My latest experiences with the craft of writing songs have
been part of a long, drawn-out process since my last album release in mid-2014. That process has included starting with the
"leftover" songs in my Works In Progress (WIP) folder on my computer,
which houses subfolders for lyrics, session files, and individual recorded song
tracks. When you finish an album, there
are inevitably some that didn't make the cut, and these are typically left in
an uncompleted state.
So, after taking a break from writing, recording and
release-oriented activities, one of the first things to do is clean up the
unfinished stuff if you can. At least,
after having time off you revisit and confirm why you weeded them out in the
first place, but with a fresh perspective.
So, I did that, and in doing so, added to my notes of what wasn't
right.
Usually in my case, the majority have acceptable music, but
the lyrics and/or singing weren't right.
Sometimes it's a tempo thing, in which I'm cramming too many syllables
into too little space, and those are easily remedied by re-recording at a
slower pace the instrument tracks, which to me always seems like a hassle, but
after the break, no problem. Sometimes
it's an issue with the lyrics not being great, so new ones can be written to
fit.
I did that successfully just this year, and it is one of the
few times it's worked and not resulted in the music being scrapped. Other times it's a case of the lyrics, when
read aloud without music, naturally calling for a certain type of music, which
isn't the kind of music you already had.
These are really tough, because of the do-over hassle psychologically,
but again, after a break, not as daunting.
It's usually a situation where sad lyrics are calling for minor chords
and a slower tempo, yet you recorded it major and fast, or vice versa.
I started doing all of the above, and next thing you know,
I'm back into the swing of things again and not only have a couple keepers for
the next release, but also get the creative juices flowing again and new songs
start to happen. Some get weeded out
again, and maybe get rewritten to keeper status two albums later after being
left in the WIP folder again (very rare, but yes, it's happened to me), while
with others you do indeed conclude they were wasted effort and perhaps delete
entirely.
My whole point here though is that non-keepers are never
wasted effort. You have to fail a lot to
have a good keeper ratio. I'd be willing
to bet the same must be true for even the most prolific and celebrated
songwriters out there in the world, it must be the case. When the new songs arrive, It's like magic to
me every time.
The mystery can only be explained by saying that by doing the
"hard work" tasks involved in rewriting or rerecording, you're
putting yourself in the best state of readiness for creative flow again. Breaks are important, and just as important is
the manual labor part. Granted, this is
coming from someone who would rather just write a new song than perfect an existing
one, but the annoying do-over tasks have both the real-yet-rare benefit of
actually turning a non-keeper into a keeper, combined with the inevitable
influx of new material as a result.
Worth it, for sure, because new song ideas are what you're
ultimately after, and if you can also do some recycling and reduce wasted past
effort, it's a major bonus. From this, I
conclude that all songwriters should 1) save their songs that didn't make the
cut, 2) revisit them after a break, 3) start attempting to rewrite them, and
good things will happen. It should be a
part of any songwriting/recording process.
I've heard it said that all artists have an arc to their
career, and that there is an average number of albums they release. Some are ground-breakers with a short-lived
period of creativity (Chuck Berry comes to mind), others have long careers
(Paul McCartney), others shorter but very prolific (Prince), and then of course
you have the one-hit wonders. When you
mention well-known artists there are so many other factors that contributed to
their output to take into consideration, but I see some truth in this arc
concept.
Some blast out of the gate and never live up to their first
album (Violent Femmes), others hit their stride well into their careers (Bob
Seger), but generally (and I have no stats to back this up) I've observed that for
most there is a noticeable decline in quality and/or quantity at some point. Perhaps it's inevitable for us all, perhaps
some need longer breaks than others, but I think when faced with writer's
block, following this simple process can keep the craft alive.
It's a matter of forcing yourself to get back into it that
makes for the steadiness and consistency.
Just when you think that maybe you just can't do it any more, a little
focused effort on the mundane aspects can remove your doubts and make the magic
return, which is pretty cool.
Did I mention that I now have my next full-length album written and recorded ahead of schedule? For the related news item, see http://www.scottcooley.com/news/recordingcompletedforupcomingalbumrelease
