I had a really nice Saturday this week. I did a little mixing work and then went over to Bristol (about 20 minutes west of Bath) to play some music at a benefit with my friend Shaun McCrindle. Shaun is a vet on the Bristol music scene (which produced the likes of Portishead, Tricky, Massive Attack to name a few) and is a killer songwriter. We debuted a tune called "Please Give Blood" that we wrote together way back in February. It was a real learning experience bringing a co-written tune from nothing to a work tape to a live performance. I've done a few co-writes (not many) but this one was really interesting to me. To be honest, I really didn't add all the much to it. Shaun had some bits of lyric, melody and rhythm and he had a solid idea of where it could go. As we worked on the tune I acted more as a sounding board than an idea generator. It shows when you hear the song. It sounds like a "Shaun" song. I have found, however, that several months after the session that tune has become one of my favorite co-writes I've done lately. Shaun recognized that he really brought most of the tune in and even asked me if I felt short changed from the experience. I couldn't feel more the contrary. There's something really sweet to me about knowing that in such a fickle moment as the inception of a tune, just a few words can make it come to life. Shaun also mentioned that tune probably would have been shelved had I not been interested in working on it. I can feel totally satisfied knowing that while I didn't provide much of the tune as such, without my contribution it wouldn't have happened at all.