Rock and Roll Stories #65 - The joy of writing a new song

I once heard an interview with Paul McCartney where he said he didn't write songs, they always existed in the ether and he just tuned into the vibrations and wrote them down. He also said that the best songs are ones that it only took him five minutes to write. He said when he had to agonise over them, they always ended up as album tracks, B sides or just discarded. Another interesting thing about the Beatles is that when McCartney and Lennon first got together as The Quarrymen, they wrote and performed dozens of songs, none of which made it into the Beatles reportoire. I'm not  Beatles fan, but I recognise McCartney as possibly the greatest pop songwriter of all. There are plenty of other great songwriters who could take the crown, Burt Bacharach, Don Black and Ailee Willis would make a good shout, but for me, McCartney has such a range and body of material that he would take the crown.

Whenever I advise a young artist on how to write and structure songs and melodies, I start with the work of McCartney. The man wrote Helter Skelter, Live and Let Die, Hey Jude and Let it Be. You can probably learn everything you need to know about writing modern pop songs from those four. That doesn't mean I think they are the greatest song ever written. Depending on my mood that would be 5446 is my number by Toots and The Maytells, Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell (written by Jimmy Webb), London Caalling by The Clash or I'm stuck in a pagoda with Trisha Toyota by The Dickies. But Macca has such a body of work that you can't argue with him. His songs are covered by all manner of artists, who often bring a whole new slant to the songs, which to me, is the sign of a good song. 

Now I can only aspire to write a song that would be compared to the list above. Whilst I think McCartney is the best, I would say that my favourite is Ian Dury. Dury is a huge influence on my music, it is no secret. Unlike the work of McCartney, the work of Ian Dury is hard to cover, as it is so personalised. Dury writes about the world around him and the experiences he's seen. He is naughty, vulgar and rude at times, in a way no one else can really get away with. But he is also sweet tender and funny. I met the great man, once, in a cafe in  Camden in 1977-8 ( I don't  recall the date). He was spikey and difficult when I approached him for some advice on getting a band together. Just as I was about to leave, with a flea in my ear, he relented and was kind and gave me some sound advice. He said "If you can sing like Marvin Gaye, you can do anything you like. If you sing like me, you have to be the biggest version of yourself you can be and not worry about it".

I didn't understand what Ian meant when I started writing songs. I wrote songs that were highly political, written by someone with no life experience. When that didn't work, I wrote songs that I tried to make dark and meaningful.. That didn't work either. Then the penny dropped. When I wrote songs that documented what I saw in the streets, pubs, football stadiums and at family gatherings, it clicked. When I started presenting songs to the band and they all smiled, laughed and fed off the energy, I realised that this was what was needed. Over the years, my musical ability, understanding of melody and structure has improved and i can do more technically intersting things than I could when we started. In 1985, I did a songwriting course, that was priceless, it still took a while for the penny to fully drop but, the quality of my writing has continually improvred ever since. 

So how do I write songs? When I started, I'd find a chord structure that worked and come up with a load of lyrics to fit over the top. We'd then thrash it out at rehearsal. We got a few songs that were Ok and a couple that were pretty good, but that was about it. Now, I do it in a completely different way. I often do this walking to work. I come up with an idea, a catchy phrase, and just dictate these into my mobile phone. I then whistle the melody, trumpet line, and any other relevent info is captured. When I have a free minute, I listen and play around with the ideas. I then try and get a chord structure that fits the song and reflects the lyrics. This tends to mean that the music style fits the lyrics far better than trying to bolt lyrics onto a riff. I then present the basic idea to the band.

My latest song was written last week. It is called Naughty Naughty and is very much in the Ian Dury line of songwriting. It has a quirky chord structure, a catchy trumpet line and a chorus that is extremely catchy. AS often happens, when the songs is first presented, it gets radically changed when the band get involved. I had intended myself to sing it, but it actually worked better with me singing the verses, Tom singing the choruses and all of us joining in for the last line of the chorus. 

One of the things I learned from Ian Dury's is that you have to make even the most irredeemable characters sympathetic and human. It is interesting because when I wrote the song initially, I realised that I hadn't done this. I thought about the character and realised that there was an aspect that I hadn't fully appreciated, and that became a constituent of the chorus. The song is largely about inappropriate behaviour, but I've learned over the last few years that many people see huge changes in their personality as a result of prescription drugs. A friend of mine had a parent locked up for their own good, after they had a sudden, inexplicable personality change about fifteen years ago. I knew the person and it was shocking and difficult. Last year, I read that some prescription drugs can cause such behaviour, in people who had previously been pillars of the parish. I think it is important to use any platform we have to get such messages out, but it has to be done subtly in a non preachy way.

To me, writing a song is like baking a cake. You take many ingredients, but they have to be in balance. All of the songs I've mentioned above have all the ingredients. Good lyrics, great structure, strong melodies, catchy hook lines and they all take you somewhere else. If I listen to Wichita Lineman, I am up a telegraph pole on the plains of the USA, daydreaming of cute lady with pale blue eyes. If I hear London Calling, I am having a bacon sarnie in a dodgy cafe in Hammersmith in 1979 in the pouring rain.  Will Naughty Naughty do that when we record it? Will it transport the listener back to 1976 and doing a paper round in the rain? Only time will tell. It is probably the most controversial song I've written, but as it's a boppy ska song, that may be missed. We shall see. All I can say at the moment is that I am delighted with it and I look forward to performing it on Friday at Nambucca, Please come along. Tickets can be procured here - https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/London/Nambucca/The-Silencerz-vs-The-False-Dots--DJ-Rebska/42323301

Rock and Roll stories #48 - Songwriting as a storyteller

 One of the nice things about playing with The False Dots is the fact that we get a lot of compliments about my songwriting style.I have three main themes in my songwriting these days. The first is autobiographical stories. I am very influenced by Ian Dury in my songwriting, and Dury wrote classic songs like "My old man" and also some of the work of the Faces such as Ooh La La (written by Ronnie Wood and Ronnie Lane). These songs are filled with nostalgic imagary, and they are three minute long stories and tales, with a large amount of personal history. Examples in our set are songs like Men & Motors (about growing up in a family in the motor trade and the characters that worked for my Dad), Rambo's rampage (based on stories our drummer Graham Ramsey told us about his experience as a Mod in the late 1970's) and our single last year "Don't be scared of a finger up the bum", about my experiences with Prostate cancer. All of these songs have got a great reaction by people who hear the lyrics and are reminded of their own experiences. I have to admit that until recently, I never actually opened up on my honest feelings in songs, apart from our 1982 classic, A memory for you, which I wrote the night my sister Val had a bad bike accident and we were told she was likely to die. She didn't, she got better and I felt self consciously embarrassed about the song. The song was released on a compilation album and has recently become a minor hit in New York college circles, after being included on a playlist of bands with female singers. When I was younger, I found it harder to open up about things, and thought people wanted shouty slogans about the world. Most of the time, they don't, unless you are a very good songwriter.

