Songcrafters Rock Opera?

[FuzzFace]

I nominate Satchwood and Gritter as the singers, Flash Harry as the bassist.

Who is the resident drummer in these parts?

Guitarists, speak now!

(It doesn't HAVE to be guitar, for example if your instrument of choice is mandolin, ukelele, baby sitar, electric kazoo, I wouldn't rule it out... as long as it ROCKS)

[Ferryman_1957]

My idea was to leave it more open - once we get the lyrics, let's ask people to take the lyrics and work together in collab groups or on their own on each song. This is going to be a looser collaboration than a rock opera, it really is a concept album. So I don't personally see the need for the same people on each song, because the song themes are quite different. Also, asking the same people to do 11 songs will be time consuming and place quite a burden on several folks. Why don't we see what people think? Flash, Satch, everyone, raise your voices.....

I can use the production and mixing to get some consistency of the sound if we go for a more open approach.

Cheers,

Nigel

[FuzzFace]

Hey if that will work... then let's do it!

Whatever works!

[Satchwood]

I def like to be involved in, or compose & record one of the songs;  sounds like a fun project, and i like the FuzzFace outline :~)

[64Guitars]

I really like Geir's idea of having separate singers for each role in the opera. I think that will make it a lot more interesting and coherent.

Regarding organisation/administration of the project, I think that should fall to the person with the original idea and storyline for the opera. He would be the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his opera, overseeing/directing/producing the whole project. Several interesting storylines have been presented in this topic. We could vote to see which one we'll go with, but I think a better idea is for the creator of each storyline to develop their rock opera independently. Here's what I propose:

1) Anyone who has an idea for a rock opera should submit a brief outline in this topic and ask for volunteers/collaborators to commit to the project.

2) Decide on a name for your rock opera.

3) When you have commitment from at least two other members, create a new topic with the name of your rock opera in the subject, along with the words "rock opera". Use this project topic to direct the project and recruit more help, if needed. That way, the general rock opera topic (this one) will not be overtaken by one project, giving other projects a better chance to get started.

Initially, I think the songs should be composed only as rough outlines (just guitar and vocals, for example) and submitted to the director along with the lyrics. The director can then suggest changes that need to be made to the song to make it fit the story and his vision. In addition to lyrical amendments, he can also suggest changes in music and instrumentation to set the mood for the piece. Vocals for these rough drafts would be done by the songwriter. However, they should be re-recorded later by the singers assigned to each role. So, a single song might end up featuring several singers. Songwriters should keep this in mind when writing and try to feature different characters from the story in their song. Although, it is also possible to have one or more songs involving only a single character. That would be up to the director.

You can use the collaborations board for posting and reviewing your rough drafts if you like. However, I suspect that most people will want to use email, SkyDrive, etc. instead so that they can keep their work under wraps until the finished opera is ready to be posted in its entirety. I will create a jukebox page for the completed rock opera, including any additional material the director would like to submit, such as lyrics, credits, graphics, commentary, etc.

I don't want the rock operas to replace our regular festivals. However, I'll add an option to the next festival poll to skip the festival so that people can work on their operas instead. If enough people vote for taking a break from the festivals, then there will be no festival from Oct 17th till Nov 27th. YuleFest begins Nov 28th.

FuzzFace: It sounds like you're about ready to roll on your project. If you've got a name for it, why don't you post a new topic now for your rock opera and get started.

If anyone else wants to get rolling with their own idea, they can do so by following the three steps I proposed above. This can be an ongoing thing here at Songcrafters, so there's no rush to start a rock opera project today if you'd prefer to refine your ideas a bit or wait until you have more time before proposing your rock opera concept.

[Gritter]

I nominate Satchwood and Gritter as the singers, Flash Harry as the bassist.

Who is the resident drummer in these parts?

Guitarists, speak now!

(It doesn't HAVE to be guitar, for example if your instrument of choice is mandolin, ukelele, baby sitar, electric kazoo, I wouldn't rule it out... as long as it ROCKS)

Hey FuzzFace...I'd love to sing on it. Thanks for the nomination!

[Ferryman_1957]

64G, good ideas but we're already moving too fast..... This idea looks like it's going to be a concept album rather than a rock opera, the concept we're running with being that FuzzFace is writing 11 sets of lyrics inspired by Picasso paintings. So we will have the lyrics done and that will inspire the musicians to produce the music and sing the songs. There won't be roles as such because each song will be different, the link is the paintings and the artist. So I suggest we start a topic callled The Picasso Concept Album or something like that and sign up the folks that are interested.

We need to decide on how the music will be produced (by assigned roles or individual groups). But that is what we are discussing now, might be best to do that in a separate thread.

Cheers,

Nigel

[FuzzFace]

Yes I'm going to start a dedicated thread.

I like the idea of breaking off, because as 64Guitars said, there are plenty of other ideas here and I don't want my little concept to hold up other ideas from flowing as well.

I won't get hung up on the semantics of rock opera versus concept album for now.

We can pick up the discussion regarding logistics in the new thread.

All on board, come on over...

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=8458.0

Thanks for launching this inspiring idea, 64Guitars!

[Oldrottenhead]

Hiya guys,
Not been on here for a while----ummm----hold on----a bloody long time actually!!! Been lurking though. In fact not been on anywhere,or playing,or anything, for some time. Some of you know I had that little stroke type thingy end of last year, and had 2 major-ish ops to clean out my Carotid arteries, plus other general crap going on, but things are starting to get a bit better now, so hopefully should be around a bit more.

just noticed this steve is such a busy thread, glad to see you back hope you are fit and healthy again and that all is well with you and yours

[64Guitars]

In another topic, bruno wrote:

wow - this is a knockout track, and a knock out idea - was thumbing through the jukeboxes and came across the "Suffering Machines" https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?action=festival;sa=SuffMach What a great idea - using the collaborate output of songscrafters to produce a single coherent piece of art. We should do something similar again!!! This is such a cool idea.

If anyone is interested in doing another concept album or rock opera, they're welcome to do so. I don't have time to organise it myself, but I'd be happy to create the jukebox and offer any other support needed from the site.

As with the Suffering Machines project, you should create a new topic in General Discussion to propose your specific project and discuss it with anyone who might be interested in taking part. For example, here's the topic that was created for the Suffering Machines project:

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=8458.0

One person should act as director of the project, outlining the concept and organising everything. That person would have final say in all decisions for editing, production, and lyrics. I think that's necessary to provide the continuity that's needed for such a project. FuzzFace did a great job directing Suffering Machines.

Suffering Machines turned out to be a concept album rather than a rock opera. That's fine and if anyone wants to do another concept album, they're quite welcome to do so. However, I'd still like to see a real rock opera project. Something along the lines of "Jesus Christ Superstar", where each member plays the part of a character in a sort of play or story. So, instead of each member singing a whole song, several members could have lines in each song in a sort of conversation style. I think that would be really interesting and a lot of fun.