Hello dear friend,
The summer of Bos continues with a little bit of improv courtesy of Andy and Joe in a secret garden.
It was a wonderful afternoon in July, where the music flowed like a river and the vibes where chill.
Peace be the journey
Cosmic Bos
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| Andy and Joe in the secret garden (location undisclosed) |
Well hello dear friends,
Welcome to episode 2 of our Making of an Album series, this time (as you already know from having read the title of this blog) we tackle song writing, in particular, traditional song writing techniques.
Subscribe to our podcast on your preferred podcast platform Direct Podcast Page
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| Album artwork by Dayne Howcroft |
Visited several times throughout the episode, Nick and Andy sat over two sessions and wrote a song from start to finish. Here we try to show you the creative process in its raw state.
Nick and Andy also talk about the history of songwriting, as well as their own personal histories of songwriting, including several examples from their songbooks.
The first proper song you hear in this episode is Astral Underwear, a song that Cosmic Bos created using their new musical construction method, Improv Squared (More on this in the next episode).
In the middle of the episode you are treated to two songs from Andy and Nicks songbooks.
Love Defined is by Andy Jackson and is about his wife
Spontaneous Plan is by Nick Jackson and is about his wife
Both songs are available on Cosmic Bos From the Songbook (2020), and right here in youtube form too
Email cosmicbos@gmail.com with your favourite wife
The episode concludes with our other double A side single 'Forever Bruised', which is acoustically written music by Andy and Nick over a haunting poem by Dayne Howcroft.
This was a rollercoaster ride to make, and we loved it, hopefully there is something useful and insightful about our ramblings about writing songs, and we also hope that we have demystified the process a bit, and shown how really anyone could write songs if it was what they wanted to do.
If you want to get involved in our musical shenanigans drop us an email at cosmicbos@gmail.com
We also really appreciate feedback, and would love to hear your own songwriting stories, comment on this post or better yet, comment on the youtube video version of this episode so we can all share the musical love.
Peace and infinite love
Cosmic Bos
Hello lovely friends,
From the upcoming album
Improv Squared - Petit Champignon de Lumiere
Andy and Nick created this song using improvisation layering, the beat, bass and synth were played in first round, then vocals and more synth, then backing vocals. Filming each round, the video was made by boxing up the performance and overlaying some stock footage.
The lyric was prewritten by Andy in the Book of Songs (or BoS as we call it) and it reads a little something like this...
ASTRAL UNDERWEAR
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| Artwork by Dayne Howcroft |
But who cares?
The outside world is cruel and unfair
They stare
But no-one can see my astral underwear
I’m here
And simultaneously everywhere
I’m this
And everything else in between
Sit around, from sat to seated, shower, bed, repeat repeated
Counting days, rest is coming, long time been defeated
It’s hard on the head, cycling, work, home, bed
These energy levels are vastly depleted
Oh these energy levels are vastly depleted
While in astral clothing
Banish self loathing
Become anything you desire
Guarantee it will suit you
From flower to cashew
Be seagull, be water, be fire
Be anything you can desire
Be anything you can desire
...
Please like, share and subscribe
And if you would like to feature in an upcoming Improv Squared song, email us at cosmicbos@gmail.com for details.
Astral Underwear is paired with another song 'Forever Bruised' which is available on Spotify, Amazon etc. and will get it's own video treatment next weekend. It is quite the polar opposite as far as songs go, with a raw acoustic sound and powerful lyrics by Dayne Howcroft.
Thanks for being awesome, we love ya
YouTube version for ya
Peace and infinite love
Cosmic Bos
P.S - Coming 1st March is the next instalment in our Making of an Album series, check it out.
Hell oh friends,
It's time for a music video, something we here at Cosmic Bos like to make to go along with our songs.
Ensemble Story - Cosmic Bos
Written and recorded by Andy and Nick Jackson
This song was one of the very first experiments in improv(squared) music creation. By improvising a 4 minute sound bed, Cosmic Bos layered on Guitar and Synth, followed by Bass and Vocal, and finally Backing Vocals, to create their 'Ensemble Story'.
Nick and Andy filmed themselves doing this, and that is what you are seeing in the video. Pure visual representation of music creation.
The lyrics were prewritten by Andy, and they go a little something like this:
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| Cover art by Dayne Howcroft |
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| Song part of Cosmic Bos Making of an Album podcast |
...
...Here be the youtube link for all you YouTubians out there
Thank you for listening, please like, share and subscribe
Also, reviews and comments really help out us struggling creatives, so, if you've got the time, please
Peace and infinite love
Cosmic Bos
Hello dear friends,
I (Andy) like to take the first week of the year to reflect on the highs and lows of the previous, and ponder the things I wish to achieve in the upcoming. I find it very therapeutic and mindful, allowing the inputs that truly matter to me (my family and friends) to guide my thoughts towards realistic achievable goals.
