I wrote and did my first recording of this song back in May 2023 - but I wasn't quite happy with it - I have difficulty singing any note longer than a minim without going on tangents, so I decided recently to give my vocal vulnerabilities a few tweaks. The lesson here is you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear! Despite this, I enjoyed writing a song with long-held notes which is abnormal for me.

The idea for the song originated with the first line ... 'If I [mumble] [mumble] [mumble], refine me', so the rest of the verses became an exercise in finding words rhyming with 'remind' and overlaying these on melodic variations of the first line. Lastly, because the verses describe external intervention, it became natural to write a chorus recognising the person. The guitar riff (if we call it that) gave some busyness to sit underneath the long notes in the chorus - something I realised a few years back - if one instrument/voice is busy, often another instrument/voice will be less so in order that each has their own space.

Refine me

I've been a guitarist since the age of 15 and writing songs since then, albeit more prolifically since 2000. I prefer strong melodies and to borrow chords to move outside of the diatonic. Usually, the song mix contains my vocals, guitars and sometimes bass, with drums, keys and other instruments auto-generated. The tracks uploaded in my Soundcloud are attempts to 'illustrate' the idea and sound I imagined when writing the songs. At best, the quality of recordings are demo quality. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!

Thoughtful music to awaken, heal and inspire through simplicity and harmony....and no AI ever.

Just another nobody who's not here to be somebody.  I write songs because I can't help it, and it helps me.  If I add them here, I'm less likely to keep mixing them.  Creativity is a stream with many tributaries, and sometimes one runs through us.  The stream is more creative when tributaries meet, and I'm grateful for the collaborative efforts of others.

Refine me

Andrew of the antipodes