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EAR CANDY |
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Ear Candy Theme |
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| Welcome to our family music page. Please enjoy the music posted here created by myself and my sons. You'll find rock, pop, classical, symphonic, rap, reggae and everything in between, and we've put in a few comments here and there so you can know the general style before listening. |
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| If you'd like a CD just send us an email at marocon@rogers.com to the attention of Bill O'Connor and we'd be happy to send you one. You can even select which pieces you'd like and in what order. We've also posted two images that can be the CD Artwork. |
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| We'd also be pleased to write custom pieces for you. If you'd always wanted a song about a pet or your favorite food, or a song for a birthday or a special person, we can write to your specifications. If you like it, pay us what you will. Just contact us at the above email address. All singing by Billy O'Connor as he's the one that can hold a tune - see I Want My Mother Back below. |
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| The Melody Assistant shareware from Myriad permits the creation of music by writing a score. Most of what you hear here was created using this tool. |
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| Check back from time to time as we will post new songs on a regular basis. |
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| Stealth Dreamers by Mark O'Connor © 2007 Experimental/Psychedelic/Rock |
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| This is another song inspired by The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil, this time the lyrics more literally scraped from the book and when I couldn't make the terms rhyme I was sometimes forced to make up my own gobbledygook. Let's make no mistake - the continuing (and accelerating) advance in technology leads somewhere. You might say it lead to a point. You could call that point in time the singularity. However, other writers have used the term to mean the point in time when artificial intelligence "awakens" and I believe Mr. Kurzweil uses it to mean the point in time when AI exceeds human intelligence. Without quibbling over the exactly meaning of the term, the big idea of the book is that Ray Kurzweil forsees the rather imminent (within three decades) explosion of intelligence far beyond current human bounds and the emergence of non-bioligical intelligence. This isn't a crackpot book full of crackpot ideas written by a crackpot, but rather an altogether interesting book stuffed full of well argued points backed by statistics written by a man of accomplishment and note. Highly recommended. And a very optimistic book, so forgive my song's rather cold metallic clanging, and read the book anyway.
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| Hidey Hidey Ho by Mark O'Connor © 2007 Pop/Rock |
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| This is a song inspired by The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil. It's got a pirate motif and it seems to have an environmental motif, but you know you can't turn back time and put the developmental genie back in the bottle. There are another 4 billion human beings who want to be lifted out of poverty and enjoy the same type of life we have. But surely that means changes to our biosphere. So how are we to survive. Kurzweil doesn't join the environmental argument at all, but he argues that human beings are speeding up biological evolution and that we will quickly outgrow out biological origins. Hmmm. Food for thought. Not that we'll necessarily need food, as we currently know it, in the future. Enjoy. |
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| Give Me What You Got by Mark O'Connor © 2007 Rap/Experimental |
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| Just a quick bit of fun. Mostly it's the bass line that carries the day, but there's a bunch of other hooks in there, some backwards drums, a backwards vocals part, a cool little bongo part, and other odds and sods. Lyrically I often start off just goofing around then find myself saying something a little weightier once things get going. In this one it's the line "turban sprawl" that got me thinking in a certain direction (not sure it was linear). Anyway, hope you like it. |
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| The God Delusion by Mark O'Connor © 2007 Rock |
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| I'm not a religious kind of guy in the sense that I don't buy into so called sacred texts of any stripes. The world and universe are full of wonder and we have barely begun to discover all there is to discover and even less to understand all there is to understand. But petty jealous gods conjured from bronzed aged imaginations? No thanks. Pass on that. I enjoyed Richard Dawkins The God Delusion as he gave voice and shape to some ideas I'd only inadequately expressed myself, and expressed others that had never occurred to me and thus were food for thought. I figured I'd just try and express myself musically on this theme, and do it quickly, but as usual it took me longer than I anticipated. Musically, it's the coda I like the most. Enjoy. |
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| Break Out by Bill and Mark O'Connor © 2007 Rock |
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| Billy has really started to catch on to the guitar and has suddenly begun fooling around making stuff up. He played me this riff he'd come up with and some other passages that went with it. I really liked it and thought it could make a good rock stomp. I took a stab at elaborating on what he'd done and adding bells and whistles. We both really like it, and one of Bill's friends was over and get saying how "awesome" he thought it was. So now there's two 8 year olds who love it. Good enough for me. |
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| Christmas Day by Jack O'Connor © 2006 Christmas Music |
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| Jack started playing guitar last fall, teaching himself at first until we could arrange to have him take lessons from Mark Hill (and if you're out there Mark - thank-you very much!). Shortly before Christmas last year Jack played this piece of music he'd written on his acoustic guitar and I recorded it. We wanted to know if I could come up with words. I wasn't able to work on it on the spot, but sometime in January 2006 while on the road I managed to figure out a few words that followed along the guitar melody. It's rough, and we could have fixed it up a lot more, but I like it just the way it is. A Christmas memory for Jack and I - I hope you like it! |
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| My Christmas Belle by Mark O'Connor © 2006 Christmas Music |
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| I've wanted to write my own piece of Christmas music and offer this. The lyrics are written, but I couldn't passably sing them, at least not yet. If anyone would like a chance to sing it let me know. Merry Christmas to all and best wishes to you and your families in the new year! |
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| Let My Horses Run by Mark O'Connor © 2006 Alternative Country |
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| I'm actually singing a song. It ain't great singing, but it's mostly in tune, I'm able to listen to it without cringing, and it actually does the trick. Oh, and for all you country loving folks out there... sorry for straying into your pasture, pardner! |
