Cover of the classic 80s tune from Tears for Fears. An iconic smash hit in the synthpop genre, written by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, and produced by Chris Hughes, appearing on their Songs From the Big Chair, a great album! Orzabal was quoted as saying (about the song) "It is a romance song that goes a bit perverse at the end." Ha ha. Always loved this tune, so I thought it would be a challenge to try to catch the vibe and imitate some of the sounds given meagre production resources. Lead vocals from Karaoke, and moi in backups; also in chant backups Chris Adamidis, and Jeanette Kennett. I'm responsible for the other schmozzle ;)--- all instruments, programming and production.

Head over Heels (by Tears for Fears)

Not my usual thing. A cover of an Australian Indie band song called Streets of your Town. The band was The Go-Betweens. Impossible to capture the sweetness and brilliance of the original, which is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M_P_xX9Cmw
Help on this one: Paul Matthews, P Bass + vocals.
Jeanette Kennett: backup vocals.
(I get the blame for everything else!)

Streets of Your Town (The Go-Betweens)

NOTES
Conceptually the song works on two levels. 

The literal meaning involves two descriptions, one of escaping a bad place by boat only to be returned by bad weather, and then on returning, witnessing the imprisonment of friends. These descriptions signify the difficulty of escape.

The second level is metaphorical. The existentialist philosopher Albert Camus famously explained the absurdity of life’s existence by comparing it with the situation depicted in the Greek tragedy, The myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus is condemned to the meaningless task – like that of repetitive work – of pushing a boulder up a hill only for it to roll down to the bottom, and for the process to start over again, ad infinitum. Sisyphus always ends up back where he was before. Camus speculates that even though, like all of human life, the predicament is crazy and horrifying, Sisyphus defies his situation and presses on. “One must imagine Sisyphus happy” says Camus.

I like Camus’s approach to absurdity: to confront it with sanguine, upbeat, defiance.

LYRICS
Suddenly life changes
Suddenly we’re gone
Lining up with strangers
To travel far away
We are uncertain (all of our lives)
Of what in hell we might find
Oh!
Suddenly life's dangers
Suddenly are here
Say goodbye to all of our friends
We sail.
We sail.
~
The wind, it blows
It was howling
The moon so full
It was rising, pointing
Towards a place of hope
~
There’s only so much we can take
Then suddenly the storm clouds break
Riding the waves to shore
Seems we’ve been here before
Back where we were before
~
Suddenly life changes
Suddenly we’re home
Lining up with neighbors
To do it all again
We’re very certain
Of what in hell we will find
Oh!
Suddenly life’s dangers
Suddenly so clear
Say hello to all of our friends
In jail
In jail
~
The walls
So high
They were
Scraping scraping
The sky
So grey
It was 
Falling, warning
‘gainst a taste of hope
There’s only so much we can take
Before we crash these walls and break
Out of the blue once more
Seems we’ve been here before
Back where we were before.

Sisyphus

Past Reflection

I saw this amazing short video (90 seconds, and worth it) called A Great Homage to Nature of changing appearances and mimicry of nature. This piece was going to be called The More Things Change, but the video inspired a change (!) of title. The graphic is a still shot from the video, which I gratefully acknowledge. Look closely.
The vid can be found on Youtube - search with that title above. (The link I had no longer functions.)

Changing into You

A tune about possibilities. 
Music, all instruments, programming and production: Steve
Lyrics: Lydia Mathewson
Vocals: @Roger Stankovic
Image: Dreamstime

Fly High

Some notes loosely devoted to the idea of eternal recurrence and return. Jazz rock fusion instrumental.

Cosmic Deja Vu

Started life as an acoustic demo. Last month I pulled it out and built a groove around it…and voila! Light, and slightly tongue-in-cheek, a joyful tune about falling in love on New Year’s Eve. The poppiest thing I’ve posted. Vocals shared by Roger S., Jen D B, and myself.

Eleven Fifty Nine

Sometimes it's good to climb the hill and look at life from beyond the daily grind.

Passion for the Beyond

Downtown. Streetside bars. Instrumental. Kind of a latin/blues/jazz thing that morphed into hard rock, then synth pop.
Credits: Freesound for street/crowd samples. Gencraft image.

Streetside

Follows on from my earlier track "Passion for the Beyond", though a little jazzier. Brass sounds from a VST (MIDI-triggered) instrument. Image: Gencraft.

Beyond Passion

I strained my wrist playing guitar while practicing a new piece I hope to post in a month or two, so in the meantime I decided to freshen up a short piece I had on SC from a few years ago. It’s a simple melody, a musical meditation, towards peace; the dove of peace carries this message, through many cultures and religions. Peace is needed now, more than ever. Hope you may spend 2 minutes with me to meditate.
PS. Wasn't able to master this with clarity, so headphones/earphones best.

