I wrote a song about one of my music friends, Nathan Eggins, in a previous term for I Heart Songwriting Club.  It was called "Conspiracy Of One", because that's the name he chose for himself as an artist.  It's also his favourite album by The Offpsring, but his music could not be more different to that of the American punk outfit!  I performed "Conspiracy Of One" for Nathan at an open mic event earlier this year, and he was both flattered and honoured all in one!  We had agreed to co-write a song late last year, but the hardest part was finding the time to do so.  He was busy touring to launch his latest album at the time, and unfortunately I missed out on going to of those gigs.  Eventually Nathan and I decided on a date and time that we would follow up on down the track.  He also said that he wanted more experience co-writing online than in person.  So we started out on Zoom, but we had all sorts of issues with the audio and not being able to hear each other.  In the end, we switched over to Facebook Messenger which worked so much better for us!

Our co-written song took us two online sessions to complete this demo.  I suggested that we write it in a reggae style, which is a genre that he had never tackled before.  I had written a few reggae songs before, so it was a really good challenge to take on a more stripped-back approach to this type of music.  We both collaborated on the lyrics, while he played acoustic guitars and sang.  I think I also offered assistance on the chord progression as well, and it all came together really nicely.  As for the song's lyrical content, it was one of those extremely hot summer days when we wrote this.  As such, I suggested we write to the theme Heat.  The first verse is about being a child in a playground, while the second verse is about being stuck in a day job.  There's a metaphor about life being a playground, and you could say the whole song is a coming of age story about growing up and realising the responsibilities of life.  You don't stay young forever, even if life may seem like a playground at times!  Nathan and I are both so proud of how this song turned out, and it would be nice to write with him again in future.


VERSE 1
It was a hot hot day
What a day to be in the shade
But there I was in the sun baking like a souffle

I should’ve stayed inside
But I had to go on the slide
When I reached the bottom I found that my bottom was fried
(Ow!)


PRE-CHORUS
If life’s a playground, then why was I stung?
If life's a playground, why can’t I stay young?


CHORUS 1
Roundabouts and swings
Ups and downs to everything
It was all fun and games, 
No such thing as shame

And when I heard the school bell ring 
I should have known what life would bring
Instead I chose to do my own thing


VERSE 2
Now I’m a drone in a hive
With too many files on my drive 
I’m doing what I can just trying to survive

Will I be in this job forever
Me and my colleagues together
We feel like we’re at the end of our tether


PRE-CHORUS
If life’s a playground, then why am I stuck?
If life's a playground, why am I in a rut?


CHORUS 2
Roundabouts and swings
Ups and downs to everything
It’s not all fun and games
I often feel the shame

As I work hard for the king
I’m still waiting for that bell to ring
For the next part of my life to begin


SOLO


CHORUS 3
Roundabouts and swings
Ups and downs to everything
I’ve had some fun and games
And grown out of shame

And when the church bell rings
The nice box they’ve laid me in
Will be a place to contemplate everything

Roundabouts & Swings (co-written with Nathan Eggins)

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!

New tracks tagged #Roundabouts &amp; Swings

New tracks tagged #Roundabouts & Swings