It was sudden, defiantly. My family and some of my friends still to this day can’t seem to recall or come to terms with how my sudden spark for music came into existence.
Now, I don´t mean to sound like I´m grandstanding, or stroking my big, self-absorbed, and maybe a bit voluptuous ego, when I say that I have continued to amaze and impress myself (as well as others, of course) over the past couple of years.
Although I can´t remember the exact time and place. I believe my attempted journey towards becoming an acclaimed celebrity musician first started a little over eight years ago in 2012. Like many I spent a lot of my spare time daydreaming about how I´d one day stand on stage, performing across the world. Daydreaming was fun and all, still is, I´m as much of a daydreamer today as i was then, but it wasn´t enough… I wanted more. so, I decided it was about time to act. I started spending, I don´t know how many of my days researching late into the night, reading articles, taking notes, speaking to music teachers and more, all in hopes of reaching the goal I had dreamt of.
Roughly around autumn that same year. I had spent the past couple of months cooped up inside the confounds of my home, devoting nearly all of my time and effort into writing lyrics after lyrics after lyrics. Countless turned out disastrous, others were decent and occasionally, I´d struck writer´s gold. All while still learning something new every now and then along the way. Around winter that very same year I finally felt ready!
And with a little help from a friend I created my very first YouTube account and started contacting various selfsufficent musicians I´d happen to come across over the years. And this is of course the part where i proclaim glorious victory, right? (Sigh…) If only that was true… Almost on a daily basis i received numerous declines, some never answered and others promised to write back but never did.
My hopes where shattered time and time again. I was starting to loose faith, thinking I´d never be able to achieve my dreams, that all my time and effort had been a waste. I was on the verge of throwing it all away and move on with my life. But it seamed fate had other plans as early in 2013 i received a message, and i doubt i´ll ever forget it.
”Hi ”SilverSpirit” Don´t know if you´ve ever heard of me before, would´t be too surprised if you haven´t. I´ve not been around long enough yet I guess. 🙂 My name is ”4everFreeBrony” I´m a YouTube Singer/songwriter with a recently established channel dedicated to MLP (My Little Pony) based music, and if my eyes don´t deceive me (looking at your profile picture) you´re as much of a pastel-pony-lovin´ geek as me. 🙂
Formalities out of the way, between you and me, I´ll be honest, the reason why I´m writing to you is that I know, but more importantly, understand how badly you wanna help other aspiring songwriters (And likely, strive to become one yourself eventually, right?) 🙂 It´s great to see someone who enjoys writing as much as you and the fact that you´re willing to offer aid to anyone who asks, for free, no less, you´re a rare one, i´ll give you that. 🙂 My point in all of this is, I wanna help you out! I´m running short on time and I happen to be in need of help writing a song or two for my channel, seeing as I´ll be absent, going on a much needed family vacation in a couple of weeks. So, perhaps if you´re feeling interested in a potential collaboration or partnership? Hope to hear from you soon, sincerely, a friend and musician in need.” 🙂
I sat in front of my computer screen, staring, I don´t know how long. Unsure of what to say, for the first time I found myself speechless. Overjoyed and with tears in my eyes I wrote back to him immediatly, telling him how happy I was at the prospect of working with him. However, I quickly found myself flooding my new friend´s inbox with novel-lengthy messages brimming with questions about what genre/genres he works with, the songs theme/themes… etc.
My nail biting unease only grew as the day progressed and I went to bed later that night with a knot in my stomach and still without another word. But as I woke up the the next morning I discovered that I had received an Email. While I was curious and eager to read his message I also felt a twinge of uncertainty. Remember, I had up until this point only been met with declines and rejection, for all I knew what awaited me was just another addition to an already extensive list. ”Hi! Sorry if my reply is a little late, had some things I had to sort out. (Your book´s worth of questions for one thing) 🙂 Anyways! I´m happy to hear you´re so exited and looking forward to working together as much as me, but first of! Take a deep breath and… Relax…Alright…we´ve got two more weeks to get the boll rolling, appreciate the enthusiasm though. 🙂 And as for genre and theme? Well, my music is generally acoustic, and theme, hmm… Do whatever suits you, I´m not that much of a picky individual, especially not now when vacation is around the corner.