The second group of songs, and this is something that goes back to our earliest songs, are what I like to call musical novels in three minutes. Often there is some sort of element of truth in there. One of our earliest songs that got noticed was "Not all she seems", the tale of a cross dressing prostitute and their struggles. There was an element of truth, but we embellished it. Sadly the real ending is worse. Then there is Longshot didn't die. It was inspired by the Pioneers "Longshot kick da bucket". My original idea was to write a Ska song for Lee Thompson and Jenny Bellestar to sing with the band. When I played it to Lee, he said that I sang it pretty well, so I never acutally asked him. It is the keystone of our set. It tells the story of how bad betting can ruin your life. It was actually inspired by a good friend of mine, who split up with her husband after his gambling nearly lost them her house. Another song from this school is Action shock. I wrote this in bed with an ex girlfriend, watching the news coverage of the Battle of Goose Green. It is the story of a squaddie who buys into the idea of being in the army being great fun, only to find that when it is you against another human being and one of you will die, it's not much fun at all. I edited the lyrics, after I met a mate who'd been in the Royal Marines and had been there. After he left the army, he spent three years smoking spliffs up a mountain in Nepal to get his head together. 

The third group of songs, are the ones which really mean nothing, but I get a strong riff and a hookline in my head. A good example of this, was the False Dots last single Groovetown. The inspiration for this, and I hope he doesn't mind me saying, was when I was at a gig with my mate Boz Boorer and his wife Lyn. I was boozing at the bar with Boz and Lyn was dancing to the band. Boz said "When Lyn dances, she is the sexiest woman alive". I thought it was a great line. As I developed the song, it got lost, but I  just wanted a song that people could have a dance and a laugh to and not really think about too much. It seems to work as people have started doing the Conga to it.

In the early days of my songwriting, there was a fourth category of song, as mentioned earlier. These were largely political rants, that weren't very good. We were inspired by bands like Crass and wanted to be really hard core. My then songwriting partner Pete Conway and myself were advised by my eldest brother Laurie to listen to The Velvet Underground, saying that was where punk rock started. When we listened to them, we immediately dropped all of the hardcore political sloganising and embarked on writing mini stories. We were only sixteen and it took a long time for me to get my style properly together. 

The most important thing for me, and I'd recommend this to anyone, was when I did a professional songwriting course in 1985. The key message was "be focuseed on what you want the song to do". Whereas I'd written some decent songs before the course, The False Dots set was a mish mash of ideas that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. I like to think that now the songs are at least coherent and when we play a set, the right songs are played at the right time in the set. One of the absolute key takeaways from the course was the need for musical hooks. As most people don't know our music, the challenge is to get them singing along by the third chorus. That is a measure of a strong hook.  My advice for all budding songwriters, is simple. Be focussed, make sure the songs have great hooks, have lyrics that connect to an audience. It can be one word, or it can be a verse that tells a story. Make sure it is musically interesting all the way through. I do not really like tempo changes as middle eights, as this can mess up the vibe and distract and always keep the key melodies near the heart of the song. I hear so many songs by new artists that have a great melody that gets lost. I am not a big fan of long, meandering intros with no melody or lyrics. Also make sure you write songs that suit the players. Write in a key that a singer can sing in. We've relatively recently acquired Tom Hammond as a trumpet player. Tom recently commented that some of the songs were in "difficult keys". I have taken this on board going forward. Historically I wrote songs in keys with easy guitar chords. When I started working with good singers, I realised that it is best to write in keys that they can hit the notes in, without straining. I hope all of these tips are useful. 

On Tuesday, I was on classic Rock Radio. My mate and presenter Griff Griffiths commented that my songs tell a story and I explained how I was inspired by other songwriters and the stories in their songs. So he asked me to do a playlist for him to play on the show, along with some new songs from customers at Mill Hill Music Complex.

Rock and Roll Stories #40 - Songwriting through the decades

 Perhaps the aspect of Rock and Roll that is least talked about is the process of songwriting. It is the most important aspect of music. Without songs, Rock and Roll would be a fashion parade. I've been writing songs almost since I was able to speak. When I started, it was very much simply changing the words to the songs of other artists, usually to annoy my sisters, or to amuse my mates at school. My best mate at the time was one Pete Conway. In 1974, when we were twelve, we both rather liked Sparks. Their single 'This town aint big enough for the both of us' was a classic and we loved it. It had gun effects and was very different from everything else in the charts. I don't normally like such songs, but it is an epic song. They then released a follow up, Amatuer Hour. Shall we say, it didn't catch our imagination in the same way. Pete and I discussed the matter and decided that we needed to save Sparks. We wrote a couple of 'decent songs' and sent them to the label, with a letter explaining that they'd gone downhill and needed some proper songs. I wish Pete hadn't thrown the letter we got back in the bin! Lets just say they didn't feel the need to avail themselves of our services. 

Four years later, we started to write songs for our own band. The False Dots. We were punks and the songs were highly political. They weren't exactly catchy. Recently, we revived the very first of these. It's called Wrong. It lasts 47 seconds and we brought it back for our 46th Birthday show!

@falsedotsrog Wrong This was the first song The False Dots ever played at our first rehearsal back in 1979. We never played it live until our 46th Birthday party at the @thedublincastle last week! The full story of the evolution of this song is here https://barneteye.blogspot.com/2025/02/rock-and-roll-stories-25-manifesto-for.html #rockandroll #punk #anarchopunk #punkrock1977 #TheFalseDots #Rockandrollhistory ♬ original sound - FalseDotsRog

Within a year, we scrapped all of these songs and started again. With a little help from Hank Marvin, we wrote our first classic, Not all she seems, that we re-recorded for last years album.

   

 We made a conscious decision to try and make every aspect of the song interesting. It has a catchy riff, a story, and is a powerful song. It has always been a favourite. At the time, Pete and I would sit in my bedroom with ideas and our instruments and go through it line by line. We really made an effort to ensure that every song had great lyrics, an interesting arrangement and something quirky. The only real issue was that we hadn't really bothered to study song structure or arrangement. I think Not All She Seems and the other songs do stand up, but when we perform them, we have different arrangements now. 