Peace Dove

"They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us."

Acoustic steel string, for two main guitars, with occasional single note line decoration from a third. (All parts played on my Maton M225.)

Songbird Boo

Blue Joey

Some new acoustic guitar stuff is under construction, but meanwhile here’s a very different beast, called 'Relentless'. About the relentless assembly line of life.

Relentless

This track is dedicated to Noodle, our son's gorgeous little dog who recently left the world. He will be missed very much.

Noodle

This is a re-worked version of a track from a few years back. There's a raw edge to it…so I re-named it to reflect the Springtime wildflowers blooming down here right now.

Wild Notes

About the pages that go missing in our stories. 

VERSE 1
He dreamt a child’s dream
Of candy floss and cream 
Echoes call his name 
But no body’s there…any more 
Faces blurred away
Words he will not say… 

VERSE 2 
Sitting in the shade 
Where the oak once grew 
The leaves whisper low 
Of moments he once knew
But time it steals the light 
The dusk it falls too soon.  

CHORUS 
Pages torn away 
Words he can’t recall 
Memories that betray 
Faces far away 

VERSE 3
He holds a picture close
Its corners bent and frayed 
The faces blur with time
But their smiles have stayed
Names begin to fade, but 
The sense of warmth remains.

A Child's Dream

Graceful Pari

“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.”

Forbidden Funk

“It had never occurred to me that our lives, which had been so closely interwoven, could unravel with such speed. If I’d known, maybe I’d have kept tighter hold of them, and not let unseen tides pull us apart.”

Never Let Me Go

Balancing Act

Crossroads

Haven’t been on the cloud much lately. Been travelling across the southern Australian coastline, to the beautiful and remote Kangaroo Island. Its beauty seemed strangely juxtaposed to the horrors going on elsewhere.

Haunting Moods of Change

Port Charm

An electronic/industrial piece, with some fusion elements.

Cosmic Call

The Lovely Blue Waves

Remix and re-invention of an earlier track from many years ago. Messier 83 (see the image), also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, contains structures within structures. The images are stunning. This track has interlocking aspects, hence the title.

The Ferns of M83

I had these two little blues pieces – in E and C – and an arrangement for When I’m 64, and they seemed to fit, and voila! The whole piece runs for 100 bars, but subtracting the repeated two blues sections the piece adds up to 64 bars. I swear this was an accident!

Credits: When I’m Sixty Four by John Lennon & Paul McCartney, 1967. (McCartney wrote the song.)


Sixty-four Bar Blues

A cover of the Tears for Fears song off their album of 1985: Songs From the Big Chair. A huge worldwide hit, the song reached #1 in Canada and New Zealand, and #2 in Australia, and the UK. Wiki info is that the song was written by Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley and Chris Hughes, and produced by Hughes. Curt Smith sings lead vox. Song is in G, but don't try to work it out from the original album because I believe they sped up the tape so it would play slightly faster (sounding better) but making life hard for covering it. A nice relatively recent live version is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGPFmBbnsNM. 
It's a nice challenge to try to cover these synthpop masterpieces with basic equipment. I had some help. Lead vox Karaoke; backups moi, and all instruments, programming, production. (I use an old version of Nuendo, plus assorted programs and plugins.) 
I extended the second guitar solo at the end. The chord changes there are cool and the key is guitar-friendly!

Everybody wants to rule the world (by Tears for Fears)

After updating my profile pic (“time machine” shot!), I figured it was also time to refresh the bio. The amount of world-class talent on the Cloud never ceases to amaze me. I don’t say that lightly – I’ve learned so much from so many of you. There are artists here I genuinely consider among the best musical talents I’ve heard anywhere. And I have heard a ton of music.
I’m a lifelong music addict. For me, music can be transformative, cathartic, joyful, and intellectual – often all at once. My taste? Almost anything done well. Almost. My own music is eclectic: from acoustic guitar pieces to jazz fusion, to prog/alternative/psychedelic rock, to electronica.
What really keeps me here, though, is the community – the interaction, and the sense of connection that somehow forms even when we never meet in person. The goodwill and respect are something special, and I don’t take that for granted.
Finally, regarding recording – if you’re still reading! – my humble studio hasn’t changed in 15 years. I’m even still running Windows 7 to support my old Steinberg DAW. No AI tools – just me, I like to control the physical process at every step, from idea, to playing, editing, mixing, and final production.

Steve Matthews

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