Barry Upton was welcomed back for another Words and Music session at the Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC) meeting on Wednesday, July 13. He is a successful hit songwriter, arranger, musician and producer of many different forms of popular music. He has his own “Behind the Music” weekday show on Pattaya’s 96 FM radio and is well known for his appearances at many venues in Pattaya.
Barry began by entertaining his audience with a Beatles favorite, “Here Comes the Sun” as part of the “Music” portion than proceeded to say how the Pandemic shut down was an opportune time as he needed a break from his many shows. Even so, he continued with his radio show and used the time to work on new ideas for songs, albums, and music videos.
He explained how he came up with the album name “Hormones of Happiness” featuring 60’s style music during the first shutdown. During the second shutdown, he came up with the idea of creating videos with him singing at a tropical café as pretty girls in bikinis walked by. He couldn’t find the “right” café in the Pattaya area, but in viewing some travelogue websites he found it. It was on Koh Lipe, not easy to get to, but perfect for what he wanted. Thus, creating his music videos for “Barry’s Tropical Café”.
He also mentioned that among his many activities, songwriting is his favorite. Further, that although songwriters have different methods, his method is to start with a title and then develop the music and lyrics. He mentioned that he noted the number of people that look at their mobile phones which gave him a title, “Stop Staring at Your Phone” then created the music and lyrics. He then performed the song for his PCEC audience. Likewise, another example was at that the Oscar Awards in Hollywood were delayed because of the Covid outbreak which inspired another title and song, “This Oscar Goes to You”.
Why offer your music for free on YouTube he said one might ask? But in today’s music environment, that is something you need to do so that your songs will get you exposure. This then leads to being contacted by movie makers and others for permission to use your music. Currently, in addition to his tropical café videos, he has created a new YouTube channel called Fab Baz Pop Music TV to feature his songs.
Upon conclusion of Barry’s presentation, MC Ren Lexander brought everyone up to date on the latest events. This was followed Brian Maxey conducting the Open Forum where attendees can make comments or ask questions about Expat living in Thailand, especially Pattaya. For more information about the PCEC, visit their website at https://pcec.club. Visit the PCEC’s YouTube channel for a video of the presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrE173o6Zpo. For his website, visit http://barryupton.com/.
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