If I may I will refer again to how I perceive what a “SONG” is. And with what purpose? Let’s begin…
A song is a luminous trail that travels across the sky and from there it falls upon us – each and all – and we absorb them such that they impose their existence, bringing with them the inherent wondrous elements of an imaginative response, and we are affected in a unique, lasting way. It’s a simple process of an enhancing building block and we find ourselves under the wings of these magical entities.
I have been totally absorbed of late in listening to songs as a judge of 470 of them in the Play It Strange National Songwriting Competition. I was an appointed judge along with those chosen from the ranks of quality musical champions such as Josh Fountain, Paige, Kings, Eliette Roslin, Troy Kelly and more – but the singular focus is the important brief that I bring to this task. It is a decision-making process that leads to the bringing to the public’s attention a raft of new songs with their own special quality out front. And the listening begins.
When Bill Moran and I founded Play It Strange in 2003, we made it a crucial point that the marking of the songs be such that every component plays a part – the lyrics, melody, chords, structure, flow, theme, and overall impact.
Yes – there are those out in the rank and file who find the lyrics lack relevance in a song’s quality when the music is focused on. And vice versa. So be it.
And such is the wielding nature of that, but decisions need to be made, and Bill and I both believed that words and music should share points in allocation. From the month in which we kicked off a judging process – March 2004 – the natural division of the imaginative worth of words and music came to the fore.
And with the eventual gravitas of the more than 20 years of judging that followed, the eventual evolution allowed Bill and I to conclude that sharing the judging of words and music was the right thing to do. And in the feedback rosters of time, I feel sure Annah Mac, Kimbra, Louis Baker, CHAII and the many more songwriters marked to the front ranks, agree with us also.
And so, the strength of the Play It Strange competitions grew and fostered a seemingly timeless progression.
The exposure of the finalists – those chosen by the judges for recording sessions at the dozens of recording studios who maintain a positive, supportive regime of sessions at which the winning songs are turned into colourful, recorded stereo tracks. This bringing forward gives the particular songwriters on the winning dais’s a fertile ground for the explorative recording companies out there to spring online albums, tour support, managerial briefing and much more to those writers such that a forward motion will, for those songwriters, flourish. And the momentums build and with the elements of talent and chance – the wheels of fortune may well bring such songs to the stages of a successful forward leap.
It can happen.
And when it does, young songwriters find themselves climbing to and standing on the top of the mountain.
They can be thrilling achievements. It can happen.