Broken Glass

A few years ago, a Scandanavian composer approached me, after reviewing my website, to write English lyrics for a project. He gave me a couple of tracks to work on. The music was catchy but the rhythms were unusual.

I wrote lyrics, but for one reason or another they were too dark (or weren't dark enough) or too strange (or not strange enough) so I wrote new lyrics. Another consultation with his partner and he wanted something different, so I wrote new lyrics again. I wrote, I think, four versions of one track, three versions of another and a few other stray lyrics. Eventually, he and his partner (for reasons unrelated to the lyrics, gave up and couldn't get their project together, and the whole thing fizzled.

Which left me with a handful of lyrics, all in the same exact structure, with no home. C'est la vie. (This happened with a different composer on a lyric called "Falling Angels," which I wrote to match a track -- that lyric was picked up last year by a new composer and has been totally reset. So there's hope).

Goodnight Kiss Music, headed by the fabulous and supportive Janet Fisher, was having their annual song competition, and they had a little prize for lyrics as well, so I entered a few of mine, and "Broken Glass," one of the many rewrites I did for the Scandanavian composer, came in second. It's not on my website proper, and some folks wanted to read it, so here it is. Remember it was written to a specific piece of music and would have to be tweaked (at least) to fit a different one.



BROKEN GLASS
Lyric copyright 2009 Z. Mulls

The looking glass
Stared back and fell to the floor
And you were
Reflected in
Each shard, madonna and whore

Colors always the same
Amber and green and clear
If you remember my name
I'm your volunteer

I will come a-running

And I'm gonna crawl to you
Over BROKEN GLASS
Gonna dig a tunnel through
All this BROKEN GLASS
You're a prisoner of jagged pieces of truth
Hypnotized by your perception of what's absolute
I'll be with you after clearing a path
Through the BROKEN GLASS

Your murky eyes
Are mining your memories
Every night
You're pirouetting
On your silent trapeze

And when the lantern explodes
Shattering more than light
I'll be writing you odes
We can both recite

I can't keep my distance

And I'm gonna crawl to you
Over BROKEN GLASS
Gonna dig a tunnel through
All this BROKEN GLASS
You're a prisoner of jagged pieces of truth
Hypnotized by your perception of what's absolute
I'll be with you after clearing a path
Through the BROKEN GLASS


The blood won't stop flowing
The heart won't stop knowing
The blood won't stop flowing
The heart won't stop knowing


And I'm gonna crawl to you
Over BROKEN GLASS
Gonna dig a tunnel through
All this BROKEN GLASS
You're a prisoner of jagged pieces of truth
Hypnotized by your perception of what's absolute
I'll be with you after clearing a path
Through the BROKEN GLASS

Different Strokes

There are ample opportunities to enter songs in competitions and/or get evaluations of them. But everyone is looking for different things. While songwriting competitions want to focus on a "great song," there is some discrepancy in what that means from judge to judge. There is almost always an unspoken and unacknowledged bias towards what the judge would find commercial. Everyone tries to avoid this, but evaluations almost always come with some judgement on whether someone would buy the song or not.

And that's probably fair Most of the people who enter competitions are in some measure looking for "success." Many are hobbyists, amateurs, but they are hobbyists with a dream.

But it's still interesting to see what comments come back, from those competitions that offer evaluations. There are two sets of comments, from two different contests, on the same unusual song.

"Vancouver" is not a commercial song, at least it wasn't meant to be. It was an interesting, circuitous series of thoughts and images, an exercise in collage writing, creating an emotional world without spelling out or definitively stating What It Was About. I enjoyed writing the lyric, and "Wolf" gave it an indie setting.

One judge wrote the following:

I like that you tried to use major and minor chords in mix during your verse -- but the changes don't really reflect your lyric.
Some parts really likeable, other parts contain changes of melody and support chords that could be stronger. Some of the changes stop the flow of the song and interfere with our getting in a consistent "groove." Again, as with the melody, you start us in one direction, but expect us to jump to too many things, thereby losing the flow of the story and emotion. Some of your lyrics are wonderful pictures and feelings; some are more forced and need work. The last line of V-1 is an example of this (the secrets really don't have to do with any of the preceeding verses). There are too many mixes of pronouns and images with no base for them locked. You sometimes use "you" for a visitor to Vancouver, then other times, it seems you are using "you" to mean Vancouver. More clarity is needed here.


In another contest, this is what we got:

Extremely cool changes … don’t know why, but we heard this in a 20-
something soundtrack. Very REM-like, but updated and less obtuse, if you know what we
mean. EXCELLENT bridge. Commercial as heck, hope you’re pitching it. Good job!!

