Phill Mason

I’ve had several questions over the last few days, so here’s an update about what’s happening next in the 30DC Theme Song Collaboration.

We now basically have an entire band on board a few times over – guitarists, drummers, bassists, piano and keyboard players, a few classical players and a handful of singers. As well as some great vocal talent on board, we also have a couple of groups of singers, some dancers and people who will hold up placards with messages and lyrics on throughout the video – great! The creative ideas floating around have been amazing and I can’t wait to try and fit it all in the video, (cue 10 min album track).
 
The 30DC Theme Song is in the early writing stages, I have a couple of notepad ideas roughly recorded but I need your help before I go too much further. The song needs to be uplifting, inspirational, melodic, memorable and toe-tappingly groovy.
 
The lyrics – the vocal hook. I would like you to get your thinking caps on and ask anyone and everyone you know who’s been involved with the 30DC to come up with a lyric or a line that sums up the 30DC. What is it all about? What does it mean? How does it make you feel? Can you sum up the Thirty Day Challenge in one line that will work well in a song?
 
You see singing the lyric "Thirty Day Challenge" is not exactly the most satisfying lyric to sing and I reckon we can come up with something more catchy that could be influential in more ways then one.
 
If like me, you’re sick of hearing Tina Turners – "Simply The Best" at every conference you attend as the "Go Get Em" theme, then lets try and replace it with with the 30DC 2009 song. How many times have you heard James Brown’s "I Feel Good" play in a film or TV advert? About a Gazillion (big number) I imagine, because it has a great vocal hook and a brilliant lyrical message.
 
Can it be done? Is the "30DC 2009 Theme Song Collaboration team" up to the challenge? Please comment below.
 
Below are a couple of common questions I’ve been asked:
 
So what happens next?
Once we’ve got the magical lyric, I will form the song around it – and at that point I will be able to start to give parts of the song out for players/singers/dancers to learn, rehearse, practice or mime to.More detailed info about how we will record this to follow soon.
 
Which Video Format?
Just as a side not, don’t panic about this too much, but just have in the back of your head that I would prefer the video to be shot in 16:9 HD (High Definition) 720p to be exact – that is 1280 x 720. Now before you panic, I will also be taking standard def DV video which is either 720 x 480 or 720 x 576 pixels depending on where in the world you live. If you can shoot in Full HD 1080p that’s fine also, but I would like to avoid low res, grainy webcam video if possible. Perhaps you have a friend who has a camera you could borrow?
 
I’ll also post this up on my blog, so please visit my blog http://www.phillmason.com/ and leave your comments with your answers/ideas for the lyric of the century.
 
Thanks guys and I look forward to your ideas.
 
All the Best
Phill Mason
E:  30dc2009@phillmason.com

P.S If you have any additional questions I haven’t covered here, please leave them in the comments below and I will make a video that covers the most popular ones.
 
P.P.S You can also stay up to date by following me around here: http://twitter.com/PhillMason or http://www.facebook.com/PhillMason
 
P.P.P.S Nope, I got nothing!!

Hi guys, hopefully you’ve already seen the video about this years Thirty Day Challange Theme Song collaboration plan? If not, its sitting right here on this page for your viewing pleasure. I want to keep this really simple, so all you have to do to let me know you want to be involved in this years Them Song Video is, drop me an email with your name, email address and what you can bring to the video. Let me explain that in a little more detail.

If you can play an instrument like drums, guitar, keyboards sax etc, etc, then we will likely have musical parts for you to play and would love you to be one of the players on the video. If on the other hand you are more comfortable in the singing department, then its your vocals we want. Even if you can’t do either of those but would still love to be in this years 30DC video, then we will be offering parts of the video where people can mime to the vocal and submit their video clip for use in the master theme song.

When the song has been written, you will be notified about every part that is available to either play along with, sing along with or mime to. The more people involved with this years song, the more successful the track will become and as we are giving all proceeds from the downloaded track to Kiva, we want all the help we can get, so don’t be shy, get involved.

You have until the end of June 2009 to let me know if you’re in the mix or not. Get on the list and I’ll keep you updated. Thanks guys, this is going to be loads of fun – more soon.