Like buses
There's an old joke in the UK that some things are like waiting for buses: you wait ages with nothing, and then three come along at the same time. Well, in this case it's more like two, but I've been chewing over ideas for a new song, and today another completely new one overtook it and leapt into existence almost unbidden.
I've probably never said it here before, but my answer to the perennial songwriter's question—which comes first, words or music?—is usually: the music, and the words tend to follow. Having said that, since I embarked on my project for 2008 (for want of a less cringeworthy name, a "concept album"), I've found myself thinking a lot more in terms of lyrics first, probably as I have to try and fit them into the "concept". This new song is the second in succession where the lyrics came first, and the music later, except here it all occurred within 48 hours.
I had a title (which I won't reveal yet, perhaps until I have a rough demo to share), and the lyrics came out in fits and starts over the course of yesterday evening, this lunchtime and this evening. There was a rough idea in my head of the kind of musical style I had in mind. I'll be quite open and admit this song was inspired by two things: the Kinks song "Afternoon Tea" (from their album "Something Else" (1967)), and a bag of green tea I had on my desk at my office (it'll make more sense when you hear the song).
What really surprised me when I sat down with the guitar, was how easily—even naturally—the music came for the words. I rarely write music to words, as I feel the results are more stilted and 'forced' when I do that; here, however, the chords and melody almost wrote themselves, and although I may well need to sand off a rough edge here and there, I think that the final version may not change greatly from what emerged the first time I played it.
Labels: conceptalbum, music, songwriting
Maps and movement (or lack of it)
Nope, still haven't committed a demo of the new song to disk, but I'm really going to try hard over the weekend, honest! (I mean, it's just going to be guitar and vocal at first, so how long can it take, anyway...?)
I also had an idea for yet another song, that I started "brainstorming" when I arrived home from work this evening. Sometimes, I use "mind maps" (or a mutated version thereof) to help me organise related thoughts, and I find they can work pretty well for songwriting, at least when you're at the stage of collecting ideas, concepts, phrases and so on for your new creation.
Anyway, I jotted down a few thoughts as a mind map, and will leave them to percolate for a bit, as seems to be my usual habit. I won't mention much about the song yet, except to say it's another element of my "concept album" idea, about two young lovers who like to meet on the old stone bridge over the stream on the edge of the village.
And anyone who's thinking that this sounds like a rural retelling of Terry and Julie's end-of-day romantic meetings in the English capital... well, if you listen to enough of Ray and the boys' oeuvre, as I seem to be doing a fair bit at present, one can't easily help the odd influence creeping in here and there, can one...? ;-)
Labels: conceptalbum, music, songwriting
I wrote a lyric
And just when I wasn't expecting it, I just scribbled down some lyrics the other day. They weren't entirely out of the blue; the song itself is one I've been percolating for a bit, for my aforementioned concept album idea. I will keep the title to myself until I've at least recorded a rough demo, just to string you along a bit...
I'm not completely happy with the lyrics themselves at this point (they feel rather stilted and rhyming dictionary-ish to me, and overall read like I was trying too hard, which perhaps I was), but think they were heading in the right direction, so I'll see if I can buff them up before I let the song out.
This piece is unusual for me, because when I write songs I almost always end up coming up with the music first, whereas this time it's coming the other way round. It might be because I've had so little time lately to go near an instrument for any great length of time. I have a few chord and melody ideas, and am weighing up whether to try composing this song on piano, mainly because I'm not great at the keyboard and it might (paradoxically) make me think more about what music I'm writing, or lead me down a path I might not take were I holding a guitar.
Hope to have a demo of this song to share with you soon, anyway. It looks as if the "concept album" project might have started sooner than I thought.
Labels: conceptalbum, lyrics, music, songwriting
