Pink Floyd and Queen took years to record their albums. The Beatles on the other hand took a few weeks to record their early albums, but still mostly only released one album per year. But an Australian songwriter has launched a bold mission to record and release the equivalent of 5 albums in one year. To be more precise, he’s releasing 52 songs in 2024 alone. That’s one song every week, every Sunday morning, at 7am (AEST) to be precise!
Stevie J Mayer is the prolific songwriter who has embarked on this task and so far (at the time of writing) he is up to song release number 22. It’s important to understand though, that these are not new songs. He is not writing a new song each week, they are already written. He is recording and releasing the songs that have sat dormant in his head for the past 30 years.
But while they are not new songs to him, they are to everyone else. And on hearing a few of them, you’d be hard pressed not to think that somehow, somewhere, you’ve heard this material before. That’s not because they are unoriginal, but because he has honed his craft and learned from the best in the business how to write memorable songs.
For example, have a listen to the rousing country rock styled Movin’ On and think about which iconic Australian band could have easily slotted this into their set list and no one would have suspected it wasn’t written by the band? Hint; they’re not warm and they’re used to crack things open.
Then have a listen to the epic rock power ballad Communication. Surely this is some hit from the 1970’s that I’d forgotten about?
And on and on it goes.. The haunting piano ballad Day In Day Out could have been a lost Billy Joel number.
The slow seething guitar groove of One Woman Man. Surely Eric Clapton must have recorded this one?
To add to this achievement, he usually plays every instrument (7 of them) himself. Then records and releases them, again.. by himself. In his own words; he just got tired of waiting for someone to take notice and help him with the recording and publishing process. So now, he quite literally, does everything himself.
Though he is open to collaboration when those heavy industry doors finally open. Which they surely must for this hardworking songwriter. It’s only a matter of when.
So here we are only 2 months into 2024 and these classic old songs are rolling out each week like clockwork. It’s going to be a great ride and now my weeks are spent in anticipation of what’s coming next Sunday morning… at 7am!
Be sure to sign up to his mailing list if you want to hop on board this Stevie J Mayer songwriting bonanza!