Silence and song; the musical demo of “Slowly, Her Name Fades Away”

How does a deaf composer get the attention of the music industry? Think about that for a minute, would you? It happens to be a serious question asked by a man who is currently sitting in an unsound situation.

I’m not Ludwig van Beethoven – far from it – but I can say that my toe is in the proverbial water of the music industry at the moment. Okay, actually it’s actually my entire foot up to my ankle or lower shin (that comes by way of me having spent time trying to promote the Pretty Voices over the past year). It goes by way of words and actions, not so much plucking piano keys and writing orchestral symphonies.

See, I wrote a poem back in the fall of 1998 (a long long time ago in a galaxy not-so-far away) that I’ve clung to over the years. It’s a poem I had intended for inclusion in a self-published poetry book… It’s also something I thought could be done in a musical arrangement to make it into a song.

So, when I got frustrated and vastly slowed this past spring, and while I still had thoughts tying said-poem into a musical arrangement, I made an inquiry with the Nashville Song Service if the lyrical-verse really could be done as a song. Indeed, it got the green light.

I didn’t commit right away to having a demo recording made of Slowly, Her Name Fades Away because I hadn’t walked down that avenue before with poems-to-song. Add to it that some online banter I found seemed to brush off the entire concept or question NSS in general and I got left with the notion that pushing for a demo was just going to ultimately be a present for myself and family and not go anywhere.

In late May, I decided to commit and take a chance. I signed some paperwork and committed cash and at the end of the month, the wait truly began to have a poem turned into music.

There are a lot of things I can talk about here regarding the poem and my imagination of how it would be arranged in music but that’s for discussion at another time. What is for discussion for right now is that on Monday afternoon on September 18^th, I was sent the demo that NSS had produced based on the lyrical verse I submitted.

I won’t be able to hear it myself until late October (unless things change), so technically I am left waiting. At the same time, friends and family have given a thumbs-up to production quality and the piece in general. Being told it has a country vibe has surprised me (as I’ve never thought of it arranged that way), but what’s done is done.

So, as I already asked, how does a deaf composer get the attention of the music industry? This song is up for acquisition so it can be recorded and released by a musical artist. Getting the attention of music labels is… well, I haven’t done it before. I haven’t tried it before. I won’t say I don’t know where to start, because I do know of SubmitHub. I also know that SubmitHub is intimidating as hell and will be awkward to deal with as I’d become a third-party in all this. The business arrangements are to be handled by Nashville Song Service, so I’d just be checking out interest and then sending them to talk to the demo company.

There’s also the indie artist factor. What I read, just from someone’s personal-story on a forum web site was that one person tried sharing his work with a local indie act and NSS wouldn’t allow it. That’s actually fine with me as I realize this is business. That said, I wouldn’t write off an indie artist getting rights and what not but there’s a process that’s got to be undertaken to accomplish that.

It’s a process of becoming and for the sake of not getting hopes in awkward positions; I got to assume there isn’t a becoming going on here. I’m not even sure of the process of getting the music industries attention. After all, it’s a deaf guy attached to a country/pop demo recording.

If you’re interested in it, drop me a line and we’ll undertake the process together.