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My Music.

Here's a quick thing on my music, for those out there who are interested.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I play piano/keyboard and sing. I also write my own songs. Generally, they fall into one of three rough categories:
  1. Comedy.
  2. Christian.
  3. Other.
Now, just a point here - just because I have a 'Christian' group of songs, doesn't mean that my 'Other' songs aren't going to be influenced by Christianity, or talk about Christian values. It's more that my 'Christian' ones do it slightly more directly, so to speak.

At present, I have over two hundred songs. About a dozen of the first category, most in the second or third. I have had reasonably few gigs, and only one paid. I've had a pretty good reception at each of these, but it still hasn't gotten me very far. I did get a spot on Australia's Got Talent, which managed to get on TV, though I didn't get through. The video on Youtube has a few thousand views. 

I've managed to record a few songs, and have put some of them together to make an EP, currently available online for download/purchase here: http://brendanjamesraymond.bandcamp.com/ There's also three other albums that I've released; two more traditionally, with audio you can download, one just as a video. I've got about three more albums ready to record, if I had the time, the energy, and the people for it.

Honestly, though, the lack of massive attention is fine with me at the moment. For me, that's not what music is about - it's about sharing what I've written with other people. That's all. Not about making millions, or having my face on TV, or getting my own Wikipedia page. I'm not really interested in those that much. I mean, yeah, it's cool to type your name in Wikipedia and actually come up with you - but there's more important things than that. Hence, I'm also not terribly interested in becoming a virtuosic piano player, or having an operatic singing voice (though I can kinda do that). I'd just be happy with being able to play my own songs well enough that my mistakes wouldn't distract people from what I played.

There's three main things that I want to do with my music.
Firstly, just be able to share it with other people.
Secondly, that it would make people think, or make them laugh, or have fun, or all three.
Thirdly, that I'd be able to keep composing music, and that my music would be able to be fully realised, and reach its full potential.

That's all that I'm out to do as a musician, as a songwriter. I think that's what makes me a bit different. If you ever notice anything that would help me to further one of these goals, please, let me know :)

So that's my music, I guess. To sum it up, here's a little acronym I came up with a while ago. I think it stands for any songwriter, but I try to always keep it in mind when I'm writing my songs. It's ICE. Inspiration, Creation, Expression. That's what songwriting is about, for me. Inspiring other people, Creating something new, and Expressing what's inside. That's what's important.