A Song A Day For A Year

My time in Sheeptown - has once again - come to an end. University has reintroduced me to the social wilderness that is life, so home became more than another port-of-call for me this time round. Nonetheless, I have missed the life I lived in Winchester. There is nothing quite like making a fish finger sandwich at 4am then writing a blog about it, that and songwriting, which is kind of what I do, yunno to fill the gaps.

Last week I decided to set myself the challenge of writing one hard-rock song every day for a week. This was so when my band - These Are Teeth - begin writing again in April, I will have material ready. Well, I wrote six songs, the seventh unfortunately fell on gig day (which means I am mondo busy) and so the patience and stamina required to write one of these songs was lurking somewhere in space. Either way the challenge was hard, restrictive and showed me I had a lot to learn.

But that’s enough recap, time to tell you bout the songs.

Day 22 - Life?

Now the second I got back to Uni I was pretty much out the flat before even my milk was put away. The cold and the somewhat supernatural fog that floats through Winchester was refreshing after being away so long, and after a quick visit to a special someone I began noodling away at ideas.

My heavy head was off, back was the mellowness that had graced my more favoured songs of the past weeks. However my eagerness to see people overthrew my songwriting need so I put it off and went for a few beers with my good mate Grant.

After creative talks with Grant (living Wikipedia) India (harmony Queen) and Sam (likes to wear bathrobes in public) we decided it would be cool to write the song as a group. We had Pringles, we had energy, we were ready.

With ‘Life’ the process was more interesting than the outcome in my opinion. We passed round the notepad writing a line each, myself editing bits along the way. The result is this kind of folk/love story which me and India sang. A nice way to start a new semester.

Day 23 - Pretty Bloody Ugly Girl

Pretty Bloody Ugly Girl, cool title right? Produced by none other than my Aunt, who is as wacky as they come. Inspired the night before by a Jason Mraz (don’t judge me) song, whereupon he utilizes a rapid fire vocal style, I became curious to try it for myself.

Thus produced the whopping indie heart-filler Pretty Bloody Ugly Girl, encased in both beauty and battery. I was slightly homesick when writing this one, but after getting it out I feel back where I belong.

So with folk and indie already ticked off for this week, what would Monday hold?

Day 24 - Rohypnol

Pretty Bloody Ugly Girl towered overhead and I felt I could not best it a day after its creation. So I did something different: a beat poem.

It’s not technically a song but it’s a creative piece for a performance, to which I splice in-between songs in my set. Well relevant it was as tonight I had a live audition At The Railway open mic for the Ejector Seats Arts Festival ‘11. The beat poem was to be about Rohypnol, a subject suggested by friend Dan Strachan. Now I know very little about Rohypnol other than it’s big in the US and known as the ‘date rape drug’. Pretty subject matter, eh?

Well I did something for the first time in this songwriting challenge, I researched. Turns out Rohypnol can be used to mellow your smack or crack high, who would have thunk it? Rohypnol was hard to write as it was a very dense subject to write about and I didn’t feel the dynamics within me to challenge the mould. I knew I would have to best it the following day and I had a hidden surprise in store.

Day 25 - Attack of the Kraken

Ukulele, secret weapon number one.

Even after owning one for nearly a year and a half I had still not written a song on my green ukulele. I had played a little ukulele for a soundtrack I helped write earlier in the year, so I took the chords I knew and started to write the song.

A tale of man vs monster ensues with even a little high pitched vocal in the bridge. Attack of the Kraken was incredibly fun to write and I hope I one day get to perform it live.

Day 26 - Mechanisms

After the ukulele explosion of Tuesday I felt the need to bring it down a notch. Every seven days I write a new set, each song building intensity, Mechanisms was a return to ballad writing, with Skin and Bones era Foo Fighters gentleness with the sometimes dark curiosity of Simon Neil playing heavily into the emotion and backbone of the song

It is a self questioning song, like an engineer examining his machine piece by piece before he sends it out into the world, as does the main character in this tale watching over his growth as he becomes someone/something with a bigger purpose.

Day 27 - Orange

Jaffa cakes was the idea for this week, really?

Well I had no intention to write a song about jaffa cakes as I have no affiliation with the little buggers. Instead I decided to take an element of jaffa cakes and expand upon it, now if I could figure out what’s inside a jaffa cake… bingo!

Orange is a self questioning song that has a sort of sunshine quality, with a bouncing riff and Strokes inspired vocal it makes me think of spring slinking its way into summer.

Day 28 - Fierce

Last song of week four and I looked back proud at what had so far been accomplished. One thing I had achieved was utilizing many different instruments, from bass, to banjo, to ukulele, to electric guitar I had put the elements around me to good use. There was one instrument on my shelf that I had neglected however, the harmonica.

‘Fierce’ is a Bob Dylan type folk song using harmonica as both bearer of riff and solo, dominating the track and putting a smile on my face. Fierce made for a good start to the end of the week.

———

Week number four done, I am going to try and create a video blog on how the songwriting process has adapted and grown over the past couple of weeks and which seven songs I will record professionally in the near future, stay tuned!