Vreny’s Music, Songs and Compositions
Midnight in Brussels
I wrote Midnight in Brussels in January 2018. I’m particularly fond of this song because I really like its sound, harmony colors and drive. But for the longest time — YEARS — I was stuck with the first 8 bars of music, not knowing where to go from there. It tooks years for this song to develop and come to a conclusion. It was worth the wait: I REALLY like this song.
In the next couple of weeks I’m going to rerecord it at about 20bpm slower. I think the sexiness of the chords will come out better when given more space and time to shine.
Childhood Nostalgia
I wrote this song on on January 28th 2023. It reminds me of the idyllic, lovely childhood I had growing up in a rural, peaceful village Dikkebus.
Elegy for Mom
This one’s for you mom, I love you and I miss you very much. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of you or of how unbelievably lucky I was to be born from YOUR womb. You have always been the best mom ever. I know that if you had been alive today to hear this song, you would have LOVED this song.
Gorgeous
This song came to me on 7/25/2024 while I was relearning how to play some of my old songs. As is often the case, the song practically wrote itself and before I knew it I had it all recorded and done. It’s called “Gorgeous” because I could not help but feel that the melody was inspired by all the beauty around me — my wife, my son, our yard, my family, my Suhr guitar, our lovely home, this melody… I have a lot to be thankful for.
Can’t Believe You’re Gone John
2024 started with a lot of sadness and heartache for me. I lost 2 special friends who had been important in my life literally on back-to-back days only a couple of days into January. I wrote this song the day after — dedicated to my friend John Bollenberg.
Present
Losing 2 close friends on consecutive days one after another does something to you. It reminds you of what is important in life and puts things into perspective. I wrote “Present” on January 27th 2024. There is no time like the present moment. Be present, this present moment, and every moment becomes a present given to you for free. I dedicate this song to my friend Jacques Merlevede, who is dearly missed.
New Year’s Eve 2023
While fireworks were going off outside, and the whole world was celebrating the transition from 2023 to 2024, I was in my studio having fun with a couple of music ideas that came to me, and that turned into this little composition. I aptly titled it New Year’s Eve 2023.
No One Can Fault Me
This is my ultimate love-song, serenading the love of my life — beautiful lovely wife — Tiannah York Van Elslande. The song tells the story of how I IMMEDIATELY KNEW beyond a shadow of a doubt within merely seconds of meeting Tiannah, that she was “THE ONE.”
It wasn’t a physical thing, I wasn’t in love, it wasn’t infatuation or physical attraction… it was purely the joy and peace of being around her personality. Five weeks later into our relationship, which pretty much started on the day of our first meeting, I fell in love, and have been ever since. It’s astonishingly perfect love.
Satisfaction (Lots Of It)
I found this melody and harmonic progression so soothing and satisfying, I had to title the song “Satisfaction.” I wrote it right after writing the song “Present” on January 27th 2024
Re(ve)lations (Song for Kimm Parker)
I wrote this song a couple of days (6/25/23) after an eye-opening session where my friend Kimm Parker, who had a successful career as a therapist and psychologist, gave me a taste of her skills. I call Kimm “my friend who knows me better than I know myself.”
Kimm gave me eye-opening revelations by pointing out certain relations between things in my past and personality, and in how I relate to the world. Speaking of relations, both Kimm’s and my name (initials VE for Van Elslande) are in the title.
Here I’m playing the rhythm guitar part
Pep Guardiola Magic in Manchester
I wrote this song overtaken by emotion when my all-time favorite football coach Pep Guardiola led my favorite team to win the European Championship, and later the treble: European Champions League, Premier League Champion and FA Cup Champion.
“Pep Guardiola Magic in Manchester” is my tribute to my favorite football coach. It has the flamenco-flavored hand clap rhythm to infuse some Catalan influence.
The song actually doesn’t have a verse. Both song parts individually sound like choruses, which is what gives the song the exhilarating energy, drive, and excitement that is descriptive of a Manchester City game and of Pep’s Catalan fiery passion.
Another oddity: the 2nd part consists of 5-bar phrases and an 11-bar phrase, which signifies the completely unpredictable nature of football and the vastly divergent personalities which under Pep’s superb management blend together into this cohesive super team that is Manchester City .
