Why don't we write more songs together?

I don't have the list in front of me, but it's true, the three bad boys of ballads haven't written too many songs together. Lemme see - there is MYSTERY GIRL -  it's been in our shows for a long time, then there is I CALLED YOU ON THE PHONE - we just started playing this one, and well, that's it. 
Some of you have been teased with the prospect of another named FISHIES, and i have specifically made the offer to the wonderful Macaria (she who first uttered the line - he is still pining for Juliette) that we would sing FISHIES at her wedding. On reviewing the lyrical content of the song, the offer still stands, but at the party afterwards :) And Mac, if you are reading this, we DON'T do sham marriages ok - so no making an alt and getting hitched. That would just be a waste of 25L.
What mostly happens is that we write individually, and some of our most fruitful songwriting comes about in pairs with Experiment being the common link - so Charles and Experiment and Bright and Experiment.
It's not that it's harder to write with all three of us, it's just way harder to organise. The three of us have never lived real close to each other - about the closest we ever got was within 50 miles (80 kms), and currently it is closer to 180 miles (300 kms). 
The internet does allow us to contribute to each others songs by sending tracks back and forth to each other, and lyrical collaboration is quite easy by email, but the simple creative pleasure of sitting down in the same room bouncing songs ideas offa each other is one we rarely get these days. And, it is something i hope we get to do again just so we can see what happens :)


Now to the avid readers of my blog, YES, this entry was just to buy time before i do the first of the entries about how particular songs were written. Soon. Promise :)


Be kind to yourselves.
Bright

cough splutter new song YAY

Cough, splutter, INDEED! 
As most of you know i'm having trouble shaking a cough. Oddly it gives me much more trouble when i'm talking and singing ballads so our shows lately have been primarily made up of more uptempo songs. The cough has also stopped progress on our brand-newest-song-of-all-time because my voice needs to be at its best to handle the chorus! YES :( BUT :) If i can get the link thing working in this blog, you will be able to hear the latest version of it and even compare it to the finished version when we debut it in our show. 
I hope you like it so far. Now it's not for me to tell you what the song is about, but here is a clue - there are patterns in our lives and they are a lot like the seasons, they bring renewal and certainty to things - so we probably shouldn't fight them, or lose heart that they have gone from our lives, and we should probably rely on them more :)
Hugza
Bright
Ok im off to test this thing. YAY it works - just click on the heading of this blog entry :)

RINA WINS BIG - well medium big, in 2nd SONG CONTEST

That's right folks, the sweet and wonderful Rina Miles won the 2nd of our Bedside-Concert-Competitions, and a SOAR concert of her own is her prize!!!! And we are sure looking forward to doing a show for Rina :)
Thank you to everyone who voted and voted and voted - almost 2500 votes were cast. We are just so happy that this idea has been something you guys have found as much fun as we have. THANK YOU!!
We have the 3rd and final competition starting in the next day or so so keep an eye out for that. AND, we are adding a 2000L cash prize to the SOAR concert, for the winner.
The top 8 songs in the 2nd competition were -


The Only One
Now and Forever
Song for a Broken Soul
Brindabella
Only For You
Kansas Skies
Mary
The Sound of Hello


Our special thanks and acknowledgement to our real life buddy Charles Watson who wrote THE ONLY ONE, and to young Chance, whose wonderful words are at the heart of SONG FOR A BROKEN SOUL.


Hugza 
Bright

SOAR BEDSIDE CONCERT COMPETITION number 2

Yups it's up and running! A whole new batch of 24 SOAR songs for you to vote from. Same rules. Same prizes as the first. And the same fun we hope :)
Remember that the vote board is at a new location so it will take a little bit more finding. Next time i'm inlife i will put a link in my profile PICS. Otherwise just watch out for SOAR Pandemonium notices, ask one of the bad-boys-of-ballads, or Mari and Rebs, or anyone of them smart looking SOARINGS :)
Experiment has all 24 songs loaded for playing from our website if you would like to refresh your memory of any of the songs.
Thanks for playing along with us with these competitions.
Good luck.
Bright :)

We have a WINNER for SONG CONTEST 1

And that winner be our wonderful friend Ssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh Tigerpaw. WHEEEEEEE!
We are looking forward to doing a show for Shhhhhhh real soon. But just a note here Shhhhh - i don't do dress-up :)
The top 8 songs in the competition were -
CALLING IN YOUR DREAMS
ACROSS A STAR FILLED SKY
THE STORM
LIVING ON THE MOON
RAINBOWS
AND THE SUN WILL SHINE
SPARROW IN THE WILLOW
AND, HEART OF THE CRIME


Thank you to everyone who voted.
Hugza
Bright

The Colour Factory 2

POOF, POOF, POOF - comings and goings

It is one of the ways of SecondLife for things to come and things to go - people and places, amazing people and amazing places even. And amazingly even inventory items and Lindens follow this tradition - although with inventory items and Lindens, these never return.

