click on the Donate button in the right sidebar. Thanks!

If you’d rather buy some music, that’s great, too! Click on the Buy tab above, or visit the Shop.

Either way, I really appreciate your support.
[tab:END]

Naked Time

November 9, 2008
By

Play the song here!

[tab:Lyrics]
Well, got to have a get-up to express just what I’m feeling myself
No goin’ through the closet full of hand-me-downs from somebody else
And I’m not goin’ shopping to indulge in any new fashion trend
They just come and go
But, indeed, I know
On what I can always depend

It’s naked time!
Take it all off and dance
It’s naked time!
Even your underpants
It’s naked time!

There’s nothing less expensive and it never ever goes out of style
And it’ll always fit me even if I don’t wear it for a while
Yeah, it’s with me forever and there’s nothing in which I look more cute
It’s my outfit prime
Don’t you know that I’m
Talking about my birthday suit

It’s naked time!
Take it all off and dance
It’s naked time!
Even your underpants
It’s naked time!

When you’ve got all your clothes off you’ll be lettin’ loose and feelin’ so free
Some do it all the time but even sometimes is a nice way to be
And if you really can’t, well, you can still pretend when you’re in the mood
Every gal and gent
And the President!
We can have a nude attitude

It’s naked time!
Take it all off and dance
It’s naked time!
Even your underpants

It’s naked time!
Take it all off and dance
It’s naked time!
Even your underpants
It’s naked time!
It’s naked time!
[tab:Story]
This song and the album it comes from were written using Appreciative Inquiry and Internal Family Systems. With IFS, we can talk about different parts of ourselves as if they are separate people. Hopefully that clarifies why these stories at times refer to he, she and we!

Years ago, I’d seen Dana Carvey talk about “naked time” in one of his stand-up routines. His little kids liked to be naked all day long, so they bargained with the kids, letting them have naked time for a bit of each evening. When that time would roll around, the kids would ask if it was time, and when it was, they’d strip down and cheer, “It’s naked time!” And he noted that it was wonderful how free they were.

Carvey’s routine stuck with me. Before I’d started any real work on the album, I’d had only one idea at all for it: naked time. I’d wanted the album to get across ideas about being who we really are, and I wanted to do that in a fun way, but I also knew that some of the ideas I’d wanted to get across in the album might be seen as a little provocative. I thought it would be good to combine the fun and the edginess, to sort of poke fun at the edginess itself and make it as innocent and safe as it really should be. A song about naked time seemed to fit the bill nicely.

Part of the goal for the album was to make songs that wouldn’t sound like typical kids’ songs but, instead, would sound like “regular” rock and pop songs. This is what would really help all ages to enjoy the songs together. With the baudy and fun notion of naked time, it seemed like a natural to set it to an upbeat rhythm and blues tune. Well before writing anything else for the album, I’d doodled on the piano and come up with the main horn riff that first appears at the very beginning of the song. So to the tiny little lyrical seed I had, the naked time idea itself, I now added a tiny little musical one.

When the first couple of songs were done, I felt like it was the moment to finally get down to naked time. I did an Appreciative Inquiry, and lots of fun lyrical ideas came out of it. For the music, I thought especially about classic, rock-y sorts of R&B sounds like Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, and the revivals given to their kinds of songs by The Blues Brothers and The Commitments. I remembered in particular the version of “Shake Your Tailfeather” done by Ray Charles with The Blues Brothers, thinking it had just the right upbeat kind of feel, not to mention that it had its own bit of edgy bodily fun in being about shaking one’s behind. Soon enough, the tune was fleshed out (no pun intended!) as well.

This would be the first of four songs in a row where the AI and writing weren’t consciously done with a particular part of me, but I had a sense that different parts were stepping up to the plate, so to speak, focusing on different and appropriate topics. Later, when it became clear that each part should have its own song, a part of me that’s very interested in taking care of business “claimed” this song. His appreciation of bold leadership went with the edginess of the song. It also resonated with him because of how the main idea of being who one really is was the main driving force behind the album project as a whole and tied very much to the choice to invest so much of myself in the album — and because it was something that he himself wanted to bring more of to his own seemingly opposite priority of getting down to business.

