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Lovely article abut Daniel
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Topic Started: Apr 24 2008, 01:58 PM (67 Views)
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ginger
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Apr 24 2008, 01:58 PM
Post #1
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http://parramatta.yourguide.com.au/Feature...feature_id=1190
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Music greats give advice to aspiring songwriters 24 April 2008 By Natalie Oliveri
"It's not what you've got but how you use it'' - that was the advice given to budding musicians from two of the most successful people in the Australian music industry, during a three-day music expo held earlier this month.
Savage Garden's Daniel Jones and legendary producer Charles Fisher spoke at the inaugural Song Summit Sydney, an event that saw Australian and international musicians, managers, publishers, creators, technicians, marketers, lawyers and deal makers get together to share tips and wisdom to more than 900 attendees.
Jones and Fisher were the key speakers during the panel discussion, The Songwriter and the Producer, which dealt with the working relationship between the creator (the songwriter) and the interpreter (the producer).
They reminisced about the making of Savage Garden, the debut album from the Brisbane duo who remain one of the few Australian acts to get two number one songs in America -Truly Madly Deeply and I Knew I Loved You.
That first album, produced by Fisher, sold 10 million copies. Savage Garden's second album, Affirmation, sold more than 13 million copies.
In the mid-90s, Jones and co-writer Darren Hayes, were two musicians with big dreams but little resources.
Fisher, Jones said, was one of only two people - the other being John Woodruff, their manager - who believed in the band's potential.
"I sent 150 demo cassettes out and probably half responded with letters saying 'No, that's not for us' and this demo had To The Moon And Back on it, a number one song,'' Jones said.
Luckily for them, Fisher and Woodruff liked what they heard and soon later, Jones and Hayes recorded their debut album - in Fisher's living room.
"We were cooped up in some s**tbox in Kings Cross and made our way to Rose Bay by bus every day to Charles' house.
"We were so far away from our dream but what I learnt was that we had to make our dream it wasn't given to us.''
"We had one keyboard for the entire album,'' Fisher said.
"The old saying, 'It's not what you have but how you use it' is very relative in that situation.''
"We had to use what we had to the best of our ability,'' Jones said.
"Sometimes magic is created when the harder things are to achieve.''
Savage Garden was born soon after Jones advertised for a lead singer in a local music magazine in the early 1990s.
"Darren sang a cappella, something from the Rocky Horror Picture Show I think, but I got goose bumps - he had the ability to move me with his vocals, the ability to translate emotion and to connect with me and that's why I went, 'This guy is fantastic'.
"He started singing Cold Chisel covers in pubs in Grafton, which is so not him, but he stepped up to the plate cause that was his job - you just have to work to the best of your ability in whatever environment you're given.''
Jones advised songwriters with stars in their eyes to record "at least four songs'' and send them to as many people in the music industry as possible.
"We used to put ideas into our mobile phones and call message bank and sing in into it.
"Put the songs down in any recording situation and then send it out in the hope that one person, because you only need one person to believe in it, will see something.
"If that song can be good at that level it can only be better at another level with a great producer, great musicians and a great studio.
"That song will always be that song in a situation with no budget and a situation where you can put the Philharmonic Orchestra on it.''
To The Moon And Back was recorded four different ways, Fisher said.
"That is the test of a a good song, how far you can bend it,'' Fisher said.
Although the music industry was changing, the song writing process remained the same, he said.
"You're trying to tell a story, express an emotion and that process hasn't changed for 400 years. The arrangement of songs have changed, how you dress it, but that raw song is the test.''
Fisher said one of the main roles of a producer was to "be an objective ear outside of the songwriter''.
"I know this song means a lot to you but it won't mean s**t to anyone else,'' Fisher said.
"It's like being a critic. And a lot of it is practical crap like booking musicians.''
Jones credited Fisher as being "a really good painter of that emotional picture of how the songwriter feels, using tools like drums and guitars''.
Today, Jones owns the former Studios 301 in Castlereagh Street, Sydney. It's a life far away from his Savage Garden days.
Although Jones wouldn't elaborate on his next project ("It's a creative thing but it doesn't have anything to do with music''), he has no regrets over the break-up of the band, which he is believed to have instigated.
"I don't have any regrets about what happened, I don't believe in regrets,'' Jones said.
"I'm blessed to have had the opportunities to do what we did and if you asked me now what would I rather be doing out on the road touring with Savage Garden or getting married, having a child and living in a nice household, I would say the latter.''
The Song Summit Sydney, presented by APRA/AMCOS, will return next year.
Visit www.songsummit.com.au
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lulu
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Apr 24 2008, 06:25 PM
Post #2
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Thanks!  Great article!!
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 Luciana * * * * http://www.myspace.com/lulu_bg "To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world."
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steph
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Apr 25 2008, 10:21 AM
Post #3
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don't be frightened of turning the page
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"Darren sang a cappella, something from the Rocky Horror Picture Show I think, but I got goose bumps - he had the ability to move me with his vocals, the ability to translate emotion and to connect with me and that's why I went, 'This guy is fantastic'.
This part made me go all squishy.
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myspace livejournal
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Nienna
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Apr 25 2008, 03:26 PM
Post #4
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It's My Life I'm Living, Not Yours.
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Hehehe, is it incredibly wrong that I started thinking 'this sounds like a fic...' when I read that?
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~Darren Hayes @ Joe's Pub New York City 03/29/07 ~ <img src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=t&chs=440x220&chtm=usa&chf=bg,s,336699&chco=d0d0d0,cc0000&chd=s:999&chld=WACANY" width="440" height="220" ><br/>visited 3 states (6%)<br/><a href="http://douweosinga.com/projects/visited?region=usa">Create your own visited map of The United States</a> or <a href="http://www.tonjafabritz.com/nederlands">vertaling nederlands duits?</a>
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Geo~Toni
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Apr 25 2008, 04:12 PM
Post #5
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Aww Brill article... Thanks so much. Oh and Nienna... I felt the same. LoL!
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Blessed be, Geo Toni x~X~x
Visit my Livejournal & Myspace Pages

12th May 07 ~ Club Delicacy, London. 27th September 07 ~ Time Machine Tour, Birmingham 17th Feb 08 ~ This side 2 Tour, Birmingham
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