Lounge chamber pop songwriter • arranger • keyboardist
Do more songs come from sitting down and working out your craft or from a flash of inspiration?
I’d say that in order to have what I would call a “successful” song, it has to be a combination of both. Some times the initial idea I have comes in a flash of inspiration and then I work out the particulars in a more methodical way. Other times, it happens the exact opposite way. I’m most happy when I can find a balance between the two – and when the work that goes into crafting a piece flows seamlessly from the original idea.
Tell me about a “happy accident” in one of your songs.
My most favorite kinds of songwriting “accidents” occur when the chord structure, lyrics, etc, come at the most unexpected times. One particularly memorable time occured while I was teaching a guitar lesson. I was trying to demonstrate that a chord can be any combination of three or more notes, be it a harmonious or dissonant combination. I strummed on some chord that my fingers randomly shaped and I hit on a sound that I knew within an instant I could write an entire song around. I made sure to remember that chord, and since that time I’ve actually written two songs with that chord voicing in mind, that’s how taken with it I was!
What’s your biggest songwriting peeve?
Oh lord! I could write an entire book about all my songwriting peeves! I guess my biggest peeve about songwriting is when I can’t wrap my head around WHY someone would go through the trouble of writing a particular song. As far as I see it, you’re either placing an emphasis on the sound/chords/arrangement, or on the lyrical aspect. There are plenty of artists whose approach, sound ideal, or lyrical content I don’t agree with, but can respect because it obviously comes from a personal vision. Of Montreal is an example of one such group. What I can’t stand is when everything about a song is so absolutely banal, that there seems to be no reason as to why the person wrote it. To me it comes off as thoughtless, useless, and in the end, wasteful. I would like SOMETHING of someone’s personality in a song, no matter whether it’s abrasive or beautiful.
Can you explain the process you went through to create your featured song?
I wrote this song (“Misty Valley”) with the intention that it would be the first piece on my second solo record, On Holiday. I had a bunch of little things in mind about it: I had a vague idea that I wanted a surf-y guitar part that jumped near an octave, that I wanted the bridge (or chorus) melody to stick to one note while the harmony moved around it, and lastly that it needed to be upbeat and intriguing enough to be a first track. All these ideas coalesced while I was messing around on the piano, and wrote the initial 4 bar chord progression that it centers around. The chord progression was just the right backdrop for all of these ideas, and after finding the frame it was easy to arrange and conceive the entire piece.
Listen to the featured song!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
