songwriting talk

I love being up all night. Up. It's approaching 4 am and I am totally awake and at peace. I have to take a moment and be thankful when that happens. Maybe I should just enjoy it because it's not always like that obviously and it's the kind of thing you don't wanna jinx or over think. It reminds me of a conversation i had tonight about songwriting. Steve Wall and I just close to finished a tune today in the studio. It was a fantastic experience working together today. The tune we worked on is one that I've had burning in me for years. It never found it's true place until today, I feel. The essence was always there, alive and well, but it was the arrangement that needed a make over.

We spoke about how important the arrangement of a song is. The "trimming of the fat" is really the thing that allows the truth and essence of a song shine forth. It's that feeling you get when you write something down that you just know is from your heart and true. You have to protect those things that aren't tattered by any outside force or overcompensated for with technique or flash. For me lately it just been trying to find the most honest lyric, no matter how simple. I wish I could be super witty, deep and crafty, but the real shit is when it's from experience and the heart. That's tough to get! There's a place for drum solos and smoke and exciting, rhythmic rhymes and production tricks. Those things are no different than blowing crazy bebop licks over some vamp. Those things aren't any less valuable than the essence of a song. It is all music as long as it's honest, but, an essence of a song can stand without those thing, naked. Sometimes I will come back to a phrase and it will just send a chill through me. I know it still has life. It needs to be nurtured just like anything living before it can grow. When you are able to capture that feeling throughout the course of an entire song, and keep the original seed at it's core......yes. It's a part of you. A place you can always return to. It's an extension of you and representation of a point in time in your life.

Music is that escape for us. Whether it is ours or someone Else's, it will conjure up a memory that will warm us, prick us, and bring us back to that place or that emotion. I live for that. Sometimes I think I like to go back inside of music too much! Music will pull the rug out from under me and leave my insides empty feeling some old hurt or regret. Music will remind me of love! Music will allow me to open up to something brand new. Sometimes I find it hard to adapt to new things and accept new sounds, but it is so rewarding to be able to discover something fresh. These days see us up and down. peace