Going back to some writing and recording!

[Vito Corleone]

Which I haven't done for years.  But our young female vocalist, Sarah, is of the belief that she has some industry people "interested" in her and she's asked the drummer and myself to help her write some songs.   Says she wants to do "country-rock" and sees herself as a female Kid Rock.

Well, my advanced age and music-business experience has left me much too jaded to even pretend to get excited about any of that, but she's only 22 and I don't want to dash any of her hopes and dreams so I'll just keep my mouth shut and have fun with the project.

So what's in it for me?   Worst case scenario:

• The chance to write some songs with my drummer, which we've talked about doing for years but never really had enough of a reason to bother to take the time to do so.
• I'll get some experience on the new home studio/DAW stuff I have set up in my new house.
• I'll really enjoy working on this stuff with Sarah and helping her develop her talent and get to pretend to play "producer" for awhile.

Best case scenario?  Sarah will move on to do some bigger and better stuff and I'll get to know I had a part in helping her get there.   Who knows....maybe we'll get super-duper lucky and land a track on her first album.  (haha!)

What will the material be?  Well, since the drummer and I are both old 80s rockers, I think we'll just try to come up with some catchy 80s power-pop/big-hair rock type numbers and let Sarah's voice carry the 'country' bit.   And, of course, lyrics about drinking beer and driving pickups.   I don't think we're gonna be re-inventing the wheel here, but we'll let the music take us where it takes us.

I'm excited about putting some time in writing again.   But I've never been able to write much without having a specific goal in mind.  I've never been a "the stuff is just flowing out of me" type of artist.  More of a "give me a deadline and I'll come up with some decent material" sort of craftsman.   But the process is always challenging and (usually) fun nonetheless.

[Old Fart Rocker]

Good for you. Go have some fun. The fact that you have some partners and a reason to do it makes it even more fun.

 

I really enjoy the creative process of writing songs. I've always enjoyed having a writing partner. I'm more of a big picture, come up with a good idea, kind of writer. My friend who I write with is more organized and detail oriented. It's a perfect match. He takes my ideas and organizes them into concise songs. He also writes good lyrics which I can't do to save my life.

 

We haven't gotten together and written anything new in about a year. Hearing your story has kinda put the bug in me to track some ideas I've had floating around in my head. Thanks for the inspiration!!

[Vito Corleone]

Cool! Glad to be some inspiration!

Yeah, I'm kind of the opposite of you.  I'm more the organization guy.   My drummer is great with broad ideas and lyrics; I'm good with melodies and chord/song structure.   Many times we've been fooling around at rehearsal or soundcheck and I'll start playing a riff and he'll jump in with a beat and lyric and before you know it we've got something that sounds pretty damned good.  And then we say "we need to get together and finish that up!" and then we never do and the idea is forgotten....   But we're a good match, for sure.

Having a reason to flesh these ideas out more will be great.  And I just think Sarah is so dang talented that I can't wait to see where she helps take the material as well. 

Should be a fun way to spend the slow winter season, if nothing else!

[Chicken Monkey]

Super cool.  I've hoped an opportunity like that would fall in to my lap.