Rebel For Life, with Fiddle

This week I started working with my friend Chris on the song Rebel For Life, which I wrote based on Extinction Rebellion messaging back in 2020. The song has always gone down really well, even though I’ve only had a few opportunities to perform because the pandemic got in the way.

The reason Rebel For Life goes down so well is that every single verse has a singalong element to it, not just the choruses. And, with it being a reggae feel and all major chords it’s really upbeat and joyful.

Bringing this song to Chris (fiddle) he immediately came up with a new melody that I had never thought of. It goes really well with a song and gave me the idea to create a fourth verse based on his misewhich acts as another singalong too.

I’m so enjoying the organic process of writing songs for Protest, in which songs can be added to several years after they’ve been written, and new people can arrive and really breathe fresh life into a song. It’s so different to an industry of copyright in which that kind of thing just isn’t done.

Another thing that was challenging for me was making the decision to make the live (rehearsal) recording above rather than take it to the studio. I nearly decided to go into the studio this weekend, but then I realised that it’s much more important to focus on making as many recordings of this kind, just on my phone, as I can. It’s not worth it at this point prioritise studio time to make a crisp polished high-quality versions of the songs. After all, there are only so many hours before the next big demo (The Big One) and I can either focus on the slow process of making studio recordings or the much swifter process of making phone-cam videos.

I’ve decided to keep going with a Videos, because there are several advantages over studio recordings:

• They are much faster to make, so I will be able to make more live rehearsal phone-cam videos then I’ll be able to make studio recordings before The Big One.
• They show a visual, meaning that Guitarists might be able to learn the song by looking at my hands so the songs can travel more easily
• Making videos live, with a single mic, helps me to learn/improve. I discovered that when I’m really projecting my voice like I am in this video AND trying to pronounce the words as clearly as possible I struggle to stay in tune. This is something I discovered through making the above video so I can now focus on it and correct it over the next few weeks. However I would never have discovered this problem in the studio the mic would have been right next to my mouth where subtle diction is all that is needed.

I think the process also helps me to be a bit less precious about my work and about who I am as a musician. For example, with this video, Chris and I did two takes, and in the first take I sang more in tune. But when I heard it back I realised that the words were very clear, so when we did the second take I tried to annunciate more, and being unfamiliar with doing so I wasn’t as in tune. But Chris’s part was more developed in the second take and overall the feel was better, so we chose that one. I like the fact of returning to a culture where you do one or two takes live and the best one is the one that goes out, not a polished and manicured heavily edited performance. I like the fact that Chris and I are sharing our rehearsals publicly. We can only get better, and if we are embarrassed to show our workings then how can we encourage other people, even non musicians, to try things for the first time. Protest movements are full of people who are doing things they never thought they would be able to do and that’s brilliant – in fact, it’s just what we need to build a future.

People who were told at school that they’re tone deaf, join choirs, and people who were told they have no sense of rhythm become drummers, and do so very successfully through hard work, passion, and being surrounded by a supportive community. We need more of this, not less, and that means we as musicians need to be able to show ourselves to be trying out new things, fearlessly.