As you may have read in a previous post I’m attempting the RPM Challenge this year, which involves creating an album in just the 29 days of February, so here is my first update. I’ll be posting regular updates here, that’s the plan anyway, of course I could find I don’t have time!

The challenge has started well as I have a song more or less complete and it was achieved surprisingly quickly, you can listen to it using the player below or at SoundCloud.

Before starting this endeavour I was assuming that the direction of the album would most likely be instrumental and electronic, with few guitars, electric bass etc., simply because I find this type of music quicker to get going on and quicker to make – time is of short supply of course! However I’ve confounded this on the very first “session” by making a mostly guitar based vocal song. I don’t know why, it just seemed to flow that way, so I’ve created a nice little whimsical short song called “Twice Nightly Richard Whiteley”. Listeners of a certain age with a knowledge of British TV might be able to make sense of the lyrics which are reproduced below.

The backing track came about quite quickly, however vocals as usual took a lot longer and I’m still not sure about them. I’d forgotten that it takes me quite a long time to get vocals down, perhaps because I’m not a great or confident singer. So as time is limited I’m not sure there will be many vocal tracks on this album. But you never know…

Usually my songwriting process goes thus: Create chords and backing track, scat sing over and over the music until I come up with a melody and then usually a phrase or two comes out of this singing to build the lyrics on. For some unknown reason the phrase “Twice Nightly Richard Whiteley” popped into my head!

Richard Whiteley was a popular TV presenter here in the UK, he’s now sadly deceased. “Twice Nightly Richard Whiteley” was his nickname and it’s ended up being a song about nostalgia. If all of the songs on this album come about this quickly then I’ll be very glad. Something tells me it’s not going to be that straightforward though…

Onwards.

It’s twice nightly Richard Whiteley
The Calendar guy with Countdown Carol
I smile so sweetly at nostalgia creeping
Up on me like a lost friend

Flashing fingers Ted Rogers lingers
Rattles my head like a coin in a tin
Maybe I’m crazy, the past it haunts me
Cart me off inside Dusty Bin

The truth is clear
The past is dear
To us it’s home

Nancy it’s true, I can paint along with you
The past it seems a different colour
Mr. Men are my brethren
The Clangers are still on the moon

Tags: richard whiteley, RPM Challenge