When Pete left the band in December 1980, I lost my co-collaborator. We were fiercly critical of each others output. We took great pleasure in destroying each others work, but we were also good at pulling the best bit out of the bones. In hindsight, although we were officially mates, I don't think we really liked each other, but knew that we had a strong musical bond. Pete's departure meant that I spent four years writing songs that weren't very good. Sometimes they worked, almost by accident. From that era, the only song we still do is Action Shock. I wrote it and discarded it. I didn't like it, but when Venessa Sagoe joined the band, she found the lyrics in the lyric box and liked them. I'd not even written a proper tune. Venessa made it into a classic. I was struggling with writing but was to arrogant and stubborn to admit it. When that iteration of the band split up in September 1984, I decided to do a songwriters course. This was the best thing I ever did. I realised why the post Pete material was rubbish. 

In 1985, Poet Allen Ashley joined the band. Allen was brilliant at making words work. He will probably disagree, but he wasn't really much good at the musical side of the songs. We soon had a rather good selection of numbers, which to me were sort of in the style of The Smiths. The stand out number was Winter in Your Heart.

   

 Allen tells me that he got fed up with me nagging him to write a middle eight. When he finally did, he realised I was right! Allen departed in early 1986 and the band entered a bit of hiatus. I wrote a few songs that I think are pretty good, but we rarely performed. One of the songs nearly made an appearance on an album by one of the UK's most loved artists, but I rather stupidly refused to allow him a co-write, so it didn't happen. Here is a rather poor version of it with me singing as we emerged from lock down. This was our first rehearsal after lockdown. Graham (our drummer had recently lost his son, which made us emerge from the ashes of covid to do this). 

 In 1990, the False Dots were put on ice until 2002. Having stopped writing songs for twelve years, I had lost my songwriting mojo. I think I'd sort of forgotten the lessons I learned on the course. We had a few OK tunes, but listening to them now, I realise that I was making the same old mistake of not properly writing them, and not making sure they worked. The arrangements were lazy. A couple of the songs emerged that were pretty strong, with my favourite being I'm the man.

   

 It is a simple song, but I happen to think it is a great Rock and Roll song. It was inspired by watching Gene Hunt in 'Life on Mars'. I liked the theme of a man doing things that are killing him, simply to stay alive and survive. Of that era, it is by far my favourite song. It is one of the few songs, that I didn't try and over-complicate in that period.

When Connie Abbe joined the band in 2009, I realised I had to up my game. I co-wrote and arranged Put me in the Spotlight with Connie, which I think is perhaps the best song I've ever written.

   

 It really has it all. I wrote the lyrics for the chorus and Connie wrote the verses. We wrote it all in the studio. I wrote the dynamic intro so that it was suitable for use in TV, especially sport. This worked and the song was used by Manchester City FC, being the soundtrack for their website goal of the month show in 2012. 

When Connie left the band, Allen Ashley rejoined. Allen reminded me of the need to properly craft lyrics. We wrote some banging songs. Perhaps the best of these was Saturday, a football song, Lee Thompson of Madness played sax on.

   

 I wrote the first two verses and the chorus, Allen wrote the middle eight and the third verse and edited a few lines elsewhere. We have rewritten it a couple of times since Allen left, but Allen will always retain a credit. 

In 2020, Allen left, and I was back in the hot seat. The band started to develop what has become our current set. I changed my songwriting style significantly and deliberately. I returned to the style of the Pete Conway era, where every song was a story, rather than the 'stream of consciousness' style of writing I'd adopted. I also introduced a healthy dollop of dark humour. The advent of mobile phones has been a blessing. If I get an idea, I will record it on the phone and then arrange it later. This could be lyrics or a whistled melody. I have had strange looks whistling into my phone on the tube. I realised that a big strength was my ability to write songs people connect with and that puts a smile on their face. Perhaps the best example (so far) is 'We All Love a Party".

   

This song tells the story of a party my parents had in 1974, to raise funds for the local Catholic Church. What is interesting is that everyone can connect with the characters and stories in it. I actually wrote the song verses whilst walking the dogs on Lundhurst Park. The chrous was really a nod to the TV series Shameless. Having got the basic lyrical structure, I changed it. The chorus line "Do the conga, drop your draws" was a late addition, as was the end of the chorus "But Aunty Dot is here, so you better hide the gin". That was a little homage to my mum and her sisters. Her eldest sister loved the G&T's and mum would always get bladdered when they went out (or stayed in). Mum's yougest sister didn't have my mums tolerance for alcohol, and would always end up in the loo, when the "girls got together". My Dad would always joke "Margo is coming, hide the Gin". Mum never found it funny. I loved my Mum, but in truth she never really found anything very funny, which was offset by my Dad, who found everything hilarious!

In 2023, Tom Hammond joined the band on Trumpet. This brought new opportunities and challenges. I'd never really composed trumpet lines before, Tom reads music, but I don't write it, I play by ear. So I did what I've learned to do. I spent a month listening to the best songs with cool brass and trumpet arrangements. The fruits of this show in our new single, Groovetown. 

It is important to realise that music is always a work in progress. Things can always be improved and your next song may be your best (or your worst). What I've learned is that the best songs you can wrote are ones that you love. If writing a trumpet part, a vocal line, a clever lyric, etc gives you a buzz, you have succeeded. I don't write songs to become rich or line my pocket. I write songs to make people happy and put a smile on their face. Sometimes, I try and make a point about something I care about in a song. No one wants to be preached at by musicians, but I think if you listen to the False Dots music, especially the recent material, you'll have a pretty good idea of where we stand on most issues. If you just want to enjoy the tunes, that is great. 

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The Saturday List #471 - Ten events that have inspired me to write a song!

1. "My best mate Pete, you know he came a cropper, went down a manhole on his brand new chopper".

This week, my band, The False Dots released a new video of our song Wacky Races. The second verse details the near demise of our original lead singer, Pete Conway, when he was at primary school. Pete's Dad bought him a bike for his birthday. Pete lived on Engel Park, which has a steep hill. Pete immediately jumped on the bike, hurtled down the hill and went down a manhole. He was off school for months. The nuns all asked us to pray for "Poor Peter". When he came back, he was a changed character, a lot more serious and he could be a bit strange at times. That's probably why he was a mate! 

