John Cristal
John started learning the guitar in January 2023,
Only eight weeks into learning guitar, John decided to write and compose his first song. He was told not to bother writing songs as it was too early and should just focus on practising & learning the guitar.
Well, being the maverick that he is, he decided to ignore that advice and so far has written 16 songs!
And now you know why the band’s called The Maverick Band too! Coincidentally, John’s favourite films are Top Gun and Top Gun Maverick.
“I guess I’ve always been a bit of a rule breaker, even when I was at school. I hate being told what to do or being told it can’t be done. That just fires me up to prove them wrong! I hope at least one or two of the songs become big hits. I’d love to see the faces of all the doubters!”
Many of the songs that John has written are based on real life observations & his own real experiences; John’s songs are often mini stories, taking the listener on a journey.
When deciding on a new song, John first identifies a subject e.g. Christmas. He then spends quite a lot of time writing down ideas, facts, etc that relate to the subject. In some cases, he carries out quite a lot of research.
Two songs that are a good example of this are “Pele – The Boy From Brazil” and “A Lonely Homeless Christmas”.
Interestingly, John writes the words to the song first and then composes the music to fit. Apparently, this is quite unusual as most songwriters create the music first and then do the words.