Songwriter

Bits n' Pieces, Pt. 2

2011-05-26T21:48:00.000-07:00

St. Peter*

Verse: G, Am, C, G (???????????)
Chorus: Am, C, G (????????????)

V1: The last thing I remember,
was my whole world upside down
Both my arms was broken
my blood pooled on the ground.
My friends stood by in silence,
hung their heads in shame.
Then the villains all cried heretic
and put a curse on my name.

*This is a rough, rough beginning to a song about St. Peter. The idea behind the song is that St. Peter is sick of watching the pearly gates, because after all these years he's feeling like a glorified doorman. I don't know if I'm entirely happy with the music, but it is providing me something to the story through. I'm interested to see where it goes.

Bits n' Pieces, Pt. 1

2011-05-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

Keelhauled*

Capo 2
Verse: G, B7, Em
G, B7, C
Chorus: F,C, Dm, Am
F, C, Am

V1:Knocked the wind right outta my sails
and the shore's too far to swim.
The Captain and First Mate have gone away,
and I feel my devils closing in.

Saltwater beading beneath my eyes,
the morning winter hugs my bones.
With shadows growing longer on the broken mast,
I think the end is coming on.

CH:And the sharks circle 'round
with their eyes dark as coal,
and I don't know where their teeth been.
It was just one slip, to wreck this old ship
and now I'm keelhauled again.

V2:Timber is creaking.
Timber is cracked.
We just lost it all
on a sea-swept heart attack.

The brine's stretching for miles
like mountains above the planes
Sun's baking my shoulders red
and we aint had water in days.

(Repeat Chorus)

BR: But there's an albatross
on the old captain's cross
keeping the sirens at bay.
And the truths passed on
from fathers to sons
will always compass their way.

*This is a rough draft of a song about my grandparents.

Everyday Conversations

2011-05-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

I had a friend once tell me that in the time it took him to have a conversation on the phone with an ex-girlfriend, he had written most of a song in his head based on said girl and the themes of that conversation. To me, this alone doesn't necessarily make a great songwriter--although this friend is an amazing songwriter*--but it does make a songwriter all the same; that is, the ability to focus on the ordinary or everyday, and somehow find the common threads of human experiences, and in turn pull those single or multiple threads into a lyrical narrative, that at least one person can relate to.

Ninth grade English focuses significantly on building blocks or foundations of Literature, Poetry, and Drama. A key component is imagery, or language that appeals to one or more of our five senses, and I'm finding that I try to use imagery more and more in my writing. Rather than just saying, "It's cold outside," I try to work something in about how the cold feels, smells, tastes, sounds, or looks like. Tom Waits once sang, "It's colder than a well-digger's ass". Now unless you're familiar with well-diggers and their profession (and I don't know how many people are), this simile is hard to grasp; however, given that it's Tom Waits uttering this phrase, you have to believe that he knows what he's talking about. The idea is that Waits isn't just saying that it's cold, he's showing exactly how cold it is.

Lately, I've been pulling simple words from regular conversations that I have or hear throughout the day and try to build a songs when I can. This can be frustrating, as I'm beginning to find pads of paper with random lines written here and there, but I do know that songs will pop up or surface. Perhaps, these songs won't come directly from everyday conversations, but they may be inspired by them. Thanks for reading.

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YHfgdlGhhU

Shutting Off the Influences

2011-04-06T22:16:00.000-07:00

Delicately plunking pianos and trickling guitars make introductions like old friends meeting new friends over heady drinks, warm supper, and deep conversations, inviting us to travel in and out of towns, on highways and coastal roads, back through different seasons, to different times, to look through the eyes of strangers, friends, heros, villains, and everyday people.

“Lost, Stolen, and Strayed”, is the first album by North Bay singer-songwriter B.C. Fitzpatrick, and it is quite simply an amazing record from start to finish. The music is sparsely intricate and provides a solid bedrock for Fitzpatrick's river-deep lyrics.

This leads me to the topic of this post: how influences shape my songwriting and my internal struggle to shut them off.

I listen to music throughout the day...on my way to and from work, before and in between classes, during my prep period, and in the afternoon and evening at home. I'd like to say that I have eclectic tastes and that I can "dig" all kinds of music, but I can't. I listen to a lot of the same stuff over and over again. It's almost as if I've become so familiar with certain songwriters, bands, or groups (yes, there are distinctions), that I put their stuff on before all else, because it's like having a friend sitting next to you; they're not always good friends, though. Sometimes, they become the annoying friend constantly telling me about their problems, but even that's okay, because I have problems too; they may not be listening, but through the music, I know they have experienced something similar to me. But, this connection can become troublesome during the songwriting process. How?

When I sit down to write songs, I have the styles of different songwriters lounging on the front of my mind, and it's usually the songwriter I had just been listening to most recently. There I am, guitar in hand, paper in pen in front of me, tape recorder to my right, and I sit there trying with all my might to write a song just like whoever it is I've been listening to. This invariably results in a mediocrity; rather than creating an original tune, written in my voice, I've produced a watered down version of someone else's style. This leads to frustration, and identity crises, as I frantically scramble to make some sense of just what in the hell I'm doing.

For example, four years ago, I wrote a song called "Sparrows". It was an end-of-a-relationship type of song, with pastoral and city imagery used to explain the various stages of that relationship (this is what it was like at first, this was how it was in the middle, and this is the end and we'll see what happens) set to a raucous country shuffle strum in the key of G. I was happy with this song, and I kept playing it for a number of years, even though though words had lost some of their significance for me. It was a lively tune, and frankly I felt there was stuff in the words people could relate to, or at least try to ponder for awhile. Over the past year, I've really gotten into the songwriting of Josh Ritter, so much that I started trying to write songs like him, both musically and lyrically. So one Friday night at the open mic I took "Sparrows" and removed the country shuffle and added what I thought was "Josh Ritter Strumming". What resulted was some kind of bastardized 90's acoustic rock number. It went over o k a y (and here you have to imagine me moving my hand back in forth indicating so-so), but it didn't feel right to me, and this is more important than anything. What's the point in writing and playing songs that don't feel right, that don't express what you had intended?

