by Mike Errico | Mar 2, 2021 | audio, Free
“Daylight,” and the instrumental “karaoke” track, are available on Bandcamp for the first time. DAYLIGHT KARAOKE OFFER: Send your video karaoke version, and you can have any one thing in the Bandcamp store…for free. Just let me post a short clip so others can join. Daylight by Mike Errico REMEMBER: KARAOKE DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN SINGING… You wanna play drums along with it? GREAT. GUITAR? GREAT. Got a sax solo you always wanted to hear over it? GREAT. Pig bladder you’ve attached to a car muffler? GREAT. HIT IT, then HIT SEND to INFO AT ERRICO DOT COM. I hope you’re all well, safe, and looking forward. Let’s do this, M PS: To review… Daylight © Mike Errico (Sky Blue Coupe De Ville Music, ASCAP)Love songs to you are just flowers in my tomb but it’s all right I think of this as you walk into the room and I check myself twice And your new piece of cheese looks suspiciously like me I guess my worst qualities Were the ones that you liked but I knew that Yes I knew that But I won’t ask you to sympathizeEverything is all right I’m finally getting some sleep at night And when I open my eyes I’m finally getting some daylightYou got my sweater and a couple of CD’s but it’s all right Your darkest secrets sit here right in front of me I know what you smell like And if my life were a movie, you’d be buried in the credits You’d be “Woman #2 with her head up her ass” And it’s too late, yes, it’s too late...
by Mike Errico | Dec 18, 2020 | audio
Hey, all: I hope you’re doing all right. Got a holiday song here for you—an extraordinary effort in extraordinary times, and I would like to thank Jamie Siegel, Matt Beck, and Matt Rubano for their help and virtual musicianship. I consider this the Mike Errico Holiday Show for 2020. Two questions you probably have: 1) Why no livestream holiday show? Good question. Answer: The idea of me sitting in a room and you sitting in another, maybe thousands of miles away, is “OK,” but it’s not the same. Trying to simulate what I love also reminds me of what’s not possible at this moment, and I figured, why give a simulation of one thing, when I can give a real version of something else? So. Tada. And if I think of a livestream show that relates to the medium itself, and isn’t just “good enough for people on distant couches,” I’m in, and I’m taking suggestions. 2) HOLIDAY OMENS?!? I LIVE MY LIFE ACCORDING TO THEIR TEACHINGS!11!!! I know, I know. I do, too. And they spoke to me this year. They said: HERE’S THE PLAN. “YOU’RE NO SANTA” IS AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON BANDCAMP AS “NAME YOUR OWN PRICE.” THOSE WHO HEAR THE OMENS’ CALL SHOULD CONTRIBUTE ANY AMOUNT IN EXCESS OF SHIPPING (MIN. $7), AND INCLUDE THEIR SNAIL MAIL ADDRESS IN THE “NOTES” FIELD WHEN PURCHASING. THUS, THE OMEN CAN CONTINUE ITS JOURNEY AND DELIVER ITS SOLEMN MESSAGE. Omens tend to speak in all caps. Not sure why. But anyway: I miss you guys, and hope you’re well, and hope you enjoy “You’re No Santa.” I...
by Mike Errico | Nov 20, 2020 | Uncategorized
A couple of snapped cables, and the world’s largest radio telescope is being decommissioned. If you know me, you know my love of the Carl Sagan (@saganism ) book Contact and the 1996 film starring Jodi Foster and the Arecibo Observatory (@thearecibo.observatory). My songs “Ok to Go,” “Grace,” “Arecibo,” and others were inspired by it. So much of the artwork on my albums “Skimming,” “Wander Away,” and especially “Minor Fits” draw from it. Here’s my Spotify playlist of my songs that were inspired by Contact, and Arecibo. A few years back, I dragged friends across the crazy bumpy roads of Puerto Rico to see Arecibo, and now I’m glad I did. And I’m glad I sprung for the coffee cup. Time marches on…and bends and warps and amazes. ...
by Mike Errico | May 11, 2020 | Lessons, Teaching
Songwriting Prompt No. 5: Not a prompt, just an observation: Some of the “demos” you’ve decided to release during this time rank among your best work, in my opinion. In fact, some of these “demos” are suspicious—suspiciously awesome, and suspiciously ambitious. Don’t forget, I listen to a lot of demos, and these? These are not demos. They aren’t Voice Notes of you on the side of your bed with your inconsiderate roommate washing frying pans in a nearby sink. They get me wondering: Are these “demos” really songs you wanted to put out but didn’t because you felt they were “off-brand?” Does it take a pandemic for you to admit that MAYBE you don’t know what your brand is? Or better: that your brand is YOU and you’ve been amputating parts of yourself in order to appear orderly? Because that’s nuts. Are you slapping the word “demo” on a track as if it’s a “might delete later” post, or an admission you’ll be able to deny? Well, fine. If that helps for now, knock yourselves out. But know that the sharing you’re doing is not only helping others, it’s maybe helping you to widen your definition of yourself. So keep on doing it. And what a great opportunity to retire two jerseys to the dust bin of your personal histories: #0 “DEMO;” #00 “BRAND”...
by Mike Errico | May 4, 2020 | Lessons, Teaching
Songwriting Prompt Four: Shhh You’ve heard that “music is the universal language.” That’s false. Music has never done the job of being universal, and in fact, it does the opposite. It groups subsections of people together; it accessorizes a particular aesthetic; it excludes. Writers antagonize each other via dis tracks. High schools have battles of the bands. TV networks pit musicians against each other in competition shows where contestants try to…what? Out-music one another? So, what is universal? Silence. It’s our resting state. It’s a consensual act that can be broken by any individual. Silence is where we came from, and it’s where we’re going. How does this apply to songwriting? 1) What almost always improves work is editing, which means the elimination of parts of the song. More silence. 2) Feedback like “your song is so short” can be seen as a compliment—the listener wanted more!—whereas “your song is so long” is never good. Ever. Why? Because it implies you left in stuff that did not improve upon silence. So: If you don’t have something to say that improves on silence, don’t say it. Revise by adding silence. Produce by framing silence. Write by writing as little as possible. Consider that maybe we already have it all, and that our real job is to lose as little of it as...
