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General Comments
Hey Christian - Thanks for sending this song to me for review. Good to hear from you again. I really like "When You Wake". I like the concept of it very much... that one person is ready to make up and realizes what they have together, and he wants to wait on her - and he's willing to take the chance and be the first one to come back and make amends. Great idea, especially coming from the perspective of a male singer. The music production value of the song is very good - on par with anything you might hear on Country radio, et al. (to me this is a Country Pop song and should be pitched as such). The only thing I'm hearing with the chosen instrumentation is that if you really have a Country Pop song here (which I believe you do), I think it could benefit from some banjo during the more uplifting chorus parts (more on that below). Does that make sense? Buried just-so down in the mix, but I can hear it needing to be there. Lyrically, the song seems a little too wordy... hard to put my finger on it exactly, but it seems like another re-write or two might really dial it in and get rid of some un-necessary verbiage; it just seems sort of rushed to me in places. Lyrics for Country songs really need to be simple and these are perhaps just a little too complex or busy for the average Country song and listener. There are a few places where the breaks in the syllables of the words are awkward (such as "I saw the be-gin-ning") - just not quite as smooth or natural as perhaps it could be. Not bad obviously, but just still a little rough. That's why I'm suggesting a lyrical re-write. The music's really great though and I wouldn't change a thing other than *perhaps* adding a banjo arpeggio about two-thirds of the way through the song (starting right after the Bridge on that instrumental section right there, then continuing through the rest of the song). I can just hear it in that spot... feels like it needs it. Vocally, it seems good but there is room for improvement of course. If you're going to use this as a demo to pitch to other artists, it will be sufficient I think. If you're going to pitch it as-is to film and TV for instance, I would probably go back and rework a few things - nothing major. I would probably look at a different lead vocalist perhaps to showcase the "Country-ness" of this song. The singer is good, but to me it could actually be a little more country sounding.
Artist's Submitted Question:
Hi Doug, I'd just like to get your take on this song's marketability for rerecording by a country artist or adult contemporary artist, as well as your opinion on its suitability for licensing use as is. Thank you.
As for your question, I think you really have a potential hit song here *if* you do some more lyrical re-writes to dial it in, then have a more Country-sounding male vocal. To me, those two things are really needed in order to take this song to the next level. Again, what you have here is REALLY GOOD - please understand that. I just think there is still room for improvement. Once you do those things, I would be happy to connect you with a song plugger friend of mine here in Nashville who routinely places song with major Country music artists. I am confident he would be willing to pitch this song for you. As for licensing, again, once those changes are made, there is no reason why it couldn't be pitched as-is to film and television, etc. As a music supervisor, I personally could see using this song if it fit exactly what I was looking for - yes, absolutely. I think you have something here for sure and I'm really interested to see where you go with it. Please let me know if and when you make those changes and I'll be happy to help out. Thanks again! Sincerely, Doug
Quote From Pro
Christian Taylor Michaels' "When You Wake" is an excellent Country Pop song on-par with some of the really good songs out there today. If the right major artist were to record this song, Christian could potentially have a hit here.
Engineer/Producer/Music Supervisor Doug Diamond has been writing, recording, producing, mixing and mastering music for most of his life. He has nearly 30 years of experience in the industry. A former …