Hi everybody,

I was more than just excited when I read all those kind words about my first appearance here (Hens Night ’68), especially as this was the first time I had presented one of my songs / videos to native English speakers - thanks an awful lot again for your positive feedback.

I was quite uncertain which song / video I should post here next, but I finally decided to put back the more ‘conventional’ songs for now and come out with the weirdest project I have put together so far:

GIMME YOUR DOUGH !

While in the beginning I wrote songs and afterwards thought of how to build a video around them, I lately tend to regard song and video as a unity, which means that I already have the video in mind when I start writing the lyrics.

I do hope you don’t mind my passion for funny or even weird stuff - before I retired I was (and loved to be) a serious and staid SLP, but now I feel free to at leadt sometimes just let it all hang out (hope that this is the appropriate expression) and just tell strange stories. After all, my sense of humour was significantly shaped by early American comedians like my all-time hero, the one and only Tom Lehrer.

So GIMME YOUR DOUGH was my first almost absurd project - it’s a funky number (not the most sophisticated song I’ve written so far, I admit...) telling the adventures of Funky Fritz in the form of a musical photo novel (which I hereby claim to have invented - LOL).

And I'm very proud of the fact that my lovely wife Maha (who also did all the EQing and mixing), my beloved brother Henni and my best friend Harald did me the honour of being in on it !

As to the musical development: Not so easy to recall, because I changed and changed and changed a lot in the course of it. As far as I can trace it back, I designed the song with BIAB, using the _TBLZRAS style.

After I had shifted it to RealBand I replaced the bass track by an own bass line and also wrote a completely new drum track using a VST plug-in called MT-POWERDRUMS, because although BIAB in my mind is one of the finest apps ever developped, it has its limitations, when it comes to certain breaks or rhythmic effects (or I still don’t know it well enough...)

Bit by bit I must have replaced all the original RealTracks, so I finally ended up with the following ones:

Guitar: RT1637
Organ 1: RT2619
Organ 2: RT689

Then I added some minor guitar licks played on my Fender Strat and a Wah-Wah loop I had accidentally come across.

Like always the horns arrangement was developped using the RB piano roll, then using Kontakt 5 to re-direct the MIDI track to Native Instruments’ Session Horns. The same goes for the short string interlude - here I used Native Instruments’ Session Strings.

Well, I think that’s it. I really do hope you will enjoy that weird thing. And I promise the next post will be a normal one: Cross my heart and hope to die...

All the best and have a great weekend,

Stefan

Very cute song. Background music was very cool. Creative piece.

Huge fun. You deserve a following. I'd heard this actually before today following links from the page. It's the one that made me "subscribe", if that says anything.

Stefan, very clever work here! Super video, excellent backing tracks, great vocal and outstanding lyrics.

This is an excellent posting!

That video made me smile. A little crazy as you say, but funny as well. And I like the funky music.

Good work!
Will

Amazing amount of work in the video and clever song.
Extremely creative and one of the more innovative videos I have seen here.
Lot's of talent on show.

Peter

Stefan,

I found this a really fun and fantastic listen (and watch on Youtube). You sure know your way around creating first class music! Everything about this presentation positively sparkles with musicianship and theatrical confidence.

I really enjoyed it.

All the best,
Noel

Yes, that was a lot of FUN! And a bit of 70s cinematic soundtrack. The string interlude "Thinking of my childhood..." was unusual but worked well.

Another amusing song - well executed though I think the drums are a) too far back & b) lack power on the one.
The video was fun but the intro was a little too loong - I almost gave up but was happier once the music began.

Super creative! The sound is superb and the lyrics funny and well crafted.

How much time and energy it took to do the video I could never know - but WOW!!!

A wonderful project at every level!!!

Thanks a lot, Scott C!

Hi Tamgo,

so you are the one helping me to go viral: This song has already had more than 50 YT views within 7 months - and I'm afraid most of them were mercy clicks by my familiy ...

No, seriously: Thanks a lot for your kind review and your subscription to my YT channel - a new song / video will be uploaded there in a couple of weeks and I'll be happy if you'll enjoy it, too.

Cheers from Germany,

Stefan

Thanks a lot, MarioD, I really, really appreciate your positive comment.

