Prior to the album, I had written melody and lyrics to an old guitar track of a guy in Holland called Casper Van Vulpen. I called it 'Deep Sea Green'. We had agreed at that time that if it were to be on the album, he would send me the notation etc for the music and it would be 50/50. At one stage I actually went to Holland (with his help), performed (for free) for a festival he had, and found out some some things. We soon weren't on very good terms.
UPDATE 10/02/2010: Casper has responded on his brand new blog (which has comments disabled, unlike mine) with a heavily edited email from 2007 (without our responses). Here is the complete email he sent, and our responses at the time. It's extremely ironic by thw way, that Casper keeps saying he doesn't like to respond publicly, when he originally went public with this issue in 2007 (on his Sellaband pages and in the forum... unfortunately his forum thread was deleted by Sellaband at the time). It's quite funny actually, that each time he responds on the forum over the last week, he says he will say no more.... then a few posts later he says some more.
Even though I didn't like or trust him anymore, I wanted to be professional and ask him for the notation/chords etc so we could have the song on the album. He refused to let me have the notation/chords, telling me that he "didn't want to be bothered again". My last two emails asking for his cooperation to supply the "Deep Sea Green" music was completely ignored. Fair enough, it was his choice what to do with his guitar.
As the melody and lyrics were mine and I didn't want to just have them be wasted forever, I asked Mick Glossop (producer of Van Morrison, Frank Zappa etc), Adam Sieff (Global Head of A&R for Sellaband and ex Sony Music) and Johan Vosmeijer (CEO of Sellaband and ex Sony Music) if it were possible to take my lyrics and melody for 'Deep Sea Green' and record totally new music to it. The wealth of knowledge and expertise from Adam, Johan and Mick could see no problem in this. Mick`s only suggestion was to change the melody for lines 2 & 3 of the verses as it followed some of Casper`s guitar part. I felt happy and relieved to think that my lyrics and melody wouldn`t be buried in a drawer never to see the light of day and could be brought to life on my album.
I would have preferred Casper's co-operation, as it would have made things cheaper, easier, and possibly better, but I couldn't force him to be involved and it was his choice not to be.
Johnny Scott (Van Morrison`s guitarist) wrote and arranged totally new music to my melody and lyrics and we recorded 'Deep Sea Green' for the album.
I headed off to the UK in late October of 2007 to record my album with Mick. I kept in close contact with certain believers and I know that one of them in particular (you know who you are!) leaked to Casper that "Deep Sea Green" was to be on the album. I also found out after the album was released that this person was representing Casper to Sellaband. From this time onwards Casper rounded up people to be in his camp, without telling them the whole story. Being on Sellaband was a time of making some wonderful friends, but at this very time I found out who my true friends really were.
Just over one month after the album was released I received a very nasty email from Casper calling me a thief and he would see me in court. I was astounded at this.
I had given Casper many chances to get involved and let his music (full of strange tunings and chords according to Casper) be a part of it. Casper refused. I didn't want to just let my lyrics and melody die just because of childishness so I asked the experts if I could have totally new music created. They agreed that morally and legally it was my right to continue to use my lyrics and melody. It would have been SO much easier and better if Casper had agreed to his music being used, and possibly would have resulted in a better sounding song.... we'll never know. It would also have been much cheaper as Johnny Scott wouldn't have to had been paid to write and arrange new music.
There was a song on the album ('Cry Hard') which I had co-written with a band in Perth called 'ZADE'. We had agreed when it was written to split it 25% each. When I asked for the music for it to be sent to Mick, there was no problem with Peter (the lead guitarist and main songwriter of ZADE) doing that. The only disagreement we initially had was that he wanted it to be 50/50 between him and me, not divided equally between the three Zade members and myself. The other band members didn't really mind but I stuck to my principles and made Pete agree for it to be 25% each. If I were the kind of person Casper accuses me of, then why would I have done that when I could easily have done what Pete initially wanted.
Johan (Sellaband) said he would stand by me 100% against Casper. Casper sent many threatening emails and turned a lot of people on Sellaband against me (on his profile page here and also the forum). The forum thread was deleted by Sellaband, against my wishes. I asked Sellaband numerous times to remove the slander/libel from his profile page (where I could not respond), but they said no-one listens to him anyway so just let him get on with it and he will fade away. My point was (and is) that maybe the Sellaband community ignore him, but the pages are searchable so anyone on the internet could google me and come across it.
Here is the initial instrumental track Casper emailed me:
Precious Life
Here is the melody and lyrics I had written, then recorded roughly onto minidisc and sent to Casper:
Deep (writing)
Here is the final acoustic version of our collaboration:
Deep Sea Green (Casper's music)
This is the instrumental music of the album version (with Johnny Scott's music). Compare this to Caspers instrumental music:
Deep Sea Green (album instrumental)
And here is a page on Sellaband which Casper promotes and is part of. A collaboration project with other singer/songwriters. Have a listen to the song called "Come Closer" which was recorded after my album was released. You may recognise some of the music:
The Collaboration Project
Here's a question: If Casper is claiming I have stolen his music, and he has apparently copyrighted that acoustic version of the song in both our names, then wouldn't I have a claim to his music if he used it anywhere else? I would be allowed to say he can't use the same music for any other song, right? Especially as he says I can't use my lyrics/melody with any other music?? Casper used that same music not only on the first version (Precious Life), with my Deep Sea Greeen, Come Closer with the Collaboration Project, but has also used it at least one other artist that I know of (Grant Stevens).
