We talked about many different aspects of being a part of SpinTunes. During the conversation, I got to cover my involvement in SpinTunes 1 and SpinTunes 3, including some discussion about a number of my SpinTunes song entries: Not Cool, Ballroom Dance, Another Universe, and Step Back Swooperman.
The full show is available at Jules’ website for streaming and download. Enjoy!
We’ll be discussing all things SpinTunes — what it’s like to participate in this type of competition, the pros and the cons, the overall creative process and more.
The interview will begin at 10 pm ET and will end whenever we run out of things to talk about.
Tune-in here, join us in chat here, and learn more here including info about some of the other contestants who’ll be participating.
I thought those papers would be interested to know about a song based on an article, and the Millerton News ended up interviewing me. The story appeared in the Millerton News and at the TriCorner News website last Thursday, July 7. At the site, only subscribers can read the full text, but the editors of the Millerton News have graciously given me permission to reprint the full article right here. Enjoy!
Incidentally, my song tied for 4th out of a field of 21 songs. Time to move onto Round 3.
Thu, 07/07/2011 – 9:16am * Millerton
By
Stefanie Giglio
stefanieg@millertonnews.com
MILLERTON — The Offhand Band, based out of Red Hook, was recently inspired to write a song about the Health Bucks program after reading about the program in the Poughkeepsie Journal and The Millerton News.
The program, which is run by the North East Community Center (NECC) and funded by Sharon Hospital, allows people who use food stamps to receive discounts at the Millerton and Amenia farmers markets.
The song, entitled “Program Aids Food Stamp Users,” was written for an online song-writing competition called SpinTunes, which challenged song writers who made it past the first elimination round to use a recent newspaper article as the basis for the song.
Mark Merrit, the songwriter and sole member of The Offhand Band, wrote on his website about the contest and his process of creating the song.
“I don’t subscribe to any newspapers. I hardly ever read any newspapers. I don’t watch much news on television or read much on the Internet,” he wrote.
He said that the reason behind that was because the news is “just not relevant in my life or the lives of anyone I know.” That lead him to search for a story that “exemplified the notion of little things meaning a lot, a story that might be as especially impacting for someone’s life as the vast majority of news stories, especially the larger ones, are fundamentally meaningless to most of us.”
In an email conversation, he said he hopes that his song shows people how much the little things can make a big difference.
“The basic idea is that what’s really important are the things that can make a significant impact in the lives of ourselves and others,” he said.
On his website he described the story he wrote into the song about a person who is receiving food stamps who is also “aware of the difference between globalized, factory-farmed foods and local fare which [is] healthier both physiologically and economically.”
The lyrics of the song are written in the same style as a newspaper article in terms of the word choice, style and punctuation. Merrit stated that the use of attributions in the song, like “Johnson said,” gave “some nice newspaper ambience while also stressing that the song is giving voice to someone who normally might not be covered by the media.”
The song debuted during the SpinTunes Listening Party on Tuesday, July 5. It will be available for a free download on www.theoffhandband.com and on the SpinTunes website, www.spintunes.blogspot.com.
Merrit said that the main purpose of The Offhand Band, particularly the first album, “Everyone’s Invited,” is “to create songs that could be enjoyed by all ages, together or on their own, and that would provide a generally positive outlook that would encourage people to make good things happen for themselves and others.”
He noted that not all of his more recent songs were created to serve that original goal.
There are four rounds, each with a new challenge. I’m just now submitting my entry for Round 1. We’ll see what happens.
Though there are judges, there is also a popular vote that can affect who goes onto future rounds, but I’m not going to put in quite as much effort as I did last year in trying to get people to go vote for me. Each song will get its own post just like all the songs here do, and I’ll also mention each new entry through social network status updates, and that’s about it. I hope you’ll check out the entries in each round and vote for the ones you like best — and I hope one of those will be whatever I’ve contributed!
Over a year ago, I learned about a documentary film that was in the works, GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth. The film seeks to help people understand how growth is unsustainable. Since I wrote a masters thesis with the same goal, I was really interested in the project and touched base with producer/director/writer Dave Gardner.
Talking with Dave, I offered to contribute some music to the project. It turned out I wasn’t the only musician who ended up making that suggestion. Dave decided to release a special soundtrack album of music inspired by or inspiring the film, including songs relevant to sustainability, consumption, sufficiency, simplicity, overpopulation or urban growth. The album would celebrate Earth Day while also helping raise funds for the production of the film.
