The Cross

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The Beach here is a special place. Right now there are a lot of creative people living here. Apart from our most well known artist and poet, William Blake, who wrote some of his finest language work here. 

I love walking along the Beach with the dog. But the studio here, Beach Studio, is especially my favourite place. There are some pics at the front of this website I included - some of kit I’ve acquired over the years. 

Home studios are often a money black hole. But I’ve now a pretty stable list of hard and software that I love working with. 

I used to advice people to get the best you can for your money. But I’m changing my mind about this. In reality, it will only end up spending until you’re feeling good about your studio. Seeing word like Prism, Avalon, UA, Neumann, Yamaha, Waves, Abbey Road, iZotope, Steinberg, Output, Spitfire, Native Instruments, McPherson, Larrivee, Fender, etc. etc.. make me smile. Amazingly, Apple’s created an lovely platform (Logic Pro X), which I find myself using more and more. And their stock plugins are pretty great.

So this is why I love playing with most days. However, that’s not the most important thing about this space. There is one place that is even more special within the Beach Studio:

The Cross.

The Cross is the center of this space. It’s the reason I only wanted to work music, even from my childhood. It’s the inspiration for me to come back to this space every day. 

I mentioned in my first book (Song Maps) that I heard some advice from one of the pro songwriters at a GMA event in The Rockies asked, 

“What kit for their studios should songwriters buy?” 

We were thinking it might be a plugin or a guitar or something. But the pro songwriter said,

“The best investment in your songwriting is investment in your own craft.”

That’s still a brilliant piece of advice. 

But I’d take it one step further. Invest in The Cross, a physical version. This remember me every time that here is a holy, creative, sacred place. This place enables me to find new depths of inspiration. And that’s worth writing for.

Take care friends, 

S.

All the Words - NEW EP

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Hey!

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Great news! On Saturday (13th) the EP version of “All the Words” is being launched by the label, GBM.

5 tracks

1. All the Words (Original Abbey Road Master)

2. All the Words (Maracas Remix)

3. All the Words (Acoustic Abbey Road Piano Remix)

4. All the Words (Candyfloss Remix)

5. All the Words (Original Remix) [Instrumental]

Here’s a little background:

Track 1 is “All the Words (Original Abbey Road Master)” which was engineered by Alex Wharton, who is one of the best guys at Abbey Road. Alex’s first version (the one with the brain in black) was a warmer version. This is new and a little intense as a master. Lovely work Alex.

Track 2 is the Maracas, which you might have heard before. It’s my favourite track right now because it’s summer and this makes me smile and my feet move quicker.

Track 3 has been stripped down and a new piano channel. Although it’s called the “Acoustic Abbey Road Piano” it’s still at my studio (Beach Studio) but uses an amazing full sampled Yamaha CFX Grand Piano, that was sampled at Studio One at Abbey Road by Gary Garritan and it includes the signal processes at Abbey Road. I can sit at this plugin in my studio for hours before getting work done. It’s sounds amazing.

Track 4 is a completely new track - it’s using Output’s wonderful Arcade plugins, which are full of creativity and fun. I need to do more with this because it is also incredibly easy to use. There’s a loop I’d love to use again into a completely new song sometime. Watch this space.

Track 5 is the original backing for the original black brain single. It was using Native Instruments’ Noir piano (both the Felt and Pure samples). It’s brand new and I’m loving it. It’s also using some Spitfire’s strings (moody, creative and special).

What’s behind the whole “All the Word” project?

Well, I’m thinking it’s time to actually get some material out there. The label (GBM) is incredibly encouraging, something creative and productive. It’s great to get my brain working for a new. Also, I want to try a number of different genres just to see what happens with the stats after a while. Having something out there is a great habit. How many I’ll end up with I really don’t know but I hope it’s a few more than I’ve done so far :)

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Take care of yourselves all people,

S.

12 Photos About Me

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There are 12 pics about me on the Welcome page.

This is what they are:

  1. The beach. Felpham. Private. Inspirational.

  2. The studio, “Beach Studio”. Where I spend most my time.

  3. Four computers and an old ex-road keyboard I bought 4th hand in Franklin when I was co-writing. So much music inside that box.

  4. Certificates. Berklee and a Doves Nom and a few other lovely moments.

  5. Neumann 87.

  6. Genelec monitors.

  7. My favourite guitar, MacPherson imported.

  8. My grand. Midi’d into the DAW (mostly Cubase & Logic)

  9. Bass trap for vocals.

  10. My office Mac.

  11. Logs. Needed Oct thru Apr.

  12. The sea from our balcony, feel like we’re on a cruise sometimes.

There’s one other pic that’s a bit more special. That’s for next time.

That’s my life anyway,

S.

