The current tear continues.
I had felt a little “dry” after the publishing frenzy of the last month or so. It’s undoubtedly true that I posted some older songs, but I’ve now completed five new songs in four week. Five songs from conception, through tracking, to mastering. Oh, and I also edited, remixed and mastered the older songs.
Then I started playing with the Reason Chord Sequencer, which is a neat tool for non keyboard people like me. Pick a genre, then a style within that, then start pressing the big round buttons. I wanted to use some unusual chords, so I selected “Jazz & Fusion”, and then “Bright Modern”, and hey presto – some very interesting tones I wouldn’t have easily have found by myself. The result was a song, unsurprisingly called “Bright Modern” (OK, so I failed on originality there, but maybe it’s better than “Bravo Mexico”!)
From there on, the juices flowed. I found neat Dr. REX loops for drums, and bass, and that got me writing a bridge, chorus and middle eight. As I’m a sucker for strings, I added some cello, violin and viola parts. Once I had those, I went back and edited the drums, added another drum loop with a little more action and noise on top, and then tracked a real bass that took its inspiration from the loop in the verse, but then went tonto in the bridge, chorus and middle eight. After that, I recorded some guitar with my Tele, through a really sweet sounding Helix preset (“Bentique” if you’re interested, which is based on a Dr. Z Route 66 amp that I don’t own.) The tone was pretty natural, but it really cut through the rough mix, and suggested the kind of riffs and licks I had to play. The general feel was Steely Dan, and somewhat jazzy. Appropriate I guess, given the chord palette.
We’re all different when it comes to writing, but I know I’m not unusual in being driven by chords or tones, and the great thing about the tools we have today, is that we have so many quick ways of trying out sounds, sketching ideas etc., and that inspiration, even on the dryest day, is a few clicks away. That’s not to say that it’s easy: sometimes getting everything to pull together is hard and frustrating, but that effort can trump the ideas that come too easily. The pros I know are pretty unanimous – you have to seek out inspiration.
In the age of the internet, I’m always a little skeptical about the origins of quotes, but this quote (attributed to Picasso) says it all:
“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”
I cried when I wrote this song 