Now, I don´t know much about you, and you probably don´t know a whole lot more about me either. So, maybe we should start off simple? Start to get to know each other a bit more before we dive head first into anything too crazy. We can talk through Email, (obviously) or we could add one another on Facebook, Twitter, Skype, etc. I prefer talking over voice chat or vidcam, but maybe that´s just me. If you don´t have any of these sites or feel uncomfortable talking face-to-face right away, don´t worry, I understand…
The following first week went by relatively uneventful… I totally didn´t rush off to the nearest music shops and electronic suply stores, esentially harassing them with questions about the best recording equipment, the best microphones and whatever else…Yeah, just a regular old week…Yup…And as for the second week, well, to make a long story short, the following week we spent simply Emailing back and forth about whatever, favorite this, least favorite that and other intrigues as we gradually got more acquainted. After 4FB came back home I set up a Skype account, and we´ve been chatting like squirrels ever since. And after a month or so cooped up inside, dealing with headaches, sleep deprivation, hair loss (Due to us nearly ripping it all out in the midst of frustration) As well as a humbling amount of patience towards one another, we had finally done it! We had finished it! What had been but an everyday daydream for years had in time grown into months of alarmingly vigorous restlessness, energy drink-fueled labour and severely decreased socializing and overall contact with the outside world, but we both agreed it was worth the cost as our little work of art was born, a youtube channel devoted to Acoustic style music mixed with pop-rock.
”4everFreeBrony – Birdsong” 7/4/13 – Emerald eyes (remastered) 1/5/14
While 4FB and i worked closely together on lounching his chanel, i still wanted something I could call my own. Sure, I already had a youtube channel, but unlike his, mine was unfortunately still empty of any sort of content. So, with a great deal of help from 4FB and Midnight Melody (a friend of his) the microphone, as well as the responsibility for maintaining our new secondary channel´s management, was handed over to me. Together with 4FB and Midnight Melody we created ”Slyph- Storm” a secondary channel dedicated to a ganre of music i could only define as ”Orchestral Deathpunk”. ”SlyphStorm – Heartmender” 22/2/13 – Soldier of the night” 22/6/14
2014 as a whole proved to be an unusually hectic time for us, but that´s what you get for managing 2 YouTube channels simultaneously. Looking back, it´s remarkable we didn´t end up strangling one another, as we somehow succeeded in juggling schools/ academic studies, social life (Of witch we more or less agreed was little) and scheduling in general. If you’ve ever crumbled under the pressure of annual capital consumerism otherwise known as Christmas shopping, you can probably imagine how we all felt when yet another matter ended up on an already busy To-Do-List.
One day from out of the blue, we were contacted by a stranger who introduced himself as Aviators, a fellow YouTube musician/songwriter, specializing in Indie alternative music. He then proceeded to tell us that he had been keeping an eye on us over the year and that he was intrigued at the opportunity to work with us on an upcoming album he was currently working on. We wrote back, letting him know that we were of course happy and excited to hear this and that we´d write back soon as we had had the opportunity to discuss the matter. After a full day of deliberating we had finally come to a mutual agreement, as we proceeded to write back, letting him know that while we were in fact positive and open to the idea, we were a little occupied at the present time.
To make another long story short, while we did our best to shoehorn in yet another task into our already cramped repertoir. Aviators and I started spending a lot of our free time talking in privacy. And during one of our late night weekend chats (after ALOT of coaxing and pleading) I was convinced to sing…live…on webcam… while he recorded it, and that was it! I said good night and hung up, only to find an Email in my inbox the next day, it was a video of a voice recording…. mine…remixed with music… that actually sounded good…! I had up until this point NEVER sung out loud before (save for the shower) 🙂 So to hear this as well as a request for ME to collaborate with him on future projects, promising me the role of lead singer/ songwriter while he handled music, editing etc, referring to how his style of music as well as my own coupled with the similar tastes we both shared for lyrics, it was at least to him, a match made in heaven.
It was at this point that i realized that I now had a hard choose to make: Either I stayed with 4FB and Midnight Melody and continued working on our channels as normal. (Witch I didn´t mind despite the rare occasional sensation of performance anxiety as a result of running 2 separate channels simultaneously.) Or I could join with Aviators and maybe, MAYBE have the opportunity of a lifetime to finally oficially assert myself as the musician I had always hoped to be.
For some of you, it might be the easiest choose you´ve ever made, while others feel like they´re caught in the crossfire, unsure of exactly what to do…Just like me…I was heartbroken, destraut even! Was I really forced to choose who I worked with from now on? I really wanted to remain with my old friends, I really did! We´d been together from the start, I would´t be where I was were it not for them. But I also can´t deny the amount of joy Ii felt when I was presented with the chance to write the type of music I wanted to without stipulation…It took MANY long, precarious conversations and convincing, but in the end we reached a mutual understanding and we all struck a deal, a deal that´s still active to this day. ”A leaf may venture far as the wind blows but never forgets its roots” 🙂 Aviators and I are working closely together with 4FB, Midnight Melody (As well as some newer editions to the ensemble) as YouTube collaborators, but more importantly, as friends… ”Aviators – Shadows” 29/4/13 – ∞ (precent day)
