Tuesday 24 March 2015

After the Dusk settles



They leaned together in a quiet embrace. Watching the trees swing in the wind. Sharing a silence that truly is magical once you earn the complexity of a simple moment. Time in their faces, in the lines on their hands, the marks on their skin. Lovers, friends, life long companions who speak without words, a look...a smile...even the way one breathes in and releases. Their is a peace that can be found in the truth of those precious seconds before the blur of the busy takes back over. And in those ticking hands that walk through countless thoughts a phrase emerges that encapsulates their history, the moment they are in and the future that stands before them.

Baby, I was made for you.

The line was delivered by my co-writers, Rosanne Baker Thornley and Scott Dennis MacKay. I had rarely used the word "baby" in any song I had been a writer on.  But the simplicity of it not only intrigued me, it sparked an idea for music and a special thing happened that all songwriters have experienced in their lives from time to time...A waterfall of lyric came out and painted a picture that was so easy to accept. It felt good. It made sense. It spoke volumes in the essence. A couple hours after playing and writing the song had reached close to 90%. Because of the crunch on having to get another song done the same week, and a myriad of obstacles that stood in the way...we not only found the time, but came in early beating the clock by more than minutes this time.

I have truly enjoyed this experience and will smile everytime I walk through a new door that I have opened because of it.

Below are the lyrics and link to this weeks final challenge for Matt Dusk.

Thanks for listening and reading the rambles.


Just like the day standing under the sun
Like a smile always dancin with fun
Just like the tide swimming under the moon
Baby its true...i was made for you

I wanna show you
That I  gotta know you
Girl you make my body move 
I wanna tell you
Just how much I love ya
Baby I was made for you.

Verse 2:

Just like the tracks sleeping under the train
or like a book holding on to the page
Just like the silver touching the spoon
Baby its true...I was made for you

I wanna show you
That I gotta know you
Girl you make my body move 
I wanna tell you
Just how much I love ya
Baby I was made for you.

CHORUS: 

Your the flame that sets me on fire
you Take me to the top 
But just a little bit higher 



Monday 23 March 2015

Watchful Eye



The watchful eye as once again time closes in. I love seeing all these notifications of anxious songwriters posting their wares as if we are all opening up for business in some strange market place.

This week was certainly the most interesting of them all. Working two songs at the same time during March Break where my little minions were tugging me from all angles. I skied, I snowball fought, I shovelled, I travelled to Quebec City and spent time with great friends...oh ya...and wrote some music with some amazing people.

The Radio Song.

Got the whole song completed...and we didn't like it...lol. Me and Rosanne Baker Thornley are getting to know each other as writers pretty well. We have done a number of co-writes and show no signs of slowing down. So when we both had a solid listen to what we had already created in Studio...we were both ready to go back to drawing board and start again.

With massive help from the super talented, dedicated Ted Onyszczak, we came in under the wire once again.

Invisible Stains (everybody's got a secret)

Keeping it to 3:30 was no problem. We did have a longer edit and went through the exercise of severing parts of our song. But as they landed on the floor, I was happy to see them go.

Starting with a chorus was an easier way to keep the song short. I love that structure. We decided to make an anthemic song. Something that the masses would sing or at least we hope they would.

Everyone of us holds something inside. A locked closet, a story under the rug, a memory that will never be shared.

Writing this song was mayhem...crazy...cool...insane...mayhem.

Had a blast.


Hope you all enjoyed your week as well.

Till next time,
North Easton


Monday 16 March 2015

Roadside Cross

On March 15th, 1944, a man was born of steel and calloused fingers. He grew up in a small town on a little island in the west coast. He grew up strong, worked hard, died young.

Gary Easton was my father. A welder by trade who later took to entrepreneurship. He built a very large vending business in Sonora California. Rode a Harley, loved his beer, his t.v. and his little dog. But that was all before I really knew him. That was before we became best friends. I wrote and recorded this weeks challenge on his birthday.

As the weeks roll on in this challenge, and we all dig deeper into our vaults of musical and lyrical ideas, we walk over bones that have settled in our closets. We kick up dust that is hard to see through and can very often take us to new places we didn't picture ourselves going.

Roadside Cross is an idea that has been brewing in my head for a number of years. I travel from Ontario to British Columbia by van every year in the summer. It takes 4-6 days depending on what we stop to explore. I have seen so many untold stories on the side of the road in the form of a wooden cross. Some with worn out flowers attached, or a teddy bear, or words like "Remember" "Forever Missed" "Tragic". There is a journey in my future regarding these crosses, but that is for another page.

Week 5 - Having a deadline to write a song adds a pressure that some may find as stressful. For others impossible. I would imagine that for some writers it may make them even angry if things aren't going the way they planned. For me...the deadline is fantastic. It brings an energy that truly fires me up. I can see that same light in many other writers still locked in and raring to go. I tip my hat again to you all.