2. "Dad threw a party, I can't remember why". Actually I have remembered. It was a fund raiser for our local Church. I am pretty sure that it was for a Catholic anti abortion charity. All of the local community came along. It was a right old hoot, I think it was around 1974. There were punch ups, people being sick in the garden, dancing on the tables. At the end of the evening, I said to my Dad "That went well!". His response stunned me. He said "What a bunch of hypocrites that lot are. If any of their daughters got knocked up, they'd be first in the queue for an abortion, to spare the family embarrassment". I said "Why did you have a party then?" He said "I love a good party and it was the only way I could persuade your mother to have one". He added "You'll learn that a lot of people have principles until it is inconvenient". I was none the wiser on his views on the issue. 

3. "My surrogate grandma, she lived on homefield road, married to a caretaker, a lovely bloke called Joe". I had no grandparents. They'd all died by the time I was born. None of my siblings new my Dad's parents, they'd died before he came to the UK. My mothers father died in 1948, my brothers were two. My mums mum died in 1960, two years before I was born. I was always jealous of my siblings for having been able to spend time with someone who by all accounts was lovely. Shortly after I was born, my mum decided to get a lady to clean the house. Mrs Annie O'Keefe turned up. I tiny Irish lady who lived in Burnt Oak. I loved her and she loved me. She was the Grandma I never had. Even after she retired, I'd nip in to see her for a cup of tea and a biscuit on the way home from Orange Hill. The one thing I learned from Annie is that if you have love in your life, you need nothing else. She was always kind and generous and made me feel welcome. When my Mum was having treatment for cancer, I lived with her for a few weeks. She had a scruffy old dog called Beauty and her husband bred budgeriegars in a shed in the garden. When I first started writing the Burnt Oak Boogie, it was going to be called "I'm dreaming of a bacon sandwich" and be about the Betta Cafe. Then I thought about Annie and I realised that the one thing that people never seem to mention when they talk about Burnt Oak is the people and the strength of the community. It became a very different song and better for it. 

4. "Distant hearts, will scream tonight, it's face to face, you and I, one of us will not survive, please not me, I love my life". I doubt there has ever been a song that has been so determined to be heard. Back in 1983, I was getting the 113 bus back from town. A mate of mine called Geoff got on. Geoff had been in the Royal Marines in The Falklands. When he left, he was a funny, happy go lucky boy. I was delighted to see him. As we chatted I was horrified. He had completely changed. He told me about killing Argentinian soldiers on the battlefield. He had a deep darkness in his soul and his eyes lacked compassion. I felt really uncomfortable. I went home and started to write a song about what he'd told me. It was in four parts, the first part is about the fears of his family, waiting for news bulletins, as they know he is going action. The second part was the rallying cry of the drill sargeant, turning boys into men. The third part was my commentary on the general concept of war. Me, the lilly livered, lefty anti war liberal. The fourth part is Geoff, face to face with the enemy, killing to survive, unthinking as to anything other than survival. I wrote a draft, put a simple Am /// Em /// guitar riff and deciced it didn't work. I put it in the 'unfinished songs pile. I didn't like it. When Venessa Sagoe joined the band, she went through the pile and decided she liked it. I was gobsmacked. We started playing it at rehearsal and it was brilliant (much to my surprise). The song has resisted all attempts to jazz it up, restructure the chord sequence etc. It is a tough old bastard of a song. I saw Geoff about five years after the bus journey. He was back to himself. He told me he'd gone to Nepal and spent six months up a mountain smoking dope to rediscover himself.

5. "When I know my cancer's terminal, it's gonna set me free, it will lift me from this evil and the agony that it brings". I wrote Buy me a bottle of jack to distill my dark thoughts about prostate cancer.

6. "We've all got a mate, like my old mate Joe, he had the smartest motor and he'd always let you know, he'd take it to the Orange tree, he had the gift of the gab, he knew the girls would go for it, far cheaper than a cab".  Men and Motors is about the lads who worked in the local motor trade. These lines were inspired by our former bassplayers Paul Hircombe's brother. He worked in a tyre shop and always had a smart motor. He took it to the Orange Tree, a girl who was with her fiancee was so impressed that she dumped the fiancee on the spot and went off with him for a spin! As far as I know they are still married. 

7. "The only one who wins, is the man who takes the bet. The bookies simply look for mugs, who deserve just what they get". A great friend of mine saw her marriage fall apart due to her spouse being a compulsive gambler. I wanted to write a song about gambling that was funny, but got the point over. I think Longshot Didn't DIe works rather well!

8. "Then one day, she won't be there, she can't have taken enough care, she met someone that she used to know, she paked her bags and had to go". Like many songs, Not all she seems is a mash up of a few different incidents. It is the story of a trans girl, who fled a bigoted small town, came to London, worked as a sex worker and developed a drug habit and was 'run' by a violent pimp. She managed to escape his clutches, only for him to track her down. She escaped and was never seen again. The real ending is not so happy. I co wrote this with Pete Conway when we were sixteen. We were trying to be like the Velvet Underground and we were trying to write the most shocking song possible. In fact it is rather tender.

9. Pauls song. A five minute instrumental. This was originally written by Paul Hircombe, our old bassplayer. When we started the band, Paul sang a couple of tunes, but his voice was so quiet that people would joke "Paul sings the instrumentals". Being The False Dots, we wrote an instrumental and called it Pauls song! If you like five minute guitar solos, it is a masterpiece!

10. "The harder they come, the harder they fall, when your at the bottom, the drop is small". I wrote this as I watched a friend disintegrate into drug addiction before my eyes. I hoped that music would be his redemption. It wasn't

Rock and Roll Stories #21 - Personality crisis! The pleasure and peril of song writing partnerships

There have been 38 members of the False Dots (if I counted them correctly). The first two members were myself and Pete Conway, we were schoolmates from the age of four. We'd been talking about starting a band from the age of about eleven, but it was only when we discovered Punk Rock in 1976/7 that we had the inspiration to actually do something about it. We spent most of 1978 talking about it, saving up to buy instruments, learning to play some basic chords, writing a few rather rubbish songs. The first rehearsal was on 14th February 1979 (The band are celebrating our 46th birthday on Sunday 16th February at 2pm at the Dublin Castle - Please come, CLICK HERE FOR CHEAP ADVANCED TICKETS)

I last spoke to Pete in the early 1980's. Sadly our friendship did not survive the band. It ended the day he failed to turn up for our first gig, in December 1980. I couldn't believe it at the time. His excuse? He'd gone to the pub with his work mates and got pissed and forget to come. About ten years ago, we agreed to meet for lunch, but it never happened. My biggest regret about it? I actually thought Pete was a genius and would've been a great front man. The lyrics we wrote together and the songs he wrote for the band were amazing (once we'd got our act together). What was more difficult was the fact that we had a completely toxic relationship. I've not done too many things in life I truly regret, but most of them were when I was hanging around with Pete. I don't blame him, but we'd egg each other on to do behave badly. When Pete was in the band, everyone else was an outsider. We'd just order them what to play and go mad when they got it wrong.