The next song written for Everyone's Invited was Whaddaya Say? (The Saga of Sam).

Share your own stories — of art or other things that have inspired you, of how you came to do something artistic or creative, of how the OHB’s songs have impacted you, whatever you like — at the Fan Clan.
[tab:Credits]
Written by and Circle P - Phonorecord Copyright&© 2008 Mark S. Meritt (BMI). All rights reserved.

Dianne Mucci – Vocals
MSM – Instruments

Produced, arranged, recorded and mixed by MSM in the basement in the village, Red Hook, NY, using a MacBook Pro, MOTU Digital Performer 5.13, Native Instruments Kontakt 3, Quantum Leap Colossus, and an M-Audio Keystation Pro 88.

Vocals recorded in the garage on the mountain, Bloomingburg, NY.

Release Date: November 11, 2008
Album: Everyone's Invited
Track Number: 1
Length: 2:55

Written: 3rd of the 12 songs for the album, starting January 18, 2008
Key: A
Arranged: 3rd, starting March 11, 2008
Vocals recorded 2nd, July 22, 2008
Mixed: 1st, starting September 8, 2008
[tab:Buy]

Naked Time — MP3 Single

Last modified on 1970-03-17 15:58:13 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

From the album Everyone's Invited

The OHB loves: CD Baby
Also available at these stores and more:

NapsterRhapsody

[tab:Donate]
I work hard on the songs and the site, giving away a lot of stuff for free. If I could make a living by making art, I could make — and give away — even more. That could actually happen if everyone who listened contributed just a little bit. If you’ve enjoyed some of my free music or other content — on the site, through downloads, however — why not take a second and make a contribution to support me in making more? Just click on the Donate button in the right sidebar. Thanks!

If you’d rather buy some music, that’s great, too! Click on the Buy tab above, or visit the Shop.

Either way, I really appreciate your support.
[tab:END]

That’s the Key

November 9, 2008
By

Play the song here!

[tab:Lyrics]
In the Melodious Ocean
On the island of G Flat Key
Lived many musical notes
Spending their days singing, yes, you guessed it, songs in G-flat together

Viola was a C-flat note
And though everyone thought that she
Fit in with everyone else
She felt that she didn’t harmonize with her home island’s endeavor

She knew deep inside
C-flat was not what she ought
She felt much more like B-natural
And every single day she thought

“Where I am factually free
To actually be
naturally me
That’s the key”

One day she finally tried it
But they all said, “No way, that’s wrong!
The only naturals here
Are all the Fs, and they’re fine at times, but followed best by a flat note”

So, though they all thought her perfect
Knowing that she did not belong
She chose to leave them behind
Visit the Musical Keys nearby on her old family sailboat

And though she was scared
Off-key, at last, this was it
Perhaps this key change would help her find
A place where she could finally fit

“Where I am factually free
To actually be
naturally me
That’s the key”

Each island was smaller and stranger
With even more naturals than previously
And she even heard tell of a place with only natural tone
Though the Key of B-flat was clearly not where it’s at
She soon found her first natural key
But at the Key of F, near the entryway clef, the only flat was B alone

Seemed to Viola the next key
Had to be the all-natural one
So she was shocked to find out
All of the other keys long ago were swallowed up by the ocean

About to give up and go home
Several notes said, “It could be fun
to have a B-natural around
Compared to the flatter keys, you’d be fine here, at least consider the notion”

And though she was scared
A smile grew on her face
They made new songs weird and wonderful
Viola finally found her place

“Where I am factually free
To actually be
naturally me
That’s the key”

“Where I am factually free
To actually be
naturally me
That’s the key”
[tab:Story]
This song and the album it comes from were written using Appreciative Inquiry and Internal Family Systems. With IFS, we can talk about different parts of ourselves as if they are separate people. Hopefully that clarifies why these stories at times refer to he, she and we!

