August 21, 2023 • 32 mins
The Songwriter Show RSS feed:
https://www.spreaker.com/show/4297091/episodes/feed
https://feed.pod.co/the-songwriter-show-1
The Songwriter Show was created out of a desire to help songwriters as well as give music fans an inside look at the behind the scenes reality of their favorite hit songs. We want to empower and inspire you to improve your songwriting craft as well as give diehard fans an inside look into how the music industry really works in today's world. If you love music, you’re going to love The Songwriter Show.
Today’s show features hot new music with John Dorsch. Come join the fun!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-songwriter-show--4297091/support.
https://www.spreaker.com/show/4297091/episodes/feed
https://feed.pod.co/the-songwriter-show-1
The Songwriter Show was created out of a desire to help songwriters as well as give music fans an inside look at the behind the scenes reality of their favorite hit songs. We want to empower and inspire you to improve your songwriting craft as well as give diehard fans an inside look into how the music industry really works in today's world. If you love music, you’re going to love The Songwriter Show.
Today’s show features hot new music with John Dorsch. Come join the fun!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-songwriter-show--4297091/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Are you a songwriter? Are youlooking to turn your songwriting fashion into a
full time gig. Whether you arejust at the start of your songwriting journey
or a seasoned industry professionals, thisshow is made for you. Welcome to
the Songwriter Show, bringing together songwritingnews, interviews and community. Now,
(00:21):
welcome your host, Sirrontos. Thankyou for tuning in, and welcome back
to the Songwriters Show right here onReality Radio one oh one. I'm your
host, Serrantos, a solo musicartist who's been writing lyrics for as long
as I can remember. Words meanthe world to me, and that's why
I'm so thrilled to host this showfor you every single Tuesday evening. I
(00:43):
believe that every song is a story. Tonight, I'm really excited to have
John Dorsch on the show. Alittle bit about John. As a teenager,
he used pennies to slow down hisvinyl records to try to get that
sound. This led him to bea fan of Van Halen, led Zeppelin,
Rush the Beatles, and Fast forward. After forty five years of electric
acoustic guitar and drum playing, hispassion for music has expanded to include the
(01:07):
fingerstyle guitar because inspired by mentor TommyEmmanuel, it's been exposed to Jerry Reid
and Merle Travis and the challenge ofmoving strings to different sound is exhilarating for
him and for us. And nowwelcome this week's special guest. Welcome to
the show. John. How youdoing man, I'm great pleasure to be
here. Thank you so much forhaving me. Welcome. So tell us
(01:30):
a little bit about your guitar playing. It's probably the first thing I want
to ask you. Well, it'sit's it's constantly evolving, as as life
kind of goes. It started offon an acoustic guitar. I was back
in my early teens. Before that, it was accordion and trumpet and things
my parents wanted to do. AndI saw a picture of Jimmy Cage there
(01:53):
and I wanted to play a guitar. So I eventually moved into the electric
guitar and played rhythm and lead andafter, you know, copying note for
note and learning the music, youknow, like putting pennies on calvins.
There was no YouTube or tabbynature oror anybody to teach that. I learned
by ear, so so I developeda good ear out of that, which
(02:14):
I think is really important in music, and that that's led to learning melodies
and singing and broadening and more indepth guitar playing into an acoustic side or
fingerstyle playing, which carries more melodyand face and rhythm all at once.
Yeah. Absolutely, I personally lovethat style. And I'm trying to be
(02:34):
a multi instrumentalist, but piano isprobably my first instrument and there's nothing like
an instrumentalist that just takes you toanother place. We can all pretend on
the computer that we play guitar andpiano and all these things, but people
that just got that skill, it'skind of special to watch them in a
live show, to be honest,it's it's it's truly inspirational. I've had
(02:54):
a number of times there's players thatthey just they're they transcend and they they
stress your imagination. Those are theinnovators, like Eddie Van Hale and Jimmy
Page. Those are the first onesthat they're always pushing the envelope and that's
what my inspiration came from as theleaders. And then I discovered Tommy Emmanuel,
(03:16):
which is he's a monster on theguitar and he sings and he plays,
and he's an entertainer beyond belief.He said, he's got the whole
package. He's like Paul McCartney.Yeah, when people have that skill,
they really are just fascinating to sitback and watch and admire. And you
sound like one of those people,to be honest with you, Well,
(03:37):
i'd be pretty monest to Simon's anyany category those those guys. I have
played guitar with Tommy and it's trulyawe inspiring and he brings out the best
and everyone around him. I've donetwo guitar plays for him and they've really
changed my life and my outlook onmusic. And and you know that filters
all the way through your life,and many haven't. Yeah, absolutely,
(04:00):
So tell us a little bit aboutyour role models musically. Do you have
like one person that you could justsay is up there number one? Well,
you know, even even Paul McCartney'sa fabulous guitar player, even though
he's most known for, you know, playing piano and playing bass. By
singing abilities is a forced feature.You know, when he was with the
(04:23):
Beatles there their synergy was even greaterthan the four the sum of the four
of them. So and his songwritingbility. So they all have these different
aspects that they're not just performers,they're writers, they're intuitive, they're constantly
learning. That's the same way TommyEmmanuel inspires me. You know, it
(04:43):
was really nice to get an email. I did the song pour Hemlock on
this on this album, and Isaid it to him and he responded very
positively about that, And that's reassuringus that to hear from, you know,
someone of greatness that you know you'reon the right track, which is
really kind of nice to no becauseyou never really know if you're on the
right track. It's there's nobody hoping. You're just making it off. That's
(05:05):
the hard part in all this,especially if you're like a solo artist or
is you know, if you're notwith a label, you've got nothing abounce
anything off of. And over thelast decade is I've figured out what I'm
doing and gotten better and better.It's amazing to me how people that know
their stuff a little change. They'relike, hey, change that chord there,
(05:28):
tweet that melody or that lyric,and it really can take a really
good song to just a whole otherlevel. There's there's a lot that's one
thing I've learned the songwriting. SoI guess it develops over over years.
