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Hi guys. I'm not going to lie, the stagnation and lack of forward progression in my songwriting career really had me discouraged. I took a couple of months off, I was tired of getting rejected. But I've found a new spark. I've had equipment die on me, return after return on taxi, plus my high quality real life contacts haven't given me any traction yet either. But I can only go so long without writing till I can't contain it any more. This is my comeback song and has injected some vigor back into my writing. I wanted to know what you guys thought about it.

The song is called War Cry, I'm thinking it would be good for Cee Lo Green.
It's on my taxi page: http://taxi.com/vthov

Any feedback would be much appreciated as I try to get back into this songwriting thing. Thanks, Taxi Fam!



PS.
Last year wasn't all bad musically speaking. I got to play piano on the soundtrack to a major motion picture (Twelve Years A Slave)… but as awesome as that was I was bringing someone else's music to life not my own. But I felt it would be ungrateful for me not to mention that accomplishment. I hope anyone else feeling discouraged finds a new spark as well. God bless guys.

Hi Vthov,

Great sounding track man! Is that you singing? Lotta power there.

The 'verbed kick in V1 didn't do a lot for me. Seemed to muddy things up there.

In the chorus, I wanted to hear a 16th note pattern of some kind (synth maybe?) to propel it a little higher above the verse. Just a little more drive.

Anyway, that's my "expert" advice. Keep plenty of salt handy. Hopefully, other folks will weigh in & you can get some useful consensus opinions.

It really is strong. You're a good writer! Keep the faith & keep writing!

Regards,
Mike

What a great song! That chorus just sucked me in... MOVED me!!! Wow. An honour listening.

Little things to me... The strings at the 1:30 mark? Jarring.
Voice is SOOOOO strong and good!!! in the chorus'. To me it's a little unsure in the verses. I only say that because the voice in the chorus is so strong! In the verses and pre-chorus, it's a pitch and power thing. To me!!!! I'd use pitch correct or some variation there of, at about 66... lol If that means anything to you... (I'm a master of pitch correction and all the additional tools associated with ahem... character over pitch perfect, singing... ) You're just so trumpet strong in the chorus'. Love that power.

Cool's right about the kick drum, too. Little boomy - verby.

LOVED this!!! Honour...

LRC

Hey Vthov. Good to see you back.
Excellent comments from Cool & LRC earlier.
Great track and your voice is super. This song will be fabulous. Good luck sir.
Best regards / Steve

Great vocal, which is what I think always sells the song. You might want to fix the lead in vocal to the first chorus as it is a little pitchy (shouldn't be a big deal to do). Same goes for the 2nd verse vocal. With this genre of music, you could probably autotune all of the verse as a stylistic choice.

john

Not much new to add except to say great voice, awesome chorus and keep the faith. You have the talent so it's all a matter of staying in the game long enough till it catches fire.

Great song. I definitely hear Cee Lo Green singing a song like this, at times your voice resembles his (or his resemebles yours lol). Glad to hear this song, excellent. Tim

Yep, yep, yep. I am very impressed.

It's Cee Lo all over. Killer voice – I wouldn't worry too much about pitch correction; the man himself can be pretty pitchy. What more important is that it's radio-friendly and ready to go, imo. I can absolutely hearthis on today's chart. The $64,000 question is, how does Cee Lo get to hear it...?

GREAT work, and a VERY cool song. Kudos to you.

Nick

Wow thanks so much guys for all the great feedback. I'm definitely encouraged and back in the game. I've learned that rejection is just a part of the journey. I feel really good about this piece.

nick.moxsom wrote:Yep, yep, yep. I am very impressed.

It's Cee Lo all over. Killer voice – I wouldn't worry too much about pitch correction; the man himself can be pretty pitchy. What more important is that it's radio-friendly and ready to go, imo. I can absolutely hearthis on today's chart. The $64,000 question is, how does Cee Lo get to hear it...?

GREAT work, and a VERY cool song. Kudos to you.

Nick

Believe it or not Nick, I've gotten this song to a top producer/songwriter who works with Cee Lo, among other top billboard stars, and when I say top I mean it. I got it to him by myself strangely enough and he took me seriously (I wasn't even expecting a response). He gave it a listen and LOVED it. Then he asked me was it ok if he let some people hear it? of course I said of course. I'm very excited. Using some personal contacts I've also gotten it to John Legend. As you can imagine I'm on pins and needles over here. I haven't started shopping it through taxi quite yet, I wanted to give John and Cee Lo a head start with it, because If I could hand pick the artists, those would probably be my top 2. Thanks for all the encouraging feedback. I owe a lot of my refinement as a songwriter to the high bar here at Taxi. Let's hope something comes from this. Peace and love guys!

LittleRedChurch wrote:What a great song! That chorus just sucked me in... MOVED me!!! Wow. An honour listening.

Little things to me... The strings at the 1:30 mark? Jarring.
Voice is SOOOOO strong and good!!! in the chorus'. To me it's a little unsure in the verses. I only say that because the voice in the chorus is so strong! In the verses and pre-chorus, it's a pitch and power thing. To me!!!! I'd use pitch correct or some variation there of, at about 66... lol If that means anything to you... (I'm a master of pitch correction and all the additional tools associated with ahem... character over pitch perfect, singing... ) You're just so trumpet strong in the chorus'. Love that power.

Cool's right about the kick drum, too. Little boomy - verby.

LOVED this!!! Honour...

LRC

Thanks for the tips LRC. I will try that. What pitch correct software do you use? When you say 66 I'm assuming you mean in like automatic mode right? I only have auto tune evo. I have a lot to learn about using pitch correct.