For 2022 I want to do something a bit different. Cosmic Bos have completed 3 full seasons of improv music podcasting, so following the route of the farmers, we shall let the improvisation field have a year off, and instead we shall be focusing on making an album, a normal, what other bands do, album.
We have been planning this for a while, and the album already has a title 'The O Door'.
Last year, Nick and I made an EP, 'Virtual Normality', as a test to see if we could take on the task of an album on our own. It went pretty well, with several of our best songs of '21 being on it, including the sublime 'Ride Another Wave' (the closing track) which is about the night Theo was born.
Ride Another Wave is our Prologue to 'The O Door', which we will be working on across the whole of 2022, with our proposed release date being 1st January 2023.
What does this mean for Cosmic Bos Improv Music Podcast Season 4?
Well, it's going to be like a documentary kind of year, with us launching 'Making of an Album', an 8 part Podcast Documentary about how we make an album, charting the whole process from Writing to Recording, Production to Release. It should be a fun ride, with the Introduction episode coming February.
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| Still from Bos Live #1 (2021) |
Then we will launch into our Season long presentation Cosmic Bos: Making of an Album
Which will also nicely dovetail into the other thing we will be doing in 2022. We've opened up the side fields in my farmer metaphor, and started planting a new crop, which we are lovingly calling 'Improv²'
The first tracks from this new improv crop will be along with the first episode of our Making of an Album series, with a full special Improv² episode coming in April.
So as you can see, a big year planned for us at Cosmic Bos.
Thanks for being awesome, we love you
Peace and infinite love
Cosmic Bos (Andy)
Hello friends,
So 'Brand New' is the final old film presentation from our album The COVID 1920's, and hopefully you will get a kick out of it. The song is beautifully sung by Nick, and it is the final song on our yearly slate, ending the album.
The cartoon from 100 years ago happens to be an interesting blueprint for Tom and Jerry, and later Itchy and Scratchy, fascinating stuff indeed.
As the year is nearing its close, we have one final Words of Wisdom presentation to come, and then we will end the year with our Best of Season 3. Thank you for all your support this year, it has been a wild ride in the improvised musical podcast land, and we will be making some changes to the formula for our 4th season.
Please like, share and subscribe to our podcast, wherever you get your podcast, and a review goes a long way, so if you've got a minute, please leave us a review.
Have a wonderful day
Cosmic Bos
So friends,
Cosmic Bos have been busy tying up the lose ends of the year, and what a year it has been. We have released 1 Improv-revised album, 4 fully improvised albums and a 5 track proper EP. It's been a hoot an a holler that's for sure.
We are deep in the planning stages for 2022, and we have some stone cold zinger ideas lined up we can tell ya.
Season 3 has come to a close as far as new material goes.
Our final album of the year 2021 was Improvisation 4: The COVID 1920's, and it can be listened to right here right now :D
We made some video's to go along with it, and they have been featured on our youtube page and such, but have remained unblogged until now. So I present to you, some of the videos from The COVID 1920's
HIGHER FREQUENCY
BROKEN BY DESIRE
THINKING SOLUTIONS
Wow! That's a lot of video action right there, I bet your eyes are well tired now and would probably like to take a well earned break, but if they could just bare with for a paragraph or two more, I would be most grateful.
There is one more video to come from The COVID 1920's, and that is for the albums final track 'Brand New', and it continues the theme of 100 year old footage, it will be with you next weekend.
Then we will be dropping our best of season 3 around the 18th of December, and boy oh boy is it a long one this year. Nick and Andy have already recorded it and 2021 sure had some times in it.
Thank you for your time, more coming down the line soon, as always
Peace and infinite love
(Andy) Cosmic Bos
So friends,
The end of the year is near, and 2021 has been one hell of a one indeed.
To end our musical adventure for season 3 of our podcast, we present to you Cosmic Bos Improvisation 4: The COVID 1920's
Improvisation 4: The COVID 1920's
There are a few videos still to come from our COVID 1920's exploration, with Broken by Desire, Thinking Solutions and Brand New all having vids we've made. Here is Higher Frequency featuring footage from Mark of Zorro from 1920.
Peace and infinite love
Cosmic Bos
P.S - We are planning to do our Best of Season 3 in December this year rather than hanging it over to next year, so we can start fresh with an exciting new thing we have in our bag of tricks.
Thanks for all the support in 2021, we love you.