Like you know, you start withnote for note. I was very good
at that. People admired me forthat, and you know I was known
for that. I could play everythingnote for Nope, you know, learned
(05:49):
bout here. But then after awhile that that isn't enough. I want
to I want to play it myown way a little bit, And you
know what, I felt very goodabout that. So then you start creating
your own melody and your own chordvoices, and all of a sudden you
start to see where different melodies cantake the same set of chords, and
you know, many songs can youknow, melodies can be transported or the
(06:11):
same sets of chorus, and it'sit's a really plastic or elastic kind of
a medium to dealing with it.It's very you know, you can put
your own own stamp on things.And that's that's kind of where I'm at
right now. I really enjoy doingit's it's it's very fulfilled. I was
just going to ask you, howdo you feel fulfilled? So it's interesting
you just said that fulfilled. It'sit's the creating of something new. I
(06:36):
wanted to create something that was freshand new, that was you know that
that's my voice, like I.You know, it takes a while to
hear your own voice and then ittakes another long while to pull it out
and hear what it says. Andit's taken me a little while to do
that, and I found the fingersaw guitar really has help help me draw
(06:59):
that out. You know, singingand playing doing fingerstong was a nemesis for
a while, and it was like, you know, your hand would stop
when you open your mouth to sing, and it was it was it was
like, oh my god, I'mnever going to get anywhere with this.
But I'm always for a challenge.And you know, you've got to go
slow and you've got to learn thebasics. And you know, if you
(07:20):
practice too fast, you end uppracticing making those mistakes. And I didn't
learn that for a first little bit, but I truly learned it. Now.
You go slow, and you worktheir melodies out and you hum them
through and then you put your wordsto them. That's how I write my
music, and I find it it'sactually working that way for me. Very
well. Very cool man, Sotell us about this song that we're going
(07:41):
to play in a little bit,Okay, the lead song, lead single
off the album's called Faith and methat that song is an inspirational song.
It's kind of like these of inspirationalmessages that one could say to themselves,
or say to their loved one,or express desires. It's it's a very
kind of generic, captivating song Iwanted. I didn't want to paint a
(08:03):
story or an actor in a storyin the song. I wanted it to
speak to everybody and they could applyit to their own world. And it's
it's a heartfelt song, and it'sit's about kind of see who you want
to be. It's it's it's gotan interesting feel to the song. I
(08:24):
My wife wanted me to take adifferent approach with this song. I've kind
of done it like an eighties balladand it was an entire probably happy whether.
She thought, why don't you justgo sideways with the song and use
your numeras and Adri Gazar I wasplaying some blues and slide guitar, and
so that's that's what appears as themain melody, and there drafted something completely
(08:46):
new and left the guitar and myselfin isolation. Just let it happen.
That's that's what happened. And thenI decided to put a dirty electric guitar
that that compliments along with it todrive that, which is a really interesting
mix. I don't know where itcame from. It came organically from inside
(09:07):
me as something something new. Iwanted to kind of push the envelope,
and that's what this song is about. We also did my wife and I
produced the video. Her name isDanny Barrett. Oh. She's my musical
partner, and we fell into thisafter we got married. I didn't know
she sing until I caught her singingHi Hi. I was gonna say,
(09:28):
I'm just gonna yell at you becauseit sounded from what you said earlier that
you don't listen to your wife onehundred percent of the time. So you're
gonna some of our listeners are goingto be very mad at you. But
I can't do that stuff, man, I listened to my wife. Now.
