NEWSLETTER 10

21 DECEMBER, 2004

A merry Christmas to all subscribers and others who visit my site from time to time.

There have been some additions to the site as a result of recording sessions in October and December. I have now completed the following songs for the upcoming CD:

Midlife Crisis

The Fall

Unvictorian Victoria

Six O'Clock Swill

Time to Train the Horses

Frankenstein's Bride

Light the Flame

Fetish

Two other songs, Harlequin and Best Man have the backing tracks recorded just waiting for me to complete the lyrics.

I have also recorded two songs which may or may not form part of the CD: Get it Right This Time and Hardie's Men. I'm happy with both songs (particularly Hardie's Men, to which I will refer later in the newsletter) but am concerned that they are both a little country in feel. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just that their inclusion might leave the CD as a collection of songs covering a variety of genres rather than as an album in its own right. I am thinking of putting them on a separate 'EP CD' with another song that is 90% written called 'Scratching at Scars' which also has a country rock type feel.

So now to the new stuff:

Light the Flame is an attempt at some sleazy funk. I wrote it about 10 years ago but never did anything with it. During a well earned vacation in September, I fiddled about with it, adding some vibe-type backing and a percussive organ over the chorus. Stewart Havill did some great work with this song and I am really very pleased with the result. To have a listen to the samples, click here and here. A full version of this song (and indeed all of my completed originals, including the kids' songs) can be heard and/or downloaded at mp3.com.au/selftort.

Frankenstein's Bride is another song that has been sitting in my cupboard for years. It's blatant 'pop' but has a good rock beat. Nothing too esoteric, but I'm proud to have finally completed a pop tune which does not exceed 3.5 minutes. Again, the sample can be found if you click here and here. The full version can be found at mp3.com.au/selftort.

'Fetish' was a song which arose from an attempt at self-discipline on my part. I remember that I once bought a book which provided hints on songwriting, and one of the hints was, if you were going through a period of 'writer's block',  to pick a word at random and write a song about it. Freud might wonder why I chose the word 'Fetish' for this exercise, others might not. Initially I wrote the lyrics trying to emulate the sinister and dark atmosphere of Sting's lyrics in 'Every Step You Take', and when writing the music tried to make it very rocky. In the end, I'm not sure whether it is 'rock' or 'pop' or some bastard hybrid. Indeed, during the mixing Stewart did ask whether I wanted it to be 'rock' or 'pop' and I couldn't answer him. Click here to have a listen.

'Hardie's Men' is a song that I am really proud of from a songwriting perspective. During the pre Federal election period I was listening to a lot of ABC radio waiting, in vain as it turned out, for news of some stuff up which would see us rid of this horrible Howard Government. As a result I heard a lot of reports about the Jackson Inquiry into James Hardie's relocation to The Netherlands and became interested in the plight of the asbestos victims. At that time I fiddled around with some lyrics and chords and came up with a chorus, but had difficulty taking it any further. It was, as is often the case, put aside to work on later.

I had done nothing further with it for some months until a week or so ago I noticed the Good Weekend section of the Saturday Herald lying open on the lounge room floor. I normally abhor the Good Weekend (not as much as that piece of shit that accompanies some Wednesday's copies of the Herald, but abhor it nonetheless) and the fact that the magazine lay open at a picture of Meredith Hellicar (the chairman of Hardies) ought to have inspired me to either ignore it or wreak havoc upon it.

Meredith and I were, I'm led to believe, in the same year at Law School. I have no recollection of her, and assume that, to our mutual benefits, we moved in different circles. However, I recall that at a 25th year reunion she was, as one of the supposedly more successful members of our year, asked to speak. This recollection may be wrong because it must be admitted that, in social terms, my performance at this function was not overly decorous, and I recall having fears on awaking the next morning, covered in blood, that I may have been a suspect in the murder of a cab driver at Riverwood in the early hours of the morning, but that's another story.

But I digress. For reasons that I am unable to justify I picked up the article and read it from start to finish. It was very enlightening. Until I had read it I had considered that Bernie Banton and the other Hardie's employees were the victims and had not fully comprehended the privations that Meredith, who it turns out is the real victim, had endured throughout her life. And do you know what, it appears that Meredith can also swear like a trooper so she must be a decent stick.

The upside of this pathetic article was that it got me sufficiently angry to get off my bum and complete the song so that I could record it the following week when I was due back in Stewart's studio. That's not quite right, there was quite a bit of scibbling of the final version of the lyrics on scrumpled up paper when it came time for the vocals to be put down.

The song is something of a departure having a more country rock feel than other stuff that I have written. Nonetheless, I am really pleased with it as a package and I am hoping that it might go well in a live context.

My dreams that it might have been adopted by the Asbestos Diseases Foundation as an anthem in their fight for justice from Hardies have been somewhat dashed by the fact that within a week of my recording the song the Union and Hardies have reached a settlement in terms of compensation, making the need for anthems relatively redundant. I'm thinking of writing songs about Iraq, Israel and Palestine in the next few weeks to clear up the rest of the world's ills.

Nonetheless, if you don't listen to any other sample linked in this newsletter I'd love you to listen to this one and then go to mp3.com.au/selftort to hear the whole thing. As I said above, it is a song about which I am proud. Click here for the sample and here, here, here (actually because I've stuffed up the order of the samples click the next 'here' and come back to this one, if you want them in the correct order) and here for some other samples

I will be back in the studio in February when, hopefully recording will be completed leaving only the mastering, artwork and the replication to be undertaken. I am hoping for a CD launch in April-June. Tentatively I am thinking about Rosie's Bar where I had my 50th birthday - those that don't like the music can talk in  the outdoor section or play pool. I will supply details to subscribers when they have crystallised further.

I've played my last gig for the year and have vowed never to perform again on New Years Eve. I will next be performing live at Mortdale Hotel on 7 January, 2005. For those who haven't been to the Mortie in the past, or haven't been there for a while, come on down for some post New Years Eve Recovery.

Thank you all for staying with the site, despite the lack of regularity with the newsletter and the prolixity that occurs when I do get around to writing one.

If you have some time, call into mp3.com.au/selftort and have a listen to the full versions of my material. Tell your friends to have a visit to that site as well. The more clicks I get on that site the better the chance that others might drop in to listen. They have a 'chart' system based on the number of clicks, and those that get more heavy traffic get more exposure, leading to more traffic. It's a bit like Australian Idol sending excess copies of Casey Donovan's CD to retailers to improve her position on the charts. Payola lives.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a musical new year. Hope to see you at the Mortie in 2005.

Regards

Brian Ralston

aka Self ToRT