Don't Look Back In Anger

If you recall from my last post (and I take my hat off to you if you have been hanging on for the next instalment, or should that be apologies due to the inordinate amount of time between this post and the last one), I had great expectations that with the publicity, the most popular Elvis Tribute Artist in Australia performing on the song with thousands of Facebook friends, the appearance at the Parkes Elvis Festival plus the global release, we should have gone gang busters and sold loads of copies.

I thought I had all the angles covered, articles online, articles in traditional media, I even had T-Shirts printed for the festival to give away. They played the song on the main stage at Cooke Park at the Parkes Elvis festival, I got asked up on the stage and interviewed by the compere Elvis Presley. I explained how the song would only be available on digital download because that was the new medium. He said all the Elvis Tribute Artists would be beating down a path to my door so they could perform it.

I had aspirations of offering the song to all the Elvis Tribute Artsit Competitions throughout the planet so they would play the opening bars each time the next competitor came on and did their set. You can visualize it now. The opening riff and then 'Here comes the new Elvis Presley......'

Hello Guy, wake up, wake up, your dreaming............

....and so it came to pass, that I was dreaming. I had got it all wrong, I had misjudged the demographic. I should have realised on that blistering hot weekend in Parkes, a town that is 365KM west of Sydney, that the Elvis Community had been brought up on a diet of 45RPM singles, 33RPM albums and more recently CDs. If I had come armed with a load of CDs then I am sure that I could have made some sales.

The fact that Mark Andrew was unavailable also conspired against me. As Piers from the ElvisInfoNetwork had said to me, lots of artists have written songs about Elvis, but I thought mine had a different angle and would be popular enough to at least get noticed. I was wrong.

To date the song (Mark Andrew version) has sold 31 copies with 54 streams, not 310 or 3100, or 31,000 but 31.

I love writing songs, and the people that hear the songs, rate them very highly through the lyrics and the musical content, so I don't look back in anger, I use it as another life lesson that will assist me in achieving my goal of being a respected songwriter and having artists wanting to perform my songs.

If you have enjoyed this blog, then please tune in to my next one which is called 'Shine That Light' and I will take you on another journey through the creation and progress of another song.

Thanks for reading. I am a songwriter.

Happy Birthday Elvis

An associate of Mark Andrew, Helen Reizer really liked the song and kindly prepared a Press Release for me. I sent this off to as many contacts as I could find. This included the Elvis communities, press agencies etc etc.
After doing the ring around and cold calling to various agencies, publications and radio stations, I finally got a break. The Parkes Elvis Festival committee called me up after I hounded them like a hound dog and asked if Mark Andrew would come to Parkes to promote the song and perform a set on the main stage.
Fantastic I thought and immediately contacted Mark to let him know. Unfortunately Mark was unable to attend as he had already made holiday plans so I had to work out a way to get myself to Parkes and have the song played over the PA.
That was achieved after I notified Parkes that I would be delighted to attend with my son and bring along a CD to give them the opportunity to play the song for the first time globally, however Mark was unable to attend due to his holiday plans but was pleased that they would play the song.
An article was also published on the Elvis information Network in Australia and the Manly Daily decided to run a story to coincide with the Parkes Elvis Festival.
I decided to release the song on Elvis Pres;ey's birthday, the 8th January 2012 as a digital download.
With the press releases, the 4000 friends that Mark Andrew had, and the invite from the Parkes Elvis Festival I was confident that we would shift plenty of copies.

Alcoholics Annonymous or Automobile Association

Acronyms are a wonderful thing for the incrowd specific to that acronym. If I look at ETA, most people associate it with Estimated Time of Arrival. If however you are an Elvis fanatic, ETA means Elvis Tribute Artist. There are literally thousands of Elvis Tribute Artists globally and they have been increasing since the King departed.
I was in need of an ETA once The New Elvis Presley had been recorded and so the search was on. Living in Australia, and having the Parkes Elvis Festival as an annual news worthy event, there were plenty of ETAs to choose from.
Eventually I came across Mark Andrew who was Melbourne based and had headlined at Parkes for a few years previously and had recently came 3rd in a ETA World Cup in Wales of all places.
I sent Mark the song and he thought it was fantastic and would be a great iTunes hit and with his 4000 friends he would be in a position to promote it.
A vocal less mp3 was sent to Mark Andrew and he overlaid the lead vocal part and sent back the WAV files. The results weren't great and following a discussion with my vocal teacher and musical director Mark Hall it was decided that Mark Andrew needed to come to Sydney to record the vocals under our direction.
Mark Andrew was kind enough to travel up on Friday 30th December which was a date that all parties could make. Once the recording was complete Mark travelled back the same day to Melbourne and continued his own preparations for his New Years Eve show.
With an ETA singing in the style of Elvis, it was time to promote the song throughout the Elvis community and take advantage of the ease with which a song can now be globally released to digital outlets such as iTunes.
I did a lot of research and finally went with Tunecore to distribute the song. They advertised that the charges were menial and I got to keep all the profits. My outlay was the initial cost of distribution which was $10 plus an annual fee of the same amount to keep the song in the digital stores.
As a test, I had distributed Superstar on the 27th December and to my great surprise and joy it was up on iTunes within 3 days.
I decided that as Elvis was born on the 8th January, that this would be the date of the release. The song was uploaded and then the next step was to promote and market the song.

