8 Lines. That's all I managed to write in 4 hours....and yet it feels like a job well done.
Lyrics are different from any other form of writing. Of course you can take them casually and just write whatever comes to your mind. I have some favorite songs that are like that. But if you have something precise that you are trying to express and do it in the most powerful way you can, it's like an excavation, a deep dig into bedrock to uncover treasure.
Some songs are easier to write for than others. Some songs fit certain styles better than others. Some allow you to write how you are used to writing, while others demand something entirely different, and will fight against you if you come from the wrong angle or with the wrong tools equipped.
I like blogging because it's a free flow of consciousness. This is where I share the free flowing. Here in a blog form and jamming music live or with friends in a studio or at home.
But when I write a song, it's a much more precise process. I already have an outlet for free flowing ideas, I need a place to share the very best that I am capable of, and to channel very poignant feelings, to raise the hair on the back of necks, to pull the darkness out into the light, to let tears flow freely.
You dig for gold and other precious stones. Those are the melodies, both instrumental and vocal. Then you carve it into form, chip away to create a sculpture, those are the lyrics and the production. Some shapes are easier to create than others. The difficult shapes are the ones that expose corners of us that we didn't even know existed. Those are what I usually hope to create.
Sometimes I share my findings, the raw stone, because it's beautiful as it is, a rough idea that can pass as a song. Live shows are good for that. Sometimes I want to carve away for days or weeks until I feel I've crafted a near perfect specimen.
I don't know I was suddenly called to work on such things so soon after I thought I had decided not to bother with such perfectionist drives.
But after letting go of the self judgement and limitations I had set myself, the gems began to flow out of the earth faster than I could collect them. I found myself writing a song a day, in love with almost all of them. I could barely keep track of them after a month.
And so I felt the urge to slow down and to pay respect to these beautiful, powerful things I had discovered. And so the urge to strive towards perfection was reignited, this time without any baggage attached.
"Just go, see what happens!"
And so I spent all day yesterday writing 8 lines. In fact it was more like 16 lines, but half of them are likely not staying.
The first verse felt like digging through rock with my bare hands. It felt useless at first. And then after my hands were bleeding I got to soft clay; the first and second chorus just came out without any effort at all.
Interesting how it works like that. I was reminded by a friend here not to struggle, to just let it flow.
Easier said than done.
The reason things don't flow naturally is because something is standing in their way. Preconceived notions about what it is we are creating, our attachment to genre and some kind of vision we set out before the art had it's say, our insecurities, our fixations. These are not things we can just push aside.
That is why I liken the artistic process to healing. We become a vessel for something greater than us to flow through, and in order to carry something so pure and powerful, we'd do best if we cleaned everything up.
Not every artist does, and I imagine that is where the idea that people need to be unhappy to make good art comes from.
And so I guess the fastest way for me to finish those verses would be to clear my mind and sit with the music and stop trying so hard to finish them. Just enjoy what I have already and see what comes next. Maybe I'll end up scrapping the verses entirely. Maybe I'll hear a new instrument that will evoke some new inspiration.
It's very hard to do all this when you have other responsibilities, but there's no way I'm putting it off when I have a chance to do it now. I only have 4 hours to work on it right now, and I wasn't feeling it before so I spent the first two hours writing this and clearing my mind. Now it's time to go back. If nothing comes out, that's ok, but I want to give these songs at least a few hours of my time each day. That is the least I can do!
But I can say this...the song sounds amazing already!
We are just getting started though, the recording process is when the fine details get worked out, so we are barely halfway up the mountain for 1 of 10 songs.
Here is a music video from my first collection of songs "Sun Shone Blue" (by I+Everything), up on streaming platforms:
