I’m not exactly a prolific songwriter, but I’ve written enough songs now that I feel like I can tell you something about how I do this. Writing anything is usually a battle with myself. There are so many damn things out there to distract. I could be writing this but oh there’s this group text thread and oh shit did you see that dumb tweet, now I’ve got to dunk on that and get my 3 likes and what was I doing again? Oh right, writing, yes, I’ll do that and feel good but oh there’s my phone and I can just check a few scores and hey, how’s my fantasy basketball team doing, shit Russ got 8 turnovers, and oh right, I meant to read this obscure 90s comic book about how the Avengers got old and the Juggernaut had a kid and now he’s an Avenger and somehow Captain America is a star in the sky and I’m sure there’s something I should be doing now but what is it? Right! Writing! Shit! Well now it’s 11pm and really I should be brushing my teeth and getting ready to sleep and ah I guess I’ll write tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll find the time.
Ok so all that but with a melody that’s in your head but only for few minutes maybe or sometimes an hour if I’m lucky. I’m just battling myself to make sure it stays in there long enough for me to document it in some way – writing the chords in a note, recording myself humming a melody, playing it on a guitar. In this window of time, literally every other song that’s out there is my enemy because any one of them can bump this from my head before I’ve gotten it recorded.
Once it’s recorded in some way, then I’ve got to go back and figure out if the idea, and it’s always just a fragment, a piece of melody, maybe a chorus if I’m lucky, I have to figure out if that idea makes sense and can be something and is good. Sometimes the ideas are not good. Or worse, they already exist in someone else’s song and it’s really obvious. I have this great idea for a part of a song…..and so did Sam Cooke two decades before I was even born.
Now say the song idea is both original and worth fleshing out. This is rare, but it does happen. Now my brain is telling me “nope, you are not writing another song at the same time until you finish this one.” This is not conducive to being prolific. So I’m forced to finish this song. I hate being forced into anything so I will do all the things I mentioned in that first paragraph. It’s happening right now as I’m trying to write about writing. I just clicked over to a Facebook group about New Urbanism in Gainesville and opened a link to an article about affordable housing that’s making the rounds. What is wrong with me? I live in a time of distraction. Back to this, because being aware of it makes me embarrassed and that shame is going to drive me to finish this. The song will be finished eventually, but it’ll take time. Once the idea has a structure to it, the song starts to gain it’s own momentum. It must be finished so it will be finished. And at this point, oh god, it just needs to get out of my head. I hate the song already. And there’s something – lyrics, a bridge, some shift in chords – that’s keeping it from being done.
Reader, if you’ve stuck with me this long, let me describe to you a euphoria that only comes with a breakthrough. When I get that missing part of the song done, that one damn piece that’s been blocking everything out of the way, then I can tinker with it and that’s fun. And when the song that’s been blocking all the other songs is done, there’s this feeling of relief, of joy, of accomplishment, like hey, I actually wrote a song and holy crap it’s sort of catchy and I don’t actively hate it right now. I mean, I’m sure I’ll hate it later, but right now it sounds like Let It Be crossed with Communication Breakdown crossed with the greatest fucking song on Earth because it’s done!
And then the songs come tumbling out. Breaking the dam results in ideas flowing out, not necessarily in some order, but they’re there and that’s enough. By this point, I know well enough to be recording anything and everything because I have got to keep on this wave. If I stop, I’m back to square one of trying to get an idea out of my head. Hell, I’ll have to get an idea into my head. That might be harder.
So that’s one way of writing a song. There’s mercifully an easier way. Oh god, if the above was the only way, I would never write anything again. No there’s another way. It’s rare, but it’s so much easier that it feels like cheating. The song will come to me almost fully realized. Seriously. A whole damn song after all the stress of just getting a part, one part that’s original and not shit, and here is a whole song just done and ready to be recorded. It’ll feel so easy, and I’ll wonder if I should never stop writing. Let the damn thing flow, I’ll think. Melody, lyrics, even the structure all come out at the same time. I’ve heard people describe this as plucking songs out of the ether, a feeling like the songs are just out there waiting to be discovered by someone and that feels accurate. How else would I explain why some songs are so easy? That shit is magic. That shit is fleeting. If the song is done and it comes to me done, you better believe I’m recording that. I’m not letting it go. I’ve had it happen. I once wrote most of a song about Rey Sinsay when he was on a smoke break during a band practice. I wrote it originally for 56k, and when I was looking for songs for guerrilla monzón (back when we were calling it DreamTeam92 or PatRileys or some other basketball themed name), I went back to Rey, the song not the person, and listened to it with fresh ears and thought, well shit, there really ought to be multiple guitar solos in there and then even that came out freely. That song wanted to be written. Maybe I only had the illusion of control here. Maybe I was just a vessel for the song. It’s pretty funny to think of it that way, being a vessel for a song listened by so few people. Who cares? Why isn’t it always this easy?