Red Noses and Good Causes

It's less than a week now until the Big Day! Red Nose Day 2011 is this coming Friday - 18th March. We're thrilled to be partnering with Comic Relief by providing this year's Schools' Song. If you've not yet seen or heard it, check it out on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHw1UtOKCoE

Seems strange that we wrote this song nearly 9 months ago. It was huge fun working with local schools on the video shoot and the studio recording. As ever, we were blown away by the talent flying around the place. The video footage was directly shaped by the song lyrics - the idea being to fuel some creative and quirky approaches to raising money: "Can you raise a lot of money doing something really funny?" - whether it's juggling with bananas, singing in your pyjamas, doing the moonwalk (just like Michael) or riding a unicycle, the opportunities are endless!

This is the third time we have worked with our friends at Comic Relief, and they are as pleased with the results as we are. You can download the song and video by visiting the Comic Relief website and following the teachers/assemblies links: 

http://www.rednoseday.com/teachers/assemblies

You've still four days to learn the song, and join the thousands of schools who will be singing and performing the song this Friday. 

"Make a huge amount of money, a bucket load of money,

A lovely lot of money while you entertain!"

These Simple Things

On a previous blog, we talked about the process of song-writing. Given that serious writing generally requires a certain amount of crafting, technique and perseverance, just occasionally a melody drops into your head from nowhere. 


Yesterday, before we'd even sat down to write, a four-line melody, within half a tone of the right key, arrived, unannounced and ready to roll. Initially, it posed as a Christmas or Harvest song - not something we were planning to write just now. Two hours later, when the song was still hanging around like an uninvited guest, we decided it might have something to say to us. Given time for interrogation, this little tune turned out to be a most welcome visitor. Verse by verse, 'These Simple Things' considers different aspects of what brings us peace. This simple song takes us over the half way line on this new project. 


PS If you had five verses to fill, what would you include as the things that bring you that sense of peace and satisfaction? (We'd be very interested to hear your thoughts).

Spring Chickens and Cappuccinos!

Going out for a cup of coffee before we faced doing the weekly food shop was definitely a good idea! It generally is - but this time was unusually valuable. We'd barely had time to slurp the froth off the top of the cup, when the lady sat at the adjacent table started singing with her two very small children: "I'm... a ..... SPRING CHICKEN!". They were doing the actions with a good deal of enthusiasm, much to our amusement. (When Mark joined in my delight did a nosedive!)   It was only as they were leaving did we give in to the temptation of owning up to having written the song. Thank you Laura, from Cheam, for not being too ashamed to sing our songs in public - and thanks to our conversation with you, we are now seriously considering a new title for early years, sometime next year. Keep you posted. 

Change and Grow

It's nearly the end of the week and we have another song to share with you from the new collection we are working on. In the process of songwriting, we have always found that what works best for us is to start with the melody. We have this in common with Roger Radcliffe - fictional composer of 'Cruella De Ville' from Disney's '101 Dalmatians'. ("Melody first. Always the melody first!"). We tend to find that creating the tune, chords and structure is the relatively quick bit! The next part of the process is to interpret what the tune itself is saying - the melody has to be given time to tell us who he, or she, is. Then follows the sometimes mind-numbingly difficult task of crafting the lyrics to suit the shape and emotion of the tune.

We were pleasantly surprised how effortlessly the lyrics fell into place for this new song 'Change and Grow'. We wanted it to be useful for a number of different occasions in the school year - including moving onto a new year, or leaving in years 2 or 6. We're aware that sadly there are many unwelcome changes in our lives as well as the more positive ones, so perhaps this song will be resonate on many levels.

With the help of our well-thumbed 'Rhyming Dictionary', and the obligatory cups of coffee, we were able to write and demo this song in a day. In writing this song, we had a bit of a smile when we inadvertently found ourselves giving a 'nod' to some other lyrics from old favourites in the 'EVERY' series. (So, to those faithful users of our songs, if you liked 'Time for Everything', 'Leavers' Song' and 'Memories', we think you'll like this new one).

Blue Skies and Chocolate

Funny thing, songwriting. You find yourself writing songs for Christmas when it's Easter, and summery songs when it's snowing! The last few days I've had a song called 'Blue Skies' going round my head - I have to admit we're rather pleased with it! It's one of a few new 'Mark and Helen' songs that will feature in a long-awaited collection to be published sometime later in the year - "Here Comes Summer". It was written in December, of course! 


I can't say the skies are especially blue around here at the moment - but the scenery is stunning! I've taken a few precious days 'out' to work and walk in the Lake District. I know, it's a long way to come for a walk, but well worth it! Nothing like a battle against the wind and the rain on the hills to clear the cobwebs (and find muscles you didn't know you had, in the fight to stay on the hill). 


Walking and creativity are definitely best of companions. One of the first songs we ever published (remember "There Is A Song For Every Season"?), that was the product of a short walk. Better still, it was a short walk to the sweet shop to buy a bar of chocolate - that was many years ago now - and the whole 'Songs For EVERY...' series was born out of that one song. A bar of chocolate with a calorie-content surpassed only by the creativity it generated  -  that's some chocolate - and that's an occasion I've cited on many occasions since to justify buying another one!   

A Healthy Life!

Just finished writing the first song for our next publication, due out later in the year. So, there we were, sat round the piano writing lyrics that promote a healthy lifestyle -eg- a good night's sleep, sufficient rest, exercise and a balanced diet. The irony of course is that we're stuck indoors, sat on our backsides most of the day, snacking out as we work our way through an endless supply of tea and coffee! The biggest challenge is staying awake during the day, and at night-times trying to erase the melodies from your head when you're wanting to sleep!

Song-writing is a strange beast. There are never any guarantees that you'll be able to do it again, and melodies appear from the strangest of places and at most inconvenient times. We both sleep with digital recorders by the bed. We have set ourselves just ten weeks to produce fifteen songs for the next title.

Watch this space...

Blog, Slog and Creative Cogs

Welcome to the blogging world of Mark and Helen. This is a new venture for us - to our shame, we even had to look up where the word 'blog' came from! (If 'blog' comes from 'web-log' - does that make a song-writers log a 'slog'?!)


We figured a blog would be a fantastic way to keep you in touch with all our creative news, views and 'thinking-throughs'. If you've been following our musical journey via our company catalogue or website (www.outoftheark.com), it'd be fair to question if the 'Mark and Helen' song-writing hadn't slowed down over the last couple of years. Or, ground to a near-halt! 


We're here to reassure you - after a bit of a long phase of business developments and an office move, we're now back in the creative saddle (piano/guitar stool), fully set on writing, writing, writing. Getting back into creative mode after a lengthy gap can feel a little bit like starting up an old car that's been sat in a cold garage for a long time - it can take a little while to get the engine turned over, but it's soon ticking over nicely and into gear. 


So, we hope this blog can not only keep you keep you up to date with all our song-writing news, but offer you the chance to come with us as we take to the road on the next leg of our creative journey. 


Thank you for your interest!