Simon Langdon - Original Artist, Singer, Songwriter & Producer

Hi friends,

 

My song links on the left hand side of this page have now been removed, as all of my songs will now be available on MySpace Music.

 

Please feel free to check them out at Simon's MySpace Music Site

 

I look forward to sharing more songs with everyone over the coming months.

 

Thanks

Simon

Well i certainly have been blessed to have worked and become good friends with some awesome Aussie talent in my time, and Reesha and Tanya Carter are absolutely no exception - they are the very best!

 

Nigel Derricks introduced me to Reesha originally, as he thought we would really compliment each other, and he was spot on. We were paired up together by Colleen at Marlin Records to put together a demo to send over to Faith Hill....which unfortunately didnt make it through... However, Reesha and i co-wrote "Falling" together, and we had an absolute blast doing this song - she's very funny, and her vocal is a smash!. For me, i got to work with someone who I believe has one of the best Country/Pop crossover voices this country hasn't heard! (another unsigned talent) and an awesome pianist as well!. I really enjoyed finally getting to write, record and produce a Genre of music (Country/Pop crossover) that i had been aching to do since i was a kid - my favorite moments were the intricate guitar parts, the bv's and the orchestral production. I really love this song and i hope you enjoy it too.

 

Tanya Carter and i have been singing and writing together for years, which started out when we performed together in the Australian Tom Jones Tribute Show tour in the early/mid 90's. After this we started writing and recording songs...many, many songs! I will eventually find time to drag them all out of ProTools and post them up here, but in the interim here's two of my favorite Co-writes we did, "Fair-weather Friend" and "Calling You" .... I think occassionally in life when you work really hard at a craft and you are completely in the zone, you recognise an opportunity and a moment which you seize - these two songs in my mind do just that, as they showcase the perfect mix of Tanya's incredibly awesome vocals, wordcraft and musicability, with one of my favorite song writing and arrangement styles where i put an emphasis on a pop construct and chord structure that really underpins and "sells" the melody. I had stacks of fun with the production on "Calling" as i got to know the "Reason" plugin for ProTools really well - which i really dig.

 

As usual I loved playing on all of these songs (especailly guitars, bass and drums on FWF) and doing the vocal arrangements and bv's was enjoyable as always.  I consider these tracks some of the best co-writes i have ever done...and these girls are total talent!

 

The song list is on the left - Enjoy!  

Hi people,

 

I thought it was time to start letting some of my old songs out to "air" for the enjoyment of my friends, and followers of my music. (see track links on the left of the page)

 

This collection is spread over more than 15 years, and takes me back a fair way to some really cool music moments i had in the early 90's through to 2003, working with some great talent. I wrote "Mystified" in the early 90's as a tribute to my love of the mountains, the Yarra Valley, and all things nature that they represent - with an interesting tie in the lyric to how life unfolds in a mysteriously wonderful way. I first played this song with my original band "Cadence" based in Healesville, but then later reinvented the track, recording some more bed tracks with my great mate and talented Producer Nigel Derricks (Crowded House, Diesel, Cordrazine, Hamish Cowan and many, many more..), and also adding the percussive talents of Dave Porter (Ian Moss, Captain Spalding, Vanessa Amorosi) including the silky notes of Tanya Carter singing backing vocals. Like almost all of my recordings, I played all the instruments on Mystified and produced the track, with the exception of drums on this occassion - I had also just finished 12 months or so of vocal coaching with the extraordinary talent of Steve Zammit (Ex Young Talent Time)...which was an amazing experience for me! This song, like so many of my tracks, was mastered by the EQ wizard Joseph Carra, at Crystal.

 

At this stage i was doing a lot of BV arrangements and vocals for Nige, such as Hamish's Album for Sony/BMG at the time. Nige had said to me "hey, lets get some real drums on that track of yours.." and the rest was history...it was great fun. Only one other guy i know hits the skins like Davey does, and thats Mark Atanisovski (more on him soon) - so having Davey play on Mystified was a real buzz, taking it and my musicianship to a whole new level for me. We remastered it in 2003, so take a listen. 

 

"Rain" and "Sorry" i wrote in 95-96... i really felt i had turned a corner with songwriting at this stage, and when i eventually got to record it with my old mate Paul Stouppa at Drum Power, it was at this point where i felt the formula coming together in terms of combining pop melody and hook - it was the start of my tighter focus on writing and songcraft from there on.

 

Paul played Drums on this track (he's another crazy talent!) and he really gets the pop thing, despite his alternate musical upbringing - i am seriously glad though that he introduced me to TOOL and others... you cant learn enough from those players, and Paul is no exception - extremely versatile with killer chops. "Sorry" was recorded Live in Paul's studio that i helped him set up - featuring my Kramer Ferrington, Schecter Electric (overdub) and the vocal recorded live with the Ferrington guitar track - real simple, and raw.

 

"Waiting for the Sun" was my first Commercial hit on Network Ten's "iFish" which played on Saturday's just prior to the AFL footy game. I had written a few tracks prior to this for the production company Dreampool Productions and i was stoked when my good mate Bob Grieve (Executive Producer) finally came and asked me to write the opening theme track for this one, and then later the opening theme track for Channel 7's Melbourne Weekender. I already had this song written as a "ballad with urgency", but it had to be harder hitting for the show so i really grunged it up a bit - i think it was good for the song to take it this way. I am remixing a radio version at the moment, which will be more the way i originally heard it when i wrote the song. I will post it up here eventually, so look out for it.

 

I hope everyone enjoys listening to these songs, and i will be putting many more up on the site as I dig through the archives.

 

If you have any comments, feel free to email me here

 

cheers

Simon. 

 

Hi folks,

 

Well it's 2008, and what an exciting year it looks like being!

 

Musically speaking, i will be putting my songwriting craft back into the public domain for the first time in too many years! I have assembled a group of telented players and great mates to take my songs "live" to the people again, which we are currently rehearsing.

 

I am also in the process of recording my first entire piece of musical collectables (signed artist's call them Albums :), which i really plan to have made significant ground on this year. It's based on a bunch of old and new material i have, and will be playing live with the band. It will be appropriately titled "It's about time..." so keep an ear out for that as well.

 

I do have some material on commercial television, including the theme track to Channel Ten's IFISH, "Waiting for the Sun" which you can download at http://www.ifishtv.com.au/

 

Well thats about it for now folks, but keep an eye on this space as i will be using it for now as way of letting friends and other groovers know about upcoming gigs, and to keep everyone across my music activities....so stay tuned!

 

Thanks

Simon