Ingvi Thor Kormaksson‘s I Remember My Father Review By Roy Elkins.
This is song you are going to listen to and probably won’t sing along with it as the lyrics are so good you don’t want to be distracted. It’s a touching song sung from the perspective of a son reflecting on his father’s life as a deep sea fisherman. If you close your eyes, you will see it unfolding before you as the writer creates brilliant imagery in this song. I love the tale and it is the perfect traditional folk song. Congratulations! Roy Elkins
Ingvi Thor Kormaksson
I Remember My Father by Ingvi Thor Kormaksson
The first time through, I didn’t connect with the vocal and thought a different singer would do a better job. I am not saying a better singer, just a different voice. After listening several times through, I “believe” this singer and the story becomes more “convincing” each time I listen.
Intro is really long and could be a piece of music unto itself. If it was my song, I would probably cut it. Even though It is well played and nice to listen to, the lyric doesn’t start until 52 seconds. Because of this and the overall length, it probably wouldn’t get radio play. One other note about the length. It is 5:13, which in today’s world is way too long. If it was my song, I would leave this as is and create another version without the intro which would bring the song to around 4:20. Then I might revisit verses 2, 3 & 4 and see if I could combine them into two verses instead of three. I would also visit verses 5 & 6 and see if I could make one verse out of them. I worked on this a little at my desk and I think it’s doable without losing the story. Certainly the detail is compressed, but I think you can do this and not lose the essence of the story. If the writer decides to do this, I think he/she will have a better opportunity at placement in folk radio.
I mentioned this in a previous review that sometimes it is harder to mix two instruments than a full band. That may be the case here. Maybe a good mastering job is all this needs, but I don’t believe the sound is quite “broadcast” ready yet and needs more time behind the board. I would experiment with many different eq’ing and mixes on this as it will take the song to a much different place. Possibly some slight compression (usually not recommended) on the overall mix. The moment the producer finds the right mix & eq, it will be memorable.
Ingvi Thor Kormaksson
In summary, I love the piece and would only modify the lyrics to create a shorter, more radio friendly version. I recommend losing or significantly shortening the intro and spend some time experimenting with different eq’s and mixes. Ingvi Thor Kormaksson is a good songwriter.
Hope this helps.
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Hi Roy. Thanks for this fine review. You’re so right in saying that the song would have benefitted from some editing. I live in Iceland, but lyricist, JJ Soul, lives in Oxford, England. The performer, Pete Josh (whom I’ve never met), must have learned the song from JJ, and performed this version in clubs in and around Oxford. Then he probably recorded it in his home or at a friend’s home studio. When JJ sent me the song, not long ago, I had almost forgotten that we had written it together.
Ingvi, Just a little tweaking is all it needs to shorten it up a little. Great work! Roy
Strange! Now, many years later I was for the first time in contact with the performer, Pete Josh. I’d thought that I had helped the lyricist, JJ Soul, write the music, but Pete told me he had actually composed the music to JJ’s lyrics at the time. I believe that’s the truth. The song bears Pete’ style much more than mine, if you compare it to other songs he’s written. I’m just writing this here to make this clear should the song eventually be published.
Pete’s album: https://heatherninessandpetejoshua.bandcamp.com/album/river-and-road
Recently I had a chat with Pete Josh, the performer of “I Remember My Father”. It turned out that he wrote the music to JJ Soul’s lyrics. When JJ showed me those lyrics, and sung this tune to me, he didn’t remember it well, so I helped him along, or so I thought. In fact I just helped him remembering Pete’s composition. Some months later JJ sent me this recording of Pete’s, but didn’t mention that Pete had actually written the music, so I thought that JJ was the author with some help from me. But now this is in the clear, and of course the tune bears Pete Josh’s style of songwriting much more than ours (JJ’s and mine)
Pete’s album: https://heatherninessandpetejoshua.bandcamp.com/album/river-and-road