Category Archives: Books, Movies, & Music

Creative Sunday: songwriting together

Last week I posted this lil’ interview over on our band website, and I’m sharing it with y’all too. One could call this move on my part ‘laziness,’ but I opt for ‘efficient use of creative reserves’ or ‘resourceful multitasking.’

Also, I suppose I could have just told you ‘click here to read,’ but I know from personal experience that some days, when you pull up a blog you frequent, you just don’t feel like clicking. Personally, I want to stay where I am and have the fun come to me. Not that clicking a mouse once is that mammoth of an effort . . . but it kinda is. Sometimes. I’m just sayin’.

(reposted from thornfieldmusic.com)

Hi friends! Just wanted to fill you in on what we’ve been up to since our last gig a couple weeks ago.

Though Eric, Carrie and I have been performing together for about 9 months, we usually do our song writing separately and bring (mostly) finished products to the table to share with the rest of the band. We decided that as part of our evolution as a band, we should bring our forces together for a Creative Sunday Afternoon. We weren’t exactly sure what would happen—would our claws come out? Would defensive tendencies crush the creative process? Would we experience joint writers’ block? Would someone’s guitar end up impaled on someone else’s melodica?

I am glad to report that it was not a disaster. With the help of some wine and coffee (as well as some fabulous lyrics from Eric’s brother John), we got into a musical mood and made it happen.

The lesson for us: we are able to work together in the creative process! And also: creating is hard work. Gratifying work—but not easy.

After 5 ½ hours together messing around with 3 guitars, a keyboard, a melodica, a djembe, a harmonica, a recorder and an egg shaker, we have three quasi-finished songs that we’re going to be polishing up to perform at our next gig.

By the end of the evening, with Carrie slouched on the couch in sheer exhaustion and Eric packing up his keyboard, I decided it was prime time to do a mini interview with my two bandmates. Catch ‘em while their defenses are down—that’s my motto.

So how has each of you affected the other’s songwriting?

C- Well Eric is a goofy person, and so it’s hard for me to be melancholy when he’s being so ridiculous.

E-She’s made me focus more on the melody and the singability of the song rather than harmonic or rhythmic flourishes.

C-Does that make me more of a folk writer, and you’re more of a classical writer?

E- I think my instincts are more classical and yours are more singer songwriter.

C- Also, a lot of my melancholy songs are pre-marriage. Maybe I was just a sadder person back then.

So what is this ‘Dinosaur’ song actually about?

C-Yes, yes, it is about something . . .  oh crap, I forgot.

E- John actually said something about the song a while ago . . .

C-Wait, I need to think about the lyrics . . . shoot, I really had a theory about this . . . Eric, sing it!

[Eric sings]

C- Um . . . oh . . . this conversation is showing the true character and unintelligibility of the artist.

How do you feel after you’ve written a song?

C-It depends on if it’s good or not.

Do you know when it’s good or bad?

C-I mean, I have my own spectrum of beauty, I guess . . . everyone has their own. Does that sound stupid? I mean, I can tell if something I’ve written is bad, but that doesn’t mean that everyone else is going to agree on what I think is ‘good.’

E-I was probably pretty excited about ‘Eloise’. (we performed this for the first time at our last gig; lyrics below)

C-‘Cause it came in one sitting, most of it. We thought of two short lines, Eric just started playing piano, and I started singing those lines. Then for a couple of weeks it didn’t go anywhere, and then we just sat down and started playing it and all the song came in one hour. It was 9:30 and I was like, “we’re just going to mess with this until 10 because I don’t want to mess with this all night,” and then I looked at the clock and it was 10:30 when we were done. I didn’t even think of stopping once we started going. I don’t think it’s like anything else that we have—that’s what makes it exciting.

Who is this Eloise, anyway?

E- It’s based on a real individual that we know. For obvious reasons, we won’t say who it is.

C-You’re making us sound like really mean people.

E-She certainly wouldn’t recognize herself in it, however.

How about the new song we just worked on, ‘Love is Home’?

C-This was unique, because we already had the words from George MacDonald and the music from Eric—we just had to marry them.

