Chapter 4: Sugar Rush - The Expression of the Soul in Song - Part 2
Chico says...
In Jazz we say that improvisation is just spontaneous composition, the fashioning of melodies and rhythmic phrases that come together to create and express stories is a skill that comes with time and patience.
Like anything else, the longer and the more you do a thing the better you become at it. It is this way with all disciplines, and notably in music, repetition is practice and the right practice gives the right results. Practice does not make perfect,"Perfect practice makes Perfect".
After having begun this journey of "words from music" we evolved, we progressed, and the joy afforded of expressing love, pain, understanding and a plethora of other emotions thru music was rewarded with more music and the great pleasure of touching other human beings.
Jan writes ...
Songwriters share the most intimate of moments. Lyrically you have be prepared to lay yourself bare - the writing room can become a confessional and a secret fantasy room. A place where we become what we imagine, where we imagine how other people felt. We experience the emotions of what we write about. We are the alchemists turning thoughts into gold. It is a very powerful experience.
Chico and I wrote using Skype. We were only in the same physical room a few times in New York and Tennessee everything else was done in a virtual space. Both of us producers and programmers we translated our ideas into the computer using Logic audio. We would throw ideas around and then individually hone them via Midi, swap audio files and then mix and bounce the demos.
We experimented with all kinds of music. We flirted with RnB, Gospel, Triphop and Electronica sending tracks out to all and sundry. Wrote the music for Audrey Tautou's film 'All the way to the Top', plus an album for Greek singer Athina. Tried mixing jazz with electronica in the Zolace project, even wrote a couple of country songs . . music is music and that's what was driving us.
Chico says...
In Jazz we say that improvisation is just spontaneous composition, the fashioning of melodies and rhythmic phrases that come together to create and express stories is a skill that comes with time and patience.
Like anything else, the longer and the more you do a thing the better you become at it. It is this way with all disciplines, and notably in music, repetition is practice and the right practice gives the right results. Practice does not make perfect,"Perfect practice makes Perfect".
After having begun this journey of "words from music" we evolved, we progressed, and the joy afforded of expressing love, pain, understanding and a plethora of other emotions thru music was rewarded with more music and the great pleasure of touching other human beings.
Jan writes ...
The creative rush is similar to a lot of other things that give you a high. That intense feeling of satisfaction when everything has slotted into place. The euphoric delight in creating something out of nothing. The capturing of a moment, developing an idea, turning a thought into a tangible reality.
Songwriters share the most intimate of moments. Lyrically you have be prepared to lay yourself bare - the writing room can become a confessional and a secret fantasy room. A place where we become what we imagine, where we imagine how other people felt. We experience the emotions of what we write about. We are the alchemists turning thoughts into gold. It is a very powerful experience.
If you're lucky you find someone that ignites a spark that sets off an explosion of creativity. Cyndi Lauper's voice provided one such spark, Chico's melodies another. You write like you're on a creative honeymoon - there aren't enough hours in the day to get it all done.
Chico and I wrote using Skype. We were only in the same physical room a few times in New York and Tennessee everything else was done in a virtual space. Both of us producers and programmers we translated our ideas into the computer using Logic audio. We would throw ideas around and then individually hone them via Midi, swap audio files and then mix and bounce the demos.
We experimented with all kinds of music. We flirted with RnB, Gospel, Triphop and Electronica sending tracks out to all and sundry. Wrote the music for Audrey Tautou's film 'All the way to the Top', plus an album for Greek singer Athina. Tried mixing jazz with electronica in the Zolace project, even wrote a couple of country songs . . music is music and that's what was driving us.
We just kept writing and writing.
Something I tell aspiring writers is that you have to do it every day to keep the channels open and the energy flowing. Our catalogue kept growing but we could never find the right person to sing the songs. Neither of us had continued or developed our singing voices enough to perform to a good enough standard. We needed a singer that was as good as we were on our respective instruments. Someone who was an equal.
One day we both started thinking about legacy. Here we were with hours and hours of music but none of it available for anyone to hear but ourselves. A cathartic exercise for sure but we started to wonder what would happen to all the hard drives full of unreleased music, the unfinished songs - the culmination of over a decade's worth of work.
Enter Estelle ...
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