Another songwriting competition

Last February, a friend sent me a link about this songwriting competition called 'Philippine Pop Music Festival”.

                                                            http://www.philpop.com.ph/ 

One of the contest rules stated that the songs submitted shouldn't be previously published. In their definition, ‘published’ means it has never been uploaded or made public before, or shared with a third party for licensing. This caused quite a dilemma because most of the songs in my catalog that I deemed "best" and "good enough" are already published, in that case.

I’ve been procrastinating for the past months about coming up with a new song, until the deadline (May 10) dangled in front of me. I kept thinking, the song hasn’t arrived yet in my psyche, so it’s not yet time. I declared I was still uninspired. (Artists have this crappy excuse when they're too lazy to sit down and create something.)

Until one faithful Thursday night, I picked up some old lyrics in my small home studio and my guitar. And it just came. The song is called “Same Way””, a pop ballad about confessing one’s love to someone and hoping they feel the ‘same way’.'

I had to take a day off from my job to work the next day to arrange the music so that it’s ready for vocal recording. I contacted Ms. Suzette Soyangco, a well-known singer in Bataan who had previously joined singing competitions in TV as a kid, to record the song one of these days.

I just know I wouldn’t get to live with the fact that I wasn’t able to submit anything.

So here I am, hoping Suzette would work wonders with the song and the judges of the competition would feel the demo we’re going to produce.

For crying out loud, they said they wanted pop. Now, I’m going to give them pop. Super pop.

Hopefully, I’d hit the jackpot with the song. The next couple of days would be me basking aglow with anticipations, expectations and dreams of being a world-renowned songwriter. Tralalalalalala. 

In my head, my dream life after the competition consists of only the most simple things: a bachelor’s pad in the city, a new black car, a modern & well-equipped recording studio with two staff engineers, a personal assistant or secretary, and song writing offers from agents here and there.

Oh, have I gone out of the limb. I’m writing this and I’m wearing my worn-out shirt without having brushed my teeth yet. My wallet's empty and I just had cup noodles for breakfast.