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OurTownRadio The Best Independent Artists
At some point in my early teens I remember discovering Radio Luxembourg on an old longwave radio. I think it was during that time that the songwriting seed was planted in me.
Again because of the radio, I was influenced a lot by American AOR, closer to home it was people like Clapton, Elvis Costello and Tom Petty. I’ve recently discovered that a lot of the music I loved might be called Synthwave by today’s genres.
I started as a pure lyricist and I’ve worked with other artists writing with them. As for my own music I’ve always written music that I enjoy. I think you might call that a blend of Americana with synth elements and beats. It’s something that I am still developing.
I knew nothing about it. It seemed distant and impossible. It was joining a songwriting mentoring scheme in London that showed me what was possible, and started to teach me the skills and meet other like minded people. That also gave me the confidence that I could help other people write songs.
I wished I’d had a clearer idea of what my skills were and therefore who I could help. I spent a lot of time writing with other lyricists, rather than seeking out artists looking to release music themselves but needing help to write.
I was thinking about this recently, because it is a common question. My answer is I start with lyrics, then find the tempo or a beat pattern that seems to fit. I’ll go back to the lyrics several times to re-fit them into the music. For me lyrics are the most important element, but you can always find ways to say the same thing to fit an existing melody or song structure.
It’s a combination of life experiences and stories that I find inspiring. If it sparks an emotion then that will usually start something off.
I have a song called ‘Significance’ from my album. It is based on a true story where during my first day at University someone I didn’t know described me as ‘insignificant’. It’s one of those small things that shouldn’t have a big hold over you but somehow it clings to you and influences you. I spent a ridiculous amount of time dealing with that and coming to realise it wasn’t true.
https://zephyrhillmusic.bandcamp.com/track/significance
I call it Editor’s block. You can always write something, but it’s often that internal editor in your own mind telling you what you’ve written is rubbish. My solution is to turn up every day and write something. Sometimes it will be rubbish, other times it won’t. You are a writer, so write!
Probably the inspiration behind my last album: ‘Lincoln Road’. I came across the story of the Lincoln Highway in the US, the first transcontinental route East to West. I’ve always had a love for American town names, and this story sparked the idea to combine a road trip with songs about growing up. It became a metaphor for coming of age, finding yourself and what life means to you.
My album ‘Lincoln Road’ (I anglicised it!). Originally I tried to match a story with each of the 13 states it runs through. That was a lot harder to do, so I kept the idea of a road trip through life as its theme instead.
The most unusual aspect to this project was to release a series of Youtube shorts which I also added to a Google Map. To my knowledge no one has ever released an album that way.
“Follow the route, find the songs”
This album is probably the closest to what I might call ‘my style’. It’s Americana with some rock / pop and synthwave elements.
That would be ‘Yellow Lines’ which is the opening song. It’s the heart of the story and is written from the perspective of the road itself. Given that this was the first song with my vocals, written, recorded, mixed and mastered by me, the positive response was unexpected.
Writing an album’s worth of music is hard work! It took me 2 years, and that is fitting it around a full time day job. I normally work on one song at a time, so holding the ideas and progress of 10 songs together was a challenge!
I’ve started working on a 3 song EP with a working title of “Echo’s of Audio Dreams”. One song is written and recorded, the other two are still in the lyric writing stage. Loosely they are about the experience of music to reflect your mood, or how it can influence your mood, and how music is interweaved into your life growing up and experiencing the world.
I’m chiefly a songwriter with and for others, at this stage I don’t intend to be a live performer. Although I have done the odd open mic, I am not a natural performer, and prefer to be behind the scenes or found only on my recorded music.
Industry & Insights: Navigating the Music Business
When I was growing up you needed a label to release music. Now anyone can do it. Although that is great, it means there are a lot of other people doing the same, so standing out is the hard part. There is a lot of pressure on independent artists to be everything from manager, marketer, and social media expert all alongside being an actual songwriter and artist!
It provides a great opportunity for fans and artists to directly interact, but it’s a massive effort to feed that monster daily.
The most important thing right now would be better royalty payments for streaming. If an artist in the UK had a million streams per month, they would not hit minimum wage in the UK. That tells you something is wrong with the system.
Write what you enjoy writing, because that way you will get satisfaction from the creativity no matter how well it is received or not.
For me, this is a semi-professional aspect, so I work my day job to allow me to enjoy being creative in the gaps!
As I mentioned above, for me this is not a full time career. I see others I know trying to make this work full time, and it’s hard. e.g covering the costs of fuel to get to gigs that might not pay very much.
Probably writing a novel or something! I need to have some creative outlet in my life!
I’m into Sci-fi, so movies or stories related to that are always an interest to me.
As this is more of a side project, fortunately I can avoid those aspects.
It would have to be Elvis Costello. I’m sure we could talk for hours about lyrical ideas, intriguing imagery, and the wonders of word play.
I spend my days working in a finance role!
If people get to hear my music and if only a single song reaches one person and it impacts their world, and makes them feel something, then I’ve succeeded.
I always try to have hope and positivity in my songs. I hope they come away thinking that was good, I want to play that again!
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Wall Kicks Will Work Sucker Punch
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Love Disaster (Dna) [Live] The Swillerz
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River N' Me Ten Penny Gypsy
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The Old Orange Flute The Killigans
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Rise as One Hakuten
Ourtownradio is an online radio station, ran out of Williamsport, PA.
OTR. dedicated to providing music from independent bands and artists, We will support anyone who is putting their music out to the masses.
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