First song coming out!

[KevinKevan]

Hey everyone,

So a while ago (almost 1 year ) I posted this song I wrote recorded on my phone:

I made a song

So… Yeah, it happenned, I wrote a song that I don’t hate I quite like the vibe of it and I intend to record it “semi-professionally” some day. The thing that worries me most about it is that there is not an instrumental section to include a solo or anything, and I really didn’t expect it to go to the 5 minute mark like it did, maybe feels a little too repetitive. Anyway, leave your comments/honest opinions here. Cheers! [Don't Slip Away - Original Song]

A couple of months ago I was at an open mic, and met a nice guy, turned out he is a professional producer. I did not perform that night, but we kept talking about music, and finally he listened to this and gave me a shot at recording it at his home studio.

I’m quite pleased with the result, although I’m sure it has quite a few flaws (mostly on the songwriting department), but my intention is just to celebrate it with the community.

Although I’m more of a passive user these days, I’d never be the player I am today without JG in general and this community in particular.

I’m sorry for the poor video graphics, this is meant to be a private video only for this community, since I will be releasing the song on all platforms in the near future.

So consider this a Thank You for your help, kind words and encouragement.
Oh and whatever criticism of the song/production you have, please speak your mind.

Cheers everyone, have a great day

- YouTube

[Eddie_09]

I thought that was absolutely outstanding Kevin! Really good vibe to the song and the lyrics were really really good and flowed beautifully. I wouldn’t change a thing about what you have produced here. Be very proud and I wish you a lot of success with this song!

[Libitina]

Awesome, I love the changes throughout with the intro of multi vocals and backings that come and go.
Fantastic.
Rachel.

[Jamolay]

Wow, what an accomplishment! Sounds great and professional. Thanks for sharing this with us.

I have no technical suggestions, it is very well put together.

I do wonder if, in the verses that precede and follow the chorus (but not the chorus or other verses), it would sound cool to add a woman’s voice maybe as a background harmony or just singing along. It would add a nice brightness at those moments. Or maybe the same effect with an instrument, like a violin.

[roger_holland]

Hi Kevin,
That sounds very professional , and it is a recognizable/catchy tune,(you have played a version before did you?) … only some people will be shocked by the loudest curse there is,so you will hit some believers in the face here (in my
language then)…but commenting on the lyrics might again be swearing in the eyes of the lyric writer … I wish you the best with it ,…well done
Greetings,Rogier

[brianlarsen]

Haha, you share the same song- I’ll share the same comment:
"Congratulations, Kevin, well done!
And what a great first effort.
There’s something hugely satisfying about creating something yourself, irrespective of what anyone else thinks about it.
Good vibes! "

Of course, you now have a polished gem, so you deserve a bit more
you chose your producer well and he has helped you turn a strum’n’sing tune into a song fit for the airwaves. Fabulous. Hats off to you, Sir! Congratulations and good luck

[TheCluelessLuthier]

Congratulations Kevin, that is excellent! Nice production as well.

[philsmith]

Congratulations Kevin, that is a really nice tune, you should be very proud.

[bblak]

I would say that song is on par with just about anything one might hear on a country/rock radio station.

Solid vibe, good vocal with harmony singing and there was some melody in there too.

Starts fatalistic, so resonates with me - but pushes on through with a positive message.

I can’t comment on the theory or chord structures and such but that really matters none as this song stands on its own.

Be proud man. Great job.

[J.W.C]

@KevinKevan

I’m quite pleased with the result, although I’m sure it has quite a few flaws (mostly on the songwriting department), but my intention is just to celebrate it with the community…I will be releasing the song on all platforms in the near future.

This is great! Your track sounds excellent. I’m excited for you.

I’m planning on releasing some originals in the (hopefully) near future, too. I’d love to hear anything you think worth sharing about the process.

For example, just for this private video, where did you source the video portion that goes with your audio?

I’ve found the business and legal side of releasing music to be a bit bewildering. There’s copyright registration. There’s Performance RIghts Organizations (e.g. BMI, ASCAP) that collect your “performance royalties.” There’s “mechanical royalty collection” (done through entities like songtrust.com, etc.). There are digital distributors for streaming, etc. (e.g., DistroKid, CD Baby, and so on). There’s physical distribution. There’s mechanical licensing (e.g., Harry Fox Agency). There’s non-interactive streaming royalties (e.g. Sound Exchange). There’s youtube and the content ID stuff. And then there are options like Bandcamp, which could be combined with the above. Quite a maze (and no wonder many artists sign on with labels who already understand all this stuff).

If you’re willing/able to shed any light on those options and the choices you make and the process that you end up going through I would definitely love to hear about it!

[Mari63]

That sounds really really great, Kevin, I love the whole track. What an awesome accomplishment - congrats!

[Bytron08]

Wow that was amazing man keep it up!

[nzmetal]

Brilliant stuff Kevin, super impressive! Sounded great, production is spot on, you should be incredibly proud!

@Jamolay

I do wonder if, in the verses that precede and follow the chorus (but not the chorus or other verses), it would sound cool to add a woman’s voice maybe as a background harmony or just singing along.

Funny I thought the same thing, Joshua!
Loved to hear a version with that. Worth considering, Kevin?

[liaty]

Awesome Kevin

Well done bud, nice to hear it progress above and beyond.

[jkahn]

Awesome Kevin, so cool. Great production, sounds great.