One part of me was hesitant to even write a song. He was afraid of what people would think of it. That was a general concern for him, always concerned what others think, wishing that others might actually be interested in what he thought, but always afraid they wouldn’t be. Just like with the first song written for the album, where a part was standing in the way of writing the album at all, through Appreciative Inquiry we were able to take those very concerns and channel them constructively in a way that actually contributed to the album. That’s how this eighth song came about.

Through the AI, he started talking about times when people, in fact, had expressed interest and valued his/our contributions. What he most appreciated about others expressing interest was that it took away his feeling of hesitation. Instead of always wondering when and how to express himself, always putting it off because of never having a good enough answer to when or how to say something, people sometimes gave a clear opening. Then it would be easy to contribute. Maybe they’d dislike or disagree with what I might say, but this part could be okay with that — it was more important that they wanted to hear from us in the first place.

He started realizing that it would be great to have a song that was a real story, nothing obviously philosophizing or giving advice. The story would be about someone who felt he wasn’t getting to be who he really was, who was conforming in order to get approval, to feel accepted. But because conformed, he was only accepted as something he really wasn’t. So he somehow develops the courage to try to be himself and find others who wanted to know the real him. In a way, it was like a classic tale of someone with a dream, at first put down by those around him, but he never gives up and eventually finds his way.

Thinking about metaphors, we thought about shapes — how some people are considered “square” when they are different from the rest, and how when things aren’t quite right we can feel “bent out of shape.” The other metaphor that came up was musical notes, and the classic punny phrase, “Don’t B sharp, don’t B flat, just B natural.”

That musical metaphor busted things wide open. The entire story of this song practically wrote itself in an instant after that point. There was the notion of there being musical keys, where some notes fit better than others. And some note might see itself as fitting better in some other key. The classic punny phrase gave the idea that some note would want to “be natural” — and that, of course, it should be a B-natural note that it wants to be.

Thinking about the different keys, there were suddenly lots of happy coincidences. In the keys based on flat notes, B is always flat — so a B-natural would feel particular out of place. The note we usually call B-natural does finally reappear in a flat key, but it’s one of the “flattest” keys, G-flat, and that note isn’t even referred to as B anymore but, instead C-flat. So there was suddenly this notion of a C-flat note really wishing to “B-natural” in a very flat, “unnatural” environment. This immediately suggested a journey far away, to find a key where it could fit as it wanted to. Several other A few other other ideas from music popped up as relevant for the story — “home key,” “key change,” “harmonizing” with others, “perfect” intervals, the journey being toward more and more “natural” environments.

From there, the leap was made to keys also referring to bunches of islands together, like the Florida Keys. Suddenly, there was a whole fantasy world where musical notes lived on “keys,” on different islands in an ocean, very separate from each other, and where if one note wanted to find a different key, there’d have to be a heroic journey across the sea. This not only suggested another musical detail — “off key,” as in off the island — but solidified a title. The title phrase popped up as yet another meaning of the word key, simply being the most important thing, the thing that unlocks everything else. We were surprised at how short the chorus ended up, and at just how much got packed in such a small space — a triple four-syllable rhyme, not to mention secretly hiding the phrase “be natural” itself. Can you find it? :)

The islands suggested musical influences as well. The nature of the heroic journey, though, seemed to need something bigger than the average calypso/reggae. Yet it couldn’t be anywhere as serious as something like Bob Marley’s song “Exodus” either. I then thought of the song “Kokomo” by The Beach Boys, itself about a bunch of islands, “off the Florida Keys” no less, and the one special place “we wanna go.” Despite its subject and obvious Caribbean musical touches, the music was really mostly like a Phil Spector “Wall of Sound” song, like “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes. Those songs were themselves noted for incorporating maracas, castanets and other sounds often heard in “island” music, and yet they had their own very particular pop sound, not island music at all. I read up on Wall of Sound arrangements, and I also thought about Billy Joel’s “Say Goodbye to Hollywood,” a Wall of Sound tribute with conspicuous castanets, but also having a more rock-oriented middle section thrown in.

