Ah a day off. Stingshark Sting invited me to his studio to work on vocals for my collaboration with Hold in Fyah, ‘Going South’. It’s this exciting new direction for me, where I bring a song to a band that I know will knock it out the park, and we cut it with the crew backing me up as a solo artist.
It’s like what I am doing with my band in Britain, Sherlock Soul, and the collective behind it, Bedlam Isle.
How much can we accomplish working together, doing just what we all do best? How can we keep costs down without rounding over the wrong corners?
For me and my best? That’s bringing in a song like an old Tin Pan Alley songwriter – a lead sheet with lyrics and chords and basic a recording. And I sing my song. The band develops the arrangement; the flesh and bones of the song that the skeleton only implies.
Of course when ever I record those definitive performances and collaborate with someone new I have a crisis of ego. It happens almost everytime I record actually. I don’t panic, I will find a way, but it’s a journey from wondering if you are ruining a good song, your own song, and capturing with the help of a professional a performance that will sound even stronger tomorrow.
Right now I am sort of lost in a good way. The old road felt like a dead end. Or worse a Road to Nowhere. But with the help of your friends you can guide that ship towards Glory.
Stingshark had plenty of good advice that helped me find my way today, such as approaching this song as a poet first, because in this case the words really do matter. Such as the verse 2,
☆
“Sarrounded by Cavemen I had to think fast
They couldn’t recognize history if it shot them in the ass
If that ain’t history, are they stuck in the past?
I heard the Mad Hatter is having a hell of a bash
☆
Down the rabbit hole, your lizard’s a Queen
I’m not sure if I really want to be on your team
Because I know what White Supremacy means
This nightmare is your American Dream”
☆
We’ve performed the song a few times and it’s a great live tune I hope I play for the rest of my days. It doesn’t need to be a #1 record. Records about anything have no place on the radio today, unless you make it a Trojan Horse. ‘Free Your Mind’ is saying something about the line between pressure that keeps you alive and that which crushes you, that you will catch later on. Because you’ll probably memorize the song before you catch that connection. And that’s nice. It wouldn’t make the TOP 40 if people felt immediately, it was really THAT heavy. Sleight of hand man.
But this recording is more direct. It’s a broadside. A strong rebuke you can dance to. It could stand up as a song that captures this dangerous moment, if I just deliver the goods through that darn microphone. No terd polishing, no pitch correcting. Just performances.
Bless Stingshark. He sent me on my way with a bounce of ‘Going South’ and a vintage leather jacket that doesn’t quite fit him. But now amazingly, it fits me.
His wife Michka Mirzanejad is even assisting me in reaching another level of stardom by giving me the chance to get in the best shape of my life, with her Body By Impulse. Right now I am delivering my longest purest notes in years and years and years.
I am trying to be self reliant, to live a sustainable life. The irony is that as you try to carry more weight and responsibility in this world, you are reminded of what you could never really do on your own.
It’s a good thing. It’s bricks we lay each day to build a house of music and culture, that I hope I can all invite you soon enough to enjoy, as a part of my next grand venture to bring more of us together, and to do bigger things yet,
THE SOUL UNITED ALL-STARS
Now to make my way to Mays Pond for a meal and British Tele with my folks. Under my arm is this bevy of $2 books on clearance to add to my library. An artist and writer of any merit must be able to find the treasure in what others left behind or thought of as ordinary.
My many thanks to all of you that support me being me. I am going to do good with all of the time and help of all kinds you all have given me.
It takes a village and I hope I make your village a little more entertaining, inspired, and maybe on my unusual journey…just maybe enlightening.
Patience is a vurtue I have enjoyed among many that have waited for my arrival. I have tested it, and I hope I can continue to reward your patience.
I am one of the mad ones. But consistently so. As stingshark discussed, we’re all just trying to be pretty good everyday. Because the country road from mediocre to the big city lights of greatness has many a roadblock. But there is an on ramp from a little side street called Pretty Damn Good.
…ask Mick Jagger. Freddie Mercury? That guy was just f☆cking awesome. But Mick is still available for worldwide bookings.
Ah a day off. Stingshark Sting invited me to his studio to work on vocals for my collaboration with Hold in Fyah, ‘Going South’. It’s this exciting new direction for me, where I bring a song to a band that I know will knock it out the park, and we cut it with the crew backing me up as a solo artist.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. In the spring of 2018 he spent weeks networking in and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica. He will return there soon for more recording. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
