Hammering away with difficulty on an early track for Burn of God called I, Infinity (which won't be the final title). I realised last night that most of my albums, those that have an overall theme or narrative as opposed to those that are compilations of tracks, take the form of an image-driven journey. Each track on Synaesthesia, or The Spiral Staircase or The Love Symphony conjures images which unfold, one to the next, to tell a story. Although I always knew this on some level, the realisation was something of a revelation because I use this method to create ideas when writing and haven't thought about an image-centred way of composing music.
This has, in some ways, already helped with Burn of God, but it's not easy because I suddenly have more forces to juggle; the message, the feeling, the image narrative, the musicality and the musical structures. All of these battle each other, there are no right answers. As such, the day, like the week, has been frustrating.
I, Infinity is a simple enough rock song, similar to Coming Back to Earth from The Modern Game but it is too simplistic for my tastes. Any song with two parts is too simple; I find music needs three that can interplay. More than three can sound too busy, and less is too little material. These structural problems are easily solved, but I need to map out the overall message for the album. It feels messy to have so much complete and so many fragments without even that basic start. I feel I'm working backwards and inefficiently. Perhaps it would be easier to throw it away and start with something new, and I've thought that so many times over the past year, then I re-listen to what is there and conclude that it is worth pursuing.
Creative problems always need rational solutions; lists of faults to correct and methods to correct them. I feel I'm overthinking some aspects. I merely need to assimilate a list of themes and ideas, a list of musical styles and moods, then let the full structure appear by itself from this magical fog.