Turns out I didn’t have all that many songs that directly expressed these themes. Some I’d written over the years were somewhat relevant, some less so, and most lacked decent recordings. I found myself without enough time to write new songs or even rerecord. Luckily, the song of mine that fit the best was also the one with the best recording: Aggie and Timmy. The song was very much about “how much was enough,” fitting in nicely with the notions of consumption and sufficiency.
I was actually a little concerned about submitting the song, though. Even with its theme, it wasn’t very directly “ecologically” oriented. It was also “kids music,” and I wasn’t sure how well that would go with what Dave had in mind for the album. Finally, it was one of two songs on Everyone's Invited that had technical problems while recording vocals. I’ve always regretted going ahead with those lower audio quality vocal tracks rather than rerecording them. Now here was a chance to contribute to something, and the one song with the best lyrical fit and a decent enough recording itself was compromised in its sound quality. But Dave liked it and included it along with another song as one of two bonus tracks especially for kids.
So now I’ve got a song on an album along with a bunch of interesting and talented musicians, including the iconic folk singer and activist Pete Seeger. Go figure.
Learn more about the GrowthBusters Earth Day 2011 Soundtrack. Remember that proceeds will help fund the film’s completion, and the album is available only for a limited time and in limited quantities. Buy it at the GrowthBusters Store.
Souvenir download card features original album artwork and includes a code redeemable at www.digstation.com/redeem for a complete album download in MP3 format. Bonus: Includes PDF files of the complete cover art, album artwork and liner notes. Note: Not redeemable in Canada.
Also includes immediate download of 12-track album in your choice of 320k MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire. Keep whatever you like for yourself, or give the Digital Download Card away as a gift!
Small in size and price. Big in musical enjoyment. Hurry, though! This special offer is good only while supplies last, and quantities are limited. Buy Download Cards at Bandcamp!
Souvenir download card features original album artwork and includes a code redeemable at www.digstation.com/redeem for a complete album download in MP3 format. Bonus: Includes PDF files of the complete cover art, album artwork and liner notes. Note: Not redeemable in Canada.
Also includes immediate download of 12-track album in your choice of 320k MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire. Keep the immediate download for yourself, and give the Digital Download Card away as a gift — perfect for the holiday season!
Small in size and price, it’s great as stocking stuffer. Big in musical enjoyment, it’s great as a gift no matter what.
Hurry, though! This special offer is good only through December 31, and quantities are limited. Buy Download Cards at Bandcamp!
Update January 4, 2011: The $1.99 album download offer is over, you can now get 2 downloads of the album for just $4.99, while supplies last! Learn more about this special offer.
Already have the album on CD or MP3? Give away a download as a gift!
Someone else you know who’d be interested? Send them here, too!
Hurry, though! This giveaway is now good only through the end of November, and only for the first 200 people who click through. Once December begins, we’ll have another special album download offer with a big discount from the regular price. But until then, it’s completely free!
Sign up now!
Update December 1, 2010: The free download offer is over, but through year-end you can get album downloads for just $1.99. Learn more about this special offer.
The big musical show they do is called Spontaneous Broadway, a format created in 1995 by Kat Koppett, one of the heads of MopCo, and now actually performed by many groups around the world. It involves audience suggestions leading to the performance of a full-length (45-minute) improvised musical. It’s wild and scary and fun and challenging, like little I’ve ever done.
And MopCo even makes their shows family-friendly 
Though I’ve already done other things during a couple of gigs with them, this coming Friday, November 5, will be my first time doing Spontaneous Broadway in front of an audience. Very exciting.
In addition to learning more about MopCo and all the shows they do through the link above, you can check my own general (i.e., not just OHB) performance calendar to find MopCo performances that will include me. Hope to see you!
You’ll get a complete album download, including commercial quality MP3s plus, unlike most other download retailers, a PDF of the complete album artwork. Already have the album on CD or MP3? Give away a download as a gift!
I’ve given my current email subscribers dibs on this offer through Monday the 18th of October, but I will give away any remaining codes after that date, first come first served, to anyone else who subscribes to our email list using the below form from this post’s publication date forward. Someone else you know who’d be interested? Send them here, too!
If I don’t renew my account with this online retailer by the annual renewal date in early November, the album will disappear from their site and no longer be downloadable. Help me make that okay by helping me use up all the codes first! Act fast, while supplies last! Get your code, then download!
And if no codes are left by the time you subscribe, you’ll still get a special link to download a free song from the album anyway!
Update November 5, 2010: With about half the download codes left as of today, I will be renewing my account but still giving away the download codes until they are gone! The sign-up form remains in place both here and on the home page until then!
Update November 15, 2010: See 200 Free Album Downloads Thru Nov 30! for the updated version of this free download offer!
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