Songrut Songwriting

The soup analogy seemed fitting because the whole song (the 'soup') that you're writing is made up of many parts, but what you're aiming for is something that tastes of one predominant flavour. This may well be enhanced by other flavours, and have a lingering aftertaste, but these other elements serve to back up the main flavour (as in, idea).

Soup can't be many things. You can have onion soup, or celery soup. Carrot and Corriander. Put too many ingredients in and you get a stew. Stew tends to be similar from one to the next. A lot of songwriters are making stew. Clear soups can be the hardest to make, but can be the most effective. Save those other ingredients for another soup or song.

Unlike cooking however, songwriting allows you to remove an entire ingredient as if it had never been there in the first place. If you add too much salt, you can take it out. It may have been interesting to see what it was like with MORE salt, but at least you can take it out later if you do realize that the soup is too salty.

When I'm writing a song, I try to let the flavours that seem irrelevant to 'boil away', and let others come to the fore. Also, flavours that become overpowering may well become what the song is all about. When you have too many competing flavours, you're making stew again.

Some soups need to be left to boil away on their own, and tasted at a much later date. Some soup tastes much better if it's just left to 'do its thing' for a while. It's easy to tell what's wrong with a soup after a break from it, and most importantly its good to let your MEMORY of what you thought it tasted like to run it's own course, as this tends to distill things in an entirely different way, and usually for the best.

To help you with the soup analogy, here are some of my thoughts on songs and soup:

'I Will Always Love You' - Potato Soup
'Perfect Day' - Celery Soup
'Kiss' - Carrot and Corriander
'Wish You Were Here' - Mushroom, Wild Asparagus, Cream, Anchovies and Garlic (it's nearly a stew but gets away with it)
'Kung Fu Fighting' - Noodle Soup
'When The Clock On The Wall Strikes Ten' - Duck Soup

If you think you know the soup of a song, let me know.

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I am not a makedo kind of person, so I hate having a sloppy middle section if the verses were really good, or an ending that's a let down, or a middle eight that doesn't actually have a purpose. It's a wonder I finish anything sometimes.

The most exciting part is when I get an idea for a song. Tunes, words, approaches are all buzzing around in my head and I just can't wait to start getting some initial ideas or lines down on paper, picking my guitar up or heading for the piano, or going straight to the computer and laying a beat down. I like this stage. It's exciting.

What's really annoying is by the end of this stage two things have happened:

a. I have already heard several perfect versions of the song evolving song in my head

b. I have realized that to make this happen in the real world is going to take...absolutely...AGES...and right now I can't really be bothered....perhaps I'll just fiddle about on the internet a bit longer...oh look what's that out of the window....you know I must take the dog for a walk...AGGHHH!

It's very frustrating. Why is this. Why do I keep PROCRASTINATING so much.

Here's a chart of the process, with stars on the parts I get stuck on

1. Come up with initial song ideas

2. Push a bunch of words around the paper based on these ideas, perhaps coming up with melodies at the same time

3. Go to an instrument or sequencer and try to nail down key melodies, at the same time trying to work out what exactly I have just come up with ie Verse, Chorus, End of line idea

4. Try and make this section I have come up with whole, and look at it as a springboard to work out what the rest of the song is going to be like, what form it's going to take, and instrumentation

5. Check that the current key is the right key for whoever is going to sing it. This is a very important stage as there is nothing worse than changing key when you're halfway through the arranging stage

6. Begin coming up with the angle/approach for the missing parts of the song. I've usually come up with one section by now which I'm happy with, and lyrically I try and find something to complement that in the remaining parts

7. Tentatively start filling out the arrangement, trying to be not too specific with notes but big on 'vibe'. I find that if I arrange too early in the process when it comes to singing the song there can be too many distractions for the singer and ALSO clashes between music and voice which are MUCH easier to sort out once the singing is down

8. * Finish the whole song with sketch arrangement so that it is in a state where someone could come and sing on it immediately from beginning to end

9. Have the song sung/recorded (vocals only)

10. * Sort out all the vocals (Editing, choosing best takes etc)

11. Arrange and record whole rest of song (of course, this is a big bit)

12. * Mix the song so it is FINISHED and PLAYABLE to someone and in a good enough shape for them to 'get it'.

