Bank Holiday Update: Florence, Domes, Dogs & Deals

Well, two holiday weekends in a row for me... for a man that tends to be working either on music projects or the day job pretty much 14 to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, it's been quite a lazy old time! Actually, I've just updated the Lyrico website (again!) in the last two days: I've added a sitemap (more of a page list with sub-headings) and also, courtesy of a web-developers' notice board, I got hold of a nifty little program to generate a sitemap in xml code for Google's robots and spiders to crawl all over. (If that sounds Double-Dutch, just think yourself lucky! You really don't want to get involved with web design unless you're an insomniac or hell-bent on a mission to get your songs out there across the world, like me!)...

...Talking of which, I was in Florence with Jayne and her family for three days last week and what a fantastic city it is! I've been before (when I was knee-high to an elephant... about 12 or 13), but it all seemed strangely bigger - and much, much higher! - this time. Apologies to the hundreds of tourists going up the cupola (dome) of the Duomo (cathedral) when after paying my €6 to get absolutely sh*t scared I got my money's worth early! Faced with the prospect of walking out on a 14 inch-wide ledge 250 foot above the marble floor below with nothing but a bit of Perspex and a lot of air between me and the said floor, I got a major attack of the collywobbles! As the down stairs were only accessible by reaching the other side of the dome (which would have meant going out on the ledge), I decided to play my trump card of a broad smile and hugely apologetic voice as I squeezed past the 100 or so camera-laden Japanese tourists and McDonald's-encumbered Americans climbing up! Sorry, but it was much better than the alternative! And speaking of which, I was unfortunate to witness that on the bus on the way in...

Why does it always happen to me? There's me giving my seat up to a frail old Italian lady, and finding the only place I could squeeze my mercifully fairly lanky frame into was now at the very back of the bus. Italy's hot... and so are bus engines. Anyway, two stops later, despite it being like sardines, two of the 'great unwashed' get on with a dog on a rope (yep, you can guess what's coming!). After about ten minutes of avoiding the scruffy dog's tail and snout, the said snout erupts in a plume of vomit. The dog does what 'domestic' animals tend to do and tries to clean it up before its owners have noticed... no, it hasn't got a mop and bucket, just a tongue! Then the little sod starts licking the legs of everyone around! I'm seldom in shorts, but because it was 27 degrees C outside, I was that day. I was still feeling queasy after a pit stop for a good wash and a few beers, and maybe that's why I couldn't cope with the dome! (Well, that's my excuse, anyway!)

Now on to music and deals... I got back to hear some more good news from Paul Jeffery about one of our co-writes, Summer Love. John Keenan of Motiv8 Records (that we assigned the track to) has negotiated a short-term deal (3 months) with a digital (Internet) label to help promote the song. The label/link is http://www.daddyfreshmusic.com/ and they're based in Brighton. It's run by a contact of John's from the days of Fragma (remember Fragma?). The track will be available for sale as a download too. They are also heavily linked with Musicweek and its new download chart, so we're hopeful of some action there... hint, hint!

The track is going to fronted by the glamorous Cheryl Barnes of Angelstar Productions in Scotland... in fact, Cheryl was the session singer we used on the recording anyway and the Motiv8 re-mix should be ready this week. John wants to call the project 'Cinnamon' and Cheryl will, in effect, be Cinnamon.

There'll also be a Biog Page on the Daddy Fresh site about Sundance Songs (which, for the so far uninitiated, is Paul, Decibelle/Sharon Sullivan - our stormin' in-house dance producer, and yours truly). In the meantime we're still very much contactable via SundanceSongs.com of course! (And via www.lyrico.co.uk or mail@lyrico.co.uk)

If you fancy listening to the demo of the track please do here:

Summer Love.

If you like it, please feel free to buy the single as a download from http://www.daddyfreshmusic.com/ when the track is available... I'll keep you posted!

Speak soon! All the very best,

Chris

Lyricist Chris Breen's May 2006 News Blog

Well, this is a first for me! I've put up a few websites and even set up a blog for a songwriter friend I work with (Paul Jeffery), but I never got into the Blog Culture myself... until now!

Apologies for this, but I'm gonna cheat for my first one and copy the news section (updated this week on 15 May 2006) from my Lyrico website (http://www.lyrico.co.uk) and paste it in... after that, I promise, I'll add to the blog live! Anyway, here goes...

STOP PRESS!
Great new pop-rock/Power Pop song "All I Want From Love" by Paul Jeffery and Chris Breen is produced by Norwegian producer Torgeir Bjordal of FUELLED Productions. Track available for male artists to cover* or for licensing. Hear the track now by clicking HERE!
*N.B. Female lyrics are available for All I Want From Love.

Chris has formed a Dance Music top-line and songwriting company with songwriter Paul Jeffery and dance record producer Decibelle/Sharon Sullivan. The company is called Sundance Songs and we specialise in extremely radio-friendly, accessible dance music, writing songs for artists to re-record as covers or, alternatively, using session vocalists and offering tracks as masters for licensing.

The first track to come out of Sundance Songs, Summer Love, gained a huge amount of interest, with discussions relating to licensing and recording happening with 6 or 7 companies in as many weeks. Click here to hear the track! In March negotiations continued and the team are in the process of signing a Licensing and Publishing deal. All being well, the track should be released and be commercially available across Europe this summer!

STOP PRESS AGAIN!

Full licensing deal signed to Motiv8 records on May 8 2006 for Summer Love. Watch this space!

Fresh from Sharon's studio is the another version of Could The Earth Turn? Check out the remix/ re-recording (with Sally Rivers on vocals) HERE!

If you are a Dance Producer, Record label or Recording Artist/Singer working in the field of dance and need top-quality songs and/or top-line melodies & lyrics writing for you, then Paul, Chris and Sharon would like to hear from you now via Sundance Contacts. Also, we are keen to find ambitious - and reliable! - backing track writers/producers in the dance field to work with. Please check out the Sundance Songs Website. Speak to you soon!

Chris is working on a variety of top-line writing projects with songwriter Paul Jeffery. This versatile writing partnership has recently penned a variety of tracks including...

• A mid-tempo Jazz track Little Lost with Saint Etienne bassist, Ian Catt
• A couple of really commercial RnB tracks with writer/producer Andy McNeil (Click on track title to hear Ain't No Doubt)
• Pop and Pop-Rock co-writes with various other writers... tracks are currently in production

Paul and Chris are also building a catalogue of commercial pop, dance, soul and rock songs and are happy to hear from Artists, Songwriters, Producers, Management Companies and Record Labels looking for material and wanting tracks or top-lines commissioned.

Chris has also been working extensively with Norwegian songwriter and producer Torgeir Bjordal.

The latest co-write is an absolute belter! Listen to Independence Day here!

Chris, Sturle Strauss Lisaeth and Torgeir have had an offer of publishing on Nothing's Changed from Leopard Music and are presently in negotiations over that. Also, Welsh Country-Rock singer, Beth Williams, has recorded the feel-good pop-rock track All Because Of You penned by Torgeir and Chris, and this tracks is planned to be included on her forthcoming album Enigma.

Chris is working extensively with Peter Baker and their track Sex & Revolution has been recorded by the top-selling male recording artist in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fuad Backovic or Deen, who represented Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest.

Speaking of Eurovision, Paul and Chris have penned an absolute must as a Eurovision Song Contest entry! (When you hear it you'll know why!) Please email us if you are looking for an entry next year... English lyrics only, but we're open to offers from any country looking for what we really believe could be a potential winner. Please Email mail@lyrico.co.uk for details!