Susan Boyle

In December 2011, we had finally progressed to a point where we were in a position to record two tracks. The New Elvis Presley and Superstar. Now these songs are not linked and Superstar has no reference to anything remotely Elvis Presley. It does however remind me of Susan Boyle for some strange reason. The band consisted of myself, Mark Hall on keyboards and backing vocals, and two lads from a local band called Bridgemary Kiss, Andy on guitars and Harry on drums.
We booked some studio time with Herman Kovac who runs Ramrod studios and incedently was the drummer from an Australian band called the Ted Mulry Gang. They had numbers 1 songs in the 70's.
The intention of the first recording session of 3 hours was to get the drums, bass and keyboards down for both songs. The proficiency of Andy, Harry and Mark in this session allowed us to lay down the rythmn section of a third song called 'Two Lost Souls'. Neither Andy or Harry had heard the song before but through Mark's and my direction they were able to produce a great fit for the song. I provided guide vocals on all three tracks at the session.
The next session allowed us to get lead and rythmn guitars plus additional keyboards and strings. The final evening session booked was to record all the vocals. I recall travelling back to Sydney from a two day trip in Melbourne full of a heavy cold with a session that evening. I had taken a lot of Senega and Ammonia to help my voice but when it came to the session I bombed badly and the results were really poor. I was extremely upset and down on myself and my confidence took a massive blow. The rest of the time was spent working on additional keyboards and ensuring the right sounds were achieved in the mix.
An additional recording session was set up for the following week where I succeeded in getting the vocals down but as the session wore on the voice deteriated badly and 'Two Lost Souls' suffered as a consequence. We had achieved the goal though of getting 'The New Elvis Presley' and 'Superstar' done, although looking back the progress I have made with my vocal lessons since then would have improved both songs significantly.
The last phase was mixing down the tracks and mastering them. This was done on a Friday and a further afternoon. Armed with the final master I was ready to track down an Elvis Tribute Artist who might want to take on the task of recording the vocals.

Rock and Roll

Fast forward a couple of years and I find myself picking up my oldest daughter Rachel from a piano lesson. Her piano teacher is Mark Hall who runs the music and drama departments of Warringah Performing Arts in Brookvale, NSW, Australia which he owns with his wife Julie who runs the dance school.
Rachel mentions to Mark that I write and record songs. Mark asks if he can listen to some of my material. I took in some old recordings of Roller Coaster, JoyRide and Lemon Tree which I recorded a few years back plus an early version of The New Elvis Presley.
Mark really likes the songs and said he could really improve my vocal performance by having formal lessons. I have never been the lead singer in all the bands I have played with. I have been content to write the songs, play guitar and let others sing so this propsect was very daunting.
I recall at my first lesson, I played Mark my latest song 'Kicking and Screaming' on the piano. Mark was able to transpose the song to the correct key for my voice and also play the song on his Clavinova with various accompaniments which really lifted the song.
I was very self conscious about my voice and so it was re-assuring to have someone who could place it correctly, play the song immediately in the correct key and provide an arrangement that sat perfectly with the integrity of the song.
Around Christmas 2010 we were discussing recording The New Elvis Presley and using a tribute artist to sing it, but we didn't get round to it. That project would have to wait another year. During that time, I had been writing plenty of material and working on a set of other peoples songs Mark has chosen to improve my voice.
One of my songs was called 'Superstar' and Mark felt it was time that I could be unleashed to an unsuspecting public, so after starting my lessons in April 2010, my first live performance was in December of that year and as Robert Plant one sang - It's been a long time, been a long time, been a long, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.

Radio Play

It is interesting to recall that at the original time of writing which was 16th June 2008, any thoughts of releasing it globally would have been a sign to seek psychiatric help. Basically there was absolutely no chance of a songwriter in their late 30s being given that opportunity. Irrespective of any grand ambition of that nature, I still enjoyed recording my compositions on my Roland VS1680 which I had bought in England in the last millennium. This along with a Dr Rhythm drum machine I was able to record it. Once recorded I sent it to some colleagues for their feedback which was positive. I had joined Triple J Unearthed which was a site where unsigned artists could upload their songs for people to listen to. I originally uploaded three songs I had recorded previously called Rollercoaster, Joy Ride and Lemon Tree. When 'The New Elvis Presley' was recorded I sent it to David Garrood, a colleague in Brisbane who was associated with a community radio station called 99.7FM Your Better Mix. As luck would have it, he was filling in for the usual Friday night DJ who was taking a break. He played the song on Friday 26th March and sent me a clip of him introducing the song. It was played under the title 'Long Live the King' which explains why I still haven' t received any royalties for that auspicious occasion.

Full Lyrics

Folks, as promised please find the full lyrics to 'The New Elvis Presley'. The next blog I will provide details of thow it was first recorded.

_{The New Elvis Presley}

_{Here comes the new Elvis Presley, can’t believe my eyes} 

_{It is Elvis incarnate as I look towards the skies}

_{Here comes the new Elvis Presley, hip swaying too}

_{Iconic jump suit and cape, and wearing blue suede shoes}

_{Some quiet please, a little less conversation, get off your knees, rise up in celebration}

_{Altogether now let’s sing, Long live the king, long live the king}

_{Here comes the new Elvis Presley, gonna kiss and tell}

_{Light up the lights of Las Vegas, book a room at heartbreak hotel}

_{Here comes the new Elvis Presley, and he’s doing fine} 

_{Unlock the gates of Graceland and free your suspicious minds}

_{Some quiet please, a little less conversation, get off your knees, rise up in celebration}

_{Altogether now let’s sing, long live the king, long live the king, long live the king, long live the king}

_{Some quiet please, a little less conversation, some quiet please, a little less conversation}

_{Get off your knees, rise up in celebration, altogether now let’s sing,}

_{Long live the king, long live the king, long live the king, long live the king}

_{Everybody sing, long live the king, everybody sing, long live the king}