RuderanP

My music journey began when I was at University, where I started to play the piano. For many years, I only wrote Instrumentals, for piano and later for guitar. I was writing poetry at the same time and a light-bulb moment  occurred in that little brain of mine when I thought ‘why not do both together? Songs!’

No doubt due to my literary education,  I always try to write lyrics as poetry, so that they will hold up by themselves.

What kind of songs do I write? I write songs that I think sit somewhere between melancholy and light. My music is sparse, atmospheric, and quietly emotional. I was born and raised in the UK, I live in France and my wife is Chinese, so I move freely between cultures and languages, writing in English, French, and occasionally Chinese, letting each song choose its own voice, its own genre : this is what I believe gives my songs such a diversified aspect. I pay particular attention to lyrics because, in my mind, they are the most important part of any song. For me, they invite the music to take shape, to become not just an accompaniment but an integral part of the song : the lyrics can stand alone, and I believe the music can stand alone too.

What do I write about? A lot of my songs are autobiographical, and I will admit that I’ve used that outlet almost as a kind of therapy, to get a lot of experiences out of my system. I also write about difficult subjects : battered women, refugees, child porn, pedophelia, climate change. I find it necessary to write about such subjects because I feel there is a need to give a voice to those who suffer any kind of injustice - and this sense of injustice is the underlying theme of my work.

I’ve written the following albums :

Flotsam and Jetsam :  a collection of bric à brac songs

Standing Ponds Of Stinking Waters :  a collection of largely autobiographical songs      

Poor Genius : after reading several biographies on Mozart, I decided to pay tribute to those geniuses  who died either totally unknown or in poverty (very often, both). These geniuses come from all domains, not just the artistic

Origins :  this is another collection of bric à brac songs, like Flotsam, only more modern

I’ve also written instrumentals that I haven’t put into albums yet : I’ll have to get to it very soon.

After decades of composing privately, I am now releasing my archive of work, inviting listeners into a world shaped by memory, introspection, and understated beauty. Well, at least I hope so! 

When you buy an album of songs, you will receive a booklet of the lyrics with the music.

Finally, I’d like to add that my songs are hybrid, which means they are generated partly by a human being (me) and partly by AI. There is no guide on how to use AI in music, only people’s opinions. I follow this main principle : am I being deceptive in using AI? I can answer ‘no’, because here I am telling you about it. AI is a vast subject of great speculation, too vast to sum up in a profile. But you can’t say that I didn’t tell you. In fact, on this site you will find in the Blog page a post dedicated solely to this debate.