Songwriting Challenge Week 3

This week has been another partial eye-opener. Thankfully.

I started out with an artistic hangover and itchy pen scrabbling to finish the unfinished business of last week’s song. I had figured that I was going somewhere with the last song and that despite the deadline having been crossed, I should stick with the goal and get it finished.

It didn’t work out that way.

I had a few more glimpses at the overall picture of the song but it has not gotten any closer to me. I have at least cut out a fair bit of what was the excess of the song, and have been finding out that which is elemental about it.

If I’m singing a song I’ve just been writing, and I can’t remember the words, or which phrases go where, it’s usually because they aren’t that good in the first place. There are certain phrases that stuck out right from the beginning and have stayed in the song, because they work, they fit and are memorable. The song can be a bit like a jigsaw puzzle at times, although you’re trying to complete the puzzle while riding an elephant’s back and having a crowd of hooded, cloaked strangers on either side shouting at you and throwing pieces of the puzzle at you. Some of the pieces belong to the puzzle, some do not, some pieces are very nice but do not belong to this puzzle. It’s not always easy. It is often interesting at least, if arduous at times.

The best lyrics to songs are ones that I can write and then go and sing straight away, or come out and get written down after I have just sung them. I have a good deal of the song from week two like that, but I realised I should be looking to other songs that need their own bit of attention. I’ve made some kind of peace with this winter song and realise that as long as I’m not going anywhere, it won’t either.

It will come when it’s ready, or when I am.

In the meantime I received a blessing of sorts. The song I’d been working on put me in mind of an earlier song I had been working on at different points in the last year or two, but never quite felt I had the whole thing in the bag, or that I’d tied the various pockets of clarity together.

One morning this past week however, I woke up thinking about the song. In the spirit of the challenge I went to the appropriate song file and pulled out all the worksheets I’d accumulated for it (it pays to be organised) and went to work on it.

The force was with me that day – I finished it in under an hour. Cut out anything that I felt wasn’t vital to the characters and the story, and assembled it like puzzle pieces, like a recipe I was cooking and there it was.

It was one of those beautiful moments when you get lucky.

I say ‘Lucky’ because it’s a spirit that you sometimes channel. I did put in a LOT of work into the piece over the past, but sometimes moments of clarity and power hit you and they ride you just as much as you ride them. When something really powerful happens it is bigger than you, and like Neil Young says “You don’t own that”.

(check out this clip and Neil talking about ‘the essence’)

Now I’m looking forward to the next week, and think it’s time for something a little more RAWK.

Hold onto your helmets people.

Songwriting Challenge: Week 1

 

Note: This is actually a week late but I wrote this when I had finished that week.

I think I’ve done it. I think I’ve finished a song I had about ‘Bad Girls’ as much as possible right now. As in, finished in the way that I won’t really know if it’s done until I start to play it live and so forth. I’ve made a tentative demo of it with vocals and guitar. The thing I can finish now is the outro.

 

Anyway, I’ve kind of done it. It feels a little hollow. It feels good, definitely, but I’m not relaxed about it. Just thinking about the next one. I’m not concerned about running out of stuff to work on, because I have a huge list of works in progress that are up for examination and being blown out.

 

Shit is gonna come out how it’s going to come out so I’m not going to try and control it to much right now, I’m just trying to tap into the wave of momentum and get as much done in as many ways as possible. As many different types of songs and find out what my voice really is. I know I’ve only hinted at it up to now, and in many respects only shown a few sides of me. I’m looking forward to being able to unbutton my personality and loosen up completely.

 

I think my goals are reasonable, and entirely doable. My anxiety, excitement and fear comes from the reaslisation that it’s only a case of showing up and letting the monsters out, however they want to land, and trying to make sense of that. I’ve felt that in trying to write poetry – I don’t have the technical skills or ability to breakdown which bits are weak or strong, and then DO something about them, fix them.