The lyrics to some early songs

One of the biggest strengths of our song writing partnership was the totally ruthless criticism of each others work. Every single word of every single line was scrutinised. It all had to make sense. When one of us presented a song to the other, the other one would relentlessly critique it. We'd sing the song in a Pinky and Perky voice to annoy the writer. By the time we'd finished, the songs were robust and interesting. An enduring feature of the songs was that they had to tell a story. There could be no fat. Once we'd finished the lyrics, we'd start work on the music. As we were total novices and new nothing of music theory, structure of songs, etc, this was more problematic. The early band songs didn't have middle eights. We didn't know the rules for chord progressions so we'd do odd things. None of the songs were the usual 12 bar rock and roll riffs.  The verses often had clunky and disjointed musical bridges between verses and choruses. The good thing was this meant they didn't really sound like anyone else. When we listened to songs like Not All She Seems, we'd bung in extra guitar riffs to fill it out. When we first recorded Not All She Seems, we had a count in of eight on the drum sticks. Most bands have four and they chop it off when they edit the recording. We liked it. Where the whole thing rather broke down, was when Dav Davies and Paul Hircombe joined the band. They were better musicians than Pete & I. If we'd been a bit more savvy, we'd have listened to them. We did the opposite. We just expected them to play the songs how we told them to. 

And the note I added when I re-read them in 1980

After rehearsals, Pete and I would often go to the pub. We'd not invite Paul or Dav. Paul was only fourteen when he joined, so I guess he couldn't have come anyway. Dav was 22 and drove, so he probably wouldn't have come, but we never asked him. It wasn't a deliberate snub, it just never occurred to us to ask him. Sometimes we'd sit around after rehearsals and just chat, but not about the music. We'd wait until the rest of the band had gone home, then we'd rip into a song by song analysis of rehearsal. Often we'd ask mates down to listen. If they stayed after Paul and Dav had gone, we'd grill them on what they thought of the songs. Woe betide them, if they compared a song to a band we had disdain for. In hindsight, for some visitors, it must've been like going for dinner with a bunch of psychopathic serial killers. We were so intense about the band and the music that it was actually quite uncomfortable.

Then Pete lost interest. I booked the gig to try and pull him back, but it had the opposite effect. It caused a permanent breach. When Pete finally left the band, I felt a huge feeling of relief. We could be a band. The extent to which we'd not engaged with Paul and Dav was graphically demonstrated, when Craig Withecombe joined to replace Pete. We'd called Paul "Urcum" since he'd joined. Paul Marvin (HAnk Marvin's son, who had been the drummer before Dav) had introduced him. He'd called him "Urcum" and we'd stuck with that. I introduced Craig to Dav and "Urcum". Craig said "What's your name". Paul replied "Paul". Craig said "Would you rather be called Paul or Urcum"? Paul replied "Paul". I was horrified. He'd been in the band for six months. After that, he was Paul. About two years after Pete left, I bumped into him. We spent an evening in the pub (where he explained the reason for his no show). He enquired as to what was happening with the band. I said "Paul's doing great on bass". Pete replied "Who's Paul?". I replied "Urcum". Pete said "Oh, is that his name?".

When Craig joined, who was an excellent musician, he introduced us to the idea of structure in songs, chord progressions, harmonies and melodies. Pete and I had played lip service to the Velvet Underground ethos that none of that mattered and the perfect song was as simple as possible, no more than three chords. Craig, rather helpfully, pointed out that the Velvet Undergrounds best song (in his opinion) was Sweet Jane and it had four chords! He also pointed out that nearly all of the songs had four or more chords. Craig did concede that the songs worked and were interesting. Having better musicians really made a difference.

 Everyone could make a contribution. It took me a long time to find my feet writing songs on my own. I have all of my old lyrics and in truth, when Pete left, the quality of lyrics I was writing initially became awful for a while. When Pete had been in the band, the songs had to tell a story. I lost that. I was trying to impress people with my intellect. Oddly, the best song I wrote in the aftermath of Pete leaving was a song called Action Shock, based on the story of a mate, who was in the Royal Marines and had served in the invasion of the Falklands. I started work on it, put together a two chord progression that persists throughout the song and gave up, thinking it was rubbish. It would never had seen the light of day, had Venessa Sagoe not joined the band in 1983. I gave Venessa the lyric folder and asked if there was any she liked when she joined. She immediately picked Action Shock. She asked me to play it. I was embarrassed. It plodded along with an A minor - E minor progression. Venessa sang it and I realised it was a masterpiece. In fairness, if Venessa sung it, the phone book would be. But she added drama and substance and discovered a vibe that hadn't been there before. We still play it as the finale of the set. 

That was the moment that I felt the band recovered from the Personality Crisis that we'd been in since we formed. The healthiest thing both Pete and I could do was not be in a band together. One of the best things about The False Dots in 2025 is that Fil, Graham and Tom all fully contribute and work together to realise the full potential of the songs. Of course Pete and I were not Lennon & McCartney or Jagger and Richards, but the split in 1980 and the difficulty I had adjusting to write songs when our song writing partnership dissolved gave me a good insight into why their post Beatles work and the Stones solo projects are a pale reflection of their heyday in a partnership. When you don't have a totally belligerent, aggressive, sarcastic co writer saying "No, that's utter crap, go away and start again" is the best thing you can possibly have. Sadly, most people who work with the likes of the aforementioned artists simply said "Oh,that's brilliant Darling". It is only when the general public hear it, that the awful truth dawns on the artist. The horrible truth is that a band with a personality crisis is a band that is creative. It is also intolerable for any length of time and I salute Lennon/McCartney and Jagger/Richards for sticking it out as long as they did/have.

I thought I'd finish with the two songs I mentioned from the era.  This is Not All She Seems, as we play it now. The lyrics are the same. The musical structure has changed a bit.  We wrote it when we were sixteen in 1979. 