Kid regards,

Stefan

Hello Will Josef,

I do know that stuff like that project is not everybody's stick, so I'm very glad you enjoyed it. Thank you very much for your kind reply.

Cheers from DE to DK

Stefan

Peter, thanks again for another very kind comment.

Yes, it was a lot of work: Took me almost three months from the first line of the lyrics to the 'roll-out'. But making it was huge fun for all of us.

And with every new project I experience and learn new things.

For exammple that there are Chinese shops that sell costumes incl. P&P (express delivery) for less money than German Post would charrge for the mere postage within our country - amazing

Have a good week,

Stefan

Noel,

wow, what ca I say but thanks an awful lot for your fantastic comment on Gimme Your Dough. I'm reall glad you liked it and maybe you will enjoy some other stuff I will post here in the future.

Thanks again and have a great week,

Stefan

Hi Ezekiel's Storm,

thanks a lot - I'm happy that you enjoyed the project.

All the best,

Stefan

Hi rayc,

thanks a lot for the review and especially your annotations.

Yes, in my opinion you're right: The drums could be a bit louder, but I guess you know how it is: You check the mix on 6, 7 or even more different devices, and there's always a noticable difference... And before Maha (who does all the mixing - I'm a mixing idiot) says, 'OK - roll-out now! we always have some friends who are musicians themselves listen to it. And it always shows that tastes may differ quite a lot.

As to the admittedly pretty long intro: I'm aware of the fact that this is a musicians' forum, so it will always be the song in the first place for its members and for some of them a video will always be just ann add-on.

But like I wrote, I planned this as a unit, not as a mere music video, right from the start and did not aim at any specific audience. And I wanted to introduce the character 'Funky Fitz' somehow, because I might bring it back with another 'adventure' one day.

But I'm happy you didn't lose your patience...

Cheers from Frankfurt and thanks again for your review,

Stefan

Hi Gruverider,

you really made my day!

Thanks an awful lot for your lovely comment - I'm happy that I met your sense of humour and music.

Yes, it was a lot of work, but it was even more fun.

Have a great week, cheers from Frankfurt,

Stefan

As gruve said: "How much time and energy it took to do the video I could never know - but WOW!!!"

I suspect there more enough arranging, mixing, writing, etc., in this song that what weve done cumulatively over the last several months

We couldn't imagine tackling a project of those dimensions.

But it works big time. The video and audio production sounds and looks great. Funny, creative, well performed vocally/instrumentally and always engaging.

Thanks for the journey

J&B

"They’re all - robbers, raiders, muggers, stealers
gangsters, thugs, thieves and cheaters"...this is going to stick in my head unless I quickly replace it with some other memorable phrase!!
Very ambitious approach to entertainment! I can't even imagine completing all the steps in your project--I have a tough enough time with just doing the song-writing!
Stefan, you are definitely in a groove by yourself, and I applaud you for your creative energy!

Hi Janice & Bud,

I'm sure that you can't imagine what your words meant to me - I don't just appreciate them, they made me jump and shout (well, jump as far as the size of my body allows it...), so thank you very much for your nice comments.

Yes, a project like this takes an awfuk lot of time, but after all it's not work but a most pleasant activity, especially as it's something that Maha and I can do together, at least in parts - I am sure, you know what I'm talking about, because you're working togethert as well.

I have to admit that it had cost me quite an effort to post my first song/video here - just too many "what ifs" were going through my head: What if they don’t like my sense of humour? Will they accept or laugh about my accen, the almost unavoidable lexical or grammatical mistakes in the lyrics and and and...

But everybody was very nice and benevolent instead and so I'm glad I finally dared to show up here - who, after all, wouldn’t love to be flattered every now and then...?

So thanks again a lot for what you wrote, it made me really happy to read that you enjoyed GYD.

Cheers from Frankfurt,

Stefan

Of course blocking people's heads with my lyrics was definitely not my intention (though it doesn't sound so bad... )

I do hope, of course, that you meanwhile manged to get rid of those lines and could replace them with sweeter things than mean guys.

But it's really amazing how many expressions for people who are after our money the English language has in store - in fact, there are even far more than the ones I used...

I really appreciate the kind things you wrote - thanks a lot for them.

Stefan