So, my problems don't lie with ideas, inspiration or lyrics. My problem lies with REALLY HARD WORK.

AS you can see, I get stuck at number 8 because I find that getting the right structure for a finished song REALLY HARD. You could actually say that 8 is the END of the songwriting, so that's why it is so difficult. Of course, stage 8 very often gets passed by if I have 75% of a song finished and want to hear what I've got already. But stage 8 is the one that comes back to haunt you.

Stage 10, sorting through vocals, well, sometimes I'm in the mood, sometimes I'm not. As I write this, I'm not. That's why I'm writing this and not sorting through 32 tracks of backing vocals.

Stage 12, mixing. Well. Sometimes I love mixing and can really get into it, sometimes I just can't. Mixing is the one stage of all of this which is a COMPLETELY different head space. If I go into mix mode my lyrical side has to be switched off, and I have to stop myself noodling around with words.

When I am mixing, I am more easily distracted that at any other part of the process.

Like right now. I should be mixing.

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I usually have the radio on in the car. Having the radio on makes me think one
of two things - A 'This song is terrible, I can do much better than that' or B 'This song is fantastic, how inspiring' - both outcomes make me want to go and write a song. Now you could say that having the radio on and driving is too much to deal with if you actually want part of your brain to float off and get creative, but personally I find that having the radio on is another reason for my mind to wander, it seems to help. For the first 10 minutes or so I find that I'm actually listening to the songs that are playing, but after that my mind wanders off regardless of what's on.

Last night this was all happening but I had the radio down fairly low and there was quite bad reception for some reason. There was some 'stuff' playing, can't even remember what it was.

I mis-heard the lyrics to lots of songs.

My brain was trying to fill in the gaps. I came up with a great hookline, which actually I thought I'd just heard being sung on the radio. When I got home and checked, it turned out I'd entirely mis-heard whatever it was and come up with something original.

From now on I'm going to play the radio quietly in my car. Perhaps I can mis-hear some more songs.

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However, make sure you always have a pen and paper or a recording device on you at all times, you never know when this inspired state may strike! The amount of times I've had apparently great ideas and forgotten them before I've got home as the bubble has burst and everything's got out of context.

Sometimes I'll absent-mindedly flick through the papers or a trashy novel just to see if something triggers off something. Listening to a talk radio program can do it, so of course can surfing around the net looking at all kinds of stuff.

If you're not inspired it's because you're in 'normal' state in my opinion, and you have to do as much as you can to get yourself into this heightened state. Sometimes those long walks, car journeys and even gym workouts can let your mind float off and find some new horizon - don't waste those thoughts, write them down - I don't go along with the old idea that 'If you can't remember it then it wasn't any good' - sometimes the old idea wasn't a great lyrical idea, but was a great idea just in itself, a place you can return to.

I always have a 'book' that I write in. There's always a 'current book' as the others get filled up. I go and choose a really nice different looking book each time I buy one, one that looks important and as if something interesting should be written in there. This helps me psychologically and helps me enter the bubble a bit easier. Each time I start a new book, I go through the last book and write down any lines or bits that I really like in the front of the new book, as well as any other ideas I've had.

The good thing about having a book is that you can follow your train of thought - I find this useful as sometimes the idea for the song is better than the way it's panning out - and if I have a strong idea for a song I can at least re-write it from scratch until I've found a way of writing it. Having song ideas on bits of paper makes it difficult to see how you felt at a particular time, a book serves also as a kind of diary of how your brain has been ticking over. Of course, there's ALWAYS times when you end up srcibbling lyrics on a post it note or a napkin in a restaurant, but when that happens I always try and stick or staple these spurious notes into my book at a relevant page.

Often I'll come up with an idea for a song but no lyric - and I write these down anyway so I can come back to them. Often these 'scenes' are locked in my head but I would never remember them without a written cue. 'Woman in car fed up with urban life wants to leave her husband but hasn't got the courage to leave so keeps going for drives to fictional friends houses before she comes back just to leave the house and pretend she's free' for instance. Sounds long? Yes, well, at least as soon as I read it I can go straight back to where I last was in my head and the way I felt about it, especially if there are some other thoughts and ideas scattered on the same page as I wrote those words.

When I'm in this bubble I'm not exactly great company.

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