And this is Action Shock as we perform it now. It is pretty much identical to how we used to play it with Venessa. The song us utterly resistant to any form of re-arrangement! 

 

The Saturday List #420 - My top ten songwriting tips

 I enjoy writing songs. It is something I've been doing almost since I was able to talk, with varying degrees of success. The song which has probably been heard the most, was a song I co-wrote with Connie Abbe and Fil Ross for the False Dots called "Spotight". This was used by the Manchester CIty website for their goal of the month show in 2011. This received millions of listens. Most of my songs have been collaborations, which I think means that there is better critical control and a different energy. In the 1980's I did a professional songwriting course. Everyone else attetnding was hoping to build a career writing songs to sell. I just wanted to improve the quality of my own music and write hits for myself. Sadly for me, having learned the art, the band disintegrated and I didn't really put the skills to good use for a long time. The band was inactive from 1990 until 2000 and it wasn't until Connie joined in 2009 that I really took writing seriously again, although I passsed on tips and guideance to a whole raft of musicians who passed through the studio. Perhaps one of my fondest memories was when Amy Winehouse was rehearsing at the studios and she picked up a guitar and played us a tune. Myself and Fil Ross, our chief engineer had a listen, suggested a few tweaks and had a chat about how we felt songs could be optimally structured. Amy listened and appreciated the input. The following reherasal, she brought Fil and I a few beers to say thanks.

Anyway, I thought it might be a good idea to share some of these with any aspiring songwriters. 

1. If you get an idea, get your phone out and save it for posterity. I get some of my best ideas walking the dog in the park. I'll record the snippets. If I get a melody or riff, I whistle it. I'll then get in the studio and play them through, and edit them on the guitar. I also find having a piano handy, as I find it easier to pick out melodies on a piano than a guitar. Once I have  a bare bones format, I present it to the band. About one in four survives this. biut the key is to capture it when your brian is in a creative mode. 

Here is where I first captured a song that became "Oh no Sharon" 

And this is what it sounds like fully recorded and arranged.

The False Dots · Oh No Sharon

2. Have a clear idea of what exactly you are trying to write. One of the biggest mistakes many aspiring songwriters make is that they will find a guita riff, or a nice chord sequence and then try and shoehorn a song around it. It is better to record the music and save it until some lyrics that actually suit the music come along. The best songs have a strong theme, which simply needs a decent arrangement to fully bring out. 

3. Do not mistake arrangement for songwriting. One of the things I learned on the course was that if you write songs for other artists/producers, they will often take a chainsaw to them and completely change the arrangement, add/take away all sorts of things. if you are writing for other people, don't try and complete the perfect song. Make sure all of the elements are strong. If you want to write hits, then songs need strong hooks, but often these are added in the production stage, the Do Do Do's etc, where the producer/arranger will say "It's great but it needs a really strong hook"

4. Understand the artist and the audience that the song is being written for. If you are writing for yourself, then the audience is the key. What do they want to hear. Currently, the highlight of the False Dots show is a song called "Longshot Didn't Die", where the audience joins in the Ah-Ahhh's after the chorus. The people who see the band want to dance and join in, so we have a few songs that have such sections. If you are writing a song for a dance artist, then do some homework on what is currently doing well, in terms of BPM, structure, vibe, hooks etc. If you are writing a breakthrough song for a new artists, make it very immediate and in your face as it has to catch attention immediately. 

5. If you are writing for someone else, don't be precious and think of the bigger picture. When I did my songwriting course, I wrote a song as part of it. The guy running the course contacted me a  year or so later and said that a major artist was looking for a song and it would be ideal. It wasn't a song the band were playing, so I was happy to sell it. However, one of the stipulations was that the artist got a 50% songwriting credit. I refused and that was that. It was idiotic. The album that it would have been on sold millions and it would have established me and earned a lot of money. I simply didn't understand the industry. 50% of  a lot of money is better than 0% of nothing.

6. Write songs that excite you, rather than simply things that sort of sound like you think might get a bit of interest. If you are writing for an artist, do your homework. Listen to their work and see what excites you about their back catalog. Once you get excited and understand their groove, it is far easier. 

7. Structure the song so you can capture the emotion of what you are saying. Referring back to the conversation with Amy, she was a young, unsigned artist when she first came in. She played us one song she'd written. It sounded OK but it wasn't anything special. Fil or I (can't remember who) said "It would be great if you let a couple of those words hang a bit so people can get the emotion out, slow it down and extend a couple of the line endings". Amy thought about it, strummed a couple of chords then said "Like this?". She then did it again, slower, a couple of pauses inserted. Fil and I looked at each other. We both had goosebumps. I think that was the moment that we realised just how good Amy was. When she recorded an early demo with Fil, she told him that when we'd said that, she had ati bit of a eureka moment and realised that She had to be the boss, not the song. She really was a wonderful musician and she was able to take a very simple suggestion and process it in a way which was beyond my comprehension at the time. She told me that she wouldn't sing a song that she couldn't own. Perhaps the best example is her cover of Valerie by the Zutons. 

8. Be ruthless in your editing of songs. It is really easy to fall into the trap of making every song an 8 minute epic. Less is more. Perhaps the worst mistake up and coming songwriters make is over long, boring instrumental intros which take a minute or two to develop. It is almost impossible to get a song past the industry gatekeepers for new artists if a hook doesn't kick in within 5-10 seconds. The number of time I've said this to artists and they quote some obscure Beatles or Queen track and say "You are so wrong". This is missing the point, they are established megastars and don't need to impress the gate keepers.

9. Learn to write to a brief. Back in the 1980's, Channel Four used a Big Audio Dynamite track as the title music for the American football coverage. As a BAD fan, I was delighted. I happened to bump into the director of the show in town. I mentioned that it was great that they were using the track. He explained that it was ideal for the show, as it had stop starts that worked really well when edited in with videos of tocuhdowns and goal celebrations. When we wrote Spotlight, I had that in mind for the into. When it was used by Manchester City, I realised I'd got the formula right. When you write, set yourself a brief for the song. Work out how long you want it to be, work out the themes and try and develop them musically. Work out the hooks and how you can best exploit them. 

