Singer/songwriter Ray Sorenson is immensely proud of his debut album, ‘Silent Writer’which is released this month. The album is the result of over forty years of songwriting. Those songs have been waiting patiently to see the light of day, when the time is right and Ray believes that time is now. The first single from the album, ‘Blue Haze’ was written following the death of a friend’s father. The loss hit his friend pretty hard emotionally and it was then that Ray Sorenson found the inspiration for his song ‘Blue Haze’. “One morning at 3am,” he says. “The song came through me and I got up and wrote and it came out like a scribble. The words came out fast, which most of the songs usually do, and it took about a week to put it together.” Ray played it to his friend who was overwhelmed to know that his father’s passing inspired the song. However, Ray is quick to point out that the song has many different interpretations for people when they listen to it.
The singer has been writing songs for a long time. He wrote his first song when he was about thirteen or fourteen years of age. “I did record a single in Tamworth in 1986 but, due to lack of promotion and marketing, it didn’t go anywhere but that’s still there on the shelf.”
Ray comes from a musical family so it seems like a natural progression to follow that path. “My father played guitar and sang and my mother sang with him. They played old school country and western music and I started playing around on the guitar when I was about nine and took it seriously when I was about eleven. I was living in Byron Bay and the bands and the solo acts that were coming around at the time like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, The Moody Blues, The Eagles and America were all very inspirational people.”
Ray finds it hard to pigeon hole his musical style. “That’s a hard one,” he laughs. “It covers so many different styles. I didn’t want to be slotted into one style. That’s why I put so many different ones on the album.” But he admits to being inspired by people like Eric Clapton. “And I secretly like J. J. Cale and the bluesy stuff. I try to write around the feel of that.”
The singer admits to being a bit of a recluse for some time while his focus has been on raising a family who, he says, have been very supportive of his career. In fact, his son looks after the business side of things. “But I really hadn’t done much musically until I met Steve.” That’s Steve James, the ARIA Award winning producer. “He inspired me to do something with my songs and we just went from there.”
Meeting the producer was a signpost, he says.” I’m always looking out for signposts, especially when you get into a bit of a lull and you don’t know which direction to head in which I was at the time. My mother had passed away and I went into a bit of a silent depression I suppose. Now we’re all ready and rearing to go. I’m just making sure that everything’s right this time.”
by Sharyn Hamey
Copyright © Sharyn Hamey 2014. All rights reserved
To purchase a copy of Ray’s album ‘Silent Writer’ and to watch the You Tube video of ‘Blue Haze’,
click here