She's a very very good editor anda very good concert one, and
she can see things that I don'tautomatically see of course, yeah, of
(09:50):
course, yeah, well as mostgood editors, right, So yeah,
and she's she's she's very apartive.You know, she wants wants me to
do it my win and you know, get the best out of my performance
and something that works. And thenyou know, we want to come up
(10:13):
with some really great harmonies. That'sanother feature of the song. One aspect
I really like is harmony vocals.That's because that's what I sang in bands
for years, of harmony vocal andthen all of a sudden, you're the
lead singer because you're doing it allyourself. You don't have to rely on
other people anymore to sing your songs. You just do them yourselves, which
is an interesting perspective. Change absolutelyall right, I'll tell you what.
(10:35):
Let's take a list and then we'llcome back and talk. Okay, yeah,
I'm glad, thank you, ohprobam. All right, everybody check
this out. Listen to your heart. Here I am with open arms,
(11:20):
I am waiting for you. Won'tyou take my hand? Can you feel
my heart? Meat? Here myvoice, sense my eart. Don't you
(11:41):
know you have a choice? Lieswill tear us a good Free yourself from
the past. Open your your heart, you love a lie, Run your
(12:05):
arms around me, raise your eyes, und you see let your heart be
free, put your faith in,trust in one another. No more lies,
(12:48):
no more fear. Walk towards me. I want you let your feelings
be your guide. Live today andnot tomorrow. Since Sarahty, you will
(13:15):
man your heart, give your loveway. Lies will tear us up far.
Run your arms around me, raiseyour eyes up and see. Lift your
(13:45):
heart be free, Put your faithin me, run your eyes around me,
(14:26):
raise your eyes on you see,lift your heart on your free put
your face in well, John,I want to thank you for sharing that
(15:41):
with me in the audience tonight.Cool song, man, I'm glad as
you enjoyed it. It's uh,it's it's a different experience. Yeah,
let's get into your head a littlebit. How do you write songs?
Lyrics, melody, drum, groove, guitar lick. How do you get
started? Well, that's I've triedmany different approaches over over the years,
(16:03):
and I I found it difficult tosit and just just let it all happen
at once. That's that's only happenedto me in the song on My Way
to Mexico, where I woke upin the morning and I could I could
hear the whole song. The wholearrangement. And it was then this process
of pulling it out of my headbefore I forgot it, of course,
and getting it on my zoom recorders. So I've learned a bunch of value
(16:27):
of the lessons. I always havea zoom recorder near me. I have
my phone, so whenever I havelyrics that you know, you never would
have thought, you know, likethe line or anything pops in your head,
I'm texting myself all the time.And then I dropped them down about
once a month into a journal,and I've got about three inches of the
journal here of different lyrics and differentideas when they come to me. So
(16:51):
I just am asked them. Andwhen when a theme kind of kind of
fits, I'll look for those lyricsand I'll take all those parts and I'll
look or the theme and the lyrics. The theme and elevation was elevation,
elevating the human spirit in any waypossible. Faith in me, that's lifting
your human spirit. Elevation. Thetitle of the album the Passage to Perth,
(17:14):
you know, the elevating of peoplefrom poverty into the community of Perth,
that kind of thing. It wasall of the theme Elevation developed kind
of organically out of the songs kindof go. These songs seem to be
having some similarity running through them.So as far as the music seems to
come, the melodies come out ofthe chord pattern. Some chord pattern relies
(17:37):
fire me. So I have reamsof chord patterns and MP three's that I
have sitting waiting for me to playthem, and I'll document those in a
journal as well. So so Ihave I've gotten really good at at not
forgetting anything anymore. So I havethis this an array of different songs and
styles, and I have, youknow, the next album pretty much laid
(18:00):
at ready to do. I justhave to actually work all the melodies and
actually record it, which is alot of a lot of the process.
But I find humming a melody throughthe chords and then working the fingerstyle arrangement
through that and then putting the wordsto that melody line works fast for me.
It seems to work very efficiently.Actually, Well, I got to
(18:23):
point out of flaw you when yousaid everything you just said, you missed
the most important thing, which islistening to everything your wife tells you.
You've left that out, my friend, and she's the one that's sitting there
go I really like that, youknow what I mean, what if you
did this and what if you didthat? She does that and constantly steers
my ship, and I'm not givingher credit. I shouldn't be giving her
(18:45):
even more credit. But anyway,yeah, she's yeah, well you know,
hey, it is what it is. So Apart for the mistakes you've
just made twice, tell us aboutthe most common mistakes you've seen other musicians
make, uh being being too attachedto their their their comfort zones. There's
(19:07):
there's you know, getting getting intocover bands. You know, you know,
people want to see, you know, cover music done note for note.
