Writing songs and writing a record: Inside the composition of an Acoustic Pop Album.

摘要

This project is a study of the author’s creative practice as a songwriter, record producer and performer of mostly (but not exclusively) acoustic pop music. This project has been pursued though performance and composition and is documented in the folio of recordings and the accompanying exegesis. The folio of this submission is weighted at eighty per cent and the exegesis at twenty per cent. It involves the creation of a new studio album by The Swamp Dandies. For this album the author has been songwriter, vocalist, instrumentalist, arranger, engineer and producer. In recognition of the interdependence of component stages, the exegesis provides an analytical narrative account of the entire compositional journey of the album from pre-tracking songwriting through to mastering. Utilising reflective journals and participant interviews undertaken throughout the process it documents and analyses the deliberate and “intuitive” creative methods involved in all of these tasks. It engages with the emerging scholarly discipline of the art of record production, pursuing a holistic perspective. It also considers the significance of the author’s biography, subcultural musical scenes and the contestable notion of authenticity. Throughout the exegesis the autoethnographic reflections are related back to corresponding academic and popular cultural discourses. Across the candidature the author has been active within the industry and as a Higher Education Music (and Music Industry) Educator. Consequently, the project documents and examines this specific four-year period in an ongoing musical career. In addition to the recordings specific to The Swamp Dandies project, the folio also contains additional record productions from both industrial and educational settings, the documentation of live performance work and a final live performance.