WELCOME

Music is like all international food dishes …. 
The taster/hearer has their own particular taste and determines on their own whether it's good or not. 
Most of my material may not be “commercial” enough, but it's my expression of my God-given gift. 
As I am not a great vocalist myself, I'm looking to providing like-minded performers/artists/groups with original song material, so that they can share their God-given gift of performance. 
I am an independant songwriter, so permissions to use my songs is easily available.
I present my songs in the form a “rough-draft” MP3 together with  a lyric/chord sheet, leaving the artist/arranger free-hand to present. 

​​

My draft songs are still receiving Clive Gibson's loving touch, such that my “Ugly duckling” draft songs are converted into beautiful “Swan” “Rough Demo's” so that they are presentable to whoever may give them a listen.

​

My full song catalogue can be heard on this site (www.songarise.co.za) .

The first section reflects some of my songs as performed by other artists, whilst 03 “Rough Demos” reflects songs which are available to artists/bands/groups, and is split into groups/genre within Christian or Secular music. This catalogue gets updated regularly with new material.

​​

Some of my recent achievements are:
1

As at 31 December 2025, 13 of my songs have been commercially produced by various artists, with over 360k Spotify streams/plays

​2

Two of my 4 songs nominated in various categories at the SACMAF (South African Country Music Association/Federation) 2025 Awards Function, were songs performed by the winning artists:
- Country Male Vocalist - Lion Jay (On a Quiet Christmas Evening)

 - Traditional Country Song of the Year - Colin Dee (This You Must Know)

3

Various Songs were uploaded to Youtube and Spotify as well as other platforms by the artists that performed them.

​

​​
 

​

My Background
I am a South African Male who is 73 years of age, of Dutch origin.

My parents emigrated to Ndola (Northern Rhodesia – now Zambia) when I was about two years old.

I was the youngest of 5 children at the time. After about 4 years, my dad was transferred to the Salisbury office (Southern Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe) and we stayed there for a further 4 years.

We moved to South Africa after my Dad lost his job, and settled in the Florida area after living at the Florida Lake Caravan Park for about 5 months.
I've always had a song in my heart, enjoyed singing and loved poetry.

I never really had any musical exposure during the first 18 years of my life apart from listening to the radio/records, and singing with my friend who was a really good guitarist.

After leaving school my friend went into the army and I found a job, but I really missed his guitar-playing, and so I bought my first guitar at the age of 19. I taught myself the basics and that's when I wrote my first song.  

Single life, married life as husband and father, church life and my career were the main threads of my existence. In my many long-distance travels for my job/s, I recorded melodies on my voice recorder and some of these I worked into songs. I also lead various Church Worship teams over the past 40 odd years.  

I knew there were thousands of better musicians, and hundreds of better vocalists then me... but my songs have really been enjoyed by the listeners, and I believe this is my God-given gift. I'd written about 120 songs prior to my going on retirement in late 2014,  knowing that I would pursue this Song-writing gift during my retirement years. I'm aiming to complete about 12 exceptional songs per year.

​

My Goals:

1. To honour God through my music, with “Christian” lyrics reflecting correct biblical interpretation and understanding;

2. to provide artists/bands/choir groups with “quality” song material. They can use their own interpretation and arrangements to present this material in their own magical style.