Tag: songwriting

creativity within constraint

Blank pages.
Blinking cursors.
I look at one every day, multiple times a day, whether it’s an entry for this blog, or a word document, an empty spreadsheet, an email I’m crafting.

I don’t regularly get hung up on these things, because with each of these blank pages and blinking cursors exist with both potential and purpose – I open an email window because I have information to share with a singular person. I open a blog post because I have information to share openly with numerous people. I open a word document because I have thoughts I wish to not share with anyone… yet.

But sometimes I open a word document and get into some sort of staring contest with it. The daunting curse of the blank page gets the better of many writers, including myself on occasion. I’m no different. Someone might call this ‘writer’s block‘ and allow it to rule their artistic output for weeks, months, or even years unnecessarily. Unnecessarily, because writer’s block doesn’t actually exist.

My feelings on that matter are that the term ‘writer’s block’ would be much less effective if we called it what it really is: Fear of writing something shitty. So write something shitty, and toss it during the editting stage.

What happens when you free-form word-associate, do ‘morning pages’ (for those who have read ‘The Artist’s Way’ which I have not read yet, but have some knowledge of), journal, write a shopping list… you write something that’s (probably) shitty and unedited that will (hopefully) never see the light of day.

What’s the difference? No idea… to me they’re the same.

Everything I write, I write with intention… even if it IS a grocery list, I have the intention of following through with the action required to assure that I don’t run out of coffee and toilet paper. Sometimes that intention is to turn to the next page of a coil-bound notebook, never to return. Sometimes it’s a song that will eventually be recorded, and played on college radio. Sometimes it’s a song that will get ash-canned 6 months from now.

So… ok… great.
We have an idea when we set out to write something…
Terrific.

But the limitations of an idea are still pretty vast. Likely too vast.

Like, you can write about time travel… or you can write about traveling time back to when your parents were your age, and struggle with the paradox of affecting their lives and what that might mean for you as their child, 30 years later.

That movie’s already been made, but perhaps refining an idea isn’t enough. Maybe you (or I) need to just type words about dealing with writer’s block with some sort of time limitation and see what happens after 30 minutes…(?) Is that what I’m doing right now? yes. Is that what I do every time I write a blog post? no… this is a one-off. Will I be editing this post? no, and I almost never do. Is it on the level of Cormac McCarthy? No, but that’s not the goal.

So, what is the goal?
I guess that’s up to you.

Maybe a time restriction won’t work for you.
Maybe a minimum number of words.
Maybe a minimum number of words per day.
Maybe a specific subject.
Perhaps you’ve crafted a 2-minute pop-punk song and you need to put words to it without making it sound like you were writing it specifically to be short.
Maybe you’re getting into haikus.

I really can’t tell you what to write, but if you’re looking for some exercises to get your brain in gear, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame wrote a book that came out during the pandemic called “How To Write One Song” that is fraught with writing exercises to help get you there.

Time’s up.
Thanks for reading.

crazy is just what i do

Hi everyone,

It’s time for more of this:

I wrote this song in my apartment when I lived in the City Market building across the street from Canada Place in Edmonton… so in the first verse where it says “I watch the sunrise in the reflection of the building across the street” – that building is Canada Place.

I hope you enjoy this video and this song. It’s very fast, and sorta hard to play… but the song used to be much slower and much longer, and actually pre-dates The Confusionaires by a year or two, now that I think of it… but it drives the point home so I hung onto it!

Thanks for watching and reading.

new year

I talk about this every year, and have managed to avoid it so far… but now it’s happening. September is the beginning of the year. At least it’s always felt like that, since the Edmonton Public School system set forward the notion that the fall; historically a season of death, is the beginning of the school year. That means July & August are essentially the end of the year in the same way that Saturday and Sunday are the end of the week.

So in the fall, it’s often time to start nesting; in that, we need to prepare for a harsh Canadian winter.

Obviously preparing for winter doesn’t mean what it once meant. Squirrels are gathering food for winter, Geese are flying south, and I am working on a new workout plan for the cold months that includes a Swimming, Cycling, Running, and lifting weights. I’m giving myself 6 days to play with because that’s what I’m currently doing, but I will need to ensure I get all my muscle groups covered in 5 days because I often have weekend obligations.

It goes beyond gym rat status, though.

I’m beginning to put the structure around another writing and composing project that will likely not see the light of day for a few years… but that’s fine. Doing the thing IS the reward, whereas completing the thing means having to find a new thing, the hunt for which can sometimes be stressful and sad.

