Eclectic Poetic by Renda Writer

In 2003, he beat out thousands of others to become one of the top five finalists on the CBS reality TV show Cupid, produced by Simon Cowell of American Idol. His 11-week appearance on the show allowed his poetry to be seen and heard by over 8 million viewers. Renda moved to South Florida in 2004, and focused on making a career out of his creativity.

Renda had the honor of opening up for HBO Def Poet, Georgia Me, at Miami’s famed Mello Mondays and was given his own feature billing at the same venue 3 months later. In June 2006, Renda performed his poem “Trullsions” in front of 500 people at the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale’s annual fashion show. Later, he was interviewed on the internet-broadcast ratio talk show, “The Spoken Word” on www.PowerTalkFm.com, where he promoted the release of his debut experimental poetry CD, “Eclectic Poetic.” The CD features 33 tracks that are “worth listening to twice,” according to journalist Jake Smith, who reviewed the album for the New Times Magazine in August 2006. The issue was still on the stands when he performed alongside comedians, rock bands, and rap groups for a crowd of 500 at Rock the Vote in Hollywood, FL. That same month, Renda became the Delray Beach Grand Slam Champion, earned a spot on the city’s team, and a trip to the National Poetry Slam in Austin, TX.

As an open mic host, Renda has unified the South Florida independent scene by hosting 3 successful weekly open mics and a poetry slam, landing him countless mentions in local print media - The Sun-Sentinel, Boca Raton Times, City Link, and New Times Magazine. His notoriety led him to other hosting opportunities, including a fundraiser for Kids in Distress, opening night of the Red Eye multi-media art exhibit at ArtServe in Ft. Lauderdale, and the monthly launch party for Us Artists Magazine. Throughout the year, Renda hosts numerous Stand-Up Comedy and Spoken Word Poetry Showcases, as well as his signature Demo Critique Night. He is also a freelance writer, specializing in music-related articles for Heat Beat and Us Artists Magazine.

Influences include Jim Morrison, Saul Williams, KRS-One, Gil Scott-Heron, Anti-Pop Consortium, Def Poetry Jam, and all the local artists who perform at his open mics.

Renda Writer is available for poetry performances, special event bookings, and freelance work. If interested, please contact him at www.RendaThePoet.com.

THE STORIES BEHIND EACH OF THE TRACKS ON ECLECTIC POETIC:

1. Who Am I? – An obvious choice for opener to Eclectic Poetic, this track introduces the listener to me while I ponder an age old question. Personally, this is one of my favorite tracks on the album, and a great example of how good its producer, DJ Immortal, is at what he does. I often feel that despite all of the labels that are given to us based on the details of our existence; we are still free to stand behind our own labels that we create for ourselves. We are free to be whatever and whoever we want to be. You can learn more about DJ Immortal by going to www.faderballistix.com & www.myspace.com/djimmortal.

2. Cubicle Cages – As a performance poet with experience on stages in both NYC and South Florida, one of the main poems that people seem to like most and identify with most would have to be this one right here. After graduating college I had a few office jobs, most of them in New York City, most of them in the record industry, and many of them temp assignments, internships, and administrative assistant positions. Needless to say, I never really liked or felt very comfortable in that kind of environment, and this poem was written in response to my time spent in the office world. The alarm clock that you hear at the beginning is my actual alarm clock.

3. Invite Me – I put this piece together as a collection of a few smaller pieces, all written within a few days of each other, while living in New York City. Then I wrote it all down on index cards and memorized it one night in Times Square, while hanging out with a few of my friends, selling comedy club tickets to the passing tourists. I would hang out a little bit off to the side of the flow of pedestrian traffic and read the index cards in between my sales pitches. I continued this pattern until I had memorized the poem and made enough money for the night. The title refers to the last few lines of the poem, which offer a polite dose of self-promotion.

