Athamirra – I Can Tell
ARTIST NAME: Athamirra
Lyricist: Robyn Rees
Label: Athamirra Music
Produce: Supreme Tracks
SONG TITLE: I Can Tell
GENRE: Country
Robyn Rees – Facebook
Athamirra – Facebook
Website
New Zealand lyrics and songs that find calm in a rude world dealing with issues of life and love with thoughtfulness, depth and soul for mellow, easy listening and emotional undertones. – The spiritual philosophy of relationships with self and society.
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Tell us how you build up the tune for this song.
The tune comes from how the words are arranged. There is an inherent rhythm in the lyric of the song. The melody naturally progresses from this rhythm and the mood that is wanted to express these words. As a lyricist, I wrote the words so that a song can be naturally produced.
The next step is to give the producer Supreme Tracks a lyric file, a vocal scratch of my own song rendition and a reference track.
The reference track for this song is Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon”.
This is a mellow and amiable easy country reference track with harmonica.
So the excellent musicians that perform this rendition of “I Can Tell” belong to the Supreme Tracks team and are anonymous to me.
This changes the focus of artistry/creativity to the foundation of a great song – the lyric. Well-crafted lyrics inspire and generate music that works.
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Tell us the best means of becoming a famous artist and selling more records.
No idea really – I just started in 2016 and am constantly learning every step of the way. Not really interested in being famous but I do need income to keep bringing new material into the industry. I am currently advertising my website where anyone can listen for free or donate to different songs each week.
Any income I can generate with my songs flows right through to the musicians at Supreme Tracks as well when I get a new song produced so it is a marvellous recognition and encouragement of real talent.
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Tell us how fans are reacting to your music.
‘I Can Tell’ is playing on Radio Airplay and new fans are popping up regularly – one comment was “I love it! Catchy.”
I have been running ad campaigns on Facebook this year with excellent feedback and an increasing number of return visits to the website.
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Explain how to deal with fear.
No stage – no problem.
When I started in 2016 I put lyric videos of vocal scratches of my renditions of songs and this was incredibly scary for me to do because I am not a performing singer.
It was an excellent way to overcome the barrier of fear of exposure to the public of very personal issues and expression.
It paved the way to the next step of presenting my stuff to producers for better quality demos. This increased my confidence in my lyrics.
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Tell us your point of view on the quality of production of today’s songs to old songs and point out what you think has changed.
It depends on the genre and the purpose of the music. Many concerts and performances are a whole package deal that people enjoy for the atmosphere and lots of reasons apart from the music. Radio-friendly songs fill in a different environment and offer a different example.
Music is such a personal language I can only judge the production of songs that suit me. My taste runs to songs I can sing to and has music that resonates with my own emotions. So need melody and meaning that I haven’t found a lot of in today’s music. This just adds to my motivation to present my own stuff.
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Tell us an interesting experience in your music career that is significant.
In the short time that I’ve been in the music scene, I started in 2016; I have had conversations with three separate publishing and recording outfits interested in my music. This in itself is incredible. But what is interesting is that so far I have had no offer that fits my role as a lyricist/songwriter. The assumption is that the song is from a performing/recording artist. The significance is that brands that I have come across are about promoting personas rather than the actual music.
I feel that this discourages diversity and real talent because material success then depends on a mass marketing machine irrespective of whether the music is any good. It should be about the song because a good song is a song that connects and involves the listener in a very personal way.
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Tell us how you come across the lyrics of this song.
I was driving home from having radiation for cancer and I had to keep stopping on the way in a text conversation that roughly turned into the first few lines of this song.
It made me think about how important communication is to how we cope and to how we come to understand ourselves.
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Tell us your best means of expressing yourself.
The written word is my comfort zone and I love to sing.
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Tell us your opinion on using music to deliberate on issues affecting people like corruption, immoralities, politics and religion.
I have songs on most of these issues. These issues are extremely important and should be discussed and exposed.
Music is such a universal language of connection that it is the ideal medium to encourage people to think deeply about these issues.
Music can balance rational thought with primal feeling. This balance is vital when deliberating this type of issues.
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Discuss how you plan to create a piece of timeless music that your fans can cherish forever.
Carry on doing what I am doing in the faith that it is the best way to be me. Everything has its time.
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List the names of individuals you can point out as legends and state your reasons.
I don’t have such a list. My appreciation has always been about the song itself and the music. My tastes spread across many genres and many individuals. I remember the songs and music that touched me in a deep and meaningful way.
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Tell us your viewpoint on discriminating.
To discriminate is to separate out according to particular qualities. In this definition, discrimination is neutral.
So to be discriminating can be a positive attitude. For example, to define behaviour as moral or immoral is to discriminate. It is a form of judgement that can be helpful. After all, it is better to be moral than immoral.
The problem is when discriminating is used negatively, usually from an attitude of arrogance.
Discrimination in today’s climate has become harmful to good judgement. This type of discrimination goes against the patience and tolerance we desperately need for peace.
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Tell us your favourite book and state your reason.
Like legends, I don’t really do favourites. I have read broadly and widely across many categories. I find I end up reading what is appropriate to my needs at the time.
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Tell us what triggers your creativity.
Daydreaming about life and living, people and nature, and how it all fits together.
Sometimes it is a memory or maybe someone will say something or I see something happen that I can empathise with or I feel confused about will start a daydream.
My skills are improving with practice and so I find myself responding more to other issues.
My latest, “Colour of Rain”, is about the horrendous crimes of sexual abuse against our children that I wrote after watching a TV documentary about Michael Jackson and boys.
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Tell us how you generate musical ideas for your composition.
When I sing the song I already have a melody that is my personal expression.
If the song is good enough for production, as I sing I have a background dialogue with me and myself about what kind of instruments would express the mood of the song and what other types of rhythm might work.
If a singer comes to mind then this is a starting point for looking for a reference track.
I tend to look at older music to bring into the present in the hope of blending the old with the new.
Maybe the result might be timeless. For “I Can Tell” the reference track was Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” because of the mood and harmonica.
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Tell us your greatest song and state your reason.
Yeah – this is like legend and favourite. Each song has been important to me at the time it was created. I can only hope that others are touched too.
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Tell us how you compose your song.
Once the words are there and the main point or meaning is clear in my mind it is a natural progression to make sure the words can be sung with an engaging melody.
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Elaborate on the song.
Comes a point when the song needs to speak for itself and give the listener room to engage. A listener could engage on 3 levels – a fun singalong, how it is good to talk or go a bit deeper.
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Elaborate on your artist name and the title of the album.
Athamirra comes from “at the mirror”. What is important to us is often a reflection of who we are or what state we are in at the time. So Athamirra Music wants to honour our connections in a meaningful way.
‘I Can Tell’ is presented as a single. My website has a list playing over a number of weeks that I intend to compile into an album on a customized USB at some stage. ‘I Can Tell’ would be in an album yet to come.
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Share your press release and review with us.
I Can Tell
Press Release
Anyone who has been alone or lonely – which is everybody at some time or another – can relate to this song.
‘I Can Tell’ speaks to those difficult, out of control and hard to understand situations.
It shows how communication and expression release the tensions that keep us stuck in a helpless loop.
This music is a mellow, easy and intimate dance with confident emotion.
A great singalong to remind us that understanding ourselves and others in tough times gives us the confidence to get through better than ever.
