Since I am a musician myself, I derive immense joy from discovering up and coming musicians with genuine talent and fierce determination. And Erin McAndrew is certainly all that and more. Recently, I was able to ask her a few questions about how she got started in music, her involvement in the music industry so far, and what she has planned for the near (and even distant) future.
Photo Credit: Brooke Ashley Photography
RH: What inspired you to become a musician? What were your early music influences?
EM: I’ve always loved music. I loved singing and dancing from a very young age. My earliest musical influences were Broadway musicals and pop music. When I was thirteen, my family moved from an itty bitty town to a Philadelphia suburb and
…show more content…
I also took violin lessons in fifth and sixth grade, but I don’t think that counts anymore. I currently play guitar and ukulele.
How would you classify your style/genre of music? What are your current musical influences?
Photo Credit: Brooke Ashley Photography
I would classify my style and genre of music as Alternative Pop-Rock with 90s fem-rock influences. I have so many current musical influences it’s hard to name them all! Some of them are Sara Bareilles, Kelly Clarkson, Christina Perri, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, and Pink. I’m also a HUGE classic rock fan - particularly of the 1980's decade.
Where do you get your inspiration for your songs? What is your typical process for writing your songs?
I get inspiration for my songs everywhere. Different experiences my friends or myself have gone through, movies that have inspired me, even from strangers that I pass by every day in New York City that might spark an idea. My typical process for writing a song is to write the lyrics first and then create the melody. Once I have something there, I write the musical portion of the song.
What can you tell us about your album/singles and music in the works? Where can we find
…show more content…
While social media and digital music has given fans more access to music, ensuring that one's music is heard above the maddening crowd can be a seemingly insurmountable task. Thankfully, the undaunted Erin has made the decision to leap into this industry, and the desire of her heart is to make a living doing what she loves to do. She is enamored with the arts, and as she shares her gifts with the world, she recognizes that in order to be a success in this business, she must have patience and take each and every opportunity for advancement that she can. Already she is setting herself apart by utilizing YouTube as a place to display her array of talents, and while some days it might be an uphill battle, she has the positive attitude and sunny disposition (not to mention the energy and optimism of youth) to guarntee that she continues her quest of accomplishing every dream within her heart. While she is far from a household name in music, she seems to understand even at her age that overnight success is a myth, and she is aware of the fact that perseverance is the key to success. I would invite everyone to check out her music and social media accounts below so that you may experience her talent firsthand and support this young musician. Furthermore, you
I am a lifelong musician and entrepreneur. I am 52 years young and have been a vocalist since I can remember, a keyboardist for over 25 years, and entrepreneur for just as long. I have also always been someone’s secretary, administrative assistant, bookkeeper, office manager, booking agent, and spouse and mother for about 24 years of that journey. Growing up in southern California, I have performed most styles of music and sung/played in a variety of bands and ensembles since 1980. I have covered female vocalists from the 30s and 40s through current artists. I moved from southern California to rural western Colorado in 1993 and things are unique here. In 2009, I wrote and co-produced my CD, Mosaic, with musicians in Nashville with the help of Lorna
My niche is Keyboard-led Pop-Punk. This is unique because it is uncommon for songs in this genre to feature keyboard, let alone to use one as the lead instrument. This should appeal to both audiences who enjoy pop-punk, as well as those that simply enjoy the tones produced by a keyboard.
“My love of music began early on. I played the french horn and the piano in the fourth
Wherever I am, music follows. There is a song for everything. The world would be a very dull and boring place without music. There are sad songs, happy songs, romantic songs, slow songs, fast songs, loud songs, quiet songs, peaceful songs, country songs, pop songs, rap songs, classical songs, etc. Whatever I am feeling, there is always something that describes it perfectly. Some songs don’t have words and others do. All full of rhythms and rhymes.
"I was writing for [two] years with a publishing company before I started working on my record," said Hunt. "I went from writing maybe 75 to100 songs a year to writing [10 to 12 songs in the] 18 months prior to putting out my first record. I wrote a lot fewer songs but I spent a lot more time on lyrics and melody."
For my first reading journal I had chose to read the article “Where Do You Get Your Ideas”, by Neil Gaiman. This article was about the development of where your ideas really do come from. There isn't a specific way you get your ideas, infact according to the article your ideas can come out of boredom, they can come day dreaming, but the main one are questions. Ideas tend to form when one asks themselves questions and Neil explains that. Questions that start with “what if”, “If only”, or “what would happen” are what start ideas. Questions are what our ideas come from really, if you had a question chances are there will always be an answer wither its a weird , serious, or right answer you always get a response. Neil also talk about how writing is very important for his ideas. It’s how he makes his money really. Writing stories all day long and generating his ideas on paper is how he make
This book is the most trusted for songwriters for the past 34 years. This book provides up-to-date information that writers need to know so they can properly place their songs in the hands of publishers, record companies, producers, managers and agencies, and music firms. In this book, you’ll find placement opportunities and see how each market differs from one another also ways to find success in the industry. This book also went over the basics of the business, like how to properly submit music, the proper way to copyright your work, how to point out scams,
I wrote my first song when I was 13. I had many issues with my dad, and I was an amateur musician and singer/songwriter, so I put far more work into the creation than what would have ever been necessary to write a song.
Music is essential to warming the soul’s intuition. My favorite genres of music are hip-hop and R& B. Songs are a complex platform of emotions. However, music is not just about lyrics solely, but the beat they are composed to. To write any song requires a strong feeling and/or emotions that lead the lyrics. Writing a song requires: First, repeated listening and vibeing to the beat. This initiates feeling of the lyrics to come to hand. Next, have a pen and paper handy to transcribe these feelings in lyrics. This requires flow with the beat, remaining on rhythm and having rhymes to connect lyrics. Third, replay the beat to synchronize lyrics for creation of the song. (Repeat steps one through three, until you’ve completed the desired length of
I hold improvising close to me, and use it as a technique for creating original songs, and turning cover songs into my own. When one improvises, they make choices that are unique to them, which leads into the question of where ideas in improvising come from.
When it comes to thinking of how I should structure a song, I think of how I structure a paragraph. Over the course of time I learned new ways to add ideas onto a paragraph that relate to my topic. Many of my friends always complain about how their essays require so many words to write about, and question how they’re going to come up with supporting details and ideas related to the topic. I always explain to my friends how I never seem to struggle with supporting details or ideas because I always find a way to relate to the topic. I am proud I was given this natural gift because I
Songwriters can write both the lyrics and melody parts of a song. More often than not songwriters work together to write a song. They can write a song specifically for an artist, film, or commercial. It is not uncommon for one of the writers to be the artist that sings the song. Occasionally an artist will sing a song they did not help write and give the credit to the writers. There are also ghost writers. Ghost writers will sell the song they wrote to an artist and agree to take no credit for writing it.
Once an artist/group has written a song they have created 2 distinct components (a) the lyrics and (b) the music or musical score/notation i.e. the melody that accompanies that song, unless obviously it is an instrumental (e.g. The Shadows). The song could be co-written by different members of the band, or the lyrics written by a pure songwriter (who doesn 't perform as a musical act) for a band who then perform the songwriter 's work; or someone else writes
Think about who the song is for. Depending on the person you are writing the song for, this will affect the meaning of the song you are hoping to get across. You would not write the same type of song for your mom as for your significant other, would you?
I meet by band a few years later at university after writing the song. And as they say the rest is history and today is the artist you have in front of you. Writing this storey book of the stories that created my OWN album.