That's a bit of a trap Ifell into that. I've seen many
musicians like, you know, ifyou can't play it note for note,
you should just quit or give upor you know, people won't like it
or whatever. This this this selfyou know, negative self talk is really
(19:30):
the thing you know, people submitto that you need to really kind of
put that away because that's that alwaysworks against creativity. Everybody has those those
little demons that you know, tellyou you're no good or nobody will like
it, whatever. But that's notwhy you paint your picture and you paint
it because you get joy out ofdoing that process, and you hope others
(19:52):
other others get some joy out ofout of getting some movement in their spirit
out of it. You know,you want to take the it's life time
travel. And you hear the greatcover song that you grew up with,
like let's say She Loves You forexample, by the Beatles, you can't
help but smile when you hear thatsong. It's like time travel. It
(20:12):
takes you back to the mood thatyou heard that. But the Beatles wrote
that originally. If they'd only everplayed cover tunes and stayed in the tavern,
they never would have been who theyare. So at some point you
have to transcend that that negative selftalking and just do it and work getting
joy out of it and getting betterat your craft. I think that's the
(20:34):
most serious mistake people make. Theyjust played other people's music and they don't
try to do their own because itseems easier. Yeah, I one percent
agree with you, and I wasguilty of the same thing, singing other
people's melodies and other and I've realizedyou have to do your own thing,
and it's going to take you awhile of doing your own thing to figure
(20:55):
it out. So don't wait anddon't just do covers, because you know,
if you look at the voice andall these different sure you can make
it your own. But at theend of the day, making something out
of nothing is far harder than singingsomeone else's thing. And I think it
took me a while to realize that. Yeah, I agree, it's pay
attention to Like, you know,I find myself humming melodies out of nowhere
(21:18):
when I'm cutting the grass or whateverI'm doing, Like even menial tasks like
driving down the road, you'll behumming like the radio is and on.
Just organically, music comes from yoursoul, right, you know, you
would have you know, when you'reso little you can't remember your mother played
fiddler on the roof like my parentsdid. They always played it off or
they played box they played all kindsof music, you know, Elvis everything.
(21:42):
So so those are down in theDNA somewhere that I'm not even conscious
of. But those little those littleideas and things kind of just permeate out
in your own music. There isreally only you know, eight notes.
We're not we're not recreating notes,but we're you know, giving a different
presentation to music, each and everyone of us. And we're not stealing
(22:03):
other people's music or doing anything likethat. That would be disingenuous, and
you know, yeah, it's notwhat we're want to just kind of let
your own creativity quote right, absolutely, So tell us about your website?
Where can people buy your stuff?Stream it? Okay? Ww John Dorris
music dot com is the number oneplace to see everything about me and my
(22:27):
music and links to the album.Streaming is on Spotify, Deezer, and
Apple Music. It just was releasedon July the fourteenth. This is a
major triumph for me. So thisis my first life. I guess my
sophomore album and wanted to make ita good one. So we ended up
instead of ten songs that I plannedon, it was fifteen because I can't
(22:49):
stop praying so anyway, and sothat came down on July fourteenth. So
that's how for sale. I havephysical CDs here, so see me in
person, that would I would bemore than happy happy. So yeah,
that's our performance. I'll be sellingthem here or I can you know,
do the mail. The mail thingeffects too crazy online. I'll have to
(23:12):
figure something out. Was sending physicalcopies, but I do have a supply
of those online and streaming it's probablythe best way. Or my YouTube channel,
John Dorsh Music YouTube. We've gota bunch of youtubes up there for
you know, Dan Haill and tributesto Faith in Me, our new new
music video that companies the the newlead single and other acoustic Capy performances.
(23:38):
Okay, man, that's that wasawesome. And thank you so much for
being on the show tonight. Iwant to thank you. Oh You're absolutely
welcome. I really enjoyed my timewith you, and I thank you and
every one of the listeners for forfor allowing me to eat well. Thank
you so much, John, andtell the listeners out there thank you for
spending a little bit of your timewith the two of us. We both
(24:00):
hope your unique story gets hurt aroundthe world too. My name is Sarantos.
Please join me every Tuesday night toyour other amazing artists share their fascinating
stories right here at the Songwriter SeanReality Radio one on one. I love
you guys, have a great night. It's almost violent times day. I'm
(24:49):
wandering out loud loud, Why isit loud? Love is not forever?
Everyone love is sometimes elusive. Lovecan be fund look can't be if fusive.
(25:14):
If you find love, then youknow that that's real. Gree is
love, Love is kind, kindis love, Love's chant Chanta is love.
