Music work today as I start on the tracks for my first album of songs, with vocals by my friend Steven McLachlan who like me will be famous one day! The music is typically 80's retro sounding but there are other tracks too. Some of these date back to 2003 so I really need to get them out there. By chance, 80's retro is back in.
Music and painting are analogous. It's not how good the quality of the recording is, but the content that matters. Each song, like each painting, should evoke a feeling and have a meaning, and a song in my opinion should make it clear what it is about even if you can't understand the words. The opening track of this album for example, My Motorbike, has rock guitars that "zoom" past (in fact the entire song is just two chords; that even beats Status Quo). There is also a "rev it up" section of notes that descend and climb.
I have many techniques for writing lyrics but a common good one is to imagine a scene and describe it. I sometimes write lyrics and music separately, sometimes they both appear together in my head, but I usually modify each a bit until they both marry.
