I’m in the middle of a songwriting challenge. If I haven’t already told you about it, you can read why I’m doing the 50/90. Basically, I’m writing 50 songs in 90 days.
So far I have written 50 songs and I have ^KBCOUNTDOWN||fiftyninetydates$ days left to write the other 0!
Check out all the song demos and videos over at my 50/90 page, and if you want to be helpful, give me a song title!
Photo by BdwayDiva1
Good question. Not anyone you’ve heard of, that’s for sure. In fact, although I fully intend to get my songs covered by big names, to cowrite with rising stars and to make a fortune in royalties from random Japanese TV ads, for the moment I’m writing for me.
h3. Who am I?
Andrea Stolpe “wrote about”:http://andreastolpe.berkleemusicblogs.com/2008/08/04/write-what-you-know/ authenticity of songwriting this week, and it hit a nerve:
bq. Back then it was Nashville, and so I my plan was to dive right into the types of songs that were making it as singles and basically write my version of them. This was always a frustrating endeavor. Just when I’d think I’d get the groove down, acceptable lyric material, and some good melodic ideas, I’d realize I’d be writing too close to the original. Even if I managed to draw a clear line between my tune and the one that inspired it, I was left with something that was an excellent caricature rather than an innovative trend-setter.
The only way I’m going to end up with a catalogue of great songs is to write for myself. Not for myself as an artist – I’m not planning to get famous that way – but for myself as a songwriter. Of course, this leads to some tricky decisions, and some serious self-assessment. If I’m writing for myself, how am I going to get the songs out there? And how am I going to build the reputation I will need to get them covered?
One way is to network and schmooze my way to the top. Although I’m not great at this I’m getting better and networking is absolutely necessary to get anywhere. But… there’s not much point networking if you can’t back it up with at least one success story. I will get my name known, which is a start. And it’s always fun to learn the new-media-speak lingo…
The second way is to sing my songs to people, either live or recorded. It seems like a weird way to do it because the songs are supposed to be for other people. But I can’t afford to produce top quality demos with session singers and producers. I know that I can deliver my songs the way they were conceived and with the right kind of attitude. The songs will need to stand on their own at some point and if they can impress through my strumming and wailing, they can go a long way without me.
h3. Brand awareness
So I need to build a solid brand around “Ben Walker, Songwriter”. Which is what I’m starting to do. I have started a good songwriting “blog”:http://www.ihatemornings.com which is starting to get noticed, I have introduced myself to hundreds of people as a songwriter, and I am writing songs (almost) full time. The blog, my business card and “all”:http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=529602587 my “online”:http://twitter.com/ihatemornings “profiles”:http://www.last.fm/music/JB+Walker are tied together by the “I Hate Mornings” “cartoon dude”:http://www.ihatemornings.com/images/2.png and I’m working on a redesign of ihatemornings.com to clean it up and highlight the good stuff without losing the cute, hand-drawn feel that people always seem to like.
But what about the songs? The production rate of songs for the “50/90 Challenge”:http://5090.fawm.org/writers.php?id=1747 is forcing me to write in a very natural style – I don’t have time to pastiche or pretend or rework. The process is starting to reveal my “true” style, which is (rather unsurprisingly ;o) sort of folky-country-pop with quirky and/or funny lyrics. It’s not everyone’s bag, but it’s what I do best. And if I can be known for writing great quirky pop, I’ll be a happy man.
h3. Going forward…
By the end of the summer (and the end of the 50-song challenge), I’m going to have a couple of healthy heaps of quirky folk/pop classics on my hands. October will be the month of rewrites and rehearsals, then I’m going to get back into the gigs as Ben Walker, Songwriter (hopefully with the “Legendary Swordsmen”:http://www.legendaryswordsmen.com rhythm section). I’m not going to waste my precious evenings playing no-hope support slots in Oxford pubs. I will organise decent gigs, roughly once a month, with other songwriters, and I’ll put on a good show. ‘Cos if I don’t do it myself, nobody will.
children on unicycles
“Nick”:http://www.nickfuckinggill.com is drawing graphs to keep track of how many words he’s written each day. That smacks of meta-productivity and procrastination to me, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Either way, his admission prompted me to calculate my song rate so far in the “50/90 Challenge”:http://5090.fawm.org.
50 songs in 90 days means 0.556 songs each day. That’s a pretty heavy songwriting schedule. So far I’ve managed “five”:http://5090.fawm.org/writers.php?id=1747 in 26 days, which gives me a rather disappointing rate of 0.192 song/day. That’s no good. I’m running at just over 1/3 of the minimum rate. I need to write 45 songs in the remaining 64 days (a rate of 0.7 songs/day). That’s insane. I need to run some kind of songwriting “dash”:http://www.43folders.com/2005/09/08/kick-procrastinations-ass-run-a-dash.
So from now on, no more Mr Nice Guy. I’m going to spew out a song every single day. Even if it means I don’t eat, sleep or leave the house. I’m afraid we’re talking communication blackout (apart from “Twitter”:http://twitter.com/ihatemornings, of course ;o) until October 1st. Don’t expect me to answer the phone or read email. Facebook is definitely out. If I have a really productive day (ie. write two songs) I may resume contact long enough to shoot out a few 1-liners.
A song a day wouldn’t be too bad if I had nothing else to do but life gets real sometimes, and I’m taking on some web development projects to pay the rent. Speaking of which, if you need any XHTML/CSS/PHP coding done, I’m your man. ;o)
Wish me luck. I may be some time.
