Hi all,

Firstly, Happy Christmas to every one reading this.  Hope the year went well for you and hope that 2019 will be even better.

This year it feels like I’ve just hit 18 in my musical life.  In 2018 I have recorded more than ever before and, although my vocals could be better still, I’ve managed to write new lyrics and record a new song virtually every week.  I have managed to recycle old recordings (as far back as the 1980’s) which has been a good production exercise.  This year I have written some good lyrics and reincarnated some of my best songs.  ‘The Lost & Found’ and ‘Feeling Sound‘, which were musically recorded nearly 20 years ago, were finally completed when my vocals were added, but were extra special as they featured Tim’s guitaring (which is what made ‘The Lost & Found’ musical partnership).  Also, I completed a song from the mid 80’s (‘Then…’) which is the oldest recording I have, and which now has vocals too.  Having completed my website lots of lyrics were improved and songs slightly perfected to make them more appealing.  Now ‘Love Music’ has been reincarnated and is due to feature a professional session singer soon, so it looks like I’m getting a bit more serious about this songwriting and recording thing now.  You may love or hate what I do but, at the end of the day, I do it and if anyone likes it, great, but if not that’s fair enough.  I do expect criticism from time to time and sometimes I may agree,  so I guess I’ve only got myself to blame for uploading it in the first place.  If you aren’t keen on anything I write or record then please don’t follow me.  Hopefully, in 2019 and beyond, everything I upload will be something which I am completely satisfied with and hopefully more new listeners will start to like them too.  My production skills will hopefully improve too and my songs should sound better in all playing formats, in theory.  It is a quite a task writing. composing, playing, singing, recording, producing and uploading everything in the short space of time I allowed myself, and with just a mic, keyboard and laptop.  I will spend more time on my songs in the future and gradually introduce more session musicians onto my songs, as well as friends, hopefully.

Thanks for reading (and following and subscribing if you do) and looking forward to the new year and new recordings.

Colin E. Pyle
The Lost Connection

PS.  I’m glad I used to record everything that was played during practices, jam sessions and gigs.  Because of this I managed to take some of those old recordings from D90 tape recordings and convert them into an MP3 format and then add vocals.  In 1996-98 I was in a band called Area 51 (that became ‘Protocol’) and  Live Tape Recordings were kept (which were recorded in a soundproof garage).  This is a link to the longest and most intricate piece of music I have ever played in the history of time.  If you are into Prog/Heavy Rock then check this out.  These guys were great musicians and it’s a pity we never managed to gain a singer earlier and never ever got around to gigging before we split.

Hi all,

Well, what a year 2018 has been, on a musical level and in so many other ways.  The creation of my website and the songs within, was done very quickly and with no real purposes, apart from building up my personal library of words and music, and with little professionalism.  The theme for my song-writing past-time became ‘Perpetual Feast’.  Now I have managed to create my website then 2019 could be a different theme, but who knows…?   The last song I recorded gained over 700 listens (but no likes on SoundCloud lol, but thanks to the few Twitter listeners who did) and, as this song nearly gained success in 1995 I have just paid for a professional female session singer to sing it properly.   I will upload it and try and gain interest with it once again, hopefully.  Also, Innovator (the band I used to be in) released their 2nd album which featured the songs I recorded with them, prior to leaving in June 2017.  So here is a summary of 2018

1/  50 new songs sung and uploaded (plus a few old tunes which were just sat around)
2/  58 new lyrics/poems written
3/  Website completed in July, as planned
4/  Over 450 subscribers gained on my website 
5/  First live video done on Facebook/YouTube (although very amateur)
6/  Twitter, SoundCloud and Facebook followers growing
7/  Featured on the new ‘Innovator’ album release (‘Trapped Behind The Looking Glass’)
8/  Paid for a session singer to improve one of my songs in December
9/  Helped a fellow writer turn his words into a complete song (to which he liked)

Now, that was some of the good parts of 2018.   The other things that made it a crazy year were:

1/  For the first time ever snow prevented me from getting to work
2/  I was scammed by ‘BrokerXp’ (a bogus internet trading group)
3/  Walked out of my job (but returned the following week) and went on stress leave for        the first time ever (and went to the Jobcentre for the first time in 20 years)
4/  Hit 50 years old in the hottest year of my life
5/  A very special friend reappeared, interacted, inspired and then left me once again

Other than the above, it was just the same old weekly routine really though, lol.  Hopefully, 2019 will be more focused and less rushed and progress will be made hopefully but, as they say – “what will be will be”.

