From Song Ideas to a Music Project: Gary Randman Says “Hello World”
Updated: Oct 21
After years of writing songs alongside a career in software development, Gary Randman is bringing those songs to life through a collaborative project built around memorable melodies, relatable stories, and visual storytelling.
Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Gary Randman, songwriter and creator of The Gary Randman Project, about his path from a longtime passion for writing songs to creating Hello World, the Project's first EP.
GHR: Gary, great to have you here. What originally drew you to songwriting, and what eventually led you to create The Gary Randman Project?
Gary Randman: My parents had me take piano and guitar lessons when I was young, so I learned some of the basics, but at the time I really didn't have much interest in creating music myself. That changed when I was in college in the late '80s. One of my suitemates had a small electronic keyboard that he let me tinker around with, and I discovered that I really enjoyed coming up with melodies and musical ideas of my own.
I kept writing after college, eventually adding lyrics and making basic demos, but for many years it remained a hobby while I built a career in software development and focused on raising a family. I didn't really have the musical background, experience or confidence to know how to take the songs much further, although I always wondered what it might be like if they actually connected with an audience.
Over the last couple of years, I finally reached a point where I had the time and budget to find out. I'd never played in a band, didn't have connections in the music business, wasn't a producer and didn't have the vocal ability to perform the songs the way I imagined them, so I had to figure out a path that worked for me.
I learned how to use a DAW to help develop the song structure and timing and build more complete demos, creating MIDI tracks for piano and strings, laying down a basic guitar track in some cases, bringing in online session musicians for parts I couldn't play myself, and using AI-generated guide vocals to communicate the vocal melody and phrasing.
That allowed me to create demos that communicated the melodies, lyrics, chords and overall direction of the songs well enough for other people to understand what I was hearing in my head. That eventually led me to producer Hanan Rubinstein, whose career has included working in support of artists such as Alicia Keys, Charlie Puth and Ed Sheeran, and through Hanan I was introduced to vocalists Zalman Krause and Nahscha.
That's really how The Gary Randman Project was born. I'm the songwriter and the common thread running through it, but I'm not the singer or musician people hear performing the finished recordings. The songs start with my melodies, lyrics and ideas, and then bringing them fully to life becomes collaborative. Hanan works with me to take the demos and develop them into finished productions, bringing his experience and creativity as a producer to the arrangements, instrumentation and overall sound of each song. Zalman and Nahscha then bring their own voices, personalities and interpretations to the songs as the featured artists.
GHR: Your first EP, Hello World, has a November 6 release date. Where did the title come from, and what can listeners expect from the six songs?
Gary Randman: The title comes directly from my software background. In programming, "Hello World" is traditionally the first simple program you create when you're learning a new language. You learn enough of the basics to build something, get it running and hopefully gain the confidence to keep going. That's very much how I look at this EP. I've written songs and made demos for years, but Hello World is the first time I've taken a collection of my songs through the entire process of producing finished recordings, developing visuals and preparing them for release.
There's also a more personal side to the title. I'm naturally a pretty low-key person, and songwriting is something I've mostly kept to myself for a long time. Stepping outside of that comfort zone and into the much bigger world of producing, releasing and promoting music is honestly a little intimidating. So Hello World also represents putting that creative side of myself out there and seeing where it might lead. In that sense, it's my way of saying, "Hello World. I'm putting myself out there. This is something I've been creating for a long time, and I'd like you to hear it." The six songs are all different short stories set to music.
"When Your Love Runs Dry" looks back on a relationship after the connection between two people has faded and the relationship has ended. "You'll Always Be The One" comes from almost the opposite direction — it's about reassurance when insecurity begins creating doubt in a relationship. "With You Love" is a warm, playful duet about the longing and distance between two people who want to be together. "Manny" is about the importance of accepting support from others when you're struggling to find your way forward after a traumatic experience.
"Little Jimmy" explores a mother's guilt as she watches her son struggle with a condition that will likely shorten his life, knowing that something she did contributed to it. "His Confession" deals with betrayal in a relationship and that moment when just a few words can shatter trust and profoundly change the course of someone's life.
GHR: You describe your songs as short stories set to music. Where do those stories come from, and how do the music and visuals help bring them to life?
Gary Randman: None of the six songs on Hello World are directly based on something that happened to me. Inspiration can come from something I've observed, a situation I've heard or read about, or sometimes just a melody and a few words that begin suggesting a story. I'm interested in imagining the people inside those situations — what they're going through, what they're feeling and what might have brought them to that particular moment. I don't necessarily need to have experienced the same thing myself to find something human in it that I can understand and try to write about. Having both male and female vocalists within the Project also gives me the flexibility to think about which voice best fits the character and the story I'm trying to tell. The music and the story usually develop together. A melody, rhythm, tempo or chord progression can suggest a particular emotion, character or situation. In "Manny," for example, the verses are more restrained, reflecting the weight of what he's going through, while the chorus becomes more uplifting and reinforces a sense of hope and encouragement.
Once the story begins taking shape, I often start seeing it visually as well. I imagine the characters, settings and key moments and develop those ideas into a storyboard that I can work on with the team at GoatHead. For me, the visuals are another way to help listeners make a stronger connection with the music, the story and the characters within it. It can also help someone like a music supervisor quickly understand the emotional world of the song and the kinds of scenes it might support.
That's really what I mean by short stories set to music. In three or four minutes, I'm trying to give the listener enough about the protagonist, the situation and what they're feeling to understand the story and hopefully care about what happens to them.
GHR: Where do you see The Gary Randman Project going after Hello World?
Gary Randman: I see Hello World as an introduction, not a destination. There are already more musical ideas beyond these six songs and a lot more stories I want to develop, so the larger goal is to continue building a catalog around the Project. I'd like to keep building on the creative approach we've established — exploring fresh melodies and song structures, working with Hanan to develop the music, continuing to feature Zalman and Nahscha as familiar voices within the Project, and continuing to bring the stories to life visually.
How quickly that can grow will depend in part on the audience we build and the resources that become available along the way. Producing the music and visuals at the level we're aiming for takes a real investment, so hopefully the Project can begin creating opportunities that help support what comes next.
As long as there are musical ideas I want to explore, stories I want to tell and a way to keep developing them, there's somewhere for The Gary Randman Project to go. Hello World is simply the introduction.
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Don’t forget to follow Gary Randman and The Gary Randman Project on social media and listen to the music on all streaming platforms.
Website: garyrandman.com
Instagram: @gary.randman
TikTok: @gary.randman
Facebook: The Gary Randman Project
YouTube: @GaryRandm