4. It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It – When I began formulating the vision for this CD, I decided I wanted to have some tracks that would be short, weird, outside the box, and thought provoking. This is one of them. I did all the voices.

5. Broken Down (Remix) – The original version of this poem is the last track on Eclectic Poetic. Here’s the story for how the remix came about.

A little more than halfway to the completion of this CD, I got an interesting idea for how to get a few more tracks produced. I decided to go to the studio and record enough acapella poems to fill up an entire blank CD, 74 minutes. Then I would be able to give that CD to local producers looking for vocals to experiment with and see what they could come up with. If I liked it, I’d use it for Eclectic Poetic.

So I did it. I titled the CD, Acapellas for Creative Producers and gave it to several local producers. One such producer was a cat by the name of HD Goodman. He called me on Thanksgiving, saying that he had just spent a few hours messing around with the vocals and that he had come up with 5 tracks. So I went over to his house that night and ended up using 3 of the tracks for Eclectic Poetic. The other two tracks that he did are “3:15am" (Track #15) and "Alternate Reality" (Track #16). He’s got a real professional sound to his production, and I hope his contribution to this CD brings him more business. If you’d like some production from him, check out his site - www.buymyalbumonline.com & www.myspace.com/buymyalbumonlinecom.

6. Shooting Star – When I tell people that I am a poet, naturally the question that always follows is, “What do you write about?” I usually answer by saying, “I write about three things: everything, anything, and sometimes nothing at all.”

This track is a good example of all these three of these things rolled into one poem. It’s a fun one to perform, and production-wise it came out almost exactly how I wanted it to. I have always loved the sound of beat boxing, and I’ve always wanted to incorporate it into a track. That’s DJ Immortal beat boxing, by the way.

7. Love Games – It was a hot summer day in 2002, and I was standing on the corner of 57th St. & Broadway in NYC, selling comedy tickets and wondering if I would run into Erica. She was a girl who I had sold tickets to on that very same corner just a few weeks before and had run I into several times since. We had exchanged numbers and flirted and it actually seemed as though it could be the beginning of something. But all I got out of it was unreturned phone calls, mixed signals, and confusion.

So, while standing on that corner, wondering if she would walk by again, I asked myself, “When do these stupid games end?” I realized that the answer was, “When you fall in love,” but I didn’t know how that would happen if I was continually embroiled in games. And so, I wrote the first line of the poem right there on 57th St. & Broadway:

“It’s all a game until the day you fall in love/ But you’ll never fall in love/ If you keep playing games.”

About a year or so later, I was on a reality dating show on CBS called Cupid. I think it was at probably my second or third audition that they asked me to recite a poem, and so Love Games is the poem that I did.

After Cupid was over, I moved from California back to NYC in the fall of 2003. I was walking through Times Square one day, and I picked up an upside down flyer from off the ground. It said that there was a talent showcase at Planet Hollywood later that week. I contacted the organizers and reserved my spot as a performer.

The night of the showcase, there was a talent scout in the audience from Amateur Night at The Apollo. She approached me and said that I should come to an audition. I went, and I performed Cubicle Cages for the panel of judges, and I made it onto the show. The episode that I did was not taped for TV, but I did perform in front of a nearly packed house. I did Love Games, and I didn’t get booed off the stage, which is a big accomplishment at The Apollo Theatre.

The girl singing on Love Games is Cat Shell, one of the most talented and stylistically unique singers to come out of South Florida. Her debut album, Cat’s Outta The Bag will be out by the end of 2006. For now, you can hear some of her music at www.myspace.com/catshellmusic.

Love Games, Cubicle Cages, and Brand New were the fist three tracks I did for the CD.

8. Crush On Love – This one’s for the ladies. Let’s leave it at that.

9. The Real World – This, of course, was written at a time when I felt as though the majority of the people that I was meeting were fake, flaky, and not worth my time. Everyone has a right to feel this way from time to time, and I wrote this during one of those times for me. This was one of the fist poems that I had memorized and added to my early performance repertoire. This track was produced by Beez - www.myspace.com/352beez.