So we’re a week into “50/90″:http://5090.fawm.org, and I’ve uploaded “one song”:http://5090.fawm.org/songs.php?id=38 and a “set of lyrics”:http://5090.fawm.org/songs.php?id=556. That doesn’t sound like a great average, but I have written four more that I haven’t had a chance to demo yet, so I’m going to be busy when I get back next week.
The list looks like this at the moment:
h3. Songwriting on steroids
I’m happy with the progress. Forced productivity (or active creativity) is quite amazing. It makes you realise that there’s never an excuse to sit around not writing. If you want to be a songwriter, write songs. By the end of the summer I will be a fully fledged songwriter, with a catalogue of songs in different styles and a work ethic to die for. ;o)
One thing that has suffered is the blog. Now that I’m spending any downtime writing song ideas, I haven’t been scribbling the blog ideas like usual. I’ll find the balance soon.
Tomorrow I embark upon my greatest musical adventure to date: to write 50 songs in 90 days. “The 50/90 Challenge”:http://5090.fawm.org/ has been running for a few years, and is hosted by the “FAWM(February Album Writing Month)”:http://www.fawm.org/ guys. So far 1700 songwriters have signed up to the open challenge, which runs from tomorrow to the beginning of October.
h3. Why would I do this?
I was settling in for a 3-month writing session this summer anyway, and the 50/90 Challenge coincides exactly with that. More importantly it offers me a structure for my writing, on many levels. The 50-song target means that I will have to aim to write a song a day for at least 4 days each week. That forces me to imagine, write, rewrite and demo each song in less than 8 hours (much less if I want to earn any money over the summer ;o). So I also get a daily structure out of it. More of that later.
The second main benefit of the 50/90 is that it offers me community involvement and feedback. The 50/90 “forums”:http://5090.fawm.org/forum.php are hyperactive, with hundreds of songwriters posting daily on their progress, frustrations and adventures. And because I will upload a demo of every song I write to the 50/90 site, other writers can give me feedback on my work, which is always invaluable. I will also be posting here on ihatemornings.com with songwriting stories for the creative crowd and tall tales of my time locked up in the barn for family and friends. ;o)
I’m also looking forward to cowriting a few of the 50! I’ve talked to Rob Stevenson (“A Silent Film”:http://www.myspace.com/asilentfilm front man and songwriter) about trying some cowriting sessions over the summer, and Ben Salmon has already pitched me his vision for a “Hinton-in-the-Hedges”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinton-in-the-Hedges,_Northamptonshire concept album of folk-country comedy songs. I can’t wait!
h3. The routine
To meet the challenge I will need to run a pretty tight ship, with early mornings and some serious concentration. This is my plan (which will undoubtably change):
I usually spend days working on a demo but for the 50/90, that’s not possible. I’ve fired up the old laptop with Pro Tools, which means two things: that I have a permanent recording setup, which is super-conducive to creative flow, and that I don’t have all the usual MIDI instruments and loops that I usually tinker with in Logic. It’s going to be simple and pure. No click. No MIDI. No options. ;o)
h3. Prolificacy is underrated.
I overheard some random dullard shouting about art in a café this afternoon, saying that true artists should never be forced to create, that they should be allowed the freedom to create only when inspiration strikes. “Balls to that!”, I shouted across the room. “Waiting for inspiration is just a pathetic excuse for not understanding your creative process!” Well, that’s what I might have shouted had I been the kind of random dullard who shouts in cafés. ;o)
I’m a convert to the Jack London school of creative thinking: “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” (via “fawm.org”:http://www.fawm.org/). And I’m not the only one. If you’re interested in examining your own creative process, here are a few resources for you:
Check out Joshua Pearl’s podcast, “Hear and Now: Debunking the Myth of Inspiration“:http://www.soulofsongwriting.com/sos-episode-25-hear-and-now-debunking-the-myth-of-inspiration-part-4-of-7/ for a healthy discussion of inspiration and songwriting.
Steve Lawson posted today on the very topic of teaching creativity over at the “Creative Choices site”:http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/server.php?show=ConBlogEntry.134, saying that “the act of creativity as a musician begins with playing two musical phrases, choosing which one you like and playing it again – that’s the root of composition and improvisation.” Sod inspiration!
Andrea Stolpe also posted today on “kick starting your creative process”:http://andreastolpe.berkleemusicblogs.com/2008/07/03/time-for-change-expanding-your-writing-process/:
bq. Every few months it can be a great idea to change up our process. Not only do we realize greater depths of skill, but we consistently knock down the tower of hesitation that keeps us bound within our typical melodic, harmonic, and lyrical styles.
And one of my favourite art movements, “Crap Art”:http://crapart.spacebar.org/, sums it up perfectly in their 4th Principle of Crap Art:
bq. That which is created rapidly and in high quantities contains more variety and is more likely to be successful/innovative. Applying the 80%/20% “rule”: If only 20% of the effort is needed to get 80% of the quality, then spending by spending only 20% of the effort, we can create five times as many artifacts at 80% quality!
h3. Wish me luck!
It’s going to be an amazing adventure full of rural drinking songs, lofi demos, massive creativity, hearty breakfasts and maybe even time-lapse photography (“Oooh! Aaah!”). If you want to be involved in the adventure, read this blog! Subscribe to the RSS or just check back whenever you’re bored at work, and watch me create an entire catalog of legendary songs in 3 months! For free!
If you’re down with the technology, check the “cash and cake post”:http://www.ihatemornings.com/blog/cash-and-cake-a-call-to-arms for details of how to watch me on Twitter, Youtube, etc.
And be sure to tell your friends. ;o)
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