Songs, Life and Death Stuff

We tried on some new songs with our band at yesterday's rehearsal.  It's an interesting process.  Some songs immediately sound right out of the box, they come out almost fully formed and we all make choices in the moment that build upon the initial idea.  And the song sort of materializes right in front of all of us.  It can be really thrilling when it happens.

Other songs kind of clunk along, they are not yet ready, and they are sort of fighting to come into being.  You have to be careful not to judge too harshly in these early stages.  We've found that some songs take time to reveal themselves.  We have to try them on and kind of mess around with them a bit.

The messing around part can be sort of frustrating, but it's actually just part of the work.

Then there are some songs that just don't cut it.  If we have to work too hard to make them sound decent, well we might just be barking up the wrong tree.  Wrong song, wrong band.  And you need to just cut them, trash them, and bury them on the spot.

So the process is about listening. You come up with the initial burst of inspiration, and then you bring a cold eye and ear to it.  Either you honor and nurture the thing, or you just kill it.  It's actually life and death stuff. And it's play too.