The Ballooning Brouhaha: Songguide (secret messages?)

Every year I've got a brand new batch of songs that reflect my state of affairs, my moodswings, frustrations, tribulations and the lot of everyday life. Here's the story, the inspiration behind them.
I don't want to explain what the lyrics are about though,
I'll leave that open for interpretation.

"Is there a important message, theme in there then?" I hear you ask.
Maybe. Look at the cover, you can say that the balloon with the printed world stands for the bloated, forced way people treat the earth and eachother (I'm no exeption). Blowing it up. Well, what´s the brouhaha of it all?


And you see me just letting it go. Letting the world pass me by or trying to catch it with irony in 13 songs.


Well, here we go!


                                                                            1.Brouhaha!

I didn't intend to leave it as an instrumental, as I found this funky chord progression easy to work with vocalwise. I just found some melodies on the keyboard. "Brouhaha", a word you hear me shout, I used to hear it in my youth, whenever someone in my neighbourhood did his hoopla (dutch=heisa) trick: "well, what´s the hoopla/ brouhaha all about boy?"



2.Stupid Song(s)                  

The irony. The (s) gives the songs a double meaning. I always like to play the joker. I work at night, where they always turn up the wrong station on the radio. With stupid songs creeping into my ears. Couldn´t resist to write something...stupid.
This is one of the 2 songs Wijnand Brant got his sologuitar on. At the end you hear him duel with himself. Fire!

3.A Trip Together

Wrote this one very quick on guitar, sang the melody spontanuously on top of it. One of those that wrote itself. I think it works well, because there´s a intensity and balance between the groove and the melody, a tension I often go for. You can dance to it too.

4.Talkwalk (Looking For The Boz)
                                                             

Boz, we all know of Scaggs, don´t we? Wel he´s an old hero of mine. Sophisticated, cool shades. This is a musical wink, tribute  to his work of the seventies. Notable is the obvious similarity in arrangement feel between his "Lowdown" and this song, but I did it all in the name of inspiration. Yeah, really.

5.Here She Goes Again (Yo Mama)  

 
The old rock´n roll feel in this song has to do with my mother. She used to drive us kids nuts with that volume knob, when she turned up a new album she´d just bought. Loud! I mean loud. She angrily turned it off when she found out that the song she was after (but didn´t know the title of),wasn´t on it. A very intense woman with a deep rooted bluesattitude, that´s why....
Meanwhile, I played drums in the loft and my older brother played his Hendrix licks for hours in his room underneath. I mean loud!

6.Sunday train

Wrote this on piano and although I'm not classically trained, I've got just enough fingers to handle a few keys to come up with a few tunes. Couldn't do it in one take, so I rehearsed the hell out of it. Challenging stuff for me to sing it with the right power and dynamics.


7.The Route Through The Quiet Jungle 

Melody, breaks combined with a steady groove and city noises, that's it.



8.Don´t Mind The Blues

Guess I don't mind that much, but blues singing especially comes from my gut. It's always a challenge to find a fresh topline to keep that blues alive. This song brought that to me.

 9.Big Bad Boy

Variation in style. Never dipped in this one, but a little country keeps me upbeat. Yie-haa!

10.familiar Lines

Yes, the thin line between love and hate. I hear The Metropole Orchestra (if they ever hear this...call me) behind this, just like they did with Todd Rundgren. I play most of the orchestral stuff, except for a few sampled violins that suited and complemented the basic arrangements. Majestic.

11.Disco Scream From The Sinking Loveboat

Instrumental disco. Whatever happened to the (seventies TV) loveboat.....? As a variation of the excisting instrumental melody Wijnand Brant goes in overdrive with his guitarsolo. I had to edit and alter his stuff in order to make it a totally. To round it off I put a titanic and desperate scream for dramatic effect.
Nope, it's not the wife..




12.Social Spy

The obsession for social media transmitted to an intense funky groove.

13.I Am Older Now

Ballad of the old kid. Sounds a bit desperate, but it expresses my lack of self confidence that sometimes bothers me. Guess it happens to most of us.

So listen carefully...