Friday, July 10, 2015

The Songwriting Circle

In 2009 Katy Carr, Nadya Ostroff (Dr No who played guitar with The Slits in their later, second incarnation), Rowen Bridler and myself used to meet up each week on a Monday morning to write songs and eat cabbage soup. It was informal; we would decide on a subject to write about and then each go off and write a song to be played at the next session round Katy's. This morning we all remembered what a good thing it had been. It is an incredibly productive way to work; Katy wrote songs that went on two of her albums, Rowen's single was a song that she wrote during that period and five of mine are on this CD http://helenmccookerybook.bandcamp.com/album/take-one (Three Maple Men, The Song of the Unsung Heroine, Two Little Girls and Me, Daisies and The House on the Hill).
Our subject today was 'Pimps and Prostitutes'. Rowen had used the idea as a metaphor for corruption in politics and Katy's was written from the perspective of the trafficked girl. Mine was from the perspective of the pimp. I think that's what is so interesting about doing something like this: from one idea, you get totally different responses and viewpoints. And because Katy and Rowen are pianists, they write different sorts of songs to Nadya and myself, although Nadya was away this week.
So I'm going to drink a toast in tea (see what I did just there?) to the next few sessions and the next few songs. We think this may be a journey that will take us somewhere very interesting.

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