Looking for music-related names for the main character, Viola showed up as a recognizable first name. So the hero became female in the story. With orchestral string instruments often playing a part in Wall of Sound arrangements, I decided to use only violas for those parts.

From there, the words and music mostly took care of themselves. It was obvious that the song had to start in the key of G-flat, but also just as obvious that it had to switch keys as Viola took her journey. Most of the physical journey itself is packed into the Billy-Joel-inspired bridge in the middle, where the chord changes closely reflect key changes from G-flat through keys with fewer and fewer flats, until Viola finally arrives, as the song says, in the key of F. Unusual for songs to move down with a key change — usually they move up, but going down somewhere worked here.

There seemed to be something poignant about her finding this key. It was the first on her journey named for a natural note instead of a flat one. It was also in a way the exact opposite of her home key — Gb had only one natural note and all the rest were flat, but the notes in the key of F are all natural except for one. And that one was, of all things, B-flat. Here, she could feel like she’d come so far and gotten so close only to feel as much an outcast as ever. If only she could go one key farther, it would be the “all-natural” one she’d heard of, the key of C where there are no flats or sharps at all. But letting her get there seemed to be a bit too pat an ending to the story.

Have all the other keys just not be there, just not be options, seemed to add a nice bit of drama to the story, and it opened the way to a less predictable and more satisfying ending. The notes in the key of F decide to stretch themselves a bit to accommodate Viola. They convince her not to give up, to stay, figuring that even if it might not be truly what she was looking for, they would welcome her, and she should at least feel far more at home with them than she would anywhere else. Having others meet her partway seemed a strong way to show that Viola had really found a place where others accepted her for who she was, a place she belonged and could call home.

Sometimes I think about how it might have been global warming that caused the other keys to be swallowed up by the ocean! I wonder, then, if there’s some kind of sequel to write for this story, where enough notes living a more “natural” life somehow leads to the other lost keys resurfacing. This makes me think of a bunch of other ways that musical ideas could work into the story. Perhaps the world is saved and Viola finds that she can eventually come to feel at home even on her original island. After all, G-flat is also F-sharp, a key that itself already has B-naturals — everyone there would come to see themselves differently, and nobody would have to go anywhere else to feel at home. We’ll see… :)

The next song written for Everyone's Invited was Aggie and Timmy.

Share your own stories — of art or other things that have inspired you, of how you came to do something artistic or creative, of how the OHB’s songs have impacted you, whatever you like — at the Fan Clan.
[tab:Credits]
Written by and Circle P - Phonorecord Copyright&© 2008 Mark S. Meritt (BMI). All rights reserved.

Dianne Mucci – Vocals
MSM – Instruments

Produced, arranged, recorded and mixed by MSM in the basement in the village, Red Hook, NY, using a MacBook Pro, MOTU Digital Performer 5.13, Native Instruments Kontakt 3, EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Gold Complete, Quantum Leap Colossus, EastWest/PMI Bösendorfer 290 Grand Piano, and an M-Audio Keystation Pro 88.

Vocals recorded in the garage on the mountain, Bloomingburg, NY.

Release Date: November 11, 2008
Album: Everyone's Invited
Track Number: 2
Length: 4:18

Written: 8th of the 12 songs for the album, February 2008
Key: Gb
Arranged: 1st, starting March 6, 2008
Vocals recorded 5th, July 22, 2008
Mixed: 2nd, starting September 10, 2008
[tab:Buy]

That’s the Key — MP3 Single

Last modified on 1970-03-17 15:57:16 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

From the album Everyone's Invited

The OHB loves: CD Baby
Also available at these stores and more:

NapsterRhapsody

[tab:Donate]
I work hard on the songs and the site, giving away a lot of stuff for free. If I could make a living by making art, I could make — and give away — even more. That could actually happen if everyone who listened contributed just a little bit. If you’ve enjoyed some of my free music or other content — on the site, through downloads, however — why not take a second and make a contribution to support me in making more? Just click on the Donate button in the right sidebar. Thanks!

