Good ‘morrow my bright new things! I bid, “welcome OwlHeads”, to episode 45 of my songwriting podcast series. After the necessary health warnings are issued by the government (these shows can be hazardous to your health), I hope you can settle down and enjoy the rare demos offered freely at this month’s feast.

I’ll start by playing you a song I wrote and recorded with the fine Welsh vocalist and artist, Steve Balsamo. It’s a 16 track analog demo that I was very chuffed to discover in my rarities suitcase. Collaborating with Steve was a soulful experience… and it’s lovely that we’re still in touch after all these years.

And I’m thrilled to play you a newish unfinished song I was writing for (and potentially with) Robbie Williams. After playing a soccer game with him he asked me to write some traditional folk songs for him. Yes, you heard right - Robbie Williams was planning to do a folk record with me. All Fiddles, harps, bodhrans, mandolins and roaring drunken sea shanties! Can you imagine … would have been fun. I’m more than a little enamored with this little rough home demo track I’ll play you here.

Remember the cult teen movie, “Say Anything”? I’ll play you the original demo for a song that opened the soundtrack album…. and tell you the story of dumbfounded movie executives giving me the evil eye!

I’ll have a little fun playing you a brand new jam of an 80’s-drenched track being written for my alter-ego band (Krautrock techno groove rules here). And I’ll stay in the 80’s to play you the original Fostex 8 track analog demo of the most successful song I’ve ever had the fortune to write ... I’m still amazed how this song continues to reverberate a good 40 years after it was written 😳.

My little oration section of the show will be dedicated to the tightness, the precision, the perfection of popular recordings. From my own recordings to Steely Dan’s, I’ll enquire about the philosophy of music being either produced by precise “robots” or by human “feel”. I put my own disease of perfection under the microscope here. My career really took off in the 80’s when machines and technology dominated recording studios and the songwriting process … so I’m very aware of the balance that needs to be struck.

And I’ll spin an unheard, rather new song that espouses the healing and rejuvenating power of the sun. It’s a song I haven’t heard for a while, and playing it today reminded me that I must develop it and finish it. We songwriters can be bloody lazy buggers!

It’s always lovely to present a new episode to the loyal royal “OwlHeads”. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did recording it.

Tally-Ho!Martin 🦉