The owner of the sims on which the Colour Factory lived had been in dispute with LL for some time and i have known that this could happen - and it did - the Colour Factory went POOF, not once, not twice, but three glorious times. This gave all of us the chance to reclaim everything we needed so nothing has been lost that we know of.

Scarletti and I began talking about what we would do if this happened awhile back and we decided then to build a new Colour Factory rather than simply rebuild the original, colour by colour. And i for one cant wait to see what wonders Scarletti comes up with this time.

The wonderful Cari put aside land for me to rent for this, and so we have only the fiddly bits to work out before we begin anew. Thank you Cari - hugs.

I loved the Colour Factory, what it meant to conceive and then build, and then to see the part it was slowly making for itself in the life of SOAR. And more than this it was the major gallery of Scarletti’s wonderful art, and finally, 24/7, one piece of the amazing place that is SecondLife. 

I embrace the way SecondLife makes me evolve and find new ways to express beauty and creativity, and i never want to become complacent and think that the places and people i love will always be there, frozen, just the way i want them to be.

I am looking forward to the Colour Factory 2 and i hope you are too :)

Blog problems?

Hi folks :) A couple of people have mentioned problems adding comments to my blog entries. There shouldn’t be, but is. The common problem may be EXPLORER so perhaps if you are using that but you also have FIREFOX or sumfin you could try that.

If you have time let me know if you have this problem because i will move the blog if necessary.

This blog is designed on a Mac so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that it doesn’t work properly on EXPLORER. Anyone would think Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had history! Ahhh, look, they were so much younger then.

If you haven’t seen it a movie named PIRATES OF SILICON VALLEY will explain it all :)

Thanks for your comments and your perseverance sweet peoples.

Bright

UPDATE

Yups i moved it

9,402 songs in itunes - or sumfin like that

Some folks ask me why they don’t see me at other SL venues much, listening to other musos. And that’s been true pretty much. My itunes programme asks me the same question - what’s the point of having 9,402 songs if i never play them. My itune programme exaggerates, just like i do - funny that huh, but there is something going on here.

I just love music and as time goes by my interest in it gets broader and broader. Now there are only a handful of genres that i struggle to appreciate. And i am staggered by the wonders that songwriters, performers and producers produce. Truly it is one of the bestest reasons to be alive.

Take a song, any song that fills your soul every time you hear it, and remember that moment when you heard it for the first time - irreplaceable wonders. Bright thinks - i’m thinking of the KD Lang version of Jane Siberry’s song ‘Love Is Everything’. What a joy.

But, when i’m in a period of writing a lot of my own songs, i just can’t listen to anything else. It is as if i go through a time of listening and listening and absorbing and absorbing and then close all that down and focus on letting music flow out of me rather than into me. I don’t know whether this makes me normal or way out there on my own, its just the way i am.

There is another thread or two to this though, erm, if you are interested :)

First one. Every now and then i threaten to do some covers shows and sing all the songs i love so much. But same thing pretty much - i can’t comfortably do both, covers and originals.

Second one. Some days i REALLY miss some singer in particular. For example, lets just say i feel the need to be immersed in Jeff Buckleys fantastic album, Grace, well i think, nopes i can’t risk it, it will overwhelm me and everything that i think wonderful music should be and i will find it harder to pick up my guitar, strum a chord and open my mouth.

Third one. Even in SL there are singers that amaze. I admire them. And you know what - there must be a part of me that wishes i was them, or at least as good as them, or sumfin, and then once again i am afraid that next time i pick up my guitar, and strum a chord, and open my mouth, that nothing will come out!