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| Blowback by Mark and Jack O'Connor © 2006 Rock |
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| I've always intended to write lyrics for the piece of music we called Spooky Dream. Finally did it. "Iraq's been cracked/Here comes the blowback" |
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| Back To School Rock by Mark and Jack O'Connor © 2006 Rock |
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| The kids were getting ready to head back to school, and as a bit of last hurrah for summer Jack and I sat down to write a rock instrumental. This reflects the manic energy and the dueling anticipation and trepidation that infuse the days leading up to going back to school. Jack wrote the drum track and we did the bass part together. Jack's got this cool foot pedal with like a 100 effects for his electric guitar, so we tried recording a few middle Cs using various effects - I was looking for new guitar tones to work with. This is where I got the neat Stratocaster like guitar sound from. Oh, and for you Rockstar Supernova fans out there, I needed a scream, so I was able to take a snippet of a scream from a certain contestant. Mind you I changed up the sound so the voice isn't identifiable, but it's one of those bits of trivia I'll forget about unless I write it down. |
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| Spooky Dream by Mark and Jack O'Connor © 2006 Psychedelic Rock |
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| This is the first piece I ever composed, and it's also my first collaboration with Jack. Jack wrote the entire dream sequence in the second half of the song in the space of a couple of hours. I believe he'd just turned six. |
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| Depression by Jack O'Connor © 2006 Techno |
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| This is one of Jack's techno dance numbers, but what's a bit unusual is a melancholy bridge. It also features what sounds to my ears like a call and response between computers. |
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| Summer Vacation by Jack and Mark O'Connor © 2006 Carribean |
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| This is bright uptempo tune with a bouncy base and a Carribean feel. The music was co-written by Jack and myself in a single day, with us taking turns fiddling with details on day 2. |
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| Sky Dreaming by Mark O'Connor © 2006 Pop |
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| This is a lilting folksy tune with a medieval break and an exotic stringed instrument colouring the ending. Strings are used to evoke a sunny day floating down a river on a raft, pondering nothing and everything all at once. I worked long and hard on this one. There are a set of lyrics that I may get around to posting someday. If anyone's up for singing just let me know. |
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| Grunge Showdown by Jack O'Connor © 2006 Rock |
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| Jack wrote this inside of a day. A good rock tune with hooks aplenty. I love the apocalyptic title - imagine Kurt Cobain staring down Eddie Vedder at high noon! |
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| I Want My Mother Back by Billy and Mark O'Connor © 2006 Rock |
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| Billy approached me one Saturday morning and hummed me a riff he was hearing, and wanted to know if I could make it a song. After quite a bit of trial and error I finally got the tempo and rhythm of what he'd hummed to me. I embroidered the music a bit then sat down with him with this unfinished piece of music and we set out to write lyrics. The subject matter and title was Bill's, and the lyrics set out to spin the fanciful story you hear (check the lyrics page). No, his mother has never been in the hospital. I love the go for it bravery of his vocal, especially where he tracks the guitar solo! |
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| Suburban Blues by Mark O'Connor © 2006 Rap |
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| This is a musical rap song. I can't sing at all, a fact that frustrates me. Anyway, I really love Buck 65's music, and since he can't sing much he mostly raps. He's from rural Nova Scotia and his raps often tell stories that reflect his world. It ocurred to me that there's no one really writing about suburbia, where I live. So I set out to write a set of funny lyrics that quickly turned into something much edgier. I love wordplay and songs like Come Together, I Am The Walrus, and Beck's Loser really revel in that element, so I went in that direction. Suburban rap - the next big thing, man! |
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| A Dusty Stranger by Mark O'Connor © 2006 Mexican |
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| I've always loved The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly and that vein of western music. Mexican music seems closely related. My first attempt at this genre. |
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| Raine's Minuet by Mark O'Connor © 2006 Classical Lullabye |
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| I wrote this for my daughter, envisioning it as a music box piece. She likes to dance. |
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| Jazz In The Fifties by Jack O'Connor © 2006 Jazz |
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| Jack wrote this for me as a birthday gift on my 44th birthday. Jack's always had an affection for Jazz from about the time he was five. Here he combines this affection with his penchant for hooks to write a tightly structured 3 minute jazz/pop tune. It always makes me smile. I loved my birthday gift - how many Dad's get something like this from their eight year olds? |
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| Bittersweet by Mark O'Connor © 2006 Pop |
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| I imagined an man the world had badly trampled, the spirit having given so much to him only to snatch it all away in an instant. The old record he was playing - it was their favorite - has finished but is stuck - all you hear is the needle. He's passed out in a chair, but the songs have transported him back to a gentler sweeter time. |
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| On The Prowl by Jack O'Connor © 2006 Jazz/Pop |
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| Another of Jack's fun jazz/pop pieces. A tune written in the same vein by Robert Francke was entitled Calvin and Hobbes in homage to that fabulous cartoon strip. I can see Hobbes getting ready to ambush Calvin in Jack's piece as well. |
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| Jack's Lullabye by Jack O'Connor © 2006 Classical/Pop |
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| A beautiful languid lullabye. |
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| All Alone With My Sorrow by Mark O'Connor © 2006 Classical |
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| My wife plays cello, and I can play a little piano. From time to time I try to write something we can play together. |
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| Going Down and Feeling Up by Mark O'Connor© 2006 Classical Rap anyone? |
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| Here I take a piece of classical piano then start playing around with the arrangement, doing a little DJ in the middle of this little frantic piece of mischief. |
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