NOTE: Casey is one of my music writing partners in BHP.   Like Jim, who wrote one of our articles yesterday, Casey has agreed to let me use some stuff he’s written in the past, and he plans on writing some new articles as well.   If you enjoy what I write here, you’ll definitely enjoy what those two have to say as well.

This is one of those posts originally written for a BHP blog..  It was written about a year ago.     – Jason

Anyone who is married can attest that the more you commit to it, the more enjoyment you get out of it. I’ve found this to be true as well.

It’s the same way with music. The allegory of being married to one’s band mates notwithstanding, I’ve found that the more I am committed to the process of writing, the more productive I’ll be and the more enjoyment I get out of it. And let’s be honest, it’s crucial to be able to enjoy the music you are involved with. Otherwise it’s a sad and colossal waste of life to be in a band with any other end result.

Although BHP is not a band in the strictest sense, as we do not rehearse or gig, we do need to commit time and energy toward crafting our tunes. Otherwise they don’t get written and it becomes the whole sad and colossal waste… Sometimes pushing oneself even to do things one enjoys (songwriting, for example) is necessary. It’s not drudgery as it would seem at first. Always be mindful to push through the times where you may not be as inspired or when ideas don’t come as easy. It works. Giving yourself that extra push once in a while keeps you afloat and in the game. I’ve learned this with lyric writing in the past couple of months. I’ve written more lyrically in 2 months than ever.

Of course, knowing that you’ve got committed band mates helps too. As a musician, you may have been (may be) in a band where you are pulling most of the weight somehow. First, do not panic. Realize that most musicians are flakes (there, I’ve said it). But realize too that if you’ve got the fire to write and perform your own stuff, then you deserve to be with other musicians who have the fire to commit as well. Otherwise, you guessed it, sad and colossal waste of time!

I’ve been lucky the past ten years. I’ve been privileged enough to be in two bands that are committed and it’s made all the difference for me as a musician. It’s encouraged me to be committed and helped me enjoy the music so much more. Even today with my BHP group, I have that.

Commit to your music. You deserve the satisfaction of enjoying an end result. Your music deserves the commitment as well.

-Casey

I tend to get myself involved in a lot of musical projects.  My plate is always full when it comes to music… perhaps too full sometimes… but I would never have it any other way.  I’ve been in several bands over the years, and I’ll probably talk about them at some point since I really learned very different stuff about writing music from each one.  I’ve also done a lot of temporary projects… recording with friends, helping to write a song here and there, being my dad’s studio band for songs he’s written,  arranging and performing songs for my church, as well as the countless things I’ve gotten into by myself over the years.  Musically I am all over the place, and because of that I’ll probably use a lot of my stuff as examples in this blog.

Today, though, I just wanted to mention my current songwriting team:  Blair-Hannah-Payne, or BHP as we tend to call ourselves more often.

I don’t really call us a “band”, because we don’t perform, and there are only three of us (who all take on multiple roles).  BHP is made up of James Blair, me (Jason Hannah), and Casey J. Payne.  The three of us were in a band together called Force That Binds from the very end of 1999 until September of 2001.  During that time, the three of us were the songwriting core of the band.  We wrote a total of about 20 songs during that time.  Although I had dreams of being a “rock star”, songwriting was really what drove the three of us.  We would often get together outside of band practice just to trade our new ideas.

After those days together, Jim and I stayed in bands together for another couple of years.  Even after our bands folded, though, we kept writing together, doing things called “Audio Challenges” to keep us being creative.  (Audio Challenges will eventually be a part of this blog, once the number of readers gets high enough).  Audio Challenges were when we would set up a set of rules for a song, give each other a time limit, and we’d each try to be as creative as possible while we made a song that followed those rules.

After a while, though, we ended up getting back into contact with Casey.  The three of us decided to do some writing together, and as of February of 2009 we decided to make it a permanent group.

Our first complete project together was the 2009 RPM Challenge.  Just a side note:  To anyone reading this that is interested in pushing themselves musically, take part in the next RPM Challenge this coming February.  You are supposed to write and record an album from scratch, and all the work (ideas and everything) have to happen in February.  It’s not a contest, and you won’t win anything, but if you complete it, you’ll have something you can be proud of.

After the RPM, we decided to keep pushing forward with our writing, and have since completed another album as well as a 3 song EP.

BHP, a lot like me personally, is all over the place musically.  We don’t really define ourselves within a genre, which is easy for us since we’re not trying to be a performing band, and we don’t really have to consider what an audience would be interested in.

You can check out all the songs we did for the RPM Challenge (the album name was Fallen They Be), as well as our second full length (The Door), and our EP (Gardens of Tomorrow) at AloneTone.  Go to http://alonetone.com/BHP/ to hear all of it.

Then drop me a comment to let me know what you think!