After this debacle I truly attempted to let go and write in my voice, and not get so hung up on trying to write or not write like any other songwriter.

I recently cleaned off our sun porch and created a space for music. I sit on an old dog-worn futon, which assured was nice at one time or another, and pick or strum different things out on guitar, and hum or sing over the music. After listening to B.C. Fitzpatrick's record a number of times, I felt influenced, but more importantly I felt inspired. Immediately, I started work on two new songs. One song is about St. Peter and how he has become increasingly disgruntled over the fact that he is a glorified doorman. I was enjoying the music that was working itself out, but then had a moment of panic as I realized the chord progression sounded familiar to another song. I forced myself to get past this, as I've come to realize that given how long music has been around, songs are bound to sound like other songs; it's unavoidable. So I pushed through and now I think I have something solid I can work with. For the second song, I combined past efforts...the music from one song and the lyrics from another; the two meshed together and again I have something steady to stand on. This song is poignant, in that I'm discussing the loss of my grandparents and the effect it has had on my family, using the theme of a shipwreck far out at sea.

I'm pleased with the work I've put in and I'm going to keep working until these songs are done. Hopefully, I can post some rough tracks when they are completed. More to come. As always, thanks for reading.

Initial Thoughts

2011-03-27T23:32:00.000-07:00

Recently I became a father.

My daughter Evelyn was born just a little over two months ago, and I am amazed at how quickly she grows and changes. She's gotten so big in such a short amount of time, and her personality develops and shines a little bit more as each day passes. Needless to say, this has changed my life tremendously. Now, this little girl and her well-being land in front of everything else, whereas before it was all about me; that is, I wasn't some selfish egotistical individual, but rather I identified as just "me"...a son, a brother, a boyfriend, a coach, a beer enthusiast, a musician/songwriter, an avid reader...just a regular guy. Now, I first-and-foremost identify as a father. This comes before all else, and I love every minute of it. Sure, I am tired by the end of the day and lately work has given me more than a few headaches, but I know that I have my daughter, my girlfriend, and my dogs waiting for me when I get home; this makes it better...this makes it all worth it.

Because we have a couple of months under our belts we have restored some normalcy to the day-to-day, and the unoccupied parts of my mind have drifted back to music. I've been playing guitar off-and-on since I was in the 6th grade, and it's one of my biggest passions. Everything seems better with a guitar in hand. I played in the odd bands during high school and this is when I began "dabbling" in songwriting, though I would not necessarily call them songs. Lyrically, it was the usual high school crap, and musically I tried to copy whatever pop punk/ska stylings I could.

When I moved to Santa Rosa in the summer of 2002, everything changed.

I made the move to go to school (Santa Rosa Junior College, GO BEAR CUBS!), and play football. Needless to say, school and football occupied a most of time, but I always found time to play guitar and listen to music. My skills had not improved at all. I liked barre chords A LOT, and could play the minor pentatonic scale but could not make the notes connect across the fret board; lyrically, I was writing the same high school stuff, but tougher because I threw in cuss words. That makes songs more bad-ass, right? Something snapped/broke/morphed on an evening that began with Winner's Cup Vodka. I was a sheet to the wind at my house when two friends asked me to go with them to hear a band that their friend had just joined. I hemmed and hawed for 20 minutes and finally relented; this turned out entirely beneficial. The band we saw was John Courage (named after the frontman) and they floored me. It was Rock n' Roll. It was Blues. It was Country. It was Soul. It was a little "Hey, let's dance," while simultaneously being "I'm gonna kick your ass". Like a true Drooling Fanatic*, I approached the frontman, exclaiming "YOU GOTTA PLAY A SHOW AT MY HOUSE!" He said okay, and that was that, or history, or whatever. The point is, John inspired me to want to write better songs, and I've been half-heartedly devoting myself to the craft ever since. I learned about many different kinds of music, and many different songwriters, and this has slowly shaped my life in music. I've written a few good songs, and a lot of bad songs, but I guess this is what it takes.

Recently, I've started playing the local open mic. It's a good environment, but a little young (I think I've seen some of my students there), and I've learned a few things: 1) Napa's music scene is dismal; if you're not a smooth jazz or dad rock/blues outfit, you got nothing 2) I can't stand any of my old songs [even the newer old songs (written within the last two years)] 3) Cover songs are fun to play, and please the crowds, but are not as fulfilling as originals. So I've decided to bring some focus to my writing; that is, I want to actively write songs to perform and record, and I think I've made a good start. I keep a myriad of notebooks around. I have two moleskine** notebooks (pocketsized & standard) as well as scraps of paper and throwaway pads in my truck. Anytime a particularly interesting line hits me, I write it down, and I hum melodies when I can. I think this is going to be good. I think I have the potential to be good. I don't know if I can make a career out of this, and I don't know yet if I want to. I mean, if I didn't teach, I would probably work construction like my old man, but I suppose the ideal would be to make a living off writing and playing music. But, this won't happen unless I put some love and effort into it. I will use this blog to chronicle my journey...the triumphs and tribulations, thoughts, lyrics...basically anything relating to my life as a songwriter. More to come soon. Thanks for reading.

*(http://www.stevenalmond.com/)
**(http://www.moleskine.com/)