(25:42):
Love is pure, pure, It'slove. It's finaling, Time's day
(26:07):
today. The world is still around? Where is love? Is it all
around? Love is all around today. True love is free, love can
be found. Love it is allaround me Street green is love. Love
(26:48):
is can't Candy's love. Love ischantl Chantay's Love's cure cure It's love all
(27:25):
that and time stay. It's aabout is real, Real is love,
(28:14):
Love is kind, kind, Sheloves chant chante times than Thank you for
(29:27):
listening to The Songwriter Show. Tokeep the momentum going, head over to
www Dot songwriter show dot com andjoin our free music community of artists,
songwriters and producers. That's www.Dot songwriter show dot com. Lady hanging any long
Are you a songwriter? Are youlooking to turn your songwriting fashion into a
full time gig. Whether you arejust at the start of your songwriting journey
or a seasoned industry professionals, thisshow is made for you. Welcome to
the Songwriter Show, bringing together songwritingnews, interviews and community. Now,
(00:21):
welcome your host, Sirrontos. Thankyou for tuning in, and welcome back
to the Songwriters Show right here onReality Radio one oh one. I'm your
host, Serrantos, a solo musicartist who's been writing lyrics for as long
as I can remember. Words meanthe world to me, and that's why
I'm so thrilled to host this showfor you every single Tuesday evening. I
(00:43):
believe that every song is a story. Tonight, I'm really excited to have
John Dorsch on the show. Alittle bit about John. As a teenager,
he used pennies to slow down hisvinyl records to try to get that
sound. This led him to bea fan of Van Halen, led Zeppelin,
Rush the Beatles, and Fast forward. After forty five years of electric
acoustic guitar and drum playing, hispassion for music has expanded to include the
(01:07):
fingerstyle guitar because inspired by mentor TommyEmmanuel, it's been exposed to Jerry Reid
and Merle Travis and the challenge ofmoving strings to different sound is exhilarating for
him and for us. And nowwelcome this week's special guest. Welcome to
the show. John. How youdoing man, I'm great pleasure to be
here. Thank you so much forhaving me. Welcome. So tell us
(01:30):
a little bit about your guitar playing. It's probably the first thing I want
to ask you. Well, it'sit's it's constantly evolving, as as life
kind of goes. It started offon an acoustic guitar. I was back
in my early teens. Before that, it was accordion and trumpet and things
my parents wanted to do. AndI saw a picture of Jimmy Cage there
(01:53):
and I wanted to play a guitar. So I eventually moved into the electric
guitar and played rhythm and lead andafter, you know, copying note for
note and learning the music, youknow, like putting pennies on calvins.
There was no YouTube or tabbynature oror anybody to teach that. I learned
by ear, so so I developeda good ear out of that, which
(02:14):
I think is really important in music, and that that's led to learning melodies
and singing and broadening and more indepth guitar playing into an acoustic side or
fingerstyle playing, which carries more melodyand face and rhythm all at once.
Yeah. Absolutely, I personally lovethat style. And I'm trying to be
(02:34):
a multi instrumentalist, but piano isprobably my first instrument and there's nothing like
an instrumentalist that just takes you toanother place. We can all pretend on
the computer that we play guitar andpiano and all these things, but people
that just got that skill, it'skind of special to watch them in a
live show, to be honest,it's it's it's truly inspirational. I've had
(02:54):
a number of times there's players thatthey just they're they transcend and they they
stress your imagination. Those are theinnovators, like Eddie Van Hale and Jimmy
Page. Those are the first onesthat they're always pushing the envelope and that's
what my inspiration came from as theleaders. And then I discovered Tommy Emmanuel,
(03:16):
which is he's a monster on theguitar and he sings and he plays,
and he's an entertainer beyond belief.He said, he's got the whole
package. He's like Paul McCartney.Yeah, when people have that skill,
they really are just fascinating to sitback and watch and admire. And you
sound like one of those people,to be honest with you, Well,
(03:37):
i'd be pretty monest to Simon's anyany category those those guys. I have
played guitar with Tommy and it's trulyawe inspiring and he brings out the best
and everyone around him. I've donetwo guitar plays for him and they've really
changed my life and my outlook onmusic. And and you know that filters
all the way through your life,and many haven't. Yeah, absolutely,
(04:00):
So tell us a little bit aboutyour role models musically. Do you have
like one person that you could justsay is up there number one? Well,
you know, even even Paul McCartney'sa fabulous guitar player, even though
he's most known for, you know, playing piano and playing bass. By
singing abilities is a forced feature.You know, when he was with the
(04:23):
Beatles there their synergy was even greaterthan the four the sum of the four
of them. So and his songwritingbility. So they all have these different
aspects that they're not just performers,they're writers, they're intuitive, they're constantly
learning. That's the same way TommyEmmanuel inspires me. You know, it
(04:43):
was really nice to get an email. I did the song pour Hemlock on
this on this album, and Isaid it to him and he responded very
positively about that, And that's reassuringus that to hear from, you know,
someone of greatness that you know you'reon the right track, which is
really kind of nice to no becauseyou never really know if you're on the
right track. It's there's nobody hoping. You're just making it off. That's
(05:05):
the hard part in all this,especially if you're like a solo artist or
is you know, if you're notwith a label, you've got nothing abounce
anything off of. And over thelast decade is I've figured out what I'm
doing and gotten better and better.It's amazing to me how people that know
their stuff a little change. They'relike, hey, change that chord there,
(05:28):
tweet that melody or that lyric,and it really can take a really
good song to just a whole otherlevel. There's there's a lot that's one
thing I've learned the songwriting. SoI guess it develops over over years.
