Page 3

JOHN PAUL YOUNG SHARING THE LOVE

...continued from front page

Despite having recently turned 60, John is busier with gigs these days than he’s been in years. He’s not sure why however, because by his own criteria he doesn’t fit the bill to be successful.

“I don’t think I’m past it, I think other people do,” says John. “Anybody in my age bracket finds it really difficult to get any notice from media, TV or radio because we really don’t fit any more. It seems to me that these days you’ve got to be an asshole or stupid or wild before you’ll be noticed. It’s not so much about the talent that you have any more but about how big a noise you can make and whether you can create havoc somewhere or on the internet. It’s all about getting the media interested rather than concentrating on talent.”

But don’t think by these comments that John is jaded by the industry - far from it. He is loving being busy with both his music and his charity work.

“The marvelous thing about this industry is you never really know what’s going to happen,” says John. “I’ve had the busiest year this year that I’ve had in the past fifteen to twenty years and I’m not sure why. It’s kind of like there’s a big wheel that slowly turns, kind of like the play list on 2WS, they saturate us with the same music for months and months on end and eventually they’ll put a few different tracks in. It’s just like the industry - you may be out of favour for four or five years and then someone says why don’t we get him then someone else thinks that’s a good idea and then it spreads like a flu and you become flavor of the month again.”

Having survived for so long in such a fickle industry has made John conscious of the need to give back to his community – although he does admit that his interest in charity work was first sparked by a passion for cars.

“I’m a bit of a car nut and I often lusted after the Variety bash and always wanted to go on one but was never forward enough to approach them,” says John. “I met someone who was working for them in 1998 and they asked me if id be interested in going and I jumped at the chance and I’ve been with them ever since.”

Apart from working with the Variety charity, John has also been involved with various other children’s charities including the children's emergency transport service NETS through its 4WD4Kids fundraiser.

“I had a driving force to align myself with a charity and the thing that impressed me about Variety was the low overheads and that they don’t spend a lot of money on costs and getting the job done. Since being with them I’ve gotten involved with other children’s charities, because as the song says ‘children are our future’ and that’s where the seed is best planted.”

On September 22, John will be presented with the Excellence in Community Support award which honours music industry members for their charitable works. Previous recipients of the award have been Jimmy Barnes, Glenn Shorrock, Don Spencer and Richard Clapton.

While pleased with the Award, John believes that charity should be part and parcel of any successful entertainer’s working life.

“The Award is great but it’s for something that I would hope anybody in the public eye would do. I don’t think it’s out of the ordinary to do things for the community in fact I think it’s beholden on people who’ve made money out of the entertainment industry to give something back.”

Sharing the love comes naturally to John Paul Young, whose hit Love Is in the Air, still haunts him to this day – although he says he is more than happy to perform the song that led to the success he enjoys to this day.

“I’m probably one of the biggest fans of Vanda and Young on the planet so it’s a joy for me to get up and play their music. I still pinch myself because I was involved with them and continue to be involved with them,” says John.

Having worked with the best songwriters in the business however didn’t inspire John to want to pick up his songwriting pen.

“I kind of got scared,” he admits. “I was writing a few songs back in the early days but I just lost confidence in myself as I was surrounded by such great songwriters and I thought I’m not going to be able to compete with that. I was probably wrong but songwriting I guess wasn’t such an important thing for me.”

These days John is treading the theatre boards in a musical for the Sydney Fringe Festival called Van Park. In it John, strangely enough, plays an ageing, washed-up rocker. He is joined on stage by another legend of the Australian rock scene – The Church’s singer, lyricist and bass guitarist Steve Kilbey. Van Park also features live on stage soundtrack by musical director King Curly.

“At the moment I’m learning how to make a beer can look like a coke can with a pair of tin snips,” laughs John about his role. “I’m a washed up rock n roller guitar player with a keyboard playing son who I consider gay because he plays keyboards. By the way in case you didn’t notice his whole thing is not politically correct – it’s a whole lot of fun.”

Speaking of being politically incorrect – I did warn you earlier that John Paul Young is now, in his own words, ‘too old to care’ about what any of us think. While his career is going along very nicely thank you very much, he says he has thought about what he would do if he had his time over again.

“I think no matter what you decide to do in life you’ve got give it all you’ve got - it doesn’t matter what it is, if you keep going as a singer or even a sheet metal worker like I used to be, then by the time you hit your mid 40s you should be near the top. Having said that the music industry can be different it’s a big, big gamble and I don’t blame people for not sticking to it because it’s pretty hard to survive. I think you have to treat it as a hobby until that hobby forces you to give up your day job.”

When asked what he would do if he wasn’t a musician – John has these final parting words to say:

“I love languages I think if I couldn’t have been a singer I would have been a cunning linguist,” he laughs heartily.

And when I point out that I have to print this, he just says ‘hey that’s fine I’m 60 I don’t care.’