10. Ice Mice Tricycles – I had fun with this one. This is a product of tinkering with a rhyming dictionary, living outside the box, and not being worried about what does and does not constitute poetry. This track makes me wanna rock out, but only for 26 seconds.

11. Brand New – I started writing poetry, memorizing it, and taking it seriously sometime in 2000, which is when I started hitting a lot of open mics in NYC. Then, in 2003, I was chosen to be on a reality dating show on CBS called Cupid. I was flown out to LA and lived in a mansion with 9 other guys, all vying for the attention of one girl – for marriage.

We had a production assistant from the show living in a guest house off to the side of the mansion. She was there to look after us and be our liaison to the head producers. One night she asked to hear some of my poems, and after hearing them she remarked that a lot of them were sad or pessimistic. She was right.

This was true because a lot of what I had written up until that point in time was inspired by the tougher times that I had gone through. But at that moment, when I was living in a mansion in California, I had nothing to complain about. I had only good things to write about, so that’s when I wrote and memorized this piece. The whole piece came to me pretty much all at once, without much editing or revisions. To this day, it is one of my favorite pieces, and I perform it almost every week at my open mics. I love this poem from start to finish, literally.

Xavier Hawk beat boxes and plays didgeridoo on this track. I met him at an open mic shortly after moving from NYC to FL. He is one of the most original artists that I have ever met, and I feel as though he really brought this track alive with his contribution. He’ll probably be touring somewhere near you soon. He also has a band called The New Terran Phenomenon.

Joe Butera is on the drums. In addition to drumming in various bands, he is also the in-house producer at Power Station Studios, which is where I recorded several tracks from Eclectic Poetic. Xavier Hawk recorded his debut album, The Return of the Thunderbird at this same studio. And it is available right here on CDBaby.com - www.cdbaby.com/xavierhawk

12. Experimentation – I love to swim upstream and ignore the conventional ways of doing things, so this track is my way of exploring words without concern for structure or likeability. Enjoy. Or don’t.

13. We’re All Connected – As I mentioned in the story behind the creation of "Broken Down" (Rmx) (Track #5), I put out a CD in South Florida filled with acapella poems for the purpose of soliciting production. It was aptly titled, Acapellas for Creative Producers, and one of the producers who used my vocals was a guy named Sleepyhead, who was producing music at the time for a rap artist by the name of Souleye. I knew the two of them from doing open mics in the area, and when I got the idea to do a whole CD of acapellas, Sleepyhead was one of the main people that I had in mind to give it to. Sleepyhead is one cool cat. Him and Souleye have done something that very few artists have done. They have bridged the jam band scene with the hip-hop scene. They have toured all over the country, and I'm proud to say that Sleepyhead was a part of my album. Definitely check him out - www.myspace.com/sleepyheadmusik & www.souleyesounds.com.

As for the content of this poem, I can tell you only that it is based on some thoughts that came to me while riding my bike one day. Interpret as you will. For more on how I write poetry while riding my bike, please see the story behind "The Peddler" (Track # 24).

14. Words To Live By – This one means a lot to me. I don’t know why, but throughout my life I have always latched on to these kinds of sayings. I prefer to not call them “clichés.” I think that word has kind of a negative implication. So I don’t really like when people call this one “The Cliché Poem.” I consider these words to be axioms, to be adages, to be advice…they are Words to Live By.

This poem was recorded live at The Funky Buddha Lounge in Boca Raton, FL. In the spring of 2005 I began hosting a weekly open mic there that became an instant success. It attracted poets, rappers, comedians, acoustic acts, singers, and performers of all genres. With the high turnout of poets each week in mind, I saw the need for it, so I put together a one-night Spoken Word Poetry Showcase for the venue that following winter. The event attracted 20 poets from all over South Florida, and DJ Fono came out to record the night. I booked all of the poets, planned the night’s itinerary, and created the evening’s program. I also hosted, and recited a few of my own poems between acts. So that’s how this track came about. The Peddler (Track #24) was also recorded on this same night.

