Hopefully, music brings you back to good memories… Sometime you should go back through the old albums you used to listen to when you were a teenager. Gawd. Do you really want to though? Chances are, when you hear a song you used to listen to a lot when you were a kid it’ll bring back memories you don’t want to relive. Or maybe there’s a song that has sentimental value that you don’t want to hear again because it triggers nasty memories.

Well I guess that’s the negative part of songwriting. Hopefully any music that you write will have… you know… happy memories.

Regardless of whether your fans will have good or bad memories from your music, the point is that they were listening to your tunes in the first place. 

As a songwriter, your goal is to write music that people want to listen to. So how do you do it? Here are a few concepts that any songwriter/musician can work on. You’ll have to aim high, but don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t reaching your goals right away. I don’t think anybody is a natural songwriter and it doesn’t fly out your ass. You have to learn to get into the groove and live a little and share what you wrote and people will tell you it sucks, but they’ll also tell you things they like. Here’s a list of things to consider:

“You’ve got to bleed a little while, you see… lest the words don’t mean a thing.” It’s the chorus to Heart of Soul by The Cult. It’s totally true. It means you gotta dig down deep inside and write about things that you feel strongly about. That’s probably why some songwriters get lots of inspiration from relationships, breakups and things like that. After all, what else is there in somebody’s life that is the center of all these emotions, memories and history? You can write about your personal struggles with addictions, too. Anything that you’re dwelling on every day is probably a great source of inspiration. But you gotta get beaten up and bloody with battle scars if you wanna have a song with conviction.

“When I’m coming up with a riff, I always imagine I’m playing it live.” - Kerry King, SLAYER

Kerry has a good idea. Imagining yourself playing live and testing out that riff is the best way to be your worst critic. If you were in the audience, hearing that riff could you get into it? Would you think it sucks? Isn’t there something better that you’d rather hear there? I heard a song by The Tree Ring, “Dreams Where I am Sleeping” and it was great. What really struck me was this riff that Darla Hawn played on the violin. That riff came out of nowhere! I think the problem with coming up with a good riff is that we’re jamming with others and the first thing we think about is, “Play something that goes along with what buddy is playing.” And sure that works, but maybe the trick is to play something that surprises people.

Design, Art and Music

Out of these three, lets ignore music for a moment. Between Design and Art there’s a never-ending battle as to whether Design is really Art and if they are the same or different or whatever. Here’s the truth:

Art is subjective. There doesn’t have to be theory or structure behind it because it can be personal expression or abstract or any representation of realism. It’s all over the map. People will either love it or hate it or they’ll just think the colors are nice and hang shit up in their office. Whatever.

Design is all about function and structure. Without function and structure, design becomes just another avenue of art. For example, if you designed a poster that looks gorgeous but you haven’t applied any color theory, typography, background research, target market and analyzing the environment in which the poster will be placed… The poster will look pretty but it won’t really do much for you. Design can include all mediums and every avenue of art.

What do Art and Design have to do with music, you ask?

In songwriting you will take any avenue of art… any avenue of music (various genres, instruments, sounds, texture) and apply the principles of Design. Function and Structure. Ask yourself: “What do you want your music to do?”

“This song reminds me of summer.”

“This song reminds me of a song I used to like last summer. I want to write a song that I’d be happy listening to while having a barbeque and beers down at the beach.” Okay, what do you think you need in your song to make the connection?

You’re the songwriter. Make it happen. Does it work? “I dunno.” Well test it. In the next blog I’ll write about testing your songs. There’s an evolution that makes them all improve. If you can bang out a song and it’s perfect quality and there’s nothing wrong with it, you must be Mozart.

DJ Dark Intensity gave me a shout out from time to time and I’m always happy to return the favor. When I was working with my buddy DJ Bankrupt, Dark Intensity was able to put in some time and effort to give us a hand. He’s got a hell of a following and I’m a big fan of his music.

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESS Great albums are made by people coming together and pitching in their unique abilities rather than having equally-qualified cooks in the kitchen. When you get two guitar players who are equal what happens? They fight all the time. Well when Jamie and I got together to jam we realized something rather interesting - We don’t butt heads when we’re jamming. As a musician I’ve always been a guy who accompanies somebody else, even though I saw that as a personal weakness. Of course, Jamie had all his ducks in a row when I started jamming with him so I didn’t have any place to change anything… at least not at first. Another weakness I thought I had was my lack of songwriting skills. I spent a few years strengthening weaknesses on Songfight! and sure enough I came a long way. By the way I’d totally recommend getting involved on Songfight! But here’s the thing: When I’m working with a good musician his/her skills will fill in where my weaknesses are and my strengths totally fill in where he/she is lacking. That’s exactly what happened last October when we began our recordings.

SONGWRITING - HOW DO YOU DO IT? The truth is: you have to be inspired. Songwriting is no different than art or design and the same rules apply to artists and graphic designers. You can’t create anything by staring at a blank page - you have to create inspiration! True though, the best inspiration comes from personal experiences but how do you make it sound good? Again, the same principles apply in music as they do in graphic design. Milton Glacer is a legendary graphic designer in New York City. How he got inspiration was simple and it’s surprising that more people don’t follow his example. He’d see something that already exists in town and it would inspire him. He liked it. “I want that,” he’d say. “I want that.” Well why not?? Why can’t the same thing happen with music? It can. Jamie would show me bands I never even heard of. Some were already huge upcoming artists and some were just on the edge of getting famous and some are so obscure nobody heard of them but they all had something unique. Without knowing Milton Glacer, Jamie’s thinking is often the same. “I wanna do music like this. This guy’s songwriting is genius.”

A MUSICIAN HEARS MUSIC DIFFERENTLY
Part of the problem with some musicians is that they’re too fussy and too critical about what people might think of their songs but the criticism is what makes you a better songwriter. Songfight! is an excellent way for musicians to get thick skin but in a way that won’t make them want to sell their instruments. Every other member of the group on Songfight! is submitting a song for the week. Some of them are phenomenal musicians and some of them suck but all of them will give you feedback about what they like and what they don’t like. The folks with the most talent and experience will also share tricks about how to write better songs and how to record. So here’s the thing: Somebody who isn’t a musician won’t care at all how you composed your song! They’ll either like it or they won’t like it! Let’s strip away all of the conspiracies about why some bands get famous and the best bands never get noticed… The bands or artists that people like the most have a knack for making music that somehow feels like it’s the soundtrack for people’s lives. Think about it - you’re having an awesome summer and you’re hanging out with your best friends. There’s a song that’s always on the radio and it just fits perfectly. Probably because that song was “designed” to do just that!

Songwriting isn’t always about writing something from deep down inside and making it sound awesome. Sure, it might be that… sometimes. But another important part of songwriting is… “What do you want your song to do for people?” … “When people listen to that song, what kind of memories will they have when they go back to it several years later?”

In my next blog I’m gonna write about how music can make you travel back in time.