The story of this particular song stems from an accident that happened when I was only a child. A man and his wife were driving down a steep hill in the pouring rain. The man lost control of his car and did everything he could to keep it straight, but he smashed through the guard rail, over the embankment and down into the ravine 50 feet below. The car was upside down on the edge of the river. The rain continued to pour as night had only begun. It was not until the wee hours of the morning that anyone was aware of this accident. By then it was too late. The couple had either been killed on impact, or drowned as the rain brought with it more water than usual for the little river.

I think of this when I drive. Around corners, near guard rails, near rivers and lakes. I visualize them surviving the fall. Stuck in the cold, trapped in the car, holding hands, holding hope, until the inevitable flood finds its way in. I picture them looking into each others eyes. Although their is fear, their is also love. Their is a look of gratitude for what they have given each other, the lives they have lived, the path that has brought them here. And then...the water comes.

After the wreckage and broken glass is removed, the guard rail fixed, the trees they broke on the way down have regrown, their is only one thing left as a reminder they were even there that day...


ROADSIDE CROSS
written by north easton

Burning rain, Cold heart
lights from the black and whites paint the dark
And the cracks in the concrete and the muddy water that they cry
Shadows wake up before the night

And the lines on the pavement couldnt keep him in
blood soaked lies left inside of the guilt covered skin
And the tracks on the street, where he tried to keep it straight
The big sleep, its gonna keep me off your train


You said, you said, you said you wont
Leave this life before me...nohhh
Leave this life before me...nohhh

You said, you said, you said you wont
Leave this life before me...nohhh
Leave this life before me...nohhh

The sound of steel when the guard rail breaks
ANd the weightless feel when you FLY through your last mistake

Down the banks to the rocks at the bottom
Tumble inside of the car covered coffin
Close your eyes for the last time and picture a face
the big sleep, its gonna keep me off your train

You said, you said, you said you wont
Leave this life before me...nohhh
Leave this life before me...nohhh

You said, you said, you said you wont
Leave this life before me...nohhh
Leave this life before me...nohhh

BRIDGE:
Come on...stay awake
Come on...stay awake

upside down, a wreck in the river
Lie there cold and quiet with her
hand i hold, watch her shiver
feel her soul, fade and flicker

And the rain comes in at the hardest cost
Both of them their fight is lost
and the years they hide the broken glass 

And all thats left..is a roadside cross


Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and walk this little journey with me.

Till next time
North Easton
www.northeaston.ca



Monday 9 March 2015

Step Up



STEP UP

I found myself standing in a room with 7000 people this week. All of them had come looking for something special within themselves. A search into the mind, body and soul. A new journey to not only break down the limiting beliefs of their worlds, but build new stronger connections to the most important things in our lives. Countless quotes from unbelievable speakers who not only charged the lives of the people standing before them, but recharged themselves as they stood there on the stage.

It would be impossible to share with you in intricate detail the experience that unfolded in New Jersey (just outside of New York City) without you being there...but I tell you this.

In all of my years, in all of my performances, in the thousands of people I have met along the way...I have never met someone as powerful, intelligent, passionate, and inspirational as the man I saw on stage at Unleash the Power Within. 

Some would say...cultish. Don't drink the koolaid.

Cynics to a better way of life. This journey was not to follow the man speaking on stage, but to find the best of ourselves as we delve back in to the everyday.

I'm all fired up, and with a very small window to write this song for this weeks challenge, how could I not honour the experience and write a song with one of the most important messages of the entire event.

Step Up. Step Up. Step Up.






North Easton is an award winning Canadian Singer Songwriter.
www.northeaston.ca

Monday 2 March 2015

Fine with Wasting Time



FINE WITH WASTING TIME

In a busy world of worn out faces, shattered dreams and forgotten places I stand in flowing fields knowing that if I yield to the rain that crashes into my brain something deep inside will change and take me further from the youth I seek. The truth this week is mine, small and short on time and once again I am guilty of the crime of waiting till the last line is drawn in the sand with my outstretched hand hating that the clock drives the boat that I am in. But "everything you do is a win", the words echo in my ears, through the bottleneck fears that stop the flow of original thought...i'm caught up in the moment...and not only do I own it...I love it and what if i could slow it down...forget about the crowds waiting to push their way through...something new...sit...wait...watch...take those precious seconds and turn them into something that is not beckoning me back to the busy day that I left behind. Im Fine with Wasting Time.

In a sea of songs and the child inside us all, this weeks song was a fun journey. A moment where not only the writing pulled me in and kept me locked in a room for hours on end, but the production demon that I swear would never take over...kinda did a little here. Hard to stop when you get started.

With 6 children of my own, finding time to write this little tune was no simple undertaking. Couple that with a metaphorical car crash of other things stuck on the roads of my brain waiting for a tow...I am happy with the final product...and have thoroughly enjoyed listening to everyones take on this weeks challenge.



Heading away to New York for this upcoming week and not sure where the next song will fit...maybe in the air...on the streets...in something new I learn and experience along the way.


Thanks for stopping by.



North Easton
www.northeaston.ca