 

I do know that about songs though. I want to experiment with more melody, with more accessibility. I’m not looking to pander to anyone or dilute anything, but rather to make sure I’m not purposefully cutting myself off from things as a defence mechanism because I’m scared of exposing something. I want to make mature works, not childish pieces that pretend that they don’t care what anyone thinks. My desire is to make world-class pieces that stand up to anyone in any walk of life. One of my tasks on the challenge will be to write songs aimed at certain target demographics I usually alienate – I want to write for the ‘straight’ world, I want to write a song for young kids that would grab them, really grab them and stand up to my needs at the same time.

 

A lot to do, and a lot to look forward to. But I do so, somewhat tensely, tentatively, nervously. I’m warming up.

 

 

What I’m currently up to 05/03/2011

I’m currently working on my own band or project called Black Hay.

I had a band under this name in 2009, but that didn’t quite go as far as it could have before temporarily falling apart, and in 2010 I’ve been playing with Ghostnotes too much of the time to concentrate on anything else.

I’ve been meaning to revive the beast though. I have an almost album’s worth of songs, along with a clear concept sonically, thematically, artistically. And it won’t go away.

I thought it made more sense to try and get the material recorded (or at least demoed) first instead of trying to put another band together and THEN recording.

I realised it’s not the kind of project where I’m looking for someone else’s input to help me realise its potential, I’m going to be singing these songs, I can play guitar, bass and keys to the sort of level I need to play my music, I just need people with certain skills to do the things I physically cannot.

I’ve been highly inspired by my mate Lee’s DIY approach to this regarding his band Dumbjaw, and getting some great sounding tracks done for very little money with just a bit of grit, persistence and balls.

What I have been doing is looking for:

– A drummer, the right drummer, a groovy, hard-hitting ROCK drummer to help me realise these songs.

– A producer/engineer to help record and get it sounding good.

My plan is to take each song one at a time, rehearse, arrange, demo, and get everything tight and shiny. Then and only then do we go about recording perhaps only bass and drums live with everything else on top.

Once one song is done, repeat the process with the next song, rather than trying to tackle a whole bunch of songs at the same time.

That’s pretty much all I’m focused on at the moment, writing songs for this album idea.

I know a few guys who play bass and guitar that might be able to help out if I need them, and should I require other instruments, I’ll look for them but for now that is all.

Who knows which ones will go into the final thing or what I’ll use it for or do with it once I’m done. All I know is this urge is driving me crazy if I don’t do it.

Do the work, decide what to do with it afterwards.

Crazy? Silly? Moi?

‘Art is Work’

A while ago my dad bought a book by an illustrator called Milton Glaser. I had a look a it and it wasn’t all my cup of tea, but I could appreciate it. I was mostly interested in the music poster work or portraits he’d done of people like Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan, et al.

However, I was caught by the personal mission statement he laid out at the front of the book:

“Eliminate the word ‘Art’ and replace it with ‘work’ and develop these descriptions:

1) Work that goes beyond it’s functional intention and moves us in deep and mysterious ways we call GREAT WORK.

2) Work that is conceived and executed with elegance and rigour we call GOOD WORK

3) Work that meets its intended need honestly and without pretense we call simply WORK.

4) Everything else, the sad and shoddy stuff of daily life, can come under the heading of BAD WORK.”

I’ve long since copied this out and posted it on the wall by my desk because I like these definitions a lot.

I think the main thing I like about his approach, is that he de-mystifies his art – oops, sorry ‘work’ and pulls it down to ground level from up in the sky, makes it something not so far off and unobtainable. Basically, if you are not producing, it’s because you are not working.

The word ‘work’ might seem too mundane and uninspiring to some compared with ‘art’ and all its lofty associations.

But it’s a very honest way of looking at it. ‘Work not Art’ flips the focus on to how well you do what the job requires of you, not thinking about what you can get out of it, indulging your ego or any other unhelpful excesses. Work is constant and does not require inspiration.

I think it’s a nice approach which stops someone disappearing up their own backside.