Song of the Year is not an award I was expecting to add to my website a few months ago. However as my last blog post states, Kelly – a beautiful song that I produced with Dutch artist Cas du Pree – had been nominated as Song of the Year in the 2023 OGIMA Music Awards. I can now proudly announce that Kelly was in fact chosen as the winner from a strong field of impressive songs.
OGIMA Awards
The OGIMA awards are run in conjunction with TJPL News. TJPL is a wonderful magazine featuring a team of talented journalists who enthusiastically support independent music. The magazine interviewed Cas in an earlier edition, including a beautiful three-page colour spread. To be further recognised by the publication and all the amazing artists that they support was a further honour. I also plan on sending all of the artists I work with in their direction because it’s increasingly unusual to find music journalists who genuinely listen to the independent songs they review.
I’ve already written about Kelly in a previous post. So – as much as I love the song (and the fact I can now refer to myself as an ‘award-winning composer on these posts!) – I think it’s more prudent for me to write about Cas’ new EP Neon Nights. A more recent release. So firstly here is the link via Spotify… strap in.
Neon Nights – the team
The method of producing Neon Nights was different to that of Cas’ debut album ‘Getting to Know Me.’ Before, Cas and I composed most of the songs ourselves, where he provided direction and lyrics to inspire the beginning of the song. With Neon Nights Cas was keen for me to retain control of the production and maintain sonic concurrence between the two releases. However, because of a desire to explore a slightly ‘poppier’ sound on Neon Nights he also (understandably) wanted to collaborate with other songwriters when composing each song. For this EP he collaborated with three writers – Italian Esli Martinez, US national Will Everett and Brit Hugh Webber. There is also a remix by Dutch electronic producer Mats Kuiperij.
Therefore aside from track 4, London, Cas would send me lyrics accompanied by an acoustic demo which normally featured melody, chords and perhaps a basic drum beat to give an indication of rhythmic feel. I would then import this demo into Logic X and the fun would begin! Building a song starting with someone else’s story and melodic idea poses its own challenges but it’s no less enjoyable. I’ll briefly describe each track below.
1. Takeaway Love
Takeaway Love – the collaboration with Hugh Webber – is my favourite track on the EP. Cas and Hugh provided a cool lyric which inspired a track which evolves as the song progresses. I really wanted to evoke the ambience and excitement of a night out, while delivering a catchy chorus. This poppy chorus contrasted nicely with a more rhythmic second verse and its more sophisticated sounding piano. The best part of the song however (in my humble opinion!) is the instrumental outro. Coming straight off the back of an intense guitar solo, Cas delivers a wordless, reverb-soaked vocal melody, while the track builds to an explosive climax using layered guitars and a driving drum beat. Creating such excitement when you don’t have a band at your fingertips can be challenging for a producer but I’m proud of my efforts here.
2. Let’s Go!
This was the second song written for the EP and Cas’ first collaboration with Esli Martinez. I received a fairly simple instrumental, though with its catchy chorus, the pop potential of this song was immediately clear. Harmony wise, the only changes I made were adding some occasional bass movement to bring harmonic propulsion. When I started this song, I didn’t envision including as many crunchy guitars as we ended up with. But it works well and the guitars (especially the guitar solo near the end) add an edge which stops such a sweet melody sounding too ‘syrupy’. Cas recorded a music video for ‘Let’s Go!’ which I’ve included below.
3. Dream Within a Frame (With You)
This was Cas’ second effort with Esli, with further lyrical input from Will Everett. The demo came to me in a fairly similar state to that of Let’s Go! Indeed there are structural and melodic similarities between the two songs so I chose a deliberately different sound for this arrangement. As well as fewer guitars, there is more piano in from the very beginning. Coupled with a slight latin feel at times, the arrangement had its own place by completion. As is typical of the sounds Cas and I have created over the years, there are a LOT of layered vocals which adds up to quite an ambient song. I particularly like the bridge leading into the filtered outro chorus. The video for this song is a classic ‘lyric video’ and can be seen by clicking HERE.
4. London
London was the first song Cas commissioned for this EP and I must admit he took me by surprise with his new choice of artistic direction! He insisted it should be more pop-orientated than the more introspective, adult themes of ‘Getting to Know You’. I had to make some musical adjustments and in fact this is probably the longest we have taken to complete a song! The lyrics are largely Cas’ and the music and arrangement mine. It took a long while for me to feel fully satisfied with the instrumentation and I remember the final piece of the jigsaw being the heavily-reverberated guitar in the chorus. It really lifts things and is the closest thing we have to a guitar solo in the song. London sounds different to the other songs, but As an EP track it works well. There is also a video for this song, below.
Let’s Go! – Mats Kuiperij Remix
The final song on the EP was a fun remix by Dutch DJ/Producer Mats Kuiperij. Mats took the vocal and a few of the guitars to build a really cool, spacey techno-flavoured song. A song I’d love to hear in a club some time! Although that would also mean me going to a club… 😉
Thanks for reading this post about Kelly’s winning the OGIMA Song of the Year. Please feel free to share or comment below and if you’re looking for a co-writer (a composer, lyricist or producer) then please write via the CONTACT page of this website. In the mean time you can stay up-to-date with my Instagram page or subscribe to my YOUTUBE channel.
Take it easy…
Arron