My Trip To Duffa-Ville

Sometimes I do silly things, like reformatting my recording device and scrubbing it of x amount of recorded ideas. This occurred yesterday and all within minutes of me deciding I needed to back up what was on the darn thing.  I could have ranted and raved all day about the loss of these files.   A number of years ago I might have even spent days lamenting the fact that I wasn't going to ever recoup what I perceived to have lost.  Yesterday I didn't post it on FB cos I wasn't looking for sympathy etc it was a simple case of me going on a trip to "duffa-ville" haha.  I also decided very early on that it was more important for me to kick back and realise that the universe was trying to tell me that I would still be ok without the files.  Perhaps I would find better melodies and phrases to use for a song project.  I would not panic, I would simply contact my mentor and ask for an extension and then hope all would work out.

Now, I am one of those songwriters who isn't really adept at working within a timeline when I've been asked to specifically write something.  I'm one of the "fall from the sky" writers.  My songs quite often crash into me when I'm in the shower, doing the laundry, chatting friends on the phone (yeah tricky one that).  Often new ideas are impatient and do not have any social graces whatsoever. It won't matter what I'm doing, when a song wants to show itself I have to be ready.  Hence I always carry my recording device with me.

Onto the project. I've been invited to be part of the Semaphore Songs Project as part of this year's Semaphore Music Festival.  I'm rather excited about it and have been recording various snippets since June about the song I wanted to write.  Given my songwriting method I thought the only way I could get this project done was to follow as best my way of writing; thus waiting for bits and pieces to come to me.  They did, quite a few actually.  I recorded some lovely phrases and had the essence of the melody as well.  Then the dreaded accidental reformat occurred and suddenly I'm back to square one without a musical paddle.

So, in the past 30 hours I've been wandering round the house with a piece of paper and my phone (cos I have no idea how to reformat that and as such it's a safer option at the moment lol).  I've been doing "other things" and not focussing straight towards the song, except for moments when I recorded or wrote things down.  A great deal of it has been rather daft and silly, but I've suddenly reached a path that is a good one.  After this short amount of time I've stumbled onto a song melody and some lyrics that may just do the trick.  All due to my trip to Duffa-ville yesterday.

Thank you Duffa-ville!  I will, from now on, treasure my time with you.  I think I'm onto a better song because I came back relaxed and hopeful with faith I COULD start again.

Lots of love

your faithful duffavidlian

sooz! xx