Like you know, you start withnote for note. I was very good
at that. People admired me forthat, and you know I was known
for that. I could play everythingnote for Nope, you know, learned
(05:49):
bout here. But then after awhile that that isn't enough. I want
to I want to play it myown way a little bit, And you
know what, I felt very goodabout that. So then you start creating
your own melody and your own chordvoices, and all of a sudden you
start to see where different melodies cantake the same set of chords, and
you know, many songs can youknow, melodies can be transported or the
(06:11):
same sets of chorus, and it'sit's a really plastic or elastic kind of
a medium to dealing with it.It's very you know, you can put
your own own stamp on things.And that's that's kind of where I'm at
right now. I really enjoy doingit's it's it's very fulfilled. I was
just going to ask you, howdo you feel fulfilled? So it's interesting
you just said that fulfilled. It'sit's the creating of something new. I
(06:36):
wanted to create something that was freshand new, that was you know that
that's my voice, like I.You know, it takes a while to
hear your own voice and then ittakes another long while to pull it out
and hear what it says. Andit's taken me a little while to do
that, and I found the fingersaw guitar really has help help me draw
(06:59):
that out. You know, singingand playing doing fingerstong was a nemesis for
a while, and it was like, you know, your hand would stop
when you open your mouth to sing, and it was it was it was
like, oh my god, I'mnever going to get anywhere with this.
But I'm always for a challenge.And you know, you've got to go
slow and you've got to learn thebasics. And you know, if you
(07:20):
practice too fast, you end uppracticing making those mistakes. And I didn't
learn that for a first little bit, but I truly learned it. Now.
You go slow, and you worktheir melodies out and you hum them
through and then you put your wordsto them. That's how I write my
music, and I find it it'sactually working that way for me. Very
well. Very cool man, Sotell us about this song that we're going
(07:41):
to play in a little bit,Okay, the lead song, lead single
off the album's called Faith and methat that song is an inspirational song.
It's kind of like these of inspirationalmessages that one could say to themselves,
or say to their loved one,or express desires. It's it's a very
kind of generic, captivating song Iwanted. I didn't want to paint a
(08:03):
story or an actor in a storyin the song. I wanted it to
speak to everybody and they could applyit to their own world. And it's
it's a heartfelt song, and it'sit's about kind of see who you want
to be. It's it's it's gotan interesting feel to the song. I
(08:24):
My wife wanted me to take adifferent approach with this song. I've kind
of done it like an eighties balladand it was an entire probably happy whether.
She thought, why don't you justgo sideways with the song and use
your numeras and Adri Gazar I wasplaying some blues and slide guitar, and
so that's that's what appears as themain melody, and there drafted something completely
(08:46):
new and left the guitar and myselfin isolation. Just let it happen.
That's that's what happened. And thenI decided to put a dirty electric guitar
that that compliments along with it todrive that, which is a really interesting
mix. I don't know where itcame from. It came organically from inside
(09:07):
me as something something new. Iwanted to kind of push the envelope,
and that's what this song is about. We also did my wife and I
produced the video. Her name isDanny Barrett. Oh. She's my musical
partner, and we fell into thisafter we got married. I didn't know
she sing until I caught her singingHi Hi. I was gonna say,
(09:28):
I'm just gonna yell at you becauseit sounded from what you said earlier that
you don't listen to your wife onehundred percent of the time. So you're
gonna some of our listeners are goingto be very mad at you. But
I can't do that stuff, man, I listened to my wife. Now.
She's a very very good editor anda very good concert one, and
she can see things that I don'tautomatically see of course, yeah, of
(09:50):
course, yeah, well as mostgood editors, right, So yeah,
and she's she's she's very apartive.You know, she wants wants me to
do it my win and you know, get the best out of my performance
and something that works. And thenyou know, we want to come up
(10:13):
with some really great harmonies. That'sanother feature of the song. One aspect
I really like is harmony vocals.That's because that's what I sang in bands
for years, of harmony vocal andthen all of a sudden, you're the
lead singer because you're doing it allyourself. You don't have to rely on
other people anymore to sing your songs. You just do them yourselves, which
is an interesting perspective. Change absolutelyall right, I'll tell you what.
