smudie http://www.smudie.com/ a Scot, a lyricist, living in Paris // écossais, parolier (en anglais), résidant à Paris en Copyright 2012 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:00:15 +0100 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Unfinished business Bruises a long time ago, and I wasn't sure that they were finished, but today I feel like sharing them anyway.

Sometimes it's better to half-say something that's on your mind than it is to remain silent.


]]> http://www.smudie.com/2012/02/unfinished-business.html http://www.smudie.com/2012/02/unfinished-business.html smudie bruises lyrics smudie Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:00:15 +0100 Never stop
Songs like My Tattoo.

]]> http://www.smudie.com/2011/12/never-stop.html http://www.smudie.com/2011/12/never-stop.html smudie Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:16:06 +0100 Songs in search of a singer Emmylou is a good example of such a song - General Bye Bye's singer Philippe told me a story and together we turned it into a song.

Sometimes, however, I write simply because the lyrics need to be written. When that happens, it's up to me to find someone afterwards to sing the song. I think of them as songs in search of a singer, and I just put a whole bunch of new ones online, including An Open Relationship and Soles.

]]> http://www.smudie.com/2011/05/songs-in-search-of-a-singer-1.html http://www.smudie.com/2011/05/songs-in-search-of-a-singer-1.html generalbyebye smudie an open relationship emmylou lyrics smudie soles Mon, 02 May 2011 14:46:39 +0100 Murdering a perfectly decent song Here's a video, featuring a heart-felt vocal performance by Philippe, of General Bye Bye performing the unreleased song Murder Of Crows during their Oliver Peel Session last weekend.



]]> http://www.smudie.com/2011/02/murdering-a-perfectly-decent-s.html http://www.smudie.com/2011/02/murdering-a-perfectly-decent-s.html generalbyebye smudie general bye bye lyrics murder of crows oliver peel smudie song video Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:15:22 +0100 Writing to order General Bye Bye were collecting funds on KissKissBankBank to help finance their recent US tour, one of the prizes they offered to generous contributors was the chance to have the group write a song for you.

Gilles-Marie Zimmerman, a photographer from Paris, took them up on their offer - and yesterday he listened for the first time to the song they came up with based on my lyrics, Flirting With The Camera.

By all accounts, Gilles-Marie was very pleased with the result.

]]> http://www.smudie.com/2010/11/writing-to-order.html http://www.smudie.com/2010/11/writing-to-order.html generalbyebye smudie flirting with the camera general bye bye lyrics smudie song Fri, 26 Nov 2010 12:18:54 +0100 smudie on Facebook smudie on Facebook?

You're welcome!
]]> http://www.smudie.com/2010/11/smudie-on-facebook.html http://www.smudie.com/2010/11/smudie-on-facebook.html smudie smudie Wed, 10 Nov 2010 16:43:55 +0100 General Bye Bye rock the US DIY tour of the United States, where they will be introducing unsuspecting American audiences to some of the new songs we've been writing together recently, including Physics and Maths.

]]> http://www.smudie.com/2010/08/general-bye-bye-rock-the-us.html http://www.smudie.com/2010/08/general-bye-bye-rock-the-us.html generalbyebye concerts general bye bye physics and maths smudie song Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:25:43 +0100 A guinea pig I met in Texas Girouette, the eagerly-anticipated first album from General Bye Bye that was released this week on Greed Recordings.

The album was recorded before I started working with the band so doesn't feature any of my work. However, at yesterday's gig they did perform two new tracks for which I've written the lyrics, including Emmylou, which lead singer Philippe introduced as being "a story about a guinea pig I met in Texas, that Stuart Mudie turned into a song".

In fact, my lyrics were about a hamster, not a guinea pig, but it's still a great tune.

]]> http://www.smudie.com/2010/05/a-guinea-pig-i-met-in-texas.html http://www.smudie.com/2010/05/a-guinea-pig-i-met-in-texas.html generalbyebye smudie emmylou general bye bye lyrics smudie Fri, 21 May 2010 11:22:57 +0100 Honeycomb

]]> http://www.smudie.com/2010/03/honeycomb.html http://www.smudie.com/2010/03/honeycomb.html eliotE smudie eliotE honeycomb lyrics smudie song video Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:05:30 +0100 Broadening my horizons Cactus, Ashtray and Crayon are probably most representative of how I write, I do venture outside my rock and folk ghetto from time to time as well.

