S.A.C. Challenge – Week 6 – Finish song pitch issued by Matt
Dusk
Comments below on the two songs I am pitching to Matt Dusk.
Song #1 is Hockey Eyes
Song #2 is Fantasy Land
Written by Shira Katz, March 22, 2015
1.
Your Name: Shira Katz
2.
What was the hardest challenge or hardest part of the
challenge for you and why?
Being given only one week to
complete each song. Collaborating with people, not knowing if they will have
time to complete the collaboration on time forced me to always have a backup
song just in case.
3. What did you enjoy most about participating in this experience?
Learning
my strengths and weaknesses, getting tips and support from mentors James
Linderman and Debra Alexander, meeting other songwriters online and having new
opportunities to meet with them.
4. What is something significant that you learned from taking on this challenge? (It can be about yourself or about the challenge)
I
learned about the importance of rhythm and how to incorporate that into
keyboard compositions. I learned about the importance of a clear musical
structure and using other songs as blueprints/guides to help make it happen. I
learned that having a clear musical structure is also helpful for communicating
with other vocalists and musicians, including information about tempo, and
giving clarity on where the song changes (e.g. 8 bars intro, 8 bars part A, 8
bars part B, 16 bars chorus, etc.). I learned about how knowledge of
engineering software is a huge asset. I learned about how people who use a
professional engineer can take a song and blow it off the rooftops! I learned
about how to make music in different genres such as country music. I learned
about some new artists out there. I learned about the importance of researching
music. The list goes on. I am so happy. I feel that I have grown as a musician
and songwriter. Thank you so much to James Linderman, Debra Alexander, Lily
Cheng, SAC, all the people who gave us opportunities to pitch our songs. I have
gained experience, and know a lot more about the ins and outs of songwriting
and pitching, and where I need to improve, to learn more for next year!
5. Would you do this type of challenge again? Why or why not?
I
would love to do the challenge again!
6. Your link to your Matt
Dusk submission. Please include lyrics on your SoundCloud page. If
one of your collaborating partners is submitting the link to your song, you can
refer to their posting (ie. See link from ____________).
Comments below on the two songs I am pitching to Matt Dusk.
Song #1 is Hockey Eyes
Song #2 is Fantasy Land
Written by Shira Katz
To create the Matt Dusk song (see details below), I started
in week #1 with some potential collaborations, but with time I ended up working
mostly on my own for the final song. The first collaboration was a fun
discussion with Roger Beckett about researching Matt Dusk, and we collectively
came up with a song idea, but decided to put it on the shelf, due to Roger’s
excessive time commitments. I am very grateful for the helpful chat!
Then I wrote another
song, sent it to collaborator #2, but it didn’t work out. As the weeks went by,
we arrived at week #6. I came up with a hook and sent it to potential
collaborator #3, who had no time and decided to drop out of the competition.
I hadn’t developed the lyrics for the songs, just some
keyboard compositions with keywords and potential hooks slipped in there.
Then, I came up with a whole new concept, on my own. I was
thinking about Matt Dusk and Christmas, and how would I come up with something
original, a song title that could draw up some interesting imagery instead of
one that focuses only on fashion and clothing (as per some of the initial ideas).
Then it clicked in my mind, to use the word “Hockey” because
that is a popular topic among males, but also can be used for an analogy to
sexy-sounding words, creating a scenario of the hockey man dreaming of getting
the applause and attention of a woman. I was able to have fun when using hockey
words to make ideas about a man chasing after a woman as skilfully as someone
that trains in hockey, so I came up with the concept of “Hockey Eyes”.
For the melody, I used keyboard instrumentation, and used
the song “The Big Bang” by Rock Mafia as a blueprint for the structure of the
song. I also kept the keys going from E2 to E4, to fit within the voice range
of Matt Dusk. So I made a song in E minor, using a few intervals that sound
similar to the Big Bang song, but totally different and unique.
However, in hindsight, after working with a vocalist on
another challenge, I started to rethink about the song I created…would it work
with Matt’s voice? I sang it myself using my higher-tone raspy (due to
laryngitis) voice. If his voice is in E2 to E4 range, then shouldn’t the
keyboardist create a song outside of that range for the harmony, to make a
better sense of counterpoint? So there is potential to redo the song harmonies
in the lower bass, or in the higher octave voices.
The rhyming dictionary helped me to rewrite the song a few
times, and I came up with words such as “desire, transpire, eyes, qualified,
occupy, giant, tries, sidelined, inside” to match the sound of the “i” in
“ice.” For the word “skate”, I was able to insert words such as “train”,
“waiting” and for “hockey” I found the matching word “applause” to get that “o”
sound.
