Finito!

That’s the end of the project! It’s been good fun to do and on reflection, it’s exactly what I needed to do to get my creative juices flowing once again. Thanks to everyone who’s been listening and keeping up with this – I’d appreciate if you shared  the blog and the tunes with as many people as possible in order to keep the amount of listens up.

I’ll hopefully see you again in the future and who knows, I might restart the project again at a later date just to challenge myself again.

Until the next time,

Andy K

Scrapheap

Scrapheap

Well guys,  this is the final song of the project! Today’s song is called “Scrapheap” and was written in response to the Morning Star’s headline “Thrown On The Scrapheap”. The story concerns employees of the firm Remploy being forced to take cumpulsory redundancy – despite many of them being disabled. I can sympathise with these people as my town, Kilmarnock, lost one of its last great employers this year when the drinks giant Diageo closed the Johnnie Walker whisky plant. 

I know it seems like I’m ending the project on a bit of a downer, but I’ve tried to make the song as upbeat as possible despite the lyrics. I hope you like it and I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to all my efforts over the past week.

Listen to Scrapheap here: https://soundcloud.com/not-the-news/scrapheap

Andy K

Hard Road

Hard Road

Hi giys, hope you’re good. I’ve still got the cold so I hope it’s not affecting my voice too much in the recordings. Onto today’s song now, and my effort for the day is called “Hard Road” and was written in response to The Times’ headline “Hard Road to 2018”. The story concerns the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, admitting that Britain could well experience tough economic times for longer than he had first estimated. I feel that this will affect all of us in Britain in some way or another whether or not we think it will, and the lyrics try to cover this.

I hope you like it guys, you can hear it here: https://soundcloud.com/not-the-news/hard-road

Andy K

Change Everything

Change Everything

Hey people, how you doing? I hope you’re better than me, I’ve caught a nasty cold so my singing voice isn’t quite what I’d like it to be right now. Still, onwards and upwards! Today’s song is called “Change Everything” and was written in response to the Daily Telegraph’s headline “£2bn of UK aid to help Third World go green”. I chose this headline in light of a slow news day and most papers still fawning over Britain’s royal family’s good news (fair play to them, but it doesn’t half make for some same-y headlines!). In this song I examine how money affects people and if it really can change things for the better for people in unfortunate circumstances and situations.

Have a listen to the song here: https://soundcloud.com/not-the-news/change-everything

I’ll be back tomorrow with another news-related song. In the meantime, enjoy the song and keep well!

Andy K

Walk Out To Nothing

Walk Out To Nothing

Hey guys, hope you’re well. Today’s song is based on the Glasgow Herald’s headline “Creative Scotland chief quits after artists’ revolt”. I chose this newspaper today because in Britain most newspapers are running with the front page story that the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their first child and I didn’t think I could write a song based on that without sounding cheesy and a bit clichéd. The issue I wrote about concerns the head of Creative Scotland stepping down from his post and the lyrics imagine what it would be like if artists from across the creative spectrum stopped creating art and also imagines the what if of art stopping to exist.

You can listen to the track HERE: http://soundcloud.com/not-the-news/walk-out-to-nothing

I hope you like it guys – I’ll be back tomorrow with another effort from a different newspaper.

Andy K

The Buck Stops Here – first track ready!

Hi guys – it’s been a busy day indeed. Anyway, today’s song is now ready for you guys to hear and it’s called “The Buck Stops Here”. Today’s headline comes from The Metro and it reads “Tax: Now the Bucks stops with Amazon”. The story concerns the large companies Amazon, Google and Starbucks all having ways of avoiding paying corporation tax in Britain – in the view of many people, cheating the system. From this I equated one form of cheating to another within a relationship and getting found out – loosely connected.

I’m pleased to the the project off the ground after planning it for a while. I’d love to hear what you think of it – good or bad – so have a listen and share it with everyone you know from your best pal to your Gran to that dog that lives five doors down!

Andy K

Listen to The Buck Stops Here

Feature in MiddleMusic

Feature in MiddleMusic

Very happy to see that my friends at middlemusic.net have given the project a boost by publishing this article on their site. Their site is a very good guide to what’s going on right now in the Scottish music scene (and in the general music scene too), so check ’em out!

I’m still planning today’s effort out at the present moment, so come back in a few hours and I’ll have the first tune for you!

 

Andy K

And we’re off!

Hi guys, hope all’s well with you. Today marks the start of the project, and over the course of the next week I’ll be writing using different newspaper headlines. By 10PM tonight I’ll have uploaded a brand new song to soundcloud for you all to hear and share.

Back soon,

Andy K

This is “Is This The News Of The World?”

My name is Andy Kerr and I am a fourth year Commercial Music student studying at UWS in Ayr, Scotland. 

I am running this blog as a creative project with the aim of looking at the songs I write from a different angle. As a songwriter, I struggle sometimes to find a stimulus to write about – this project looks to change that.

For one working week from a Monday to Friday I will select a newspaper headline at random and use it to write a song. Once I use one publication’s headline I will not be allowed to use the same publication again for the duration of the week. Once I have written each song I shall record it and upload it here via soundcloud. Each song will be completed and ready to hear by 10PM each night. In addition to each song being uploaded, I shall also put up each song’s lyrics and chords as well as an explanation about the headline I chose and how I went about writing each song.

I haven’t decided upon a suitable week to start yet, but I am looking forward to getting started and sharing my efforts with the world. I’m particularly looking forward to writing about current affairs, something I’ve never really written about before.

I’ll let you know when I’m starting the project. In the meantime, stay tuned for more updates.