Sunday, July 24, 2011
So here I am at Blackbird coffeehouse in Port Angeles, Washington. I’ve rented a cottage here in town for the summer – from now til October 4th actually.
I got out here 6 days ago – on Monday, July 18th, which I spent the evening unpacking and housekeeping and getting tidy. The next three days I spent going through the two songwriting files I have, reading through all the notes I have and re-listening to all the snippets of melodies and ideas I have. There’s a whole bunch form just this past year – but besides that I have the archive of stuff that dates back to 2001. I understand that for the most, going back over this old stuff is nothing more than an exercise – I don’t really think any of that old stuff will get used. But this has been my process for the past 3 records so it would feel like a great oversight and misstep – and just frankly a big jinx – to do it any other way.
And I also spent a day this week on my iTunes playing and singing along to all of my favorite country and honkytonk songs. What a great day that was. Refreshing, inspiring, and motivating!
I also got two new clients for Emerging Artist Resources this week – so I spent a couple of days doing the work for them.
Which was lucky because my checking account has got about $300 in it. Fortunately, I’m getting a payment his week from my US distributor, and am expecting one for my European distributor as well. Nothing like close calls :-) Ah, the glamour!
I had fully intended to be writing a daily update of the songwriting process. I haven’t for two reasons. One – it’s difficult to sit down and write about writing after you’ve spent the day writing. Two – when nothing concrete has yet come together, it’s as if there’s nothing to report. My boyfriend Steve, who is an essayist and novelist, often says to me that a huge of writing is sitting down at your desk and staring out the window. That said, there’s been a lot of staring. And a lot of list making.
I am coming at this record – which I intend to be traditional country/honkytonk record – the record I’ve always wanted to make – I’m coming at this one differently. Writing “songwriter” songs is just different than writing a trad country song and I really think – at least my gut tells me – that’s it’s going to be a different process.
My first task has been to come up with a) trad country melodies and b) strong titles. I’ve done a ton of reading the past six months about Nashville-style songwriting , the old-school kind – and I’m stealing many of those ideas. Principally: Writing from a title. Which is something I've rarely done in the past - You'll Do is the only one I can think of. At any rate, I’ve gone through all my notes and song snippets this week and have boiled that all down to a list of about 35 strong titles/ideas.
So today – I’ll write that list (which is currently on my computer) on a big piece of paper and tape that to a wall in the cottage and make a few notebook pages for each title/idea. For the actual writing I do much better with pen and paper so each song will need it’s own section of notebook. Getting all that organized and into place takes a while but it works very well for me.
As I begin to chip away at these, some will naturally rise to the top and begin to stand out as front runners. Those titles/ideas the get transferred to another list – the list which will closely resemble the final track list for the record.
Anyhow – before I start talking about it too much, it’s time to get back to work.
XO!
Rachel
