Flying Solo with SUNO

Twenty Years of Songs Finally Leaving the Nest

Here’s one of the first experiments that made me realize these songs might finally take flight.

WE’RE THROUGH by Lisa Verlo (featuring Violet Blues)

When one door closes another opens.

Well, Alexander Graham Bell was on to more than just telephones. His famous announcement is certainly proving to be true when it comes to my musical journey. Sayonara Frank. Hello SUNO. I’m not saying that such a stellar musician as Frank Simes can be replaced in any way, shape, or form by AI. There is no substitution for the amazing zone Frank gets into when he plays guitar, or the incredible connection he has to the universe of music. But, after a 20 year collaboration on songs and musicals that rarely saw the light of day or any airplay guiding them from our hearts to your ears, I have been gently nudged by the universe to find other ways of producing my music.

Enter SUNO. My longtime friend, Richard, sent me a message around Valentines Day alerting me to all the possibilities of checking out the amazing app. I was busy with all the complications that arise when two decades of creative entanglement come apart. I took a quick glance at the message with the intention of returning to it. The next weekend another friend sent me a text message with a creation she had made on SUNO. When that name came up once again, because sometimes the universe decides subtlety isn’t working and hits you over the head with inspiration, I finally gave it a proper measure of my attention. Wow! Everything I could never imagine would ever be possible was now at my fingertips. The form that magic now takes in the world of apps is astounding. SUNO it is. Apparently the songs just needed a runway.

I started experimenting right away. I had written some new lyrics recently, in my effort to turn heartache into art and creative expression, so I entered them in as an experiment. I gave a few musical directions as to styles, instrumentation, and any other words chosen to help guide the outcome of the mix. Boom! In less than 30 seconds I had a fully produced song. Unreal really, but so exciting as my mind started to tally the possibilities. I signed up for the premier package. I had a lot of songs to produce. Two weeks and a couple hundred mixes later (mixes, not songs) I’m reveling in what is suddenly possible. For years I felt my music career slipping away because I couldn’t accompany myself on an instrument or record and engineer my own songs. I had always relied on other musicians to help bring my musical creations into existence, live, on mp3s, or on wave files of any kind.

I knew how to write a song. My head was full of them. Getting them out was the challenging part. The lyrics sort of spilled out without much effort. All I had to do was put pen to paper and most of the words fell into formation well enough. A little nudging here, a little organizing and rearranging there, and voila, a verse, a chorus, and sometimes even a little bridge showed up on the journey. It was kind of like a puzzle, all the pieces were there, I just had to make sense of them... or not. Sometimes nonsense was the more poetic approach. The words, the chosen words, strong enough in their sentiment, were sometimes at war with each other and struck just enough of a chord of dissonance that the appropriate emotion resonated all on its own. As for the melodies, the chords and arrangements, well, they were all in there too. I could sing them all right. I might have a spontaneous symphony erupt at any given time throughout the course of the day. Oddly enough, they tended to erupt, more often than not, while stuck in traffic or on a long road trip. I took to carrying a small mini cassette recorder with me, way before the days of having every single electronic device known to man, represented as an app, and ready to be engaged at the push of a simulated button on a cyber appendage now known as an iPhone or Android. I still have sound files of melodies and song ideas stored away on old devices. The means of unlimited expression has been released. Now, to translate this creative content into song, musical, album, book, film, operetta, libretto, spoken word, poetry, slam, dance, slam dance, rap, revival. Holy crap, the possibilities are endless.

When I first met Frank he had been touring with Stevie Nicks and Don Henley. When not on tour, he had been composing music for Paramount Studios and another music house that helped place his compositions in commercials and on TV and Film. The girlfriend who introduced us would rave about the classical pieces he would compose while touring as a sideman on guitar with some of the top legends of all time. He had played with Mick Jagger on his Wandering Spirit album, and would soon be touring with Roger Daltrey and then The Who. When my girlfriend suggest I have Frank play on the latest song I was producing at 4th street Studio in Santa Monica, I was thrilled that he took an interest. He ended up bringing in a drummer friend of his, Stevie D, to add some drum tracks. When we finally finished the song, HIGH INSIDE, a year later, due to scheduling conflicts, break ups, and day to day life dragging out the creative process, Frank asked me if I had any more songs I’d like to record. And that is how that door opened to us not only collaborating on an actual human being, but writing lots more songs and even a musical with the now premonitory title, THE DOOR.

We were prolific writing and producing songs. We even wrote a whole Children’s Album, TURNER’S TREEHOUSE, in which the namesake even came up with one of the songs, HAPPY DAY! They are all on Apple Music and Spotify, you can hear them there. They were never properly monetized, though, which is part of the story of our life and, in my mind, lead to the dissolution of our relationship. Both being creative types, neither of us took up the business reigns in order to get our creations out into the world. Each thought the other would do it for them, and here we are, still trying to make a musical buck. Frank always had his gigs, but after his Paramount contact left, and his other connection met an even more misfortunate end, Frank was at a loss on how to get his (and our) compositions into the right hands. It was all connections, and even though I had gotten a few songs in films myself, he was the one with all the connections. When touring pretty much stopped because of Covid, revenue was a serious issue in the house.

At this point I have to take full responsibility for not having done everything I can to get our music out there. I had listed my album HOME on CD baby, as well as TURNER’S TREEHOUSE, and I had registered some songs on Distrokid and even put some up on Songtradr with hopes of some kind of monetization with those avenues. But between raising a kid, writing more musicals, performing musicals as solo shows, writing scripts and screenplays, and trying to help Frank get his Big Strum ideas off the ground which entailed helping him develop a show and then making endless pitch decks to help promote it, our music got a little lost.

We wrote the song, GONE, quite a while ago, clearly an indication that we were not on the same page anymore. Frank had written the music when I brought the lyrics to him one day, an admission that all was not right with our alliance. He recorded some amazing vocals but when I insisted it was a duet, the song just sat there… for years.

This is Frank’s amazing and emotional performance.

But, with SUNO’s help, I finally produced the version I had been hearing in my head all along. This version is not released yet so you are getting a preview, but also an astonishing example of what SUNO can do.

Reinspired, empowered, and ready to take on the business end of things the best I can, I am starting a new project with the help of SUNO to explore producing and releasing songs I’ve held in my heart for so long. I am using AI vocals for now, so it is not my voice you hear in the recording. I am releasing the songs I am producing with SUNO under the artist/band name Violet Blues. Unapologetic for the need to rely on AI at this point, I am just grateful to have help realizing not only my dreams, but the talent I have for songwriting. I would love to record them live if the opportunity comes up. Better yet, perform them live with a band. But until I get that act together, I’ll be uploading them here for your listening pleasure and for the education we all get by sharing the messy, sometimes heartbreaking, but equally beautiful process of writing and producing a song.

Twenty years of writing together leaves a long trail of melodies, memories, and unfinished business. Some doors close quietly, others slam. Either way, the songs remain. Thanks to a little help from the universe and a surprising new tool, they’re finally ready to fly.