(10:35):
Let's take a list and then we'llcome back and talk. Okay, yeah,
I'm glad, thank you, ohprobam. All right, everybody check
this out. Listen to your heart. Here I am with open arms,
(11:20):
I am waiting for you. Won'tyou take my hand? Can you feel
my heart? Meat? Here myvoice, sense my eart. Don't you
(11:41):
know you have a choice? Lieswill tear us a good Free yourself from
the past. Open your your heart, you love a lie, Run your
(12:05):
arms around me, raise your eyes, und you see let your heart be
free, put your faith in,trust in one another. No more lies,
(12:48):
no more fear. Walk towards me. I want you let your feelings
be your guide. Live today andnot tomorrow. Since Sarahty, you will
(13:15):
man your heart, give your loveway. Lies will tear us up far.
Run your arms around me, raiseyour eyes up and see. Lift your
(13:45):
heart be free, Put your faithin me, run your eyes around me,
(14:26):
raise your eyes on you see,lift your heart on your free put
your face in well, John,I want to thank you for sharing that
(15:41):
with me in the audience tonight.Cool song, man, I'm glad as
you enjoyed it. It's uh,it's it's a different experience. Yeah,
let's get into your head a littlebit. How do you write songs?
Lyrics, melody, drum, groove, guitar lick. How do you get
started? Well, that's I've triedmany different approaches over over the years,
(16:03):
and I I found it difficult tosit and just just let it all happen
at once. That's that's only happenedto me in the song on My Way
to Mexico, where I woke upin the morning and I could I could
hear the whole song. The wholearrangement. And it was then this process
of pulling it out of my headbefore I forgot it, of course,
and getting it on my zoom recorders. So I've learned a bunch of value
(16:27):
of the lessons. I always havea zoom recorder near me. I have
my phone, so whenever I havelyrics that you know, you never would
have thought, you know, likethe line or anything pops in your head,
I'm texting myself all the time.And then I dropped them down about
once a month into a journal,and I've got about three inches of the
journal here of different lyrics and differentideas when they come to me. So
(16:51):
I just am asked them. Andwhen when a theme kind of kind of
fits, I'll look for those lyricsand I'll take all those parts and I'll
look or the theme and the lyrics. The theme and elevation was elevation,
elevating the human spirit in any waypossible. Faith in me, that's lifting
your human spirit. Elevation. Thetitle of the album the Passage to Perth,
(17:14):
you know, the elevating of peoplefrom poverty into the community of Perth,
that kind of thing. It wasall of the theme Elevation developed kind
of organically out of the songs kindof go. These songs seem to be
having some similarity running through them.So as far as the music seems to
come, the melodies come out ofthe chord pattern. Some chord pattern relies
(17:37):
fire me. So I have reamsof chord patterns and MP three's that I
have sitting waiting for me to playthem, and I'll document those in a
journal as well. So so Ihave I've gotten really good at at not
forgetting anything anymore. So I havethis this an array of different songs and
styles, and I have, youknow, the next album pretty much laid
(18:00):
at ready to do. I justhave to actually work all the melodies and
actually record it, which is alot of a lot of the process.
But I find humming a melody throughthe chords and then working the fingerstyle arrangement
through that and then putting the wordsto that melody line works fast for me.
It seems to work very efficiently.Actually, Well, I got to
(18:23):
point out of flaw you when yousaid everything you just said, you missed
the most important thing, which islistening to everything your wife tells you.
You've left that out, my friend, and she's the one that's sitting there
go I really like that, youknow what I mean, what if you
did this and what if you didthat? She does that and constantly steers
my ship, and I'm not givingher credit. I shouldn't be giving her
(18:45):
even more credit. But anyway,yeah, she's yeah, well you know,
hey, it is what it is. So Apart for the mistakes you've
just made twice, tell us aboutthe most common mistakes you've seen other musicians
make, uh being being too attachedto their their their comfort zones. There's
(19:07):
there's you know, getting getting intocover bands. You know, you know,
people want to see, you know, cover music done note for note.