Thanks for reading this blog and hopefully all new songs will start to sound better from now on.

Bye for now,

Colin E. Pyle
The Lost Connection

Hi all,

I haven’t done a blog for a while so here is an update.  I haven’t written or recorded much over the last couple of weeks.  I did re-record ‘High’ and ‘Payback’ (which did get the biggest response on Twitter so far) and created music to someone else’s lyrics which I discovered on FaceBook’s ‘Songwriters’ group a month ago (‘Don’t Push Me Away’ was the poem which I turned into a song and luckily he was pleased with the result).  I tried to create music for someone else’s lyrics, but it wasn’t quite what they were looking for so I may use that music for one of my own songs instead.   I now have 443 website subscribers (which is great considering I haven’t done much to achieve such).  Once I have managed to record my songs to a good enough standard I will make them available to download for free for all subscribers.  I am quite pleased with much of what I have recorded so far, but I want to perfect them as much as possible before finally making them available (as well as making them the right volume, which is easier said then done when they were recorded on Logic Pro X).  I’m having to re-record many of them from scratch using Mixcraft instead and due to my keyboard’s memory being completely full now I am having to delete tunes before creating new ones.  This means I’m having to make sure I know exactly how to replicate the music which I am deleting, which isn’t always easy as they contain up to 16 tracks per section and up to 4 sections per song, as well as 3 fill-in parts too.   Perhaps I need to invest in more equipment and learn how to utilise the equipment I already have more.  That’s for me to decide I guess, lol.  Anyway, that’s the update for now and hopefully there will be more songs recorded and uploaded soon.

Thanks to all who are subscribing and following me and I will try a bit harder to make my songs and lyrics more likeable to listen to and read.  Any comments and questions in regard to my songs I kindly welcome and will answer if possible.

Colin E. Pyle
The Lost Connection

Hi all,
Well, this year, for the first time, I recorded myself singing one of my songs, ‘Fate Can Be Cruel’, and put it on FaceBook (and my YouTube site).  I was reluctant as I am not that good at singing or playing the keyboard, but I thought it would make a change from my usual pre-recorded uploads onto SoundCloud.  It went down better than I thought it would and, because of that, I am going to do a few more before the year is over.  I may have to reposition my camera and keyboards as I, at the moment, they are stuck in the corner of my living room and my iPhone just sits on the end of my keyboard and hope it doesn’t fall over while I’m playing.  I don’t ever expect anyone to like my songs, or videos, but it’s just another way of me doing what I do instead of hiding away in my home writing and recording.   I do have one song already recorded (as well as one which I created out of someone else’s lyrics/poem) and debating which other ones to record afterwards.   Right, just thought I’d let you all know what I’m about to do and hope the outcome is reasonably good (and not too disliked by all of you in the outside world).
Colin E. Pyle
The Lost Connection

PS.  I may just put them on my YouTube site and not go through FaceBook or Twitter, but we’ll see what happens…

HI all,

This week, for the first time ever, I turned someone’s poem/lyrical ideas into a song.  I have written music to other people’s lyrics before, but never had an influence on the words or structure of the song before.   Somebody once added extra lyrics, and made chord changes to the verses in one of my songs (‘Blue’) but I have never done this to someone else’s words before.  ‘Reflect’ and ‘No Time To waste’ were musical compositions intended for someone else’s words, but were never used by that person, so I did.

‘Don’t Push Me Away’ was written by Jason Feasey originally, who I discovered on the ‘Songwriter’ group on FaceBook.  I just felt inclined to show how words can be turned into a song.  Not sure whether it actually sounds that good, but the task in hand was achieved.  As usual, I found it quite hard to sing it well but I did the best I could.

The song:  ‘Don’t Push Me Away’
On Soundcloud there is a ‘music only’ version so alternative vocals can be added possibly.

That’s all for now.

Colin
The Lost Connection

Hi all,
In June 2017 I left Innovator.  We had recorded 6 new songs at this point but, a year or so later, Innovator have managed to complete  ‘Trapped Behind The Looking Glass’ and it was released last month.   This album contains a few re-recorded old songs, a remixed song from ‘Time Is Running Out’ and 9 new songs.  The album, on the whole, is very well produced and contains a very wide range of styles.   I was fortunate enough to play a part in the creation of these songs and my backing vocals were even featured on ‘Dogs Of War’ (the very deep part in the chorus) which is the first time my vocals have been heard on an album.  Innovator are managing to gain new followers every week so hopefully the album will be worthwhile.   Some changes have been made to some of the songs since I left, but the final outcome is good.  Meanwhile, I will continue to create my own songs and wish Innovator the best of luck.

