Writing

THE UNIQUE FACTOR

So the unique factor is me. That means that when I sit down (or stand up) to write, I'll use my own voice. That might sound stupid, but it's a fact that most singers instinctively pretend to be American. Why, for god's sake? Apparently, even most Americans don't sing with their own voice.

And yet the surges of musical creativity that come along now and again in popular music are nearly always spearheaded by people singing with their own voices.

I'll leave you to squabble over the examples and the exceptions. The point is that if I sing in my own voice, I start to find the musical traditions that shaped me coming through, including scottish folk music and church music, all mixed in with American jazz and blues and British rock.

THE SONG COMES FIRST

In my experience, most popular music begins its musical life as either a section of melody or an instrumental riff or groove. In the band setting, that means the singer comes up with a tune, and the band then supplies the arrangement, or the band comes up with a riff (or chord sequence or whatever) and the singer puts a tune on top.

For me, the riff/groove as starting point is a slippery slope. A good riff in a hypnotic groove doesn't need anything else - just some sneaky dynamics and hours of fun tweaking the hi-hats. I can listen to this sort of stuff for hours. When the vocal finally does get written it usually sounds exactly what it is - an afterthought.

GOOD SONGS HAVE AN INTERNAL DYNAMIC

A good pop song should be able to work without any arrangement. That's obvious, but what's less obvious is that a good song should drive you from section to section even with nothing more than the voice and a little harmony. The verse should take hold of you and push you into the bridge; the bridge should grab you and rush you into the chorus and (if I'm not too late with this metaphor) the chorus should lift you right up to the top of the rollercoaster before dumping you right back into the verse again.

If the arrangement is doing all the work to achieve this, with ever bigger production, then maybe it's a weak song. If the song has the right dynamics and the arrangement goes with it, the results can be terrifying.

STRUMALONGAJIMMY

Although I'm going to write the songs using only an acoustic guitar, the songs must sound as if they were written for a band to play. I never got the singer/songwriter thing and don't usually like bands who sound like they're just strumming along with the singer.

Having said that, I've sung the same song with an acoustic guitar and with a seven piece band and had more audience feedback from the acoustic version, so...