If you’d rather buy some music, that’s great, too! Click on the Buy tab above, or visit the Shop.

Either way, I really appreciate your support.
[tab:END]

Let It Out

November 9, 2008
By

Play the song here!

[tab:Lyrics]
Like a balloon with too much air
An apple pie, lots of steam in there
A subway train with no room to spare

Jack in the box, snakes in a can
Fruit in a peel, shell-wrapped pecan
Bird in a cage, well, what’s the plan?

Do like the seeds from a flower
And clouds about to shower
The geyser at the geysering hour
Oh

Let it out
Let it out
It’s so much better if you get it out now
Let it out
Let it out
Save it for later and there’ll be a kapow
Let it out

You’ve got some loose and dangly teeth
Some CO2 every time you breath
About to cough, hiccup or sneeze

Some sweaty socks with your feet in
Whatever else you’re secretin’
And a while after drinking or eatin’
Oh

Let it out
Let it out
It’s so much better if you get it out now
Let it out
Let it out
Save it for later and there’ll be a kapow
Let it out

And when you’ve got something you feel
And you’re not sure just what is real
And you don’t know how you can deal

Just let it fly like a rocket
Reaching escape velocity
Then finally nothing will stop it
Yeah

Let it out
Let it out
It’s so much better if you get it out now
Let it out
Let it out
Keep it inside and one day you’ll have a cow

Let it out
Let it out
It’s so much better if you get it out now
Let it out
Let it out
Save it for later and there’ll be a kapow
Let it out
Let it out
[tab:Story]
This song and the album it comes from were written using Appreciative Inquiry and Internal Family Systems. With IFS, we can talk about different parts of ourselves as if they are separate people. Hopefully that clarifies why these stories at times refer to he, she and we!

After writing the first song for the album, the artist/creator part of me stepped up, naturally wanting to get involved. He was concerned that so many other projects over the years hadn’t succeeded as he’d hoped, and so over time he’d become a bit reluctant to keep creating and expressing himself. But these days he was feeling like he could express himself simply because it was what he wanted to do. In fact, he felt a little dumbfounded, because in some ways writing this song would be the first time he could really feel free to say whatever he truly wanted.

As we did our Appreciative Inquiry on his song, he started thinking about that freedom, freedom of self-expression. Just getting out what’s inside because it wants to come out, instead of putting it off and wondering if or when the opportunity might be right. Once it’s out, it’s where it needs to be, and then he’d have fulfilled his purpose in life, and everything else would be gravy, bonus. Just the fact that he’d been that free even one time would be enough. It seemed to him like escape velocity — it doesn’t matter whether a rocket hits that speed early or late in its journey, and it doesn’t have to keep going that fast. As long as it gets there for any particular moment, it ends up free of Earth’s gravity, and it can’t be pulled back down.

He also really valued that the song itself was an expression of this idea, and could be so even musically. He wanted the song to be moving, but real, maybe even a bit intense, showing the strength of that feeling of freedom.

Immediately, the title occurred to him, and he thought about the song “Walk On” by U2, which was both strong and emotional. Soon, he was thinking about all sorts of things that need to be let out — how air may need to be let out of a balloon so it doesn’t pop, an appendix needing to come out because it’s going to burst, cancer and bullets needing to come out of bodies to get them healthy. But not only things that don’t belong somewhere. The seeds of a flower, the sun from behind the clouds. Even sweating and going to the bathroom. With so these and many other things, it’s perfectly normal that they show up in those places, but they still then need to be let out also. When something is pent up inside, it has to be let out so that we can become or stay healthy.