I’m super curious on how you got all the instruments together and what the producer did, how they help you record the song. You singing, obviously! Are you doing acoustic and electric? The last time you shared it was acoustic only, did you come up with the electric parts or does the producer suggest that knowing what would add polish?

Drums, were they a drum track, or did you get a drummer to lay that down? Or maybe the producer is the drummer? What about the bass?

Huge achievement mate.

[SgtColon]

Kevin, that was very lush. Nothing wrong with the lyrics for me. Nice production as well.

What a fortuitous chat that turned out to be. Exciting times ahead. Great stuff and don’t forget us when you’re rich and famous.

[KevinKevan]

Thanks everyone for coming by and giving it a listen, means a lot!

And I think all I do the last few times I’ve posted here is apologizing for taking so long to answer and the low activity. I promise I’m trying to do better.

@Eddie_09 thanks Eddie, I’m glad you enjoyed it, thanks again for listening to it and giving your 2 cents on it

@Libitina thank you Rachel, proof that you don’t have to complicate yourself to get something sounding nice.

@Jamolay thanks Joshua! Funny enough, it’s something we considered but because of time efficiency, decided against it. But hopefully in the near future I can do an acoustic session with a singer friend of mine, and incorporate that.
There is a string section in the song, subtle but it’s there. I think it’s a very good suggestion, but we didn’t want to stack lots of tracks of instruments over another. I do like a nice violin here and there though, perhaps for the next one!

@roger_holland thanks so much Roger! I didn’t even think about it to be honest
In all seriousness, I hope no one feels offended.

@brianlarsen thanks Brian! I do think it was a good match between us, really loved the process of making it and the finished product as well. Really cool to see reactions of people who listened to it on its early stages. Cheers!

@TheCluelessLuthier cheers Mark appreciate it.

@philsmith cheers Phil

@bblak thanks Brian. I didn’t really see the country-ish side of the tune until the producer pointed it to me and pushed it a little bit on the mix. But it makes sense, I love country so I feel like the vibe of the song really represents my musical taste. Cheers!

@J.W.C thank you Jason. The video is just a standard animetion I added on the windows video editor, my goal was to post it as a private YouTube video to share it here in the community so putting more work into it wasn’t Worth it, it was just the easiest way to do it.
Now about the legal side of it, my head is still spinning for trying to understand it. My understanding is that distrokid for example collects all the fees from it to you, and you keep the rights to the music. About registering it, the producer tells me that it’s not so important in the beginning, maybe later down the line. Will have to give it a bit of a last read since I’m getting close to finally putting it out.

@Mari63 thanks so much Mari, keep rocking and have a great day.

[KevinKevan]

@Bytron08 thanks Byron, glad you liked it!

@nzmetal thanks Jeff! Mentioned that on my response to Joshua
But yes, I’d like to try it on a “live” version of it, it could sound mega. Cheers!

@liaty thanks a ton Dave, glad to see a fellow Oasis fan enjoys this!

@jkahn thanks JK, means a lot! About bass and drums, they were both recorded by the producer himself, right in front of me, the dude is super talented and we only went through a couple of variations til we found something I felt was cool for the tune.
Now, about the guitars, there are 2 acoustic tracks, one played by me with a capo, and the main track, and another without a capo played by the producer, a bit on the background.
That acoustic part was mostly how I "wrote"it, although we changed a few chord changes suggested by him, strumming pattern also as I envisioned it. Got to say, it becomes really hard to record it to a clip sound in front of a professional, but we eventually got it
So that was all on the first session, on the second and final one we did electric and vocals.
I had a couple of pentatonic “licks” or ideas in mind but nothing too defined, worked on in the day in the studio. Also, that little picking and embellishment on the electric on that “bridge” or pre-chorus part was something he suggested, and I just explored for a while until we found something cool.
Overall, it was a very chill experience and not at all stressful apart from the pressure I put on myself. No rush and plenty of time to explore and repeat different parts.

@SgtColon thanks Stefan! I will have to share the 1’22€ I make on Spotify for it

Thanks again to everyone, keep the good work on the community.

Lastly, I’ve almost decided for the cover, simple as the song is. It’s my parents backyard btw

[TheMadman_tobyjenner]

Wow was that a year ago. Thought I’d better check out the original and like Brain, my comments.

That would be a shed load of good vibes on the old forum ! Really good platform you have created, all the framework is there. Good progression and vibe, flowing catchy melody and some good lyrics

All I can say Kevin, is I am sure we would run out of good vibes on this version. Man your collaboration has taken this to stella heights. What a fantastic outcome from a chance meeting. The production is epic in quality. The layering is sublime in both instruments and vocal harmonies. If you are going to drop songs of this quality into the mix, I guess we can excuse you from being a bit awol. Loved every minute. Well done sir !

Cheers

Toby

[KevinKevan]

Thanks Toby, I’m very pleased with it as well, and excited about the prospect of collaborating again with this producer.

Also, I took the video down, since I’ve already submitted the song to be included in every streaming platform available. It will be out March 31st, I decided to take longer since I have to set up the Spotify profile and figure out some promotional stuff.

Lastly, I do have a pre-save link for Spotify, but I don’t wan’t to be “spamming” links here in the community, nor do I want to give the impression that I’m here just trying to get attention for the release. I wanted honest opinions and to share it ahead of time here, and I appreciate everyone who digged in. If someone wants links to stream it when it’s out, message me no problem, like I said I don’t want to fill the community with links and promotional stuff.

Cheers everyone, have a great day!