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Anatomy of a Hit - 1 Year Later

Some time back I wrote a blog post titled, 'Anatomy of a Hit' (the original post can be found here.)

In that post I talked about my dabbling in music during the mid 90's culminating in a minor dance hit that I co-wrote with friends Ivan Gough (of TV Rock fame) and Andrew Harpur.

I also announced my intention to try and write a hit record over the next 12 months (the blog post was written July 2008.)

Subsequent to that post I bought a 'proper' electronic piano (a Roland FP-7) complete with ultra realistic sounds and fully weighted keys.

I also signed up for lessons with a local professional.

Regrettably, while my tutor was brilliant and extremely patient (Jenny Ford from Melbourne School of Music) it turned out I was not the ideal student. The combination of my regular and lengthy traveling OS with a very busy schedule meant I wasn't able to dedicate the necessary time both to the lessons and 'daily' practice.

All is not lost on the learning front however as I wont be traveling OS as much in the near future and I will shortly be moving near Melbourne's CBD (further reducing daily travel in and out of the city). I also now have a brilliant EA working with me (@lindywaldeck) to free up even more time meaning I've ran out of excuses. 

I will re-commence lessons in some form (am considering trying the interactive lessons included within the new version of Garageband) in the coming weeks, fingers crossed.

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The thrust of my 'Anatomy of a Hit' post was that I would try and write/produce a hit record over the year following that post.

Its a little over a year since I wrote that post and I 'may' be onto something, albeit a fair way away from what I had originally intended.

My original plan was to take a track that had been bouncing around in my head at the time and try and turn said track into a professionally recording for 'hopeful' release commercially through a record label.

To do that, and mindful of the complexity of the track that I was wanting to do, I felt I had to learn piano in order to have the necessary skills to play then record the song.

Around 3 - 4 months ago I was thinking about a song I had written with 2 friends in the mid 90's and an 'idea' sprung to mind as to how that song could be re-worked thematically for 'now' and brought up to date musically also.

I don't want to give too much away at this stage, suffice to say that the song is about Love in the age of Social Media.

Over the past few months I have worked with one of the original song writers to re-tool the lyrics along the new 'theme'. I have also worked with 2 professional producers/muso's to help bring the track into 2009 and give it the polish and finish necessary for a global, commercial release.

Am currently in the middle of working through the agreement for its release and am also working on a video clip.

Am planning on releasing the track on iTunes and other platforms mid October and will provide a more detailed update via this blog in the lead up to its release.

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Filed under  //   Anatomy of a Hit   Cleva Cleva   Dance Music   Deuce by Cleva Cleva   music   Musician   Social Media   whodeani   Whodeani's Blog  
Posted by Dean Jones 

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Anatomy of a hit

Time for a new years resolution... well a new financial year resolution (I'm from Australia and our tax year finishes June 30.)

For those that know me well, you would be aware that some time ago I dabbled in music.

While I never learned to play an instrument... nor could I play or write music in the traditional sense... I was able however to produce programmed music (usually of the dance genre, though not always) using my computer.

This was a time consuming process of shuffling around notes, instruments and effects using digital music software (mainly Logic Audio by eMagic if memory serves) until I liked what I had produced.

I didn't always work alone... in fact one of the people I wrote a lot of music with at the time (including Deuce by Cleva Cleva from 1993... image and audio included below*) has gone on to bigger and better things... writing one of the biggest hits of 2007 back in Australia actually.

Deuce (7In Plutonium Mix) by Cleva Cleva  
(download)

I also wrote a lot of songs with a very good friend of mine Richard Mataska whom is an extremely talented pianist/musician.

This partnership was a lot of fun combining my skills as a writer (of sorts) and producer with his as an expert muso. (Will try and dig up some of our joint compositions for a future post.)

Your probably asking 'what is the point'... that is... this blog post is titled 'Anatomy of a hit' and so far all I have done is ramble on about my dabbling in computer music during the mid 90's...?

Well I have decided to get back into music...

My intention... to write/produce a hit song over the next 12 months.

A couple of things drove me to this... a change in life circumstances and most importantly... an actual song that has been forming in my head for the past several weeks... the lyrics, melody and most of the music is there... the problem now given my limited musicianship... is to get this song out of my head and into the computer.

I've made a start of sorts... I've purchased Logic Express, iDrum (virtual drum machine)... and have ordered one of those Rollup keyboards so I can write on the road (I travel a lot.)

* No... thats not me singing... :)

*** UPDATE ***

A friend just let me know that the original video clip for this track has just been posted on Youtube. Here it is in all its glory.

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Filed under  //   Anatomy of a Hit   Cleva Cleva   Dean Jones   Deuce   Deuce by Cleva Cleva   Ivan Gough   Jooce   Logic Audio  
Posted by Dean Jones 

Comments [5]