I'm on creative fire at the moment and writing and producing lots of songs. My goal in all art is to be better than I've done before, and work at things until I manage this. With these songs this is already the case, but they will take many weeks. I work a lot, make a lot, for this reason. The speed of improvement is proportional to the quantity made. I won't compromise and rush things out, unless an urgent deadline demands it.
I've spent a lot of today on the production of the 'Stay Inside Got To Hide' song (it probably won't be called this, there is no hook line despite many good lyrics). The songs uses acoustic guitar so I've played a few more loops and worked on the sound. The panning caused consternation; I decided to pan the guitar quite hard right but have an echo on the far left, but this still sounded a little too strong on the right ear. No vocals recorded for any song so far, but the production on all of them is marching on.
I started the production of a new song called Passive Aggressive which is swung and very bluesy and jazzy. At first the drums were all jazz 3/4 time, but I pulled them back to rock and roll. The general sound of the song is something like Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love, with nods to Jailhouse Rock, All Shook Up and that sort of song, but my melody is more minor and sinister. I have an idea of using an acoustic chord on the word 'Passive', and electric chord on 'Aggressive'.
I must remember the dramatic tension and key feeling - this is always the vital element in any artwork: painting, music, poetry. When you experience it, it should move you instantly - you must think 'wow'. Of course, this is every artists' goal. Listening to George Harrison's 'Something' today reminded me that this song has exactly this. Beethoven's 5th Symphony or Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D-minor has it too.
This evening I've written another song, a tribute to Paul McCartney. Perhaps the watching a recent John Lennon documentary of Sky Arts has done this but The Beatles keep coming into my head.