Lately I've been in the studio with a pair of electro producers from Versailles called Juan Carlos, working on a track that begins "Like a piece of chocolate, I'm slowly melting beneath your touch, babe"; I've launched a collaboration with a very funky young singer called Marlene Rodrigues; and I've written a song called Kiss By Kiss for Ashton Kennedy.

Sometimes it's good to broaden your horizons.

]]> http://www.smudie.com/2010/03/broadening-my-horizons.html http://www.smudie.com/2010/03/broadening-my-horizons.html ashtonkennedy juancarlos marlenerodrigues smudie kiss by kiss smudie Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:12:31 +0100 Business, as usual Candy Pop Folk, including The Whisper Of The Leaves and Rules Are Made To Be Broken.

Candy Pop Folk is the most recent release from Kosinus, a successful French music library that supplies instrumental music and songs for use in advertising, documentaries, films and other media.

They may have been created for expressly commercial purposes, but they're still nice little songs that I'm proud to have written.

]]> http://www.smudie.com/2010/03/business-as-usual.html http://www.smudie.com/2010/03/business-as-usual.html kosinus smudie candy pop folk kosinus lyrics rules are made to be broken smudie songs the whisper of the leaves Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:06:42 +0100 Oliver Peel Session #16 Early Saturday evening, my daughter and I were among the forty or fifty lucky people who gathered in an apartment at a secret location somewhere in Paris to watch Rivkah perform at the Oliver Peel Session #16.



She even sang the song we wrote together, Splitting The Atom - and it was the first time I'd ever heard it!

It was quite a moving experience to discover one of my songs in a live setting, as opposed to listening to an mp3, and together with the intimate atmosphere of the "concert en appartement", it all added up to make a beautiful moment for me.

Plus, my daughter told me afterwards she was very proud.

Vielen Dank Oliver, merci Rivkah.

]]> http://www.smudie.com/2010/02/oliver-peel-session-16.html http://www.smudie.com/2010/02/oliver-peel-session-16.html rivkah smudie concerts oliver peel rivkah splitting the atom Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:55:45 +0100 Merry Christmas, and all that The Hogmanay Children has been released on the compilation album Chantons Noël avec Olga Records.

Admittedly, Like Every Christmas Eve may not be the happiest Christmas ditty you've ever heard, but with its mix of Japanese karaoke-style vocals in the first verse, a drunken church organ all the way through and some harmonies at the end that the Beach Boys would have died for, it still manages to be uplifting despite the somewhat morose subject matter.

Merry Christmas, and all that.

]]> http://www.smudie.com/2009/12/merry-christmas-and-all-that.html http://www.smudie.com/2009/12/merry-christmas-and-all-that.html hogmanaychildren smudie hogmanay children like every christmas eve lyrics song Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:32:44 +0100 A beast in every song General Bye Bye asked me to start working with him a few weeks ago, he was happy to give me carte blanche to write about whatever I liked. However, he did have one specific instruction, which was to try to include a reference to an animal wherever possible. This is sort of the band's signature, it seems - a beast in every song.

Well, we've been working on a few tracks together, and so far I've managed to satisfy Philippe's request in at least one - Give It All Away - by slipping a few geese in there. I'm looking forward to hearing the sound of their beating wings in concert soon.

]]> http://www.smudie.com/2009/11/a-beast-in-every-song.html http://www.smudie.com/2009/11/a-beast-in-every-song.html generalbyebye smudie general bye bye give it all away lyrics smudie song Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:29:48 +0100 A Recouvrance Recouvrance. He had his cheek pressed firmly against the window and his gaze was lost somewhere in the middle distance, fixed on nowhere in particular (which is where I suspect he felt his life was heading) as the washing machines spun through their endless cycle behind him.

Inspired by this curious scene, I went on to write a song called Shipwrecked, which I then gave to someone I recently began supplying with lyrics in the hope she could do something with them. I'd been listening to a lot of Dominique A at the time, and it turns out she's quite a fan too.

Needless to say, my song is not about this man, or at least not only about him. Seeing him was just the spark, and the rest came the way it always does... inexplicably.

]]> http://www.smudie.com/2009/10/a-recouvrance.html http://www.smudie.com/2009/10/a-recouvrance.html smudie shipwrecked smudie song Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:55:24 +0100