(Along with many "8" (out of 10) scores for various questions)

See what you think

The SongDoor is Closed

Another contest heard from.

Songdoor.com has posted Finalists and while I didn’t make the top five in any category, I did rate three Honorable Mentions.

In Pop, Jordan Peterson and I were recognized for “Atlantic City”

In Alt, Jim Chapman and I got noted for “Alice’s Locket” (which really pleases me as it was the first song I collaborated on at the Muses’ Muse)

And in Singer/Songwriter, Ian Ferrin and I were tapped for “Vespers”

I was told that “Vespers” came within a whisker of making the finals, but the judging was blind and we just missed.

Congratulations are due, I think, to Anthony Snape, who has a number of songs in the Finals and more as Honorable Mentions. I sent him a note on MySpace and good luck to him when they announce the winners later this month.

Thoughts on Competitions

There’s a lot of discussion about contests and competitions, whether they’re legitimate, whether they’re worth it, etc. Obviously I’m a little biased having won one of the biggest ones.

There’s no doubt that some contests are money-makers. All contests charge a fee for entry, which can be as high as $35/song (and as low as $10). That adds up when you have a lot of entries in a lot of contests. Adds up fast.

And many prizes are usually donations or promotions from music-related businesses. In some cases they’re giving away trial memberships in online services, which is SOP for a business trying to attract new subscribers.

But there are tons of legitimate expenses in running a competition, not the least of which is that they have to pay judges, and if they want good ones (known and respected in the music industry) they probably pay well. And while some contests are simply money-makers, several of them (especially the largest and most prestigious ones) are really about promoting songwriting and giving people a chance to show their best stuff.

Winning a contest does not make you the best, but it does give you a little stamp of approval. It’s a gold star. It gives you a chance to talk to people you wouldn’t ordinarily speak to. You might get someone’s attention for five minutes that wouldn’t have given you the time of day before. It gives you a shot of confidence; like that morning cup of coffee, it may eventually wear off but you have all sort of energy while under the influence.

I decided this year would be the “competition” year – lots of songs, lots of contests, lots of prizes. I have the ISC (and GASC) win under my belt, so I don’t need to prove that I can win the top prize. My goals are to get at least honorable mention, finalist, or similar mention in a few contests, and in a few categories. I am trying to show my range of styles, my ability to collaborate with several people and depth of talent. And I want to get my work in front of a lot of peole.

Goodnight Kiss Music was running a special contest to find material for a singer they’re promoting. The main prize was to get a song cut, so I entered a couple of songs and a few lyrics. One of the songs got an “exceptional merit” mention and two of the lyrics came in second and third. And I got a nice, private note from one of the judges with some very complimentary comments.

So, mission accomplished. So far.

Back, Pats On The

In a recent competition I entered, I spent a little more to get some written feedback on the two entries.    While these are finished songs and I don't expect to go back to them, I like to see how a professional ear receives them.   

I got the following comments on the lyrics:

"Vigil":    Your lyrics have a somewhat cloudy meaning but drew me in like a vortex.  I sense you mourning the emotional loss of your lover who is so consumed by hr own grievous loss that she has deteriorated into a lifeless shell of a person....This is a tragic and emotionally gripping song.

"El Dorado":  Your lyrics are magnificently visual.   You intertwine visions of "the golden one" and the rituals surrounding his rise as king with visions of pawning for money....Your lyrics are amazingly creative but hard to understand.   The title is awesome!...

It's hard submitting songs for competitions which have "thoughtful" lyrics -- denser images that take a little unravelling.   The kinds of songs that reward a few listens.   Still, strong imagery in both cases.

Finalist in SOTY

Song of the Year has just posted its June 2008 contest results.

"Punch My Ticket" was named a Finalist for Rock. This means it wasn't the Winner, but was one of the top five entries. And since they don't list the writers or titles in alphabetical order, it looks like we came in third.

(They didn't list Ray Sharp as the co-writer, and I've e-mailed them to add his name. His name *was* on the entry, but they only listed the submitting writer)

I had one other song in the competition -- it's possible it's a runner-up but I won't know that until sometime next week.

Competing

This year I plan to enter many competitions. I don't expect to do this every year, but after winning the ISC and GASC, I want to show off several of my other songs and see if I can get some honorable mentions in different genres next year.

The first competition I am entering is the Indie International competition, an all-green comp (all entries are online only). For this competition I will enter "The Emperor" (Pop), "Yellow Mailbox" (Acoustic) and "Vancouver" (Rock).

This competition requires a separate profile page for each collaboration that enters, so I am building those. The "Vancouver" page, with bio information and me and "Wolf" of Wolf Music is here.