Tag: songwriting

Free Download: The Bliss Returns (demo)

The lyrics for this song were actually written back in 2000 or so – a good decade old at least. I never even thought about putting them to music until maybe the last year or so. I was going through old notebooks and sheets of paper, searching for something I wanted to add into another song.

But even still, no music ever jumped out at me for it, and then the original idea I had for the song is completely different to what it actually has become. I remember sketching out a vague idea for the lyrics, and having this clear idea of how I wanted the subsequent section to sound – which was going to be completely instrumental.

However, this little piano riff snuck onto the keys one day, and I got completely addicted to it. Any time I’d sit down at the piano it was the first thing I’d play. It’s only a simple little riff, but I loved it. And then the lyrics one day just fitted over it – I could hear how they should go. The song has ended up something completely different from what I thought it was going to be, even after I’d previously thought it would never be an actual song.

This demo version may yet change and develop as I add more instruments to the song. I have a few ideas of what I want to add on – but at this stage, who knows what way it’ll change before I have a final proper recording of it that I like.

[audio:http://www.misterebby.com/previewtracks/blissjandemo.mp3]
The Bliss Returns (demo) (right click and save to download)

hiding from the camera

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Free Download: Water Phoenix (demo)

I knew what I wanted from this song as I wrote it. I knew what I was writing about, and how the song would be structured, more or less. But I was still surprised by the melody that came from the lyrics. Sometimes I can sit and just hear the melody that is meant to be there when I read the lyrics, other times I have to work on it quite a bit to get something that works. But for this, there were melody ideas there as I was writing the lyrics, so when I sat at the piano, the whole song was waiting for me to find the piano part.

The demo is just an idea of what it’ll be like – I think this is going to be a very richly arranged song when it is finished, and I hope that the person it is about likes the song. It’s quickly become one of my own personal favourites to sing.

[audio:http://www.misterebby.com/previewtracks/phoenix.mp3]
Water Phoenix (demo) (right click and save to download)

Hipstamatic photo of the liffey

Free Download: Is This What They Call Romance? (demo)

This song grew from wanting to write a really upbeat little pop song. The chorus of it is something that would run around my head after I went swimming. No idea why, but the lyrics were basically sketched out while sitting in a sauna.

The verses were bits and pieces from various places. Little ideas or leftovers from other songs, so in a way the song itself is a bit of a composite of a few different things.

The piano riff sticks in my head, and was the first part of the song to be written, in terms of the music. Once I’d sat with that for a while the rest of the song just fell into place and I had this little boppy little piano pop song that is great fun for me to play.

[audio:http://www.misterebby.com/previewtracks/romance.mp3]
Is This What They Call Romance? (demo) (right-click and save to download)

IMG_0238

Dublin calling

I’m in Dublin at the moment, working as a score reader for a small production for the next two weeks. It’ll give me a much needed break from Galway and some time to work on moving to Dublin properly.

I met up with Morgan of Cuckoo Savante (check that band out – they’re awesome) and was chatting about our lives and work. Just catching up really, but he was excited by how many songs I’ve got at the moment. Which made me stop to think how few I’ve demo’d and how badly I’ve done those. I need to stop spending time alone with the songs and start performing them and sharing them with other people so they don’t start to suffocate in my bag.

I’m going through my lyrics at the moment, adding in the edits I’ve made on the fly as I practise and work out the songs. I like a few of them, but I blow hot and cold about my own work quite frequently. I guess I need to let other people judge the work and not be so critical of myself.

Free Download: Take Me Away (demo)

I wrote the lyrics for this song while I was in Dublin, I think some were written on the train to Dublin and the rest in the IFI. I wasn’t fully sure what the lyrics were about at the time, and they were puzzling me a bit. But I had a music idea in my head, but when I went to the piano some time later, the music changed and the song developed a different sound to what I had previously thought in my head.

But even as I had started playing the song live a little, there was something missing in it, and I couldn’t hear what it was. Then an Allelujah I’d written for a amateur musical production inspired by the music of Sister Act (no joke), decided to slip into the song. It fitted, and definitely suited this song more than the choral arrangement of Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head that I’d written it for initially. (again, I’m not joking. I still have that arrangement.)

But as soon as the Allelujah slipped into the song, I realised what the song was about, and it all became much clearer to me. The beautiful Meadhbh Sullivan added the vocals for the Allelujah parts for me, and the demo is a good idea of what the song will be.

[audio:http://www.misterebby.com/previewtracks/tmademo.mp3]
mister ebby – Take Me Away (demo) featuring Meadhbh Sullivan

meadhbh and ebby

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