SecondLife Singer/Songwriter Showcase
The BRIGHT OH FILES
Bright is a singer/songwriter and story teller in the finest tradition of, of, well of himself. His shows flow between ballads about love and life, mid-tempo rock and ecopolitical rants (unplugged or with backing tracks) interspersed with stories so real you will want to cry or burst out laughing and tales so fanciful that you will want to shake him :) Bright’s shows are dedicated to original music and include his own songs as well as those written with or by his mates, Charles, Experiment and DOC, and a handful of other songwriting collaborations. He is a prolific and passionate songwriter who may just become part of the soundtrack of your life.
If you like lyrics to touch your heart and melodies and harmonies that linger in your mind, then you should take in a Bright Oh show soon.
Q&A
1. Why are you a singer/songwriter?
I could always sing (or so I'm told) but I started to play guitar when I fell in love with the singer/songwriters of my youth. I played and sang their songs to whoever would listen! I toyed with writing my own songs but nothing clicked and I made the mistake back then of always comparing what I wrote with the songs written by others I admired. That always killed writing for me. Then I got together with two friends, Experiment and Charles one day (on our way to becoming SOAR in SL) who were more adept songwriters than me at the time, and songs just began to flow out of me. So quickly in fact that I didn't have time to sit around and compare them to the songs written by my heroes. So some of them actually got completed, and some of them were quite pleasant, and I had learned how to begin being a songwriter.
For me, once I had discovered the joy and challenges of writing my own songs that is all I wanted to do. One day I may not have any more songs inside me trying to get out so I treat every idea and every completed song as if it could me my last. I try to get them written and then performed so that they have their own life like all songs.
2. What is your musical background? Do you have a musical family or did you just fall into songwriting all on your own?
My Mum played classical piano. My Dad was a Parson and so there were always the melodies of hymns and carols being heard and sung. But I don't know that it is any of this that turned me into a singer/songwriter. Being born with a pleasant voice is probably the single most important gift that let me even begin to think of being a creative musician. Girls liked to hear me sing. End of story. So I did.
3. What sorts of things have you done to improve your songwriting?
Not enough. Seems like there is just too much to do to improve. I don't want to mimic other peoples styles and I don't want to become clinical about my songwriting (yet) so in many respects I shy away from some of the very things that may help me improve faster - if you can understand any of this. I certainly want to become a better guitar player, to collaborate more with others in songwriting, to learn more chords and understand chord creation better, to write more on piano based songs.
4. Have you written any songs in the last 12 months? What are you working on now and where do you feel your music is headed?
I am between songwriting binges at the moment. This seems to be how I go about it. Nothing followed by weeks/months where I write new songs every day. My last songwriting binge was in October/November 2012 during which I managed to complete about 15 new songs, and have another 50 still to be finished.
5. And finally, what advice would you give anyone looking to follow a similar path to yours?
I imagine that everyone does this songwriting thing in the way that best works for them. But I would tell people what works for me. Don't take any musical idea/song for granted - get it written down somewhere and do your best to complete songs and let them be heard. This is what songs ask for most - to be heard. And, songs may be gifts from God and you may have one or a thousand inside you, and some may be completed in 15 minutes and some may take weeks, regardless you will get a lot more done if you treat songwriting like a task that requires passion, commitment, hours and hard work. Finally, be yourself - we've already heard and made up our minds about everyone else.
