Social media doesn’t usually work that well for Connor McGuire.

He’s tried. If you look around online, you can find him on the obligatory Facebook and Twitter, and he has a Tumbler website – but there’s not much there. Social media is clearly low on his list of priorities. His focus has been elsewhere.

His friends report that he seems to disappear for large blocks of time, only to emerge sporadically with some new version of himself and his art. They imagine a cave – which is not too far from the mark. They imagine screens glowing in the dark late at night, knobs and buttons, piles of instruments, piles of unwashed dishes and empty bottles. They can hear this in his music.

When they hear it, they can also tell right away why he’s doing it. It’s clear he’s searching for something great but different. Different but not weird. OK, maybe even weird sometimes, but not stupid or abrasive – or weird for weird’s sake. The words sound like thoughts we’ve had, the tunes haunt from a place not easy to reach and the emotions revealed are tempered with a welcome intelligence.

A song is a fragile construction, with each piece dependent on the other and, initially, only supported in the air by the artist’s sheer force of will. Some of Connor’s songs don’t get finished, but I sure love the ones that do …

Today I’m doing some social media for him, since he’s been mostly preoccupied with making music (and, in his spare time, his Boba Fett armour).

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Please click here to watch a live recording of Connor’s new song “Hand it Over”.
(**For some reason, Safari users need to click “use original player” to see the video’s full width)

In the van the other day, somewhere between Sydney Nova Scotia and Rita’s Tea House in Big Pond, I was trying to describe a vocal performance by Amy Winehouse that I’d seen on YouTube. Today I downloaded it so I could show it to my band brothers next time we’re out. I figured I should show it to you as well. It’s one of my very favourites and not on any CD that I know of. It’s just Amy and someone playing a Rhodes Electric piano. I’m in awe every time I see it.

UPDATE: Video link is horked. Click here for a link that should work

Twelve long weeks ago my son Connor McGuire began an online experiment to see if he could write and record a new song every week. As an additional challenge, as if the song writing wasn’t enough, he also documented the process on video and posted the combined results on YouTube.

There were some hairy weeks along the way. One week in particular (number five, one of my favourites), he totally scrapped the song he’d worked on for six days and wrote an entirely new one on the deadline day. In other weekly episodes, it’s obvious from his appearance that he hasn’t slept – or that the stress of coming up with something good is taking it’s toll. Often though, there’s the unmistakeable hint of pride of accomplishment, and maybe a bit of wonder at how such a good song managed to materialize so quickly under less than ideal circumstances.

Connor knocked the Song-a-Week Project on the head this past week with episode twelve – a complex and emotional song called “Symphony”. You can hear the relief in his voice as he brings the series to a close, but if you’ve been watching from the beginning, you can also see an accomplished songwriter at the top of his game – who has now documented his ability to confidently pull the magic out of his hat week after challenging week, for three months.

Check out “Symphony” here and, if you haven’t already, subscribe to Connor’s YouTube channel to see other episodes of the series.

Also, check out Connor’s North By East West: Acid House Interview which is now posted here.

For his second from last week of the the 12-week Song a Week Project, Connor puts on his Pack Mentality hat and reveals his musical alter-ego. Week 11 is a full-out dance track featuring the kind of beats he will be performing next Saturday at the Waterstone Lounge in White Rock with The Forn and The Joy of Cooking (and at a show in Vancouver *this* weekend that I can’t find a link to!). No lyrics, just a pounding dance groove with great hooks. Connor told his Grandma that she probably wouldn’t like it.

Check it here, and, as always, please spread the word and subscribe to the Connor McGuire YouTube channel.

Full band arrangement. Beautiful. And some pretty candid thoughts on the process.

Check it here, and, as always, please spread the word and subscribe to the Connor McGuire YouTube channel.

Ten weeks!! Ten!

Wow. This reminds me of MJ’s Motown performance. I think she’s going to be real famous …

This week was a close call. What he eventually created came from a deep and honest place. I doubt if he’d have written this song if he wasn’t so backed against the wall. It’s beautiful and true.

Check it here, and, as always, please spread the word and subscribe to the Connor McGuire YouTube channel.

I don’t think Connor expected his ‘Song a Week Project’ to develop into the creative journey it’s become. The process is taking him places he otherwise never would have ventured. Once again the new song has brain-bombed me and I can’t stop singing it …

Check it here, and please subscribe to the Connor McGuire YouTube channel.

Connor’s seventh song is a radical departure. It blends his usual writing style with his Pack Mentality mash-up sensibilities. The song, propelled by a beat he played on a floor tom with a tambourine laid on the skin, soars like classic Peter Gabriel, but more likely references Bat for Lashes or Animal Collective. Once again Connor succeeds and surprises. Check it here, and please subscribe to the Connor McGuire YouTube channel.