Some thoughts on writing lyrics

[mattinbeloit]

First off, a disclaimer. I don't want to come across posing as a lyrical genius that knows what he's doing that's going to grace you all with my wisdom, I just want to share a few thoughts that have come back to me the past few days. With that being said...

This summer has been a really long summer for me. Not to pull a sob story or anything, it's just I have no friends nearby really and I'm working all the time for $6 an hour. Summer has sucked somewhat. I've tried to write as much as I can but for the most part I have been unsuccessful. I've always had success in comming up with good guitar parts, never really been a problem, but lyric wise, it's been a mess. For the most part, I write songs when I'm inspired due to a drastic change in emotions. I get really pissed, sad, or happy and I sit down and write something, that's how I work things out most of the time.

It's been really different for me this summer trying to just sit down and write something after moving boxes at Kroger for 8-10 hours. Nothing inspiring has or ever will come from that, it's a shit job with shit pay, but it will buy my books this semester. Anyway, after not really being inspired, I would flip through my song book and mess around with some songs I kind of started on and never finished. Being in a fairly neutral and mindless state of mind without an ounce of creativity in me, I would look at a few of the words or lines I had written down and go from there. Some of the songs I did that way were the wost shit I have ever written. I put one on here called "What Slipped Through", I'm sorry some of you were conned into listening to that. That is 4 politically bitching monotonous minutes of your life that I can never give you back, and for that I appologise. To make a long story short, that meathod did not work for me, it only took me 3 songs to realize that.

So once I realized I was total suck, I got pissed and figured I would just have to wait until I got back to school and got my life back to start writing stuff again. Despite my acknowledgment of the fact that if I tried to write something in this state of things it would more then likley be a waste of time, I still wanted to write stuff, there was just nothing going on upstairs. With all that in mind, I started to think back to my first song I wrote and what was going through my mind.

My first song was a song about senior year in high school and all the change that was going to take place after graduating. I remembered when I wrote the song, I started out feeling real down and just started writing down thoughts. All those thoughts started to come together and I had a song before long. It was the same story with the next song I wrote, a love song. For all the songs I have written that I consider good, I never really had an idea in mind when I wrote them, I just had random thoughts that seemed to come together in front of me. So what was I doing different this summer? I was trying too hard... I had all of these directions of were I wanted to go but without any thoughts or ideas. I guess you could say I wasn't seeing the forest for the trees or something.

The next thing that came to mind was something a friend of mine, Lucas told me. Lucas is a senior in college that I recorded a lot in the studio. We were good friends and would jam and record things all the time. He's one of the most humble, nicest guys you will ever meet, being around him is just relazing and you get that idea from his music. I remembered something he told me the last night we were in the studio before he left. He said (I'm quoting this but I can't really remember word for word...) "Dude, you are an amazing guitar player and you have a lot to say, you just want to throw it all in one verse. A song isn't always about saying something, it's just getting something off of your mind. You have to stop thinking about it so much and just let it flow". It took me until yesterday to realize how right he was...

With Lucas's words in mind, I sat down with a lick I had been playing around with and just played it over and over. A sentence came to mind and I wrote it down. I started playing a chorus part and another random thought came to mind and I wrote that down. Long story short, a bunch of random thoughts on a page started to come together to me and I had a song that I just posted on here called "Be Gald I'm Not God". That song does not portray one central idea like a lot of my songs, but it has a few ideas that are different but give it an overall direction. I threw some trees out there and I got a forest and I was happy with it.

Here's were I'm going with all of this, it may sound a bit hoaky but stay with me. Music is all in your head and it's not something you can inturpret, you just have to let it out. There are times when a girl is going to dump you and you are going to write some of the most beautiful verses and thoughts you have ever written. But the majority of the time you are going to be sitting around with nothing to do, jamming around on your guitar trying to get something down because you love doing it. If something comes to mind, as stupid as the thought may sound, write that down, just let it out. I remember sitting around playing a lick I wrote on the piano and Lucas was sitting there just singing whatever came off the top of his head. In the chorus part he started singing about yellow ribbons and we ended up keeping it. It turned out to be a beautiful song after that night too imo and yellow ribbons fit in well in the long run. I was snickering when he started singing about yellow ribbons, but I love it now...

A perfect example of this in Dave's writing is Warehouse and What Would You Say. They might not be as direct as Crash Into Me, but they give you tidbits of thoughts and ideas that paint a picture of an emotion or feeling, and IMO that is the only way you can ever capture something like that. Dave himself has said they are song about nothing in particular, but they do make you feel a certain way and create an atmosphere.

Sorry that was a bit long, those are some thoughts I have had recently and I hope they can make since to some of you that have felt this way or have been/ will be in rut like this. I know from now on I'm going to put a lot less emphasis on the direction and more on what the music brings to mind. The song I just wrote is one of my favoites I have written and I hope I can apply myself in this way more in the future, it seems to work better and is much more enjoyable.

[TimmyJ4140]

I love mindlessly writing lyrics. Most of the shit I've written lately has come to me at 3:30am, after I've gotten out of work and showered, and I'm just sitting here. Randomness, it's a beautiful thing, and most of the time, I like it when I read it again in the morning.

[mattinbeloit]

I love mindlessly writing lyrics. Most of the shit I've written lately has come to me at 3:30am, after I've gotten out of work and showered, and I'm just sitting here. Randomness, it's a beautiful thing, and most of the time, I like it when I read it again in the morning.

Ya, i get back from work and most nights I just want to fall asleep on the couch. On the nights I finally pick up the guitar it's just worthless trying to be all philisophical and shit, just let some stuff out...

[6_strings_for_life]

Thanks for writing that, I read every word.

I wrote three songs this summer and almost all of them came out of nothing. Sometimes I think a crutch can be formed if you try too hard, like he said let it flow..

time is just a melody

[ut4ever8]

i can definitely relate to everything you said man, i have the same problem of trying too hard, the only time i ever really make progress is when im slightly drunk and completely bullshitting, but im gonna try to just let it happen a bit more. thanks for writing all that out

[katie]

nice work man!

I like your sense of style. stream of consciounsness works great as well. just sit down and write whatever, just keep writing for four minutes and stop, go back and high-lite your favorite lines. persnaps they will bring about new ideas, conjure new feelings, things you heard, things that stick -

or close your eyes, strum and press record...

[TriPPin'BiLLies']

i cant sing very well so that turns me away from ever writing lyrics. does anyone else not write lyrics because of their lack of singing ability. whatever i write no matter how good i think it is i feel my voice wont ever do it justice.

but anyways good post, you made some good points. maybe i just need to let somethings go.