About Me

About Us

SONGWRITING IN THE 80’S, 90’S AND BEYOND

I began writing in the 80’s, focusing on keyboard-based synth pop with electronic drums. Then came the country phase, centered on the lyrics and the story (This required learning guitar as well). I graduated from little home cassette-based four-channel decks to MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) in the early nineties. Why? Because that’s what all the songwriters were doing. MIDI was great, except it required a whole lotta equipment with twice the wires to the point of the ridiculous. For a while, the thing was programming the drums and bass and hauling all your gear into a small studio, dumping what you had onto their system and doing the vocals, guitar, and mixdown there. The whole idea was to create a thrilling, if imperfect “demo” that would catch someone’s attention.

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The digital “workstation” machines that arrived in the nineties promised to cut down on a lot of cords and noise and expense, while delivering way more channels and extra editing options. Of course, by that time, the concept of a “demo” tape that would be sold to an artist or publisher was quickly being replaced by people simply making their own CD albums—from start to finish—right at home. And the bar had been raised: it was now expected that the product would be a “CD quality” or “broadcast quality” arrangement and performance, ready to distribute.

In the 2000’s, the big publishing and record companies began to lose their grip on the music world. Artists had more options, like promoting their music themselves, and many chose to step back from the frenzy of “what’s currently hot” and simply write from their heart (Or try something totally crazy.) The number or groups releasing albums each year increased, as did the number of genres and sub-genres. I discovered the humble ukulele, first the baritone, then the tenor and bass. I sold a few CD’s through a company called CD Baby, and this was when many of the songs on what I now call “I’d Rather Be Rich” were made.

To gather songs from three laptops, a desktop, a cassette deck, a “mini disc” recorder, and a big brown bag full of CD’s has been quite a task. As has trying to re-mix and arrange them into two representative albums. It was hard to toss the many songs that showed promise, but might possibly cause controversy in today’s environment of political correctness. What else? Oh yes. There were some years of choral music composing and recording, and also some pretty good pop videos produced. These may show up on the web site in the future. But for now, this is it. I hope you can gain some enjoyment from these tunes.

—Peter Willard, a.k.a. Peter W. Nelson, Ukulele Pete, Peter LaPont, Petey and the White Girl, etc.