When Experiment and Charles and i got together and decided to play only our original songs in SL we really had no idea how it would go or how long we would do it. It was a fun and short term commitment at the time. Not many people know this, and a few more will now :) but i loath my guitar playing and frankly i wouldn’t listen to myself sing, EVER! But for the purposes of SOAR i told the guys that i would suck up those feelings pretty much and listen to what other people say for a change, and then sing like there is no tomorrow. Oh dear, exaggeration slipped in again :)

But you know what - there is still a part of me that must be afraid. Or sumfin :)

Halloween Show - AWESOME DUDE

Erm, i wonder if anyone still actually speaks like that - but it was still an AWESOME SHOW, dude :)

Thank you everyone for packing out our special halloween location for our 90 minute show - made even more famous because i really didn’t talk that much :)  Oh, and, for the debut of two new songs, albeit from the SOAR vault, I CALLED YOU ON THE PHONE sung by Chuck, and me doing PALE BLUE PERSUASION. Reminds me to to do a bbbbbbblog entry one day on the SOAR VAULT. Will someone please remind me if it looks like i have forgotten.

Thank you for dressing up and taking the time to explore the wonderful setting made for the show by Mari and RebelMum. They excelled themselves again after their previous ‘awesome dude’ creations for the WATTLE SHOW and the BEACH PARTY. All i can say to you girls is, erm, well, i guess you saw this coming, only AWESOME, dudes, covers it!!!!

OK, now dont forget to wander back to the venue anytime during the next two weeks to vote in the song competition - ten votes a day everyday remember, and in 2 weeks time a SOAR SHOW may be all yours! WHEEEEEE. Well i think its WHEEEEEEE cos it will be great to do a special show just for you and/or anyone else you want to invite along.

I think i’m done except to say thank you to Charles and Experiment for always looking scary, and to you sweet peoples for your endearing and enduring friendship, BIG HUGS from Bbbbbbright.

SOAR bedside concert competition

Beginning at our Halloween concert on the ground at The Colour Factory on Friday we are running a free competition with the prize being your very own SOAR CONCERT! I have long threatened to do bedside concerts, erm, you know, for SOARINGS with colds and stuff, but anyways, Mari and RebelMum assure me that the winner is chosen completely randomly and that anyone could win - even Aeon, or Timo, or Moon, or Stephen, or Tim. Well this caused me a major rethink and now the competition prize is just a SOAR CONCERT FOR YOU, anywhere you choose!

Here’s how to enter. At the Halloween venue there will be a display of 24 SOAR SONG COVERS. You can vote for your favourite SOAR songs by just clicking on their covers. You can vote up to ten times a day, every day for the 2 weeks the competition runs. Once you vote you are in the draw for the free concert. YAY, SIMPLE aint it :)

We will try to play all of the 24 songs during our shows during the fortnight if you arent familiar with them all. The songs were just chosen randomly and we want to run the competition a few more times, with different songs if it is a success. AND, all 24 songs can be played on our media player for these two weeks.

Any questions just ask one of the SOAR boys or Mari or RebelMum. And thankyou RebelMum for working so hard on it for us :)

And finally, in the tradition of one of Australia’s major political parties, VOTE EARLY AND VOTE OFTEN.

 

A SOARING IS.....

Well a SOARING just happens to be a very special person, albeit one with a spare GROUP slot in SecondLife :)

And we love you all for all the reasons you give us to write songs and sing them for you at our concerts. HUGZA.

A long time ago, February/March 2009, Experiment, Mariposa and Bright had written a song as a tribute song for the victims and survivors of the Australian Bushfires in February and it was played at a SL tribute/benefit concert. At that concert Charles also did an hours cover set. And well it got us thinking.

Once we had decided to play our songs in SecondLife we needed a name. I don’t remember how long we spent trying to find or agree upon one, but well, we didn’t know whether we would only ever play once in SL or a hundred times so i’m not sure we would have bothered too much. We were smart enough to ditch our old  real life personas though and look for something new. 

Eventually we must have tired of the search for a single glorious name for our little band and went for, well you know, Somerset, Oh and Rhode. AWESOME DUDES! Well it would do for one show wouldn’t it! Then one day when we were sitting around trying to come up with a GROUP name, what had started out as SO&R morphed into SOAR, and so SOAR was born. And from SOAR came The SOAR Pandemonium, and from the SOAR Pandemonium came SOARINGS, and from SOARINGS, our wonderful fans, came so many splendours of love and friendship and good times and funny times and loads of opportunities to get together, that we are all incredibly touched by and grateful for :)

Thanks you guys. You SOARINGS :)