All the Words NEW REMIX

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Great news! Tomorrow another single is being launched, “All the Words (Maracas Remix)”, which is a more up-tempo remixed version of the original song, “All the Words”.

Main reasons for this were:

  1. I wanted to put something a little more upbeat, and this is a more chilled out production, and

  2. I wanted to have a little more colour in the front, given the summer weather has gone crazy hot here across Europe (including here!).

There’s some more music coming, but I’ll let you know once I’ve got a fixed date for it.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Take care of yourselves all people,

S.

A New Song Map: Gradual Reveal

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Gradual Reveal

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Welcome to the third tool in my series on Songwriting Tools. In my book “Song Maps – A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics” I mentioned in passing a new Song Map: Gradual Reveal. For those readers who have written in to me asking for more information about it you certainly deserve this since:

  1. You spotted it in the first place, and

  2. You took the trouble to write to me!

So here it is.

Gradual Reveal is a brilliant alternative to Timezones, Places and Roles if you want to tell a story without being specific about any of them. I love this Map because it enables us to create a deliberate sense of anticipation and suspense until the payoff, which is saved for later in the song, e.g. the Bridge or last line of V3. It also enables us to paint a picture that starts with a blur and ends up in HD Quality before landing the payoff.

It’s a great Map to add to the 7 universal Song Maps covered in the book because, like those, it also lends itself to any lyric-driven genre – Pop, Country, CCM. It also helps us use the powerful lyric writing technique: “Show, don’t tell”. This is because by definition we are using the amount of information we disclose as a way of systematically moving the lyric forward.

In terms of difficulty, I’d place it somewhere between Places and Literal/Figurative.

What does Gradual Reveal look like?

Gradual Reveal can be represented as follows:

Verse 1 – Setting the scene

Chorus 1 – Title

Verse 2 – More detail

Chorus 2 – Title

Bridge – Payoff

Chorus 3 – Title

How to use Gradual Reveal

To use Gradual Reveal it might be helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

What is the central theme or idea you want the title to represent? Is it strong enough to write a song about? Will it resonate in the genre you are writing in? When you find this, it will become your Chorus idea.

What are the essential key elements needed to set the scene of the song? Literally, if you were watching the very first opening frames of a movie of your song, what would you be seeing, feeling, hearing, touching, smelling etc. Who would be in the picture? What “place” (in the broadest sense) are they at? This is V1.

What new elements of the picture you are paining need to be filled in to set up an effective payoff? What do they look like? How does this make your picture more granular? This is V2.

What does it all mean? What is the payoff? Can the picture you’ve painted in V1 and V2 resolve? How can the listener relate to the picture in front of them? What are the lessons to be learnt from this picture? This is your Bridge, Outro or Refrain.

Example

While I haven’t got space here to write a lyric, in my book Song Maps, in Chapter 5, the Writable Idea and Lyric for the Places Map, “How Many Times” is a good example of Gradual Reveal even though it also follows a Places Map. Check it out.

Some points I’d make:

  • Holding back certain details (clarification of the relationship between the singer and the person they are singing to) adds an element of deliberate suspense to the lyric until V2 arrives.

  • The trick with Gradual Reveal is to hold enough detail back at the same time as disclosing enough detail to keep your listeners engaged with the lyric at each stage of the song. Economy and conciseness of words are important to getting this right.

A couple of the commercial examples below were actually written for movies and it’s worth digging into the context of these to help decode how they work a little better.

Commercial Examples of Gradual Reveal

Here are some commercial examples I’d also suggest you look at to see how this Map works:

Exercise

If you have a copy of the Song Maps Workbook handy you could take a similar approach to Timezones, Places or Roles, by simply substituting the respective structure with that of Gradual Reveal.

So this is Gradual Reveal. I’d encourage you to have a crack at writing with it because it’s very cool when it’s executed well and demonstrates strong, grown up crafting as well as being very effective in communicating the emotion of a song.

Feel free to share this! If you had a moment to drop me a line I’d love to hear how you get on at simon@simonhawkins.com.

Happy writing!

Simon.

All the Words

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So on Sunday my very first single is being launched, “All the Words”. YAY!!

It’s a big moment for me in two ways:

  1. It’s my first ever single I’ve had on global distribution with Great British Music, my label

  2. It’s the end of one high mountain as a stroke survivor.

So here’s to everyone who understands what this kind of journey is like and for all who’ve been supporting and praying for me on this road. And for those on the journey I’m on, here’s the message:

NEVER, NEVER, EVER GIVE UP ON YOU, JUST TRY

Take care all you people… life is ridiculously short.

S.

P.S. Hey, it’s arrived!

YouTube: https://youtu.be/N38WBbxknQk

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2ZSa6pS

Apple Music: https://apple.co/2xj3cOf

Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/2FGKa9l


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