From there, the song more or less wrote itself. He was a bit surprised that his song wasn’t more directly about creativity, but he realized that, in a sense, there is no creativity at all without the freedom of expressing who you really are, so the song rang really true for him.

The next song written for Everyone's Invited was Naked Time.

Share your own stories — of art or other things that have inspired you, of how you came to do something artistic or creative, of how the OHB’s songs have impacted you, whatever you like — at the Fan Clan.
[tab:Credits]
Written by and Circle P - Phonorecord Copyright&© 2008 Mark S. Meritt (BMI). All rights reserved.

Dianne Mucci – Vocals
MSM – Instruments

Produced, arranged, recorded and mixed by MSM in the basement in the village, Red Hook, NY, using a MacBook Pro, MOTU Digital Performer 5.13, Native Instruments Kontakt 3, Quantum Leap Colossus, EastWest/PMI Bösendorfer 290 Grand Piano, and an M-Audio Keystation Pro 88.

Vocals recorded in the garage on the mountain, Bloomingburg, NY.

Release Date: November 11, 2008
Album: Everyone's Invited
Track Number: 3
Length: 4:15

Written: 2nd of the 12 songs for the album, starting January 10, 2008
Key: D
Arranged: 2nd, starting March 10, 2008
Vocals recorded 3rd, July 22, 2008
Mixed: 3rd, starting September 11, 2008
[tab:Buy]

Let It Out — MP3 Single

Last modified on 1970-03-17 15:56:04 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

From the album Everyone's Invited

The OHB loves: CD Baby
Also available at these stores and more:

NapsterRhapsody

[tab:Donate]
I work hard on the songs and the site, giving away a lot of stuff for free. If I could make a living by making art, I could make — and give away — even more. That could actually happen if everyone who listened contributed just a little bit. If you’ve enjoyed some of my free music or other content — on the site, through downloads, however — why not take a second and make a contribution to support me in making more? Just click on the Donate button in the right sidebar. Thanks!

If you’d rather buy some music, that’s great, too! Click on the Buy tab above, or visit the Shop.

Either way, I really appreciate your support.
[tab:END]

Getting Somewhere

November 9, 2008
By

Play the song here!

[tab:Lyrics]
To the land of amazing things we’d come
Where there’s something amazing for everyone
Chris carried climbing boots, Robin brought rope
A flashlight from Fran, and I took a telescope

So we got to the jungle and in we dived
To have the adventure of our lives
No worry what might be left behind
Dreaming of what we’d find

(Searchin’) Lookin’ around
(Searchin’) Up and down
(Searchin’) Wonderin’ how
We’ll be gettin’ somewhere

Wherever we looked, we felt chagrined
For all we found was a voice in the wind
“Stop, come back!” it would protest
But we just couldn’t stop our quest

(Searchin’) Lookin’ around
(Searchin’) Up and down
(Searchin’) Wonderin’ how
We’ll be gettin’ somewhere

Never finding a thing, our luck was out
So we went to see what that voice was about
We’d forgotten just what would save the day
Our friend Morgan with a map, hooray!

(Searchin’) Lookin’ around
(Searchin’) Up and down
(Searchin’) Knowin’ that now
We’ll be gettin’ somewhere

(Searchin’) Lookin’ around
(Searchin’) Up and down
(Searchin’) Knowin’ that now
We’ll be gettin’ somewhere
[tab:Story]
This song and the album it comes from were written using Appreciative Inquiry and Internal Family Systems. With IFS, we can talk about different parts of ourselves as if they are separate people. Hopefully that clarifies why these stories at times refer to he, she and we!

This turned out to be the first song written for the album. When it came time to write the album, I found I was having a lot of trouble starting. I was really nervous somehow. Was it because it had been so long since I’d started a project of this size, or because this was the first time I was ever making an album and looking to actually see something through from writing to sellable product?

