9 minute read
Songwriter – Simon Brobyn (1973-80)
Songwriter – Simon Brobyn (1973-80)
The "long story short" version for the last 45(ish) years is:
I left Crypt in 1980 with 2 A' Levels and no real idea what I wanted to do (I'd always fancied being a teacher but when in the 6th form was advised not to apply for university because I wouldn't be up to it!)
In September 1980, for some reason, I decided to work for Sainsburys as a trainee manager. I had to move to High Wycombe and after 6 months realised it wasn't the career for me. So I returned to Gloucester and applied to university to do a B.Ed Honours degree and was accepted at University of Warwick doing Art/History of Art and English Literature. I was there from 1981 until 1985 and graduated with a 2:2. After graduating, I applied for a ton of teaching jobs. Bad timing on my part, Maggie Thatcher was focussing on the Sciences and cutting back on the Arts. After a while, I had to cut my losses because I needed a job (I was getting by with various temporary jobs) which was a shame because I had really good reports from my Teaching Practice during the course.
In 1986 got a job at Laurentian Life (now called Lincoln National) in Barnwood administrating Permanent Health Insurance Policies. As I was also now pursuing a musical career and doing lots of live stuff the Mon-Fri, 9 to 5 suited me. I was in a duo doing original material and we rehearsed at a place in the docks, we usually had the main rehearsal room
in the slot before EMF, who at this point were unsigned, and used to have a brief chat with Ian Dench (not sure if he'll remember or not) as they came in and we went out.
I met Tracy whilst working at Laurentian Life and in 1992 Tracy wanted to move back to St Helens where she was brought up and I followed a few months later to become a fullyfledged northerner. We both worked at the University of Liverpool in administration and married in 1994.
I continued performing in and around Liverpool as a solo artist, as well as focussing on writing songs, alongside my day job, but I gave up performing as I just didn't like it and focussed on my songwriting.
I was taken on by a music management company in the mid 90s. They had offices in Oxford and Los Angeles and things were going quite well as I was starting to get attention as a songwriter. In 2000 the music management company went bust - don't know what the hell happened! So I took a few years out to reassess my musical aspirations but continued to work on improving my songwriting.
In 2007 I did a 12-month course at Manchester MIDI School (which I was able to do alongside my day job) in order to learn the essentials about recording and producing music. The reason for this was to set up my own studio at home in order to have more autonomy as a songwriter.
In 2010 I took voluntary severance from the University of Liverpool (got a decent deal) to throw myself into pursuing my music career. I spent many years contacting people and sending songs for different artists to consider. Many empty promises and false dawns later I got songs with Pull ‘n’ Way and Ronan Parke.
April 2018 I had three songs accepted by Ronan Parke, Britain's Got Talent runner-up from 2011 (he was a cute kid who people loved) for his comeback album as an adult. The songs are "No Love Like First Love" (released as a single), "Found My Way" (title track of the album) and "After All These Years" (just an album ttrack).
In May 2019 I had another song placed with Pull n Way called "Loved By You" for their album
In December 2019 I signed an exclusive music publishing deal and was required to cancel my Music Gateway account to avoid any conflict of interest.
In 2019 Ronan Parke decided to start an intense promotion of his album here and abroad. I believe that dates and venues had been secured for mid-2020 but then Covid struck and ruined his, and many others, plans. Ronan has now decided to take time-out from music.
Post 2019 the music industry has undergone significant change; the effects of Covid coupled with technological advances. This change has further democratized the industry and allowed independent music makers, such as myself, to self-release music.
Since March this year I’ve been releasing songs myself, a new song every month going forward. As I write songs that are vocally challenging (you don't want to hear me singing them, it'd scare the horses!) I seek out great session singers who will "feature" and make the songs come alive. I hire producers and sometimes produce myself depending on how I want a song to sound.
Self-releasing properly requires a lot of work and planning which is why the first song wasn’t released until the end of March. As well as writing and arranging for the song to be professionally recorded, mixed and mastered, I have to do my own marketing and PR through social media (a big learning curve!) and ensuring the song is properly uploaded
through a distributor in order that it be on all the relevant platforms. But I'm not complaining as I'm doing something I love!
Stop press: I've just signed a contract with a company called Sphere Trax https://www.spheretrax.com/ - they are a music sync licensing company who provide songs and music to films, tv, advertising, games and all other media. I'm pretty chuffed as they are very selective. Watch this space and all that!
Website: https://simonbrobyn.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@simonbrobyn-songwriter8458
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/simon-brobyn/1673166552
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4thRUMDnSqymPkf3Ad5PQ5?si=Gcut6-tRQHyrRiUwMhbSqA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simonbrobynsongwriter
