Hi,

My name is Amadeo, i'm a 21 year old singer/songwriter. I've been absolutely obsessed with songwriting for the past few years (and still am), and my main goal/purpose in life has been to improve my songwriting skills. I know that sounds cliche but it's the truth. Everything else is secondary to me, I eat, sleep, dream, and breath nothing else. Now I think my work is finally up to a level where I think it might be time to start aproaching record company's and/or managers etc. but I have no clue where to start. What's the next step I'm supposed to take now? Do I get a manager first, should I try submiting my material directly to a record company first, what do I do now? I'm totaly upto the whole coffee house scene, but want more then that. In the long run, I really don't see the point of playing endless gigs in little coffee houses. I want more. I want the real thing.

I've tried the whole band thing, and that hasn't worked wel for me. Pretty much every time I tried that, nobody seemed to really be able to keep up. My influences/interests (though I don't exactly sound like them) include Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and lots of artists from the whole 60's folk, folk-rock scene but not really the fluffy pop-folk. I'm not really interested in what's going on in the musci biz these days, but I think the whole lot 'em are aching for something new. I think hip hop /r&b is on it's decline if not decay, but the popular rock scene isn't doing to well either, though the record companies seem to be trying their best at creating a "scene" much like the Velvet Underground, with their White Stripes and Strokes stuff, which I think is not successfull because it's been done and it's been overdone. Although the Velvets were great, but that's because they where the real deal.

I am a strong believer of originality, anything that lacks it I am not interested in. And for me the worst thing about what's going on these days is that the lyrics don't matter sh*t anymore. Whatever happened to the Rock-Poet? I'm talking guys like Jim Morrison and Bob Dylan. The poetry of the lyrics is for me one of the most important aspects of a song. And I was into poetry way before I ever picked up the guitar, that's something I've been into since I first started reading, so yeah, it's been a while. And that's given me quite some time to develop a very keen but judgemental eye for lyrics and the poetry there of. And again, I know that sounds arogant but what the hell, it's the way I see things.

Now, i'm looking for some guidance as to what to do now. I'm ready for it, and it's taken me quite some time to be able to be able to say that. I point that same judgemental eye for lyrics and poetry on my own work and have "discarded" endless projects because of it.

I've got some home-demos for anyone thats interested, but please note that all the material is copyrighted, so song-sharks be ware. Email me if you're interested, but only if you're seriously interested and have some value to your words, i'd love hear your opinions on my work, but please note my influences, if you're into Korn or some hip hop bull, don't bother.

If you've got some helpful advice for me, I'd be more then grateful, if not, please spare me the bull. And forgive me for my arrogance.

Thanks for reading all this, and i'm really interested in what some of you have to say.

-Amadeo