10. Use themes which resonate with the intended audience. Last year, the False Dots had a rather unexpected minor internet hit with The Burnt Oak Boogie. We hastily cobbled together a rather dodgy video, featuring clips of Burnt Oak, to promote a gig we had at the Dublin Castle. We were gobsmacked when it started chalking up thousands of views and people started stopping us in the street and telling us how much they loved it. It resonated with people who had links. What surprised me even more was that people listened to the lyrics and music and they loved them. The lyrics were nostalgic and the music had a ska beat, which was the sound of Burnt Oak in the late 60's and early 70's. It worked. When you make a connection you have a chance. 

Good luck with the songwriting. My life would be infinitely poorer if I didn't write music. 

Songwriting special - What inspired me to write the songs of The False Dots new album

Inspiration is a funny thing. I've often wondered what inspired great artists to write their most amazing songs. I once heard Paul McCartney say that he'd heard a blackbird whistle the melody of Yesterday. Some of my favourite songs, such as White man in Hammersmith Palais by the Clash have interesting back stories. Others, such as Golden Years by David Bowie are completely incomprenhsible.

I've written songs all of my life. I hope they have improved. Most of the time, I have collaborated with others. Between 2012 and 2020, I worked with top London poet and author Allen Ashley. When I worked with Allen, I deliberately didn't finish songs, leaving space for his input. When Allen left the band and I started to sing as well as play guitar, I realised why he'd made so many changes. Although Fil Ross (bass) and Graham Ramsey (drums) collaborate on the music, I solely now write the lyrics. As such, I am putting a lot more into them.

We have now nearly finised our new album. We are targetting a launch date of February next year, to celebrate 45 years of The False Dots. We have pre release versions of most songs on Soundcloud.

Roger Tichborne · The False Dots - A finger in the sun

I thought it might be interesting to share the writing process behind the songs. For the album, I've tried to keep the arrangements as simple as possible, trying to evoked the musical style of the 60's Ska explosion and the 70's punk explosion. 

1. Wacky Races -  I've always wanted to do a 'proper' reggae song. This song is probably the closest a white boy from Mill Hill can get. I don't want to pretend to be anything. I try and sing in my own voice, but Boz Boorer's amazing Dub remix shows how the band gel to make a proper track. My lyrics, like many, are rather Dury-esque. Like many of my new songs, I composed it walking to work, singing it into my iPhone. I was inspired when I saw a picture of an old go kart, made of pram wheels. When I was a kid, everyone wanted one. We'd make them and race up and down Millway. There would always be a big crowd of kids playing. The second verse deals with when my then best mate Pete Conway, who formed the False Dots with me, was at St Vincents. He was bought a new Chopper bike for Xmas. He lived on Engel Park, a really steep road off The Ridgeway and Purley Road. He hurtled down the hill and went down a manhole. He was off school for six weeks. His Dad used to say he was never the same again. The third verse is lamenting the end of such behaviour. How parents keep kids in and they've exchanged broken bones for obesity and diabetes.

2. Bubble Car - This was inspired by a picture my big brother Frank sent me of him and his mates goofing about on his Messherschmidt bubble car in Manchester, when he was at Uni there in 1967. I joked that the picture would make a great album cover. That inspired me to write a song. It's a love song, the central protagonist is a broke musician, who is trying to recruit a singer for his band, with the promise of a trip to Kings Cross in his bubble car. Unless you were a musician in the 60's/70's it would sound bonkers, but these were the type of things we'd do.

3. Oh No Sharon - A harsh song. A soap opera in 2 minutes. Fil Ross suggested we start it with the Eastenders Theme tune. The actual main riff is recycled from another Dots song from 1979 called Bone. It is a coming of age story. A young, innocent alter server hit s fourteen and is seduced by is best mate Sharon, who is more sexually mature, with disasterous consequences for all. Everything in the song is true, although most of it was not my story. The title came when Graham was recounting a conversation with his girlfriend and happened to say "Oh No Sharon" in a silly voice. Sharon also likes Eastenders, so it is sort of dedicated to her, although she is not the Sharon in question (names have been changed). 

4. Men and Motors. My family were in the motor trade, my big brother Laurie still is. My Dad ran a car repair business called Mac Metals (better known as Mac Mentals in Burnt Oak as he employed many of the local 'characters'). When I was growing up, the various guys who worked for him would recount stories of seedy Saturday nights and the shenanigans with their cars. One of them would borrow Dad's Escort van, put a mattress in the back and indulge in naughtiness in the back. My Dad would both indulge this and reprimand him for being being a heathen. I once asked Dad about it. He said that the said character was a good lad and the van was a perk of the job, but he couldn't really condone it. Fil came up with the idea of using Ode to Joy, as most men's pride and joy seems to be their motor. 

5. Intermission in the Ship. When the Marquee was in Wardour St, the Ship was the rock and roll hang out. I used to nip down, buy the Evening Standard, have a pint and observe life there. You'd see all sorts. I worked on Windmill Street, so it was quite near. It was often full of attractive girls and dodgy blokes trying to pull them. It is also about the outrageous billboards the Evening Standard would use to try and flog you the paper. That is the part of lost London culture I miss most.  I presented this to Allen when he was in the band. He said he'd leave the band if he had to sing it, he hated it. He felt it was glorifying alcoholic behaviour and pub culture. Musically its very pop. 

6. Sunday in the 70's. Self explanatory. Back then, shops were shut, pubs shut at two, aunties would come for tea. Being Catholics, we'd have to go to Church. Mum would go home to make dinner and Dad would go for a pint with his mates. Fil came up with the rather wonderful guitar riff.

7. Channelling Ian Dury. Recalling when I met Ian Dury in 1977 aged 15, in the Delancy Cafe in Camden. It took me ten minutes to pluck up the courage to speak to him. What I wanted to say was "Hi Ian, We're getting a band together, any chance of a  support and an introduction to Stiff records". What I actually said was "Erm, er, hello Mr Dury, we are getting a band together, got any advice?" He replied "Can you play, have you got any instruments?". I said "Erm, no." He then said "Get a guitar, play a few gigs, always give it big, now F*** off and leave me alone". We recycled the Sex and Drugs riff. It is one of our fave live numbers.

8. Don't be scared if a finger up the bum. My story of cancer. An invocation to get all men my age(ish) to get a PSA test. I think it's a damn good song. Switches between blues verses and punk choruses.

9. The Burnt Oak Boogie. I wanted to write a homage to Burnt Oak, where my parents married, my grandma lived and to Annie & Joe O'Keefe who were my surrogate grandparents. The third verse is a celebration of the Bald Faced Stag pub, where The False Dots had a residency in 1983/84. 