Colin
The Lost Connection

Hi all,

As you all know, I tend to record lots of songs, but don’t ever spend very much time on perfecting them.  I am going to try and improve the vocals and productions on the ones that need it the most, and make them more likeable to listen to hopefully.   Although I have recorded well over 100 songs there are only a handful that I am completely happy with.   This week  USA listeners suddenly showed interest in my newest uploads.  Ironically, 3 of these 4 tracks (plus an instrumental) were just rough live recordings from over a year ago, which I only uploaded in order to build my website and demonstrate how the lyrics would sound in a song.  I will have to record these songs properly soon, just so I can delete these dodgier versions.

Thanks for reading and thanks again to all the subscribers (over 300 now) and followers on Twitter.  I hope that all my songs will eventually sound as good as I know they can do and, in return, I hope more people listen and enjoy, but it is difficult in the time I have and with my little knowledge in musical production.  Hopefully, other musicians will lend a hand in the future and improve these songs immensely.

Colin
The Lost Connection

Hello all,
During my fortnight off I have managed to record 4 songs (the first 3 were randomly selected) and I also wrote 8 new song lyrics.   Thoughts just flooded out and they became songs for the future hopefully.  Not sure if they make a good read or not, but hopefully they will become good songs one day.  Thanks to all the subscribers who are following me (over 300 now) and I hope what I create is inspirational in one way or another.  Not all of my lyrics are factual, but undoubtedly inspired by love, life and death (and the scenarios that are created by the former, more often than not).
Thanks,
Colin
The Lost Connection

Hello everyone,

Firstly, I’m pleased to see 298 subscribers on this website, now, and Twitter, SoundCloud and FaceBook followers increasing.  I guess I better spend a bit more time recording my songs to a better quality now.   And, on that note, due to my Logic Pro X suddenly playing up and not allowing me to record new audio tracks anymore, I am now using Mixcraft, which I used to use back in 2011 – 2014, and (although it took a while getting used to it again yesterday) it does seem to create a much better sound than Logic does.   I may even upgrade to Mixcraft 8 instead of 5.

The first song I have recorded, using Mixcraft, is ‘Putty In Your Hand  (Song 731)’.   I added a few extra lyrics and made a few minor changes when singing it so I will update them now, but I will say that the main change is that I added a third verse.   The bridge just before it is in a style which is quite different for me and, as I thought it sounded cool, was going to end the song with that style but decided I would end on the chorus instead.   Unfortunately, the bridges that are in some of my songs are the best part and not many people get that far before abandoning the listen (try and hold out if you listen to this song).  The chorus is twice as long as originally intended and the one line before the bridge was added when first recording it.  I also added ‘it was tough’ at the end of the 2nd verse.   Unfortunately, I seem to have lost the first Mixcraft master copy and cannot amend the slightly off-beat words in the first verse.  I may re-record it if I get time.

The layout is:    Intro chorus, verse 1, chorus, verse 2, chorus, fill-in line, bridge, verse 3, chorus several times with slight background changes.

Thanks for reading this and, if you did, I guess you are interested in songwriting and how I go about it, perhaps.  Anyway, my time-off is running out and I’d better make use of what little time I have left and record another song.

Bye for now,

Colin
The Lost Connection

Song

Hello all,
As many of you know I have created my website as completely as I can at this point in time.   There are still certain things I have yet to learn about website creating and not sure how easy it is for people to access my site.  I am assuming that ‘subscribers’ is the same as ‘followers’.   I have tried to allow people to access my site without having to subscribe but don’t know how to yet without having to do it via a subscribing page (which I didn’t create and don’t know how to remove this).  I am assuming that the people who have subscribed (nearly 300 now) are the equivalent of ‘followers’.  I thank all those that have subscribed and will assume you are that that you are following my musical pursuits and creativity.  If this is the case can you click on the ‘follow’ button just so I know that this is the case.  Thanks for reading this and subscribing and a big thank you if you do become ‘followers’ as well.  Hope I can keep you interested and improve my collection and improve the songs which I have already recorded (many of which were recorded very quickly during the last year) and are not as good as I they could be yet.  Anyway, by for now and hopefully more songs will be recorded over the next couple of weeks as well as making improvements to older ones.  Thanks  once again and any feedback is  welcomed.
Colin
The Lost Connection