ANOTHER SONG ABOUT LOVE

Hi, I'm Janie Conway Herron and I'm seeking funding to assist in the production of a novel and collection of songs titled, Another Song About Love. The novel and  songs are designed to compliment one another, while each can also be enjoyed as a stand alone work.

The three video clips below have been chosen fro  the 15 songs that make up the project. They're called, The Ocean In me, Life Goes On and Stoned. Each song corresponds with a chapter in the novel. While not telling the story directly the lyrics represent a central theme of the chapter of the same name. 

The Ocean in Me was filmed by my husband and good buddy Peter Herron at Evans Head, a beach close to where we live. Lillie's love of the ocean is a recurring theme throughout the novel. The song has the same name as the 2nd chapter in the novel which describes the main character Lillie Bloom's love of the ocean and how moving away marks a loss of innocence for her. The ocean is also symbolic of the connections between us all.    

Life Goes On started out as a folk song that I wrote and sang around the folk clubs in my early twenties. When my son Tamlin and I recorded it last year we turned it into a ska song – a vast improvement I must say and a lot of fun to play. With Billie McArthy and Tamlin on backing vocals, Jess Ciampa on Percussion and Stuart Vandergraff on Saxophones things really started cooking. I think it's an appropriate song for these difficult times when we don't know what's happening next. Peter  and I made the clip at home and on walks not too far away from where we live while in lockdown in Lismore in northern NSW.

Stoned is a song with a harder edge than the other two. It's one of the few songs where the lyrics correspond directly with the narrative in the novel. Co-written with my son Tamlin and featuring my brother Jim, the three of us recorded this song together at Zen Studios. It's another video that husband Pete and I shot during the Covid 19 lockdown, so our resources were limited. I went looking for old photos of Jim in lieu of filming him playing. The result is a nice tribute to the three of us but especially to my talented and beautiful brother Jim.

About Me

As a novelist, poet, musician and songwriter I come from a well-known musical family.  My brothers Mic and Jim Conway and I were all part of that heady Australian artistic scene of 1970s and 80s and beyond, performing in numerous bands in inner city Melbourne and Sydney as well as touring nationally. 

Playing music and songwriting has been an exciting and rewarding part of my life but following a calling to focus on study, I graduated with BA and Masters degrees from the University of Technology Sydney, before going on to obtain a doctorate in Creative Writing from Western Sydney University. For the next fifteen years,  I taught and mentored students while coordinating the Creative Writing Program at Southern Cross University, in northern rivers NSW,  before retiring to concentrate on my own creative writing.

About the Novel

 I started out writing a novel based on my experiences playing in bands and being part of that burgeoning music scene of 1980s Melbourne. The novel is a fictional memoir that opens when Lillie Bloom and her friends, Wendy and Anna, form a rock band. It’s a time when roles for women are undergoing great change and ideals of romantic love and the nuclear family are being challenged.

 Determined to find success, Lillie juggles her music career, her love life and being a mother to her son, Jesse. As the wheels of the music industry churn through her life, the love of friends and family, and especially her son Jesse, helps Lillie survive a difficult journey through sex, drugs and rock and roll. With the sexism of the global entertainment industry being questioned once again, and the #MeToo movement gaining international traction, Lillie Bloom’s grit and determination in Another Song About Love is a timely testament to the strength and resilience women have needed in order to succeed in the music industry.

More About the Songs

In the beginning, I used well-known songs from the 1980s as chapter titles for the novel. Then, in a moment of inspiration, I wondered if my own songs would be suitable chapter titles. Of course they were. That led to the idea of recording the songs as well writing the novel and so the project expanded into a book and a collection of songs.  While working on drafts of the novel, I began recording  the songs, at Zen studios in Sydney. Accompanied by a group of fabulous studio musicians, my son Tamlin Tregonning -a talented musician and record producer himself  – produced and played on all the songs with me. Now the novel and the collection of songs are almost ready for publication but we need your help with the final stages of production. 

Timeline

The recording is in the final stages of mixing. The book has had its final edit and the artwork and design of the book and CD are complete. We are aiming to raise money to complete the mixing and mastering of the 15 songs plus the initial production of CDs and books in time to launch in June. This is how we hope to achieve this:

• Complete the mixing and mastering by late April.
• Production of CDs & books in May
• Launch in June 

Another Song About Love brings my creative worlds –music and writing­– together for the first time. I'd be so grateful for your assistance in bringing the project out into the world.

All the very best, Janie

Budget

Completing Mix of 15 songs $1,500

Mastering of music $3000

CD & Download Production $1,200

Book Production

(200 paperback +100 Hardback books) $4,250

Miscellaneous $50.00

Total $10,000

Stretch Target

If we manage to go beyond our original target of $10,000 I would love to produce an audio book of the novel and pay someone to assist me in organising marketing and publicity for the project, including a fabulous launch in Sydney where I get to perform all the songs with the musicians I recorded with. Now that would be fun!