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.
They played Getting Somewhere on July 11 and The Animal School on July 18.
Like every crawl or step or new word spoken by a baby, every bit of this kind of thing out there is a big deal for this still very new album and band. So hurray 
I knew before the 2nd that that’s when it would air on CHLY, but there had been some technical difficulties with the MP3 on Brent & Woofy’s website, so I didn’t post anything. I realize now I should have, just in case anyone near CHLY might have come across our own site here and wanted to listen to the interview on the radio! Apologies to anyone who fits that description.
Things have been sorted out as of just today, though, so you can now listen to the entire interview on MP3. The file will stay up for another several weeks, probably until early October, after which you can visit the Radio Show’s main page for information on how to contact Brent to download the episode.
Check it out!
“… a distinctly different sound from the standard kid fare.”
“… brilliantly written lyrics…”
“… an eclectic sampling of funky, kid-friendly and parent-approved music that will have your little one jumpin’ and jivin’.”
“If you can stop rockin’ long enough to digest the lyrics, you just might wonder if Mark isn’t perhaps the most astute parent to have ever composed children’s music; he really has a knack for capturing the mentality of a kid.”
“… I can totally envision The Offhand Band becoming a popular household name.”
“… these songs just have a way of getting stuck in your head.”
Read the complete review at http://www.rootandsprout.com/archives/926.
Recent Comments