Diving Back In - Can't Get Enough (The Gospel Version)

I havent been super great about keeping things updated on, well, pretty much everything lol. I think I needed to let my youtube channel and my website just breathe for a bit. But I'm back and planning a whole new slew of videos and content! Today I wanted to share the alternative version of my song, Cant Get Enough. I had a TON of fun with this and I hope you genuinely enjoy it!!!

Always For Me

Pandora

I am excited to announce that my single, What You Do To My Heart, will be included in the Pandora rotation!  Things have not gone live yet but will be soon!  Thanks for all your support yall and keep on listening!!!

What You Do To My Heart

So I do this thing where I go back and listen to a bunch of my old songs, pouring over each one, borderline obsessively.  I don't do this because I'm in love with myself (Kanye. DOWN BOY.) but because my creative mind is almost always hearing new things each time I listen to the tune.  New ideas form, or old ones get cut.  It's truly one of my favorite parts of the creative process!
Anyway,
I wrote this a while back and released it as a single.  I hope you enjoy it!

Perspective: Creative Greatness

What does it really take to be a great songwriter?  Not just a good one, but a GREAT one.  I don't think the answer is the same for every songwriter.  Each of us has our own unique sounds and lyrical ideas, so it would be impossible for all of us to share the same idea of "greatness".  And let me be clear about the term "greatness".  I'm not looking at this through a "I wanna be gloriously famous and in the lime light for all of eternity" lens.  Greatness is not always seen by the public eye.
For me, being a great songwriter means looking through the eyes of someone else.  It means empathizing with what they might be feeling in their circumstances.  If it's pain, trying to understand it, crafting those emotions in to lyrics.  If it's joy, grabbing on to that, forming it in to a melody.

Much of the time we can become locked in to our own life experiences.  We forget that there is an entire world of creative inspiration right in front of us just waiting to be tapped in to.  So plug in!  Create a story line in your head, maybe even write it out, and then try to transfer it in to a song.  Use your creative muscles to break out of your usual box and try something different.

Here is a song I wrote back in 2009.  While the song sounds as though I'm singing from my own perspective, I actually wrote it with a dear friend in mind.  They were in the midst of a battle with their self image and the truth of who God created them to be.  I walked with them as a support beam, but it was hard to see them experiencing so much pain.  I imagined myself in their shoes, and composed this song.  Fast forward to today and I've found that this song rings truer now in my own heart than when I originally wrote it.

Zach Trandum Presents: I'm So In Love With You

Just a couple years ago I composed this little ditty.  Coffee in hand, surrounded by the walls of our cozy little apartment, my 12 year old Mac working it's tail of to do pretty much anything.  This isn't even close to a finished product, but I came across it in my archives fairly recently and fell in love with the song all over again.

You and I: An Original Song by Zach Trandum (Featuring Sarah Trandum)

I have some pretty amazing people in my life.  God has richly blessed me with family and friends that have loved me enough to not only walk with me and rejoice in the good times, but to call me on my crap in the tougher times.  The single greatest, most amazing (and super hot) person in my life is my incredible wife, Sarah.  When I step back and look at the gift God gave me in her I am, quite literally, speechless.  And that's saying a lot because I like words lol.  This girl sharpens me, encourages me, challenges me, recharges me, along with so many other things.  And to top it off, just when I thought things couldn't get any better, she gave me a daughter.  Did I mention she's smoke'n hot? Cuz yeah, she is.  BONUS!!!!
Back in 2009, right when Sarah and I started dating, I was the worship pastor of a small church in Mount Vernon Washington.  Sarah would drive more than 2 hours to come visit me.  On one particular afternoon I was in the church neck deep in a songwriting session.  When she arrived I was getting ready to lay down a scratch track for my records.  Knowing that she's had quite a bit of musical experience and training herself, I asked Sarah to sing with me on the tune.  It took her all of 2 minutes to latch on to the melody, find the harmonies, and remember the lyrics.  I've been doing music for a long time and I still cant pick things up as fast as she does (kinda drives me nuts lol).
Well kids, this is the recording we did that day.  Nothing special at all about the production.  Its just the two of us singing live, worshiping God.  I sincerely hope you enjoy the tune!

A Lounge Called Leopard

Back in 2009 I was blessed with an incredible opportunity.  I had been on the hunt for a fun songwriting competition to take part in and came across Facebook Idol, which was sponsored by Sweatshop Studios.  I submitted one of my tunes and pretty much forgot about it for a while.  With online competitions I had, at that point, pretty much decided that most of them were a load of junk.

Well I soon found out that I had made it in to the top 15 of the contestants.  To make a long story short, while I didn't win the competition I was contacted by Sweatshop and offered a contract.
In a matter of months I found myself behind the mic in Katona, New York, at the incredible facilities of Sweatshop Studios, recording my own songs.  It was a dream come true.

After spending an amazing eternity in studio, we ventured out to a venue on the east side of NYC called the Sinsin Leopard Lounge (no, I don't know who named the place).  I was honored to perform there for a packed house alongside a couple of the other Facebook Idol finalists.  Such an amazing evening that was!!!

Here is a little snip from the trip.  The song you'll here I actually ended up re-writing with gospel lyrics, but i still like going back and listening to the old version every now and then.  This is "Cut Down" live in New York City.