It turned out that a part of me was really concerned about something else entirely. She’s very interested in caring for others but has often felt that other parts of me haven’t let her do that. The album was supposed to help do good things for people, but how could it do that if caring was left out? When it occurred to me that maybe she’d be reassured about her participation if she could contribute to the first song for the album, she jumped at the idea. She wanted to write something about what she herself was feeling, not about caring, but about feeling left out. If that happened to her, she was afraid she’d just keep holding everyone else back, which isn’t at all what she wanted. But if she were included and even allowed to get things started, she thought her contributions would help make sure that nobody would have anything to fear.

As we did an Appreciative Inquiry on her song, she talked about how important it is that everyone be included as part of a team, how even the smallest part can often make the biggest difference. She hoped her song would help people see that there’s so much more to them than meets the eye, just as she’d often felt overlooked but was now being seen. And she wanted the song to help people feel as joyful as she did now that she was getting this opportunity to be heard.

All of this led her to think about a bouncy but not too bright song about something that keeps bumping into things because it had a part missing. Find the part and put it in, and it would be able to get where it wanted to go, smoothly instead of having such a hard time. Like a toy or machine getting a little navigation system. That made her think of people having an internal compass that tells us which way to go. She started exploring the basic idea of finally making progress, of getting somewhere. The song could start off wishing about getting somewhere and end by saying, hey, now we’re getting somewhere.

The idea of a compass and navigation led to maps and the notion of a wonderful destination and an amazing journey. Soon, we were thinking about different kinds of things to pack along with a map for an adventurous trip. The idea came up that each person could bring one thing, and most of the group could be so excited to go ahead that they’d leave someone behind, the one with the map, in fact. They’d have to eventually realize what had happened in order to get everyone together to complete the journey.

The idea of a journey in a bouncy but not too bright song made us think of the song “Ride Captain Ride” by Blues Image, so that served as the model for the music.

In a way, this song is really about the making of the album as a whole. The very notion of everyone needing to be invited was right there from the start, so it’s no surprise that it came back after the songs were done to become the album’s title.

The next song written for Everyone's Invited was Let It Out.

Share your own stories — of art or other things that have inspired you, of how you came to do something artistic or creative, of how the OHB’s songs have impacted you, whatever you like — at the Fan Clan.
[tab:Credits]
Written by and Circle P - Phonorecord Copyright&© 2008 Mark S. Meritt (BMI). All rights reserved.

Dianne Mucci – Vocals
MSM – Instruments

Produced, arranged, recorded and mixed by MSM in the basement in the village, Red Hook, NY, using a MacBook Pro, MOTU Digital Performer 5.13, Native Instruments Kontakt 3, Quantum Leap Colossus, and an M-Audio Keystation Pro 88.

Vocals recorded in the garage on the mountain, Bloomingburg, NY.

Release Date: November 11, 2008
Album: Everyone's Invited
Track Number: 4
Length: 2:21

Written: 1st of the 12 songs for the album, starting January 4, 2008
Key: Bb
Arranged: 7th, starting March 24, 2008
Vocals recorded 6th, July 25, 2008
Mixed: 4th, starting September 11, 2008
[tab:Buy]

Getting Somewhere — MP3 Single

Last modified on 1970-03-17 15:55:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

From the album Everyone's Invited

The OHB loves: CD Baby
Also available at these stores and more:

NapsterRhapsody

[tab:Donate]
I work hard on the songs and the site, giving away a lot of stuff for free. If I could make a living by making art, I could make — and give away — even more. That could actually happen if everyone who listened contributed just a little bit. If you’ve enjoyed some of my free music or other content — on the site, through downloads, however — why not take a second and make a contribution to support me in making more? Just click on the Donate button in the right sidebar. Thanks!

If you’d rather buy some music, that’s great, too! Click on the Buy tab above, or visit the Shop.

Either way, I really appreciate your support.
[tab:END]