There are songs to write and a car to work on, of course, but that’s where it gets sticky. If I pile too much on and struggle to get to all of it then I risk being disappointed with all the things I didn’t accomplish rather than focusing on what I did accomplish. That might sound insane to you… but the prairie winter is a hard and unforgiving bitch goddess that actively tries to kill us, and vitamin D deficiency is a real thing that messes with your brain. Season Affectiveness Disorder is a real thing, even when you’re on top of the world, there are still blue days.

So that’s what I’m muddling through as I try to soak up every ray of sunshine possible for the next handful of weeks.

I’ll likely be indoors by Halloween.
Thanksgiving if I’m lucky… the irony of which is not lost on me.

Anyway… it is beautiful out, and everything is dying around us.
Enjoy!

This evening I’m in Red Deer, Alberta, playing at D2 Bar & Stage with Forbidden Dimension and The Offsailors. Minors are welcome at this show.

many miles to go

Here’s another one of these.

This is me talking about what eventually became a really important song for The Confusionaires. Our first music video, the first song on our second album, the first song we self-produced, and really the first song we were each 100% excited with how it turned out.

Not throwing shade on the album before it, as we’re all proud of that one too, but this one definitely meant more to each of us.

The album was ‘From The Headache To The Heartache’ and featured a number of great songs we still play live to this day. ‘Many Miles To Go’ was the one that put it all in motion though.

not my business

It’s time for another one of these…

I’m trying to get into the habit of posting one of these every few weeks, and at the risk of appearing too lazy to make a video AND a separate blog post… well.. if that appears lazy to you, then I guess you’ll have to take a look at your expectations of other people.

I write lots… mostly songs. So, here’s a look at one of those songs that my rock & roll band ‘The Confusionaires’ plays regularly.

I like to write songs about things… and when you play in a noisy rock & roll band, sometimes the subject matter gets suppressed by the energy.

Enjoy!

output

I’ve mentioned this before, and I’m bound to mention it again… but in my spare time, or rather, our spare time, we three Confusionaires are working on another record.

We live in exciting times, and in exciting times, time passes very quickly. We are already behind schedule on what my ideal timeline is… we started later than I’d wanted to, and now we’re recording songs in our ‘spare’ (ha!) time, gathering once or twice a week in our rehearsal studio to attain live-off-the-floor versions of songs we’ve been working on and playing live. This ‘spare’ time pops up once or twice a week between out of town shows, and at the end of long work days.

That said… we work pretty quickly. We can typically get a song done (recorded to completion and edited) in a couple evenings, so one song per week assuming we can get together twice that week. Birthdays, anniversaries, condo board meetings pop up every so often and gum up the works… but this is our process.

It’s difficult for me not to put a deadline on these things… I’ve issued deadlines that have been sorely missed but if I’m being realistic with myself it’s because I want it to be done.
Done.
And fantastic.
Done and fantastic takes time.

So I wrestle… belabouring lyrical choices and harmony vocal parts right up until the time they’re recorded, but also writing new songs that won’t even make it onto this album (but I have to get these things out and down on the page because they’re COMING OUT OF ME whether I like it or not, and this is a particularly fruitful season.

Yes, there are seasons to these things and I feel like it’s all hitting me at once right now, in the most amazing and glorious way. It’s truly exhausting and it’s actually caused me to almost completely forget to post to this blog – something I haven’t forgotten to do in this blog’s entire 3 years. But when it dies down, I assure you it’ll be very frustrating, and I’ll probably take to this blog to register my feelings about it throughout the world wide web. I assume some bolt of lightning will hit me and tell me what to do in that off-season but that’s ultimately a problem for future-Davey.

But for now… I make hay while the sun shines.
And despite the so-so weather forecast the Canadian prairies are getting these days… THIS sun is shining quite a bit.

whiskey ballad

I’m back on this trip I started a few weeks back.

In this installment of ‘this is a song i wrote’ I discuss the origins of ‘Whiskey Ballad‘ from The Confusionaires 3rd album ‘Westernization‘

It deals with the personification of my brain, my heart, and my belly and their internal argument in regards to my use of alcohol as a coping mechanism.

In the end, the body parts resolve to not put themselves in this position ever again, and take care of the body better… which; since this song is entirely self referential, includes a meditation practice, veganism, and a better relationship with the environment.

I maintain that the worst thing the human race ever did to itself was to view itself separate from nature. Maybe one day I’ll pick that notion apart, but to sum it up, if we lived in service of the planet and it’s inhabitants (which includes us) then the Earth would return the favor.

Anyway… I’m still working on getting better at this video thing.
Stay with me here, people.

Much love.