10. Buy me a bottle of Jack. I wrote this in a bad moment in 2015, when I realised my cancer needed treatment. Faced with the prospect of impotence and incompetence, I toyed with the idea of just letting the cancer take its course, living my life as best I could and then blowing my brains out when it got too much. I said this to Clare, she thought I was joking and told me not to be so stupid. That was really that and I had HIFU. It was a very personal song and only came out of the biscuit tin when Allen left. The guitar rif was my attempt to try and sound like Wilko Johnson, who had pancreatic cancer.

11. Long Shot Didn't Die. The last song I co wrote with Allen. He wrote the last verse and made some tasteful edits elsewhere. The original concept was a song I could record with Lee Thompson of Madness. I didn't think Allen would like it, but he did. He really strengthened the anti gambling message of the song. I originally worte it as a follow up to the Pioneers ska hit "Longshot Kick Da Bucket". The brass arrangement by Boz Boorer leans on Geno by Dexy's. 

12. Sci Fi Girls (Wong Da Da). I had to change the title of this, which was orginally just Wong Da Da. I grew up loving the sci fi series of the 1960's and 1970's. Dr Who with Jo Grant, who was one of my first crushes, was required viewing. Then Gerry Anderson's UFO came along. There was a scene where Lt Ellis on Moonbase, in her purple wig and silver mini skirt did a strip for the cameras. That blew my mind. You just don't get such things on telly anymore. It's all got to be educational and politcally correct. The fan has been strangled out of everything. This is our glam rock track. The guitar riff is based on the Dr Who riff and the  original name comes from my son, when he was small calling Dr Who Wong Da Da as that was what the the riff sounded like.

13. Shake Your Bones. A love song to vinyl. When I was about 14-15, I felt that my record collection was my best friend. It seemed that only my records really talked to me. The song is recalling when my brother got my Dad a super duper stereo system, that many dreads at Carnival would be proud of. 

I'll finish with a big thanks to Fil and Graham. I really don't think that the songs would be anything without their input. The guys really are the best people in the world to be in a band with. Fil is a musical genius and Graham's work on the drums is amazing. He instinctively knows how to pace a song correctly and bring out the anger, pathos, tenderness and energy that lurks in the lyrics. 

Musician Focus : A songwriting master class

As part of my job as a recording studio owner, I often get asked to "write a song" for this cause or that event. Sometimes it's aunty Jean's birthday, sometimes it's for a rally to protest against the latest bonkers scheme in Barnet, sometimes it's for someones wedding anniversay for their wife. Occasionally someone asks me to write a hit for their child, who they want to turn into the next Robbie Williams or Adele.

The bad news is that I tend not to write songs to order. I'm one of a dying breed who play and write only what I want on my own terms. There are plenty of people I know who can churn out a good tune, but it's not my thing. I can however offer a few pointers as to what you need in a song, if you want to write your own.

The most important thing in a song is the hook. That's the bit you remember. Usually it's a chorus, but it can be the coda (The bit at the ends  "nah nah nah" in Hey Jude), it can be the first line of singing ("Goodbye Norma Jean..."), sometimes it's the bit of guitar before the singing comes in (Think "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns and Roses). Anyway, if you haven't got a hook, you haven't got a hit. I was advised by none other than Hank B. Marvin, when his son was the drummer in my band the False Dots, that "if you can't whistle it, you can't sell it". He told me that the BBC2 TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" got it's name from EMI Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles used to drag the elderly doorman in to listen to their final mixes. If he whistled the tune, it passed "The Old Grey Whistle Test" and they knew it was a hit. I once found myself drinking in a pub with Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69 and he told me that if a football crowd sings a song then it was worth singing.

Typically a song has a structure a bit like this :-

Intro
Verse
Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Middle 8  /Bridge
Verse
Chorus X 2
Coda

If you have learned an instrument, think up a few rhyming couplets - try singing this and putting a Melody to it
"I love you, I hope you love me too", a few times. When you have got a nice tune, see what guitar chords go with what you've sung. Many guitarists learn a few chords and say "I've written a song". They expect the singer to adapt. Often the song is in the wrong key. Your natural key is the one where you'll feel most comfortable. When I learned to play, every song I wrote was in A because it was easy to play, but I couldn't sing in A, so the songs always sounded horrible. I found that if I sung in D or E, they sounded OK and came together better.

When you've got your melody line and your chords, then try and work out the instrumentation. This has to suit the subject matter. For example if you were the Clash writing Hate and War, you'd probably not have found the tune to Love to Love you by Donna Summer much use. It is worth listening to a few hits in the genre and style you want to develop. Work out the structure, the instrumentation and the hooks. Try and use these elements in your own songwriting. Most artists get their breakthrough as a result of TV or Radio exposure. If you are serious about songwriting, listen to the the songs which gave artists their first hit. Once they are established, different rules apply.  It is worth noting that the world has moved on and so what worked in 1965 or 1985 won't necessarily work today. If you want to be a songwriter and write songs for Katie Perry or similar artists, listen to the structure of her songs and the key & melodies. If she uses your song, she'll get a producer in, so your fancy guitar solo will go straight out of the window. It is the idea, the hook and the melody she'll be buying.

If you are writing original material for yourself, you have more of a free reign. Try and make sure that you write songs that fully show of your talents. I once worked with a highly talented singer, who quit our band for another band. As we'd always written songs for her voice and her style, she used to sound fantastic. She joined a band with a dominant lead guitarist/songwriter. All of his songs were in the wrong key for her and lacked vocal hooks or melodies. Whereas our songs allowed her to show off her singing, suddenly she was boxed in and was delivering songs which anyone could have sung. She then had to stand around like a lemon for five minutes whilst the band played long boring guitar solo's.  I went to see her with a few friends at the Rock Garden. She'd been telling us what fantastic players she'd hooked up with, but as the set progressed, she looked more and more miserable and uncomfortable. She should have been a star, but she has sadly given up music. A song is not just a collection of noises. It is an emotion, to be conveyed with feeling. If you want to be successful, you need songs which people can associate with. This can be love songs, songs about anger, songs about a broken heart, songs about injustice. Dance music is all about making music that gets people moving. That is all about beats per minute, bass and rythme. You will know you are on the right track, if people respond to what you play them. Getting an honest opinion is difficult, unless you say to people who don't know  your music "I've been listening to this. Have a listen and tell me what you think". Don't be offended if they say "Not Much". Just try and figure out why and then try and write a better song.