15. 3:15 am – Seriously, I sometimes cry when I hear this track. This track is like putting a tape recorder inside my head to capture the voice of revelation and renewed confidence. I think we all need to talk to ourselves like this at some point in time, even if the only time that you have time to do it is at 3:15 am.

It literally hurt to write this one. A growing pain contained on a page. I have never memorized nor performed this one. It’s not that kind of poem. It’s on some other level.

16. Alternate Reality – This one’s kinda bugged out. Kinda trippy. Kinda weird. Kinda eerie. Kinda hypnotic. Kinda smooth. Kinda different. Kinda loose. Kinda slow. It is what it is. It beez what it beez.

17. I Am Spring – This poem shares the same theme of undaunted optimism that is contained in poems like Brand New. Only 17 seconds and 5 lines long, this poem succinctly looks at how emotions may change with the seasons, but they don’t have to. I have been performing I Am Spring for about 2 years throughout south Florida, and I get so many requests to perform this one that it almost seems to have has its own cult following. I love that people love this one.

18. The Sun – This is one of only a few tracks that the listener should play for grandma. I end this poem by saying, “The best things in life are free.” I think that one of the best and most free things that one could ever appreciate and feel the need to write about is the sunset. I remember writing this one like it was yesterday. I can even picture the page in the notebook where I originally wrote it. And it took the tracks producer, Pilot Rai, only one take to put my vocals with the appropriate sounds cape for the words to float over. Severall people have told me that this track would sound good in a movie. I agree, and if you've got a film that needs a track like this, send me an e-mail.

19. The Earth I – This is the first in the series of three. Three consecutive tracks about the Earth. They all blend together, which makes it enjoyable to listen to the entire series all at once, all 6 minutes and 54 seconds. On the first installment of the series, I’m just trying to introduce the listener to just how vast and all-encompassing our home planet is. I am really proud of how this whole series turned out.

20. The Earth II – This is the central piece of the 3-part series and where I say some of my favorite lines (ex. – The Earth is a permanent tattoo/ On the collective skin of me and you). It’s also the track that introduces the world to Mickey Vintage, a breath of fresh air in the stale state of contemporary music. A singer/songwriter/guitar player with a bright future ahead of him, Vintage enhances this piece perfectly, crooning the track’s acronymic chorus with a true touch of soul. His debut album, Young Man, Old Soul will be available for purchase in October, 2006. If you run a small label, and you’re looking for some new talent to sign, I suggest you check out Mickey Vintage. He’s a future music star in the making. A young man with an old soul. He's a good dude. I call him my nephew.

21. The Earth III – The first third of this track is a chilled out chance to just listen to Mikey Vintage’s signing of the memorable chorus. The remainder of the track takes a few unexpected turns in terms of the production, and leaves the listener truly appreciating this unorthodox finale to The Earth series. Be on the lookout for The Earth IV-VI on future CD releases. The whole series of "The Earth" poems was produced by Pilot Rai. Check him out at www.myspace.com/pilotraithealbum.

22. Silence Is Golden – Not every track on here has to a story or an explanation to go along with it. Sometimes it’s just better to let the listener decide for themselves.

23. Half Hearted – I love the way this track came out. I wrote it in Central Park, while hanging out in the lawn right by Bethesda Fountain, which is next to a lake that sometimes has a few swans swimming around in it. They always intrigued me. At the time that I wrote this I was hanging out a lot in Central Park, wishing that I had a companion to share the sight of the swans with.

