Songwriting: The Process, The Agony, The Results

I’ve Suffered A Head Injury
March 13, 2007
My laptop woes!!
April 11, 2007
I’ve Suffered A Head Injury
March 13, 2007
My laptop woes!!
April 11, 2007
Show all

Songwriting to me has always been a challenge… I’ve written many over the years… (98% of them were between the age 16 and 21).

I wish it were easier for me to finish songs… I’m not sure what is its…  I have a lot of pieces parts (as my good friend Ashton Allen puts it) but I have a hell of a time finishing nearly all my songs.

“Letting Go” was the exception.  That was the “Uptown Girl” of songs for me… It popped out VERY quickly.  I wrote “Letting Go” early 2005… right around the time I had my gastric bypass surgery.  Melody, lyrics and chords all came VERY quickly… then, it sat on a shelf until December 2005 where I brought the shell of it to my friend Brian Kuzma… we laid down the song in his studio.  The intro chords and outro lyrics came together then.. and the song as it is today was born.   Then.. my ONE song I was proud of… sat on the shelf for another calendar year.

September On came to be… I joined this great band and asked them to entertain my little song for consideration to be a band song… they all really dug it… and now we have recorded it and it will appear on our upcoming album… you can hear the current September on version at www.myspace.com/septemberon and my OLD school demo with Brian Kuzma at www.myspace.com/mggtours

So why did that tune come so quickly?  I’ve been going crazy trying to finish at least ONE more song before and since… and so in the past 7 years.. I have ONE song.. “Letting Go.”  I’ve been working on a new one lately.. have SOME melody ideas… I love the chord progression.. but I’m already frustrated… 3 days into it and not much to show of the song.

Phil and Carly in my band are both great songwriters… I really need to collaborate to try and finish.. perhaps I need to bring the beginning stages of the new tune to them and we can try and finish it?    I don’t know?!

Either way.. having gotten SO much great feedback on “Letting Go” that it frustrates me that I haven’t gotten another song written to show to anybody…

Back to the drawing board / guitar!

-michael g.