The Process

Writing songs is much like the journey from infancy to adulthood. I start with a feeling and musical ideas to express that feeling, but at that stage, it's still a non-verbal process. That's when I am most childlike--a bundle of emotions without the language to express them. My cognitive and verbal skills grow until I can find the ideas and words to express what I really feel. By creating music, I learn how to speak and I discover what I'm trying to say.

The way I do it has changed over the years. I used to sit down with a guitar, pen and paper and write a song from beginning to end including the lyrics. I made a transition to writing music in my head and writing it down later for awhile. Now, almost invariably, it's music first and rarely do I ever finish a new song in one sitting. I'll come up with little ideas and write them down or record them for so I can expand them into songs.

This led to a problem for many years--I could never finish anything. Now, when reviewing notes and audio snippets looking for what to do next, I'll often pick one in the evening and earmark it for work the next day. In the morning, I'll generally turn the snippet into a song very quickly and begin tracking it as soon as possible so it remains fresh. Preserving the freshness of the demoing process while recording final versions for release is the goal of this project. The griddle-to-plate time has been reduced to ensure freshness.

My most productive time of day for recording is from about 2 o'clock in the afternoon until about 10 pm. By then I've either done what i needed to do or my ears are so shot that I can't work anymore anyway. I like to sleep at night, but I'm not above staying up late to lay down really quiet instrumental or vocal tracks. Sometimes I have to because the traffic outside my house can be very, very noisy during the day.

I begin each new song with the acoustic guitar and a click track. This forms the basis of most of the songs on the album. Once I have a decent guitar track that lays out the form of the song, I move next to the drums. After a small eternity devoted to drum tracking, I move on to the bass and keyboards. On a good day, I can get a decent guitar/drums/bass/keys thing recorded in an afternoon. I mix as I go because I want to have an idea of what the record will actually sound like. If it sounds good as it takes shape, it excites me and motivates me to keep going.

Some people find this a very difficult way to work and are aghast when I describe my working methods, but I usually have arrangement ideas worked out in my head before I even start. Multiple takes allow me to work out parts and I usually revise as I go along. Sometimes, it takes a few days before I go back in and change things, but aside from occasional complete remakes, I usually commit to workable versions early on. But if I encounter obvious problems as I'm layering more parts, I'll happily make changes or start again from scratch.

The very last thing I worry about is the vocals, including the lyrics. The melodies are all in my head so I don't even cut scratch vocals--one of the perks of not working with others! But as I track and mix, the song forms are constantly being reinforced in my head and I'll find myself humming along while I'm working. Sometimes, a repeated melody will suggest a phrase or a line here and there and I'll write it down. At some point, I'll take a couple of weeks to concentrate exclusively on writing lyrics.

In the next installment, I'll post some video for you so you can get a look at the space where I'm working and hear some of the sounds. Take good care until then.