In Their Shoes: the Hurricane Demo

I'm re-posting this today because I truly am excited about it.
I believe that the ability to imagine oneself in the shoes of another, writing from that perspective, is a gift that can make you an incredible force to be reckoned with in the music industry.  To empathize with the person you're picturing, what they're feeling, emoting that in to your music and lyrics.  It's one of my greatest challenges but also one of the most rewarding.

I wrote "Hurricane" in this manner.  I've had only a small handful of relationships, leading up to meeting my incredible wife, Sarah, and none of those were anything like what the song describes.  Because of this I had to sit back, close my eyes, and imagine what a man in those shoes may be feeling.  I actually would listen to other songs that talked about similar subject matter, and even tuned in to some movie clips that showed the pain and frustration of a failing relationship.

All of that to say that I am excited about the tune and will, at some point in the near future, be releasing an official version.  This current recording is a demo for all y'all to sample (is it weird for a guy born and raised in Washington state to use "y'all?)

Nothing Can Cut Me Down (LIVED)

If you missed the show on 2.27, here is a little taste of the musical fun we had.

February 27th Will be Soulful

The Daily Tune: NYC

Today's tune is brought to you by yours truly.

This is a little ditty I wrote years ago after an amazing trip to New York City for the IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) Conference.
While I was there, I instantly fell in love with the incredible city and all the history and culture it's literally jam packed full of.
After a good 48 hours of no sleep, I finally brought all engines to full stop, only to start feeling the creative itch kick in.  So with my feet kicked up in the window of our hotel, near Times Square, I put pen to paper an crafted this song.

This is a very special tune to me and pays homage to one of the greatest songwriters who's ever graced a stage anywhere.  Billy Joel.
While the song itself sounds nothing like his mega hit, you will catch a little snip of my 'ode to Joel' in the chorus.

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A Haiku For You

The box is full of letters

O how sweet the dairy is

One letter on my spoon.

*jazz snaps*

I'm So In Love With You (Acoustic rough draft)

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"Lush"

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Elevated

Sometimes songs dont need to have huge lyrical substance to be fun or even considered good songs.  My hope is that this song actually does fall under the "good" category at least, though I would love it to be "great".
I recorded this live at a church I was a part of back in 2009.  I plan on bringing this little ditty back, revamped, and better than ever in the near future.  For now please enjoy the live version of "Elevated".

Acapella is my heart

I was raised in a home where music was held at very high value.  My dad has experience running sound and developed a rather large and eclectic mix of everything from Boston, to Hank Williams, to Steely Dan, to Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass.  I don't think it's ever been possible to nail down my dads favorite because he has WAY to many!
My mom got me hooked, and I mean HOOKED, addicted, completely head over heals in love with Jazz.  She got me started with groups like Manhattan Transfer, and Take Six, and I gradually dipped in to the seemingly bottomless well of big bands.  Pretty soon my disc man (yes, I still remember the old thing.  Used to skip if you looked at it wrong) was spinning CD's packed with music from the Count Basie Orchestra, Harry Connick Jr, John Pizzarelli, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich, and countless others.  But, while I loved and absolutely craved that stuff, there was just something about the human voice and the things it could do that pulled me in more than anything else.
I found myself soaking in and mimicking artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Kurt Elling, and Mark Murphy.  Soaking in and listening to every inflection, every consonant, every quote in every shade of any color they chose.  Then I dove in to the incredible, and masterful stylings of Bobby McFerrin.  He used his voice in ways I had never heard before and had explored the farthest reaches of his instrument.  He had gained an understanding of how the human voice could be manipulated, stretched, shaped, colored, painted, and however else you want to describe it.  McFerrin is simply one of the most, if not the most, gifted and skilled artists on the planet.  And don't argue with me because I'll just slap you in the mouth with my old disk man.

With all of that said,
The human voice, Acapella music, anything that truly showcases what the vocal chords can do.  THAT is what truly excites me.
So here's a little song I wrote... (Pun completely intended.)

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I totes did this song one time, on video, for that show with the germaphobic bald guy

So I did an audition video a number of years back for America's Got Talent.  I love how the video turned out, but never actually got around to submitting the video. *virtual facepalm*

This is an original song that I actually got to record during my time with Sweatshop Studios, but never officially released the tune in the end.  I do plan on revamping this in the near future, but for now please enjoy the remnant of "Sanctuary".

A Re-refreshing

I believe I've already shared this song in a previous post, but I felt like sharing it again.
Sometimes it's good to go back and let certain things refresh you.  Today, this song is exactly that.  Yeah, I am that guy that goes back and listens to his own stuff over and over again, sometimes obsessively.  Today is a little different though because I wasn't listening with the intention of changing anything.  I was instead settling back in to the memory of the moment I sat down for what was supposed to be just another songwriting session but morphed in to an intimate time of worship.
As I sat here on my lunch break, letting the sounds pour over my ears again, God began to whisper away thoughts that I've given way to much authority to.  He was refreshing me all over again.

My prayer is that this song serves as a refresher for you as well.  I cross my heart, and promise to record a high quality version for you later.  Right now, you'll just have to put up with fairly decent iPhone mic quality.

Zach Trandum sings with Groove For Thought

I have been SO blessed to have shared the stage with my friends in Groove For Thought. These guys can SANG. Here's a little video of me performing a vocal improv solo with the group.
Zach Trandum and Groove For Though from Zach Trandum Music on Myspace.