Home

...continued from front page

In most cases the producer is not entitled under copyright law to a percentage of anything. Many big name producers are able to negotiate percentages because of their track record and because they are so in demand. Unfortunately, many not so big name producers seem to be of the opinion that they should get a percentage too. This is misguided. You should also bear in mind that if you are hoping that your recording gets picked up by somebody, it is much more difficult to sell it if you are not the sole copyright owner. (This goes for both the copyright in the composition and the actual recording, check here for the distinction.) Under no circumstances should you give a producer a percentage of the composition copyright if they did not contribute to the composition. Helping with the arrangement is not composition.

The answer to your question is actually really simple, you pay the producer what you realistically see as the economic value of their contribution. If the producer won’t work for that then find another one or do it yourself. Have a look at the Songsmith’s article on recording for a good grounding in alternatives and realities

One last word; a producer never made a bad band sound good.

Uncle Terry

Dear Uncle Terry,

Should we go to SXSW?

Beatrice

Dear Beatrice,

If you want a nice holiday in the Southwest of the US then by all means go. If someone wants to pay for you to go (and pay you) then go. I would not recommend going because you think that you will be ‘discovered’ there or find vital information about the music industry that is not available in Australia. I am unaware of any SXSW success stories about artists who were not already well established. (Mind you, I don’t consider unpaid gigs in an obscure venue to constitute ‘success’ even if it is in the US).

Uncle Terry

Home

...continued from front page

Tonic Major

Chords in this family have a normal major 3rd and if they have a 7th then it is major (remember that “7” means b7 in chord symbol notation, so if we want a major 7 we have to specify by either “maj” or "Δ"). It pretty much doesn’t matter what else the chord has, this is a very inclusive family - having said that, there is at least one unwelcome distant cousin the “#5” or “augmented” chord, which is generally considered not to belong. More on this chap a little later.

Dominant

To qualify for this family you must have a major 3rd AND a b7 (remember that “7” means b7 in chord symbol notation). If you have these two then you can pretty much have anything else including “#” and/or “b” anything! C7 (#5,#9,b9,#11,b13), for example, is a perfectly acceptable member of the Dominant family. This clan is REALLY inclusive! The Dominant family is also where the “#5” or “augmented” finds a home. Hounded from its residence in the Tonic Major family it is warmly welcomed by the Dominants.

Why is the augmented counted as Dominant?

Remember way back when we were looking at why dominant 7 chords move strongly round the cycle? (If you’ve forgotten go back to Harmony Part 12 in Issue 12 (It’s in the archives too). To refresh you memories, or for those of you who weren’t with us back then, one of the theories is that the 3rd and b7 of a dominant chord, the two most important notes, like to move by a semitone in a converging direction, this takes them to the Tonic and 3rd of the next major chord around the cycle. For example: C7 to F. The 3rd and b7 of C7 are E and Bb, if E moves up a semitone and Bb moves down a semitone they end up on F and A, these two notes essentially spell out the F major chord.

Semitone movement is always strong (Why? Because IT IS, this is FACT not THEORY).

Now let’s look at what happens with an augmented chord. Our example will be C+ to F. The two most important notes in the augmented are the major 3rd and the augmented 5th (We’ll have a chat about why another time - meantime see if you can work it out). In our example these would be E and G#. If they both move upward by a semitone you end up with F and A. So our augmented is doing something very similar to the 7th (converging semitone movement is usually stronger than parallel semitone movement but the parallel guy still has considerable kick!).

Mr Augmented is also rather cool when moving to minor chords because the augmented 5th can stay where it is becoming the minor 3rd of the new chord while the 3rd moves up a semitone. In our example G# stays where it is (remember that G# is the same as Ab) while E moves up to F. This is a pincer movement similar to what the dominant 7 chord does but maybe not quite as strong as the 7th’s converging version.

This will all be meaningless unless you hear it - so head off to the keyboard or your alternate instrument of choice and try all this out - hearing is believing!

Tonic Minor

Chords in this family have a b3 and if they have a 7th then it is major (remember that “7” means b7 in chord symbol notation, so if we want a major 7 we have to specify by either “maj” or "Δ"). Lots of extensions above both the major 7 and the 6 are possible but less work than in the Tonic Major and Dominant families (usually because they will end up being something else). For example: Cmin/ Δ7(#9). In this chord the #9 is actually adding nothing because #9 is the same as b3 which we already have. Another one: Fmin(#5). Ahhh… looks like a relative of the augmented chord! BUT this would actually spell out F, Ab, Db. Look familiar? It should, it’s simply a Db major triad. This wouldn’t give us much of a “minory” sound!

Minor Seventh

This is a family which we have met but you haven’t yet been told is a family. All this tribe need is a b3 AND a b7. Add pretty much anything else you like but be careful that you don’t create something unintended as we illustrated in the Tonic Minor family description above.

Summing up so far

We have met four families and have some hard and fast rules about membership for each. We have also faced the fact that as we stretch the boundaries of who should be in each family, things can get a little more complicated. However, you shouldn’t get discouraged by this - a little experimentation will have you understanding this stuff quite quickly. I also strongly recommend that you listen to the results of your experiments, after all this is music - it’s what it sounds like that matters. If you have any questions you can always send me an email on: musosunion@aol.com. The good news is that there are only two more families! See you next time.

Home