When it came time for recording this one, I teamed up with Nicholas Ciraldo, a highly trained and talented classical guitarist and my close friend since high school. After high school, I went to study business at the University of Florida while Nick studied music at Indiana University. After college graduation, I moved up to NYC, and Nick went on to continue studying music at The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. We always kept in touch, and I always knew that if I were to ever record my poems I would want Nick to be a part of it. So here he is. Check Nick out right here - www.nicholasciraldo.homestead.com/homepage.html.

24. The Peddler – This track, recorded live at The Funky Buddha Lounge in Boca Raton, FL on 2/2/06, could most likely be considered “my signature piece.” After crashing my car in the summer of 2004, I was left to ride my bike everywhere that I had to go. And it wasn’t long before I noticed that riding my bike gave my brain an opportunity to open up and think creatively. So I had to learn how to actually write while riding my bike so that I wouldn’t forget any creative thoughts while waiting to find an appropriate spot to pull over to write. I have written many poems like this (ex. – We’re All Connected), and so it was only fitting that I also write this one on my bike.

The Peddler was written over the course of about 3 days of writing while riding my bike back and forth to work. I love this poem because it's such an original topic for a poem and because it's just so...me.

25. Out Of Time – This is one of the most recently written and memorized pieces on Eclectic Poetic. Its subject matter touches on how for a period of time I felt as though I just didn’t have the time to accomplish all of the various things that I was doing. And it was after the recording of this poem that a lot of things came together, and I was able to rearrange some things to give myself some more free time. Life imitating art.

26. I Use A Pencil – Another Sleepyhead-produced track, this one is short and abstract. www.myspace.com/sleepyheadmusik.

27. Talking To Myself – This track serves as the introduction to the next track, and ironically was written about 2 years after it.

28. I Said To Myself – Like many other poets my age that are involved in the slam circuit, I was heavily influenced to write by many of the hip-hop artists from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. I have always recognized the similarities between hip-hop and poetry, so it just made sense for me to do at least one track with me rapping. You might recognize a familiar melody in the beat of the track.

"I Said to Myself" was produced by Beez. During my senior year of college at The University of Florida I took at job as a dishwasher at The Olive Garden to save up enough money to move back to New York after graduating. Beez was one of the cooks there at the time. He helped me a little with my rhythm and my timing on this track. He’s not only talented as a producer, but he is also a rap artist with a decent following in North Florida and several independent releases under his belt. I look forward to working with him again on some tracks for my future releases. You can check him out here - www.myspace.com/352beez.

29. When I Say Jump, You Say How High – This track is pretty self-explanatory. Props to DJ Immortal for putting it together the way that I envisioned it. www.myspace.com/djimmortal. If you want to learn how to scratch like DJ Immortal, you're in luck because he teaches at The Scratch DJ Academy in Miami - www.scratch.com.

30. Extremist – This is a short piece, pulled from an old notebook. It touches on my extremist nature. I guess it kind of goes hand in hand with being an artist, or maybe that’s just how I’ve always been. Either way, there is not much of a grey area in my life. I almost always fluctuate between extremes.

31. I Tapped Into My Zen – For this track, I pieced together some little limericks and smaller rhymes and punch lines that I had written over the years and matched them up with a sample from the movie, Jerry Maguire. I used this sample because I really identified with the scene at the beginning of the movie where Tom Cruise stayed up all night to write and express how he really felt about the sports management industry.

32. How I Feel At The Moment – Getting into the specifics behind this track might be a little personal, but in a nutshell, I wrote this piece in reaction to how I was feeling at a particular moment during a relationship. I needed to write this piece, and I felt a whole lot better after I did. It’s important to remember that beyond the CDs, tours, and aspirations for a career in poetry, writing always boils down to being a very personal form of expression.

33. Broken Down – This is the poem that started it all for me. It was the first poem that I ever wrote, memorized, and performed. My first time reciting this poem was at The Nu-Yorican Poets Café in NYC. I was reading it off the paper, and shaking quite a bit. This is one of my favorite pieces. It often brings a tear to my eye, and it reminds me of why I do poetry every time I recite it.

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