I found another potential collaborator, Michael Paul Vella,
to make a backbeat of the song, based on my original melody. He sent me a
really amazing sound clip, a short sound clip. It sounded great, but I needed a
complete song to match the lyrics. I learned from that to be even more clear in
my communication in the future. I did not want to loop the entire backbeat to
be repeated for the entire song. I felt it would work better if I gave him a
framework, so I did that…I sent him an email, with details on creating the
backbeat, e.g. 8 bars of Intro, x amount of bars for Part A, x amount of bars
with changes in bars 5-6 for part B, x amount of bars for chorus, repeat Part
A, etc. But due to the time limitations, I decided to use the backbeat for the
pop song competition instead, since he said I could use it for any song.
Providing this type of information is so helpful. I learned
that from my week #2 collaboration with Gordon Gow, who provided amazingly
helpful information for me as a vocalist regarding the structure of his
backbeats. It’s helpful for myself when I analyze any song structure that I am
using as a blueprint, to create the structure. It’s helpful when providing
information about the song to anyone working on it too, including vocalists and
other co-instrumentalists.
The laryngitis gave me an opportunity to work with other
vocalists. I learned from people such as David Keeble how the structure needs
to be crystal clear, otherwise it may be too difficult for vocalists and other
instrumentalists to work on a song.
My voice is getting better, so I recorded the Hockey Eyes
song a second time. I have another potential collaborator that may help do a
different version of it, depending on time commitments.
I also went on to compose another song, called Fantasy Land.
This is the type of song that I have been waiting to write, from the very
beginning of the competition. It’s a song about wanting a better world. I used
James Linderman’s advice on rhythms to come up with some original riffs. It’s
all about the rhythm. I tried to get a slow groove as in Daft Punk’s music and
Rock Mafia’s “The Big Bang”. Using my knowledge of melody and harmony, and my
experience from working with a vocalist, Laura Burns, on my Christmas song, I
made one track that would represent the low baritone voice of Matt Dusk. Then,
I added some harmony chords, on another track. For the third track, I used the same
rhythm and sound with strings. I mixed the instruments and added my vocals. I
wrote a few songs, but the sound of forest and fantasy went well with the
rhythm, so I created new lyrics based on those ideas, throwing in some lines
about being a sharp well-dressed man, of course as that represents the style of
Matt Dusk. I hope he likes the song! Thank you Matt Dusk!
Lyrics below for Hockey Eyes, and Lyrics below for Fantasy
Land
Hockey Eyes © Music and Lyrics by Shira Katz March 21, 2015
You are qualified
You can occupy her eye
Skate faster you can catch
her
Wait, train your hockey eyes
You’ve multiplied your ties
Don’t let the time slide by
Skate faster you can catch
her
Wait, train your hockey eyes
Chorus:
Hockey a a a a eyes
Hockey a a a a eyes
a a a a eyes (3 x)
You are qualified
Hold your stick on solid ice
Bold, she’ll love your giant
tries
Skate, train your hockey eyes
Stay, if you get sidelined
Quick, pick up your stick the
puck is waiting inside
She’ll desire what transpires
Just train your hockey eyes
Chorus:
Hockey a a a a eyes
Hockey a a a a eyes
a a a a eyes (3 x)
You are focused on the prize
Sharpened skates on solid ice
Pushing goals for her
applause
You’ve trained your hockey
eyes
Chorus:
Hockey a a a a eyes
Hockey a a a a eyes
a a a a eyes (3 x)
Hockey a a a a eyes (3 x)
Fantasy Land © Music and Lyrics by Shira Katz, March 24, 1015
Oh what a lovely planet we
could have
Oh wa ah wa ah wo
I’ll just carry your hand
What
a lovely planet we could have
Let’s all hold hands
Meet me on the corner
We’ll go to the movies hold
my hand
And we’ll go to fantasy land
That’s the way I like it,
I like it in my fantasy land
Every man gets whatever he
can
In fantasy land come take my
hand
Take you wherever you want to
go
Fantasy land
Everybody looks sharp
Like the sharpest look of a
man
Even with their ghosts,
Goblins and creatures
I wish I could take you to
the forest
Fantasy land
Where there’s no more illness
or suffering
Take my hand
I’ll take you to the best
Best movies
It’s Fantasy land 1,2,3, I’ll
take your hand
Oh the joy of fantasy land
Listen to the sounds
Of fantasy land
It’s good when I take your
hand
Come to the movies
Enchanted forest
We’ll smother our eyes
With candy canes and cotton
candy eyes
Of beautiful creatures that
live together in peace
Peace and harmony
In fantasy land la ah ha ah
hand
And Love makes peace on all
the planet
If I could make my real life
like fantasy land
Come take my hand
We’ll make fantasyland
The challenge was to write a song for Matt Dusk where
he can change his style of crooner into something more contemporary, such as
the following:
The Big Bang by Rock Mafia
Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People
Get Lucky by Daft Punk (“that cool groove really works for
me”)
Matt Dusk also suggested that the song can be played down
tempo, such as:
All of Me by John Legend
Lana Del Rey’s music
