This song came to life during my first co-writing session outside of I Heart Songwriting Club.  Sherry and I still took some time to get to know each other, but perhaps longer than is allowed within the Club environment.  We also decided on our own theme and guideline, but we discussed that between us beforehand.  The main difference with this session was the one-hour break that we had after we had finished writing the lyrics for the song.  This feature may be implemented in future co-writing sessions with I Heart Songwriting Club, but this is undecided at the current point in time.  We settled on an old instrumental I wrote 20 years ago, to serve as the basis for the chords, melody and overall structure here.


VERSE 1
I’ve just graduated from university
And I don’t know what I should do
Everyone is moving on with their lives
And I don’t even have a clue

Some people go on to be scientists
While others can walk into a job
I feel like I’m here wasting my time
And it’s been a really hard slog


CHORUS
I really want to start a family
That would be bliss for me
Everyone is leaving me behind
It makes me want to get back to the grind


VERSE 2
My friend’s just won the lottery, now he’s a millionaire
He don’t have to do work but he sits on his derriere
Another put a ring on it, and he’s in wedded bliss
I cannot help but feel that all they do is take the piss

My colleague has three children, they’re the apple of her eyes
I don’t know how she does it, I just feel so deprived
Another friend is pregnant and is due at any time
I always feel left out of things, it’s like I have no spine
 

CHORUS
I really want to start a family
That would be bliss for me
Everyone is leaving me behind
It makes me want to get back to the grind


BRIDGE
At least I have a place to live, a roof over my head
At least I’m not couch-surfing, and going from bed to bed
Slow and steady wins the race, don’t worry about the rest
We don’t need to take the same path to be a big success


CHORUS
I’m much more settled in my life 
Even though I don’t fit in
We never know what’s coming up
You should always trust your gut 

You really need to settle down! 
You don’t have to dot this right now
There’s still so much to do in life
So don’t throw in the towel

There’s still so much to do in life
So don’t throw in the towel

Settle Down (co-written with Sherry Xu)

Protis has been writing music since 1998, when he was still in high school. The name Protis came about from watching the TV show Pokemon; his original name was Piggy, and just how Pikachu evolves into Raichu, well he decided that Piggy would evolve into Protis. The name has stuck ever since then.

Protis is a big fan of computer-based music.  The first computer program he used for music purposes was Cubase Lite on good ol' Windows 3.1 operating system.  Over the years he moved on to Cubast VST, where he further developed his skills as a songwriter.  Most of his early recordings were instrumental works, as at the time he was unable to compose decent lyrics.

After a while, Protis decided to leave the realm of General MIDI and progress into the world of loops and samples.  He accomplished this by using the ACID range of products.  Countless hours were spent with this brilliant piece of software, coming up with lots of cool beats.

Protis has also dabbled in the FruityLoops software, now called FL Studio.  He utilised FL Studio to write songs which contained his first self-penned lyrics.  He was surprised at just how well his lyrics came across in each song, fitting in well with the music.  And all this from someone who could never write words to his songs!