NOTE: This is something that I wrote a little over a year ago regarding getting started with writing music with BHP. At the time we had just began an official “schedule” of writing, and had just recently decided to become a permanent songwriting trio. We were just starting our batch of songs that became our CD called “The Door“, and we had just come off finishing a disc for the 2009 RPM Challenge called “Fallen They Be“. I think the topic I talked about in this article will be of some interest to the readers of this blog.
•March 18, 2009
When Jim and I started writing songs nearly 10 years ago together, we approached everything from a “live band” point of view. There’s nothing wrong with that… after all, we were writing songs for a live band. We were writing with the intention to play them in front of people first, and worry about how to make recordings sound good second. Every time one of us wrote a guitar riff, we’d instantly start thinking about what the other one was going to play on top of it. It was our goal to write parts that sounded full with two guitar parts, and occasionally a keyboard part.
The two of us wrote a lot of music for FTB when Casey was writing with us. When Casey left, and we were writing for Al Flemming, and later Greg Brink, we were writing ALL of the music. When we tried starting post-FTB bands on a couple of occasions (a band called Solidify being the one we got closest to getting up and running), we were again writing all of the music. Besides the numerous songs we finished with each singer, we had piles and piles of unused music. We did A LOT of writing together.
Here we are, over 6 years since I’ve been in any form of the band FTB, and I still have a tendency to want to write like I’m writing for a performing band. It’s a hard habit to break. I’ve forced myself to break it often, but it still feels so natural that I have to make a conscious effort to not trap myself inside the “band” box. It’s become easier over the years when I’m writing for my own personal music projects to not think like that (obviously, because I’m playing ALL of the parts in those projects), but as soon as I get together with Jim and Casey, those old habits want to come back.
What’s the difference? Well, in my mind, the difference between writing for a live band, and writing just to write is unbelievably huge. When writing for a band, we have to keep from writing too many parts (because there has to be someone available to actually play the parts), but we also have to worry about not writing enough parts (performers don’t want to stand for too long at a time without doing anything). When writing only for the sake of the song, we’re much more free to do what’s right for the overall sound. If one part of the song needs 4 guitar parts and 3 keyboard parts, that’s what we put in. If another part needs keys and no guitars, that’s what we do.
I think doing the RPM challenge last month helped push me further in the right direction. We worked on songs so quickly that there wasn’t time to worry about who had enough parts every song and who didn’t. There were songs on the RPM album that I didn’t even play guitar on. There were songs that Jim didn’t play on. There were two songs that Casey didn’t record anything on. Yet all three of us walked away from the project very happy with every song that the group finished.
Now, a month later, as we are working on a huge collection of songs for a CD (or perhaps even a CD set?!?) that will be finished in the last week of June, I finally find myself more relaxed about “parts”. It seems crazy, but this might be the first time musically I’ve worked with other people and not really been concerned with making sure we have the right number of parts, and making sure the right people play each part.
It’s a liberating feeling.
-Jason
I always write just for the sake of writing. I can say that I’ve never written anything just for performance reasons.
Some songs I’ve done cool stuff with that’d be difficult to perform live, but I’m more than satisfied with them.
And all of this as a young teenager.
(:
Katie, it’s awesome to hear from young people putting effort into their songs.
I actually was not into songwriting until I was in a band, so I think that shaped my own outlook on music as a young age. My first songs came from a need of me being in a band and we needed something to play!
My first songs came from feelings and emotions I needed to get out.
I guess I’ve always been a storyteller kind of person, so I try to intrigue the listener–which is kind of like thinking about performing–but I stay true to myself and what I want.
That’s very cool. I tend not to be very emotional sometimes, which I think is a disadvantage when it comes to songwriting.