United Kingdom

Hello Cassana,
I find the actual mechanics of writing words fairly easy, but having something emotive to write about is quite different.
I watched the ABBA musical on DVD a couple of nights back, and songs like 'The Winner Takes It All' and 'Our Last Summer' struck me as being songs where the words had an idea that would strike a chord with so many ordinary people... I seem to write songs that strike a chord with no one!

Well done in getting two albums under your belt Cassana... did you finance it yourself or did you get a recording contract?
I will go and listen on your profile in a few minutes.
Good luck,
Mark D Phillips..............

yeah, I tend to write of experience and emotion, its always just come to me. thats the thing... getting people to connect, love and heartbreak is always something that 95% of people can relate to so thats always a safe bet.

the albums were self funded but I went out to canada for three months and was singing and sold them all bar a few that I keep. and I kept hold of a few for some of the gigs I still play here.

I don't think I've added music to my profile as yet but I have a myspace page which is
www.myspace.com/cassanamusic
thats got a few bits on.

always appreciate feed back so let me know what you think if you get a chance to listen

cassana

Hello again Cassana,
I went and listened to all four of your songs on Myspace; I think my favourite was Remember as your voice went so nicely with the relaxed pace of the song.
All your songs on the site are well produced and instrumented, and your voice has no unpleasant tones or manerisms... yes generally it makes me see how amateurish my home recording sounds in truth, though I enjoy what I do and see my recorded songs more as a means of keeping records of the stuff I write so that over a year I can see if there is progress.

I have a five year old girld called Roseanne Joy... pics on my profile I think?
She wants a baby brother or sister, but I am just seperating from my wife so I need to find a sympathetic woman!
Who isn't too fussy!

Keep singing Cassana!
Mark................

Cassana, too bad you don't live close by.
I'll hit your MySpace page and shoot you a friend request.
Alan

thanks,

I enjoy the writing and producing of all the music but I really love performing!

believe it or not all those songs were recorded in a bedroom at my parents house. but I fortunately have an exceptionall talented dad who can pretty much put his hand to anything! so although I write the basic music and lyrics/melody, he is mainly the brains behind actually putting all the instruments together for the backing... just don't ask him to sing!

I have two little boys of my own who keep me on my toes and thats why I can only gig about once a week. but they are so much fun so for now music has become more of a hobbie than a job as it use to be. I hope in a few years when they're at school I'll be able to commit to it more and gig a bit more.

glad you enjoyed the songs... remember was actually what I call my first 'proper' song which was written when I was 13! but I always have loved it, and it seems to be one that people connect to.

thanks for listening!

x

Hello Cassana,
A very impressive sound quality... so were all the instruments behind you achieved digitally then?
I have a Tascam digital recorder, and the thing seems pretty clever to me, but really I use it like a glorified tape recorder and I just strum and sing into it... I don't even know if it does other stuff, because the manual I have with it is so vast that I gave up at page two and have only scratched the surface!

My songs are all voice and guitars really, so I should make an effort to include keyboards (which I can play to some extent) and percussion (which I am learning to play).

I have a few new songs coming along, but I want to break out of the limited production format I seem stuck in... with building my own studio in the garden I hope to get a few visiting rock friends passing through this summer and that might spice up my recording possibilities.
Cheers Cassana,
Mark..........................

I listen to a lot of music and come then into the mood to write. I get ideas about certein issues and write them down. Sometimes I use poems from other people to get ideas.

Hello Zarco,
Until you have written something it can be quite hard to know what your mind will turn up with.
Two days ago I wrote a new song in one day; the first line struck a chord with me but was the only way I could think of starting the song, and of saying what it needed to say... "All the midnight bargains have been struck" it went; I mailed the finished four verse song to my guitar friend, and he pointed out that it is near identicle to Mark Knopfler's 'Latest trick' which goes, "All the late night bargains have been struck".
The melody and the rest of the words couldn't be more different, but that first line is almost a dead ringer.

I guess with notes too, there are only really eight (or twelve semi tones)before you are back to where you started; albeit an octave up or down! So I guess that although there are far more letters than notes, the ideas we come up with tend to come around again!
Cheers,
Mark.................