I found out that Casper had gotten BUMA/STEMRA (royalties collection society in Holland which Sellaband use) to freeze any monies from Deep Sea Green as he had filed a copyright complaint on that song. BUMA never contacted me about it. Casper has been a member of theirs for over 20 years. Little did they know that not only had I practically begged Casper to be involved, but that he had a song on the market with my stolen melody and lyrics that he had never told me anything about (when it was released etc) and from which I hadn't seen any proceeds. How ironic.
After a year or more getting the runaround with Sellaband, they said they could do nothing and I had to resolve it with Casper. It was suggested that maybe I just give him 10 or 15%. I am extremely principled (often at my own detriment) and could never agree to him holding my song to ransom after he had refused to be involved (which cost more money and time).
I approached a guy called Wim at BUMA myself. He said he would help. I sent him all the information and recordings etc, to prove my case. Initially he was very positive. A few months later he said he couldn't help as it wasn't his department. It wasn't his department? Why had he said he would look into it then? He too had given me the runaround and wasted my time. Sellaband still said they couldn't do anything.
It gets worse... after many ignored emails from Sellaband, I eventually find out that for the last few months (at least), the monies from the WHOLE ALBUM have been frozen by BUMA as they say there is a conflicting copyright on one song. Obviously I don't agree with Caspers claim on Deep Sea Green, but I really can't understand how a whole album can be held to ransom because of one disputed song. Sellaband actually jumped into some sort of action on this one because they threatened to sue BUMA if the proceeds from the other 9 songs weren't released by December the 1st 2009. The date came and went and.... nothing happened. I emailed Sellaband 3 times (addressed to four different people) in a month and no-one replied at all. This was very upsetting to have not only this sort of thing happening but to be ignored by your own so-called record label. Not very professional. If they had nothing to update they could have just said so.
One reply did come on the last day of the year of 2009, after my husband Gary had sent an email which was addressed to the four different contacts in Sellaband telling them politely that there was a total lack of respect or response to me, saying how upset I am and have been over the time and that this issue has aided me in falling into a deep depression. Adam Sieff replied saying that he was "speaking purely for himself" with the words "FUCK OFF GARY". I guess I should feel happy that Adam finished his reply by wishing us a "Happy New Year". I sent an official complaint to Sellaband but no-one has replied (how unusual). Adam has not apologised either. Not very professional.
After weeks of no reply to any of my emails, on the 8th of January 2010 I decided to give Sellaband until the 31st of January 2010 to sort out the Deep Sea Green issue.
Sellaband replied that a new person (Mars) would be in charge of this matter, as he used to work at BUMA. Mars seemed pretty decent and was at least communicating with me in the first part of January to try and sort something out. He said he was going to set up a meeting with someone he knew at BUMA when they were back from holiday. I was told by Sellaband that at the moment the rest of the small promotion budget is frozen until the matter is resolved. Strange to do that now, after nearly 2 years of this dragging on.
Right now, nothing has still been finalised and I haven't had any reply from Sellaband for nearly a week as to an update.
August 2007 was one of the best times in my life, but it was also one of the worst. We were really appreciative of what Casper had done but were so disappointed and letdown with all the drama going on with him in Holland. The year of 2007 made me believe in humanity because of the generosity of many people who helped my dream but some of those people could also allow me to lose faith, and I did. If I had the time again, of course I would say that I wished that I had never had dealings of any kind with Casper Van Vulpen. Casper was never a friend but was most definitely a ghost that haunted me, until now.
I would like to thank again all of the people who made it possible for me to follow my dream. Despite the outcome, I will never forget your genorosity and that act of kindness will always be close to my heart. Thank-you so very much.
For someone like myself who is prone to depression I would never have allowed any possible crap of any kind to hinder my family or I (making an album was a dream and a beautiful gift to share with the world. I shared this time first with my unborn baby, Zeth), and to be ongoing like this has been hell, with no real and fair outcome. I have been driven to a deep depression in this past year and ashamedly, thoughts of suicide. What would this do to my family? I dread to think and need to draw on the love, support and strength (as I do each time) from the 5 most important people in my life who help get me through in my darkest moments... thank-you to Gary, Damaris, Zyah, Zeth, Mum and Dad.
As for the music it is always inside me but that too has gone into a deep depression...
Whatever you do, make sure you write up contracts if you collaborate with someone, putting it down in writing that you will both contribute the music/melody/lyrics to a song if it's to be released... so neither of you can back out. Make sure you have adequate promotional budget and plans with whichever record lable you might sign to. Don't let your music be hidden in a deep hole.