The chords/rhythm guitar part is Pep Guardiola, the melody are the players. The rhythm part ties it all together and manages/guides the melody, interacting with the melody. The rhythm part is very melodic in itself, adding a lot of melody to the melody.
I tried to evoke with the beauty of the melodies how much I love them.
Kubla Kahn
I wrote Kubla Kahn on 31 July 2010. I named the song Kubla Kahn after Kublai Kahn, the emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China (and after the Samuel Taylor Colerige poem Kubla Kahn) because for whatever reason this groove and pentatonic melody gave me a Mongol vibe with visions of the vast Mongolian-Manchurian steppe. It’s just a name that instantly popped into my head the moment I wrote the melody.
I Wonder
This instrumental song is titled “I Wonder,” because the verse melody feels like an open-ended question, and the chorus feels full of life in awe and wonder.
Rubber Pie
Last year I was looking in the pantry because I had a sweet tooth craving, and found this vanilla pudding pie I had forgotten about. Oddly… The texture of the vanilla pudding felt rubbery, which was weird cause I had eaten these pies before and loved the pudding. I asked Tiannah if this was how it was supposed to taste/feel. (Maybe they changed their recipe??). She took a small bite and promptly ran to go spit it out in the trashcan. Upon checking the date on the back of the package, turned out that the pie was almost 4 weeks past due date… which we found out after I had almost entirely eaten it. I just made up the song “Rubber Pie” about the experience. I wrote this joke song about it
Status Quo
In 2014 I had this dream, where I saw me and my band members Dave and Cela on stage performing this amazing song. It all seemed super real like it was really happening, and I had no awareness I was actually laying in bed dreaming.
But… while I was performing with my buddies, I had this “funny” interesting kind of feeling like something was off. “Why is it ME singing?” It’s usually always Dave or Cela who sing. Weird! And… why do I not recognize this song? Did Dave and Cela just write this? And then it hit me… WAIT… THIS SONG IS COMING TO ME? And the moment I realized that, I instantly woke up with the whole finished song in my mind. It was around 3:30am and I had only been in bed for like 2 hours or so haha.
So I quickly rushed down to my studio: set up the amp in the recording booth because everybody was asleep upstairs, put mics on, connect the midi controller to record piano, and started recording the whole thing. It was all done in an hour and by 5am I was back in bed. The tracks you hear in this video are the original tracks recorded that night. I finally, a couple of days ago (February 2023), managed to write the lyrics.
Last Call
I wrote this song on March 7 2019 but it took me till February 2023 to write the lyrics and finish the song. It’s about how much I miss the good old times going out in Belgium with no closing hour while in the US there is a 2am last call.
(Not One To) Hedge My Bets
‘Hedge My Bets” written October 2006, but was laying on the shelf all this time waiting for lyrics, which I finally managed to write February 6th 2023. It’s my favorite Vreny blues rock song, and lyrically is VERY MUCH me. 🙂 It describes my life-philosophy and way approach life. I initially called the song “Mortality” but quickly after decided on “Hedge My Bets”
Impressionist Painting
This is my song Impressionist Painting, performed at the ZOTZinMusic studio in Santa Clarita. The song has lots of interesting chords and voice-leading.
Santa Clarita
Despite its complexity, the whole song literally wrote itself in about 15 minutes time. I named it after the place where I live, Santa Clarita, because I feel that the beauty and high quality of life in this town is why this song came to me. I tried to encapsulate the beauty of this town into song.
Stop Looking At My Wife
I keep this list of ridiculous or stupid song titles to help inspiration for lyrics. I came across this title in my list the other day and decided to write a joke song with that title. This is it. Stop Looking At My Wife. My wife loves it.
Tiannah
A couple of years ago I set out to write a song that would, in the form of sound and composition, encapsulate my wife Tiannah and my deep, strong love feelings and affection for her. I wanted the song to express her kindness, her beauty, her incredibly easy-going nature, her warmth, and her strength, while also maintaining her deep complexity and intricate richness of mind and character. This is “Tiannah.”