That's a bit of a trap Ifell into that. I've seen many
musicians like, you know, ifyou can't play it note for note,
you should just quit or give upor you know, people won't like it
or whatever. This this this selfyou know, negative self talk is really
(19:30):
the thing you know, people submitto that you need to really kind of
put that away because that's that alwaysworks against creativity. Everybody has those those
little demons that you know, tellyou you're no good or nobody will like
it, whatever. But that's notwhy you paint your picture and you paint
it because you get joy out ofdoing that process, and you hope others
(19:52):
other others get some joy out ofout of getting some movement in their spirit
out of it. You know,you want to take the it's life time
travel. And you hear the greatcover song that you grew up with,
like let's say She Loves You forexample, by the Beatles, you can't
help but smile when you hear thatsong. It's like time travel. It
(20:12):
takes you back to the mood thatyou heard that. But the Beatles wrote
that originally. If they'd only everplayed cover tunes and stayed in the tavern,
they never would have been who theyare. So at some point you
have to transcend that that negative selftalking and just do it and work getting
joy out of it and getting betterat your craft. I think that's the
(20:34):
most serious mistake people make. Theyjust played other people's music and they don't
try to do their own because itseems easier. Yeah, I one percent
agree with you, and I wasguilty of the same thing, singing other
people's melodies and other and I've realizedyou have to do your own thing,
and it's going to take you awhile of doing your own thing to figure
(20:55):
it out. So don't wait anddon't just do covers, because you know,
if you look at the voice andall these different sure you can make
it your own. But at theend of the day, making something out
of nothing is far harder than singingsomeone else's thing. And I think it
took me a while to realize that. Yeah, I agree, it's pay
attention to Like, you know,I find myself humming melodies out of nowhere
(21:18):
when I'm cutting the grass or whateverI'm doing, Like even menial tasks like
driving down the road, you'll behumming like the radio is and on.
Just organically, music comes from yoursoul, right, you know, you
would have you know, when you'reso little you can't remember your mother played
fiddler on the roof like my parentsdid. They always played it off or
they played box they played all kindsof music, you know, Elvis everything.
(21:42):
So so those are down in theDNA somewhere that I'm not even conscious
of. But those little those littleideas and things kind of just permeate out
in your own music. There isreally only you know, eight notes.
We're not we're not recreating notes,but we're you know, giving a different
presentation to music, each and everyone of us. And we're not stealing
(22:03):
other people's music or doing anything likethat. That would be disingenuous, and
you know, yeah, it's notwhat we're want to just kind of let
your own creativity quote right, absolutely, So tell us about your website?
Where can people buy your stuff?Stream it? Okay? Ww John Dorris
music dot com is the number oneplace to see everything about me and my
(22:27):
music and links to the album.Streaming is on Spotify, Deezer, and
Apple Music. It just was releasedon July the fourteenth. This is a
major triumph for me. So thisis my first life. I guess my
sophomore album and wanted to make ita good one. So we ended up
instead of ten songs that I plannedon, it was fifteen because I can't
(22:49):
stop praying so anyway, and sothat came down on July fourteenth. So
that's how for sale. I havephysical CDs here, so see me in
person, that would I would bemore than happy happy. So yeah,
that's our performance. I'll be sellingthem here or I can you know,
do the mail. The mail thingeffects too crazy online. I'll have to
(23:12):
figure something out. Was sending physicalcopies, but I do have a supply
of those online and streaming it's probablythe best way. Or my YouTube channel,
John Dorsh Music YouTube. We've gota bunch of youtubes up there for
you know, Dan Haill and tributesto Faith in Me, our new new
music video that companies the the newlead single and other acoustic Capy performances.
(23:38):
Okay, man, that's that wasawesome. And thank you so much for
being on the show tonight. Iwant to thank you. Oh You're absolutely
welcome. I really enjoyed my timewith you, and I thank you and
every one of the listeners for forfor allowing me to eat well. Thank
you so much, John, andtell the listeners out there thank you for
spending a little bit of your timewith the two of us. We both
(24:00):
hope your unique story gets hurt aroundthe world too. My name is Sarantos.
Please join me every Tuesday night toyour other amazing artists share their fascinating
stories right here at the Songwriter SeanReality Radio one on one. I love
you guys, have a great night. It's almost violent times day. I'm
(24:49):
wandering out loud loud, Why isit loud? Love is not forever?
Everyone love is sometimes elusive. Lovecan be fund look can't be if fusive.
(25:14):
If you find love, then youknow that that's real. Gree is
love, Love is kind, kindis love, Love's chant Chanta is love.
(25:42):
Love is pure, pure, It'slove. It's finaling, Time's day
(26:07):
today. The world is still around? Where is love? Is it all
around? Love is all around today. True love is free, love can
be found. Love it is allaround me Street green is love. Love
(26:48):
is can't Candy's love. Love ischantl Chantay's Love's cure cure It's love all
(27:25):
that and time stay. It's aabout is real, Real is love,
(28:14):
Love is kind, kind, Sheloves chant chante times than Thank you for
(29:27):
listening to The Songwriter Show. Tokeep the momentum going, head over to
www Dot songwriter show dot com andjoin our free music community of artists,
songwriters and producers. That's www.Dot songwriter show dot com. Lady hanging any long
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.