Song 9 - "Inside Your Heart"

Over the Christmas period I had a bit of a scare with my 12-track digital master recorder. Halfway through transferring something from it to the computer on Cool Edit, an error message came up on the 12-track that (a) made no sense and as a result (b) scared the living daylights out of me.

I took the most technical of routes - I turned it off and turned it on again and the thing behaved itself for the rest of the evening. Turned out it was probably too full of data, so I got rid of a lot of master material that I had saved as an mp3 and (touch wood) to date - no more error messages. "Antipodes" could continue.

Rob had sent some artwork through that he found on the net that would be perfect for our album cover - so it was all coming together nicely. He also sent through a new mix for "Only in Dreams" with extra percussion - but for me, it really spoiled the song, so he agreed to ditch the additions - he pretty much thought the same anyway.

So into the new year. I was now lagging a couple of songs behind - but I needn't have worried. I feel the next two of mine were the best of my own efforts (with the possible exception of "Anyway"). It's hard to describe what inspires you to write any song. The melody (or tune if you like) is very important, as it is normally the music that first grabs the listeners attention. But I also try and write decent lyrics when I can, because this is the part of the song that normally grows on people after a few plays and turns a good song into a long lasting song.

I decided to write a song to my son Marc who is due to be married this year. I know that his sister Leisa will understand that it would have seemed trite to also compose one for her on the same album - it will happen - as I think the world of them equally - but it will be on a future compilation.

For the first verse and chorus, I decided on no drums at all. Just a piano, oboe and some strings. Rob later added some chorus guitar to this which sounded brilliant. He also puts harmony vocals on the first chorus - equally excellent.

For the second verse and chorus the drums come in - sounding military style with a lot of emphasis on the snare. Along with Rob's harmony - the song draws to a finish with the intro repeated on the oboe and piano and Rob throwing in some great final notes using a swell pedal - very Mark Knopfler.

Rob really liked the song. He asked my permission to sing harmonies as the subject matter was personal. "Of course" I told him "This is our project - not just mine" He did a first rate job of the harmonies too.

There were a lot of problems with a particular note towards the end of the song, but thanks to some pretty neat editing on Rob's part, we ended up with the finish we wanted.

Here is the extract