E-It was interesting, because I’ve actually set a lot of MacDonald’s writings to music, but this melody was written without thinking of MacDonald. So it was unlike the music I would have thought up if I had started with the words.

C-But it was good.

E-I’m glad to finally have that tune finished and out of my hair, though. An unfinished tune just does not leave you alone.

C-And they lived happily ever after. I’m happy with the song writing process as long as there’s some progress. But it is hard work . . . do you not think of it as hard work? What’s wrong with me? Do I have a bad work ethic?

E-It’s like swimming being hard work—it doesn’t feel like hard work.

C-It’s hard for me to get momentum going. Maybe that’s why we needed wine and coffee.

And for your reference, here are the lyrics to ‘Eloise’—come to our next gig (tomorrow!) and we’ll make sure to sing it for all y’all.

Eloise

Whatever you want, she’ll do as she pleases
Eloise is… on her own
You try to get close, but that’s when she freezes
Eloise is… made of stone

She’s soft as silk and hard as steel
You might just wonder if she’s real
She isn’t one to sit and pout
She’ll kiss your feet then spit you out

Your heart is a toy she ruthlessly teases.
Eloise is… awful deep
She’ll cuddle up sweet, then leave you to Jesus
Eloise is… not for keeps

She will not rest until you’re hers
And then, oh baby, how she purrs
But once her claws are in real tight
She’ll pull ‘em out and then she’ll bite

Your future is dark, but you can’t resist it
Eloise has… got ya good
You know if you do, she’ll tear you to pieces
Eloise is… misunderstood

She’ll pierce your eyes with hers until
You won’t do what you say you will
There ain’t no use a’turnin’ back
She’s on the prowl and she’ll attack

And once she’s cozy on your knees
Makin’ you a’ hug and squeeze
She’ll make you cry for “Mercy, please!”
Naughty, naughty Eloise!

The Alpine mysteries

I’ve talked before about my mother-in-law and her propensity towards mysteries. Every time I visit, she has a new one that I am always welcome to pick up–this is how I got addicted to Diane Mott Davidson and Joanne Fluke. So fluffy . . . so wrong . . . and yet so right. Yes, I am a conflicted person. My brain tells me that I should constantly be ingesting Great Literature and churning out amazing thoughts about how the power of the woman/goddess figure is in direct contradiction with her liminality, and how the psychology of the stock figures . . . blabbity bla . . . well, something-or-another super smart, but let’s be real here. Sometimes all I want is a predictable story with a sure-fire resolution.

A few months ago I got started on Mary Daheim’s Alpine series. Beginning with “The Alpine Advocate,” there is a mystery for each letter of the alphabet. Cut me some slack on the above picture–I know those covers are kind of grim–but these books are seriously enjoyable. And not nearly as fluffy as the books mentioned above! Hence the reduction of my guilt factor . . . and hence my increased pleasure while reading them.

First of all, the main character, Emma Lord, is not your run-of-the-mill mystery-book heroine. She is a 40-something big-city transplant to a small town in Washington; she’s a single mom, a Catholic, a career woman, a smoker who’s always quitting, and a snappy tongue with a soft heart underneath. In the mountainous, frequently snowy community of Alpine, she runs the local paper: the Alpine Advocate. Grumpy at times, full of good intentions at others, generous, and often lonely, Emma makes for a very three dimensional character.

She has a small staff at her newspaper office–the flaky college grad Carla who is both full of the energy of youth and full of rampant typos, ad manager Ed who Emma just doesn’t have the heart to fire (though he’s possibly the Worst Employee of All Time), and finally her strong-willed House and Home editor, Vida, who always wears a hat and unfailingly acts like she’s the boss.

Not all the mysteries are solved. And I don’t mean that there are frustrating loose ends left or holes in the plot–just that the books are more true to life than other mysteries I’ve read, which tend to wrap things up in such a nice and tidy package that it leaves you almost . . . disappointed. When comes out a little too nicely, it’s just not as satisfying, you know what I mean? Not so with this series. The disappointments, relationships, twist and turns, are much more fleshed out than your average cozy mystery.

The books are sometimes suspenseful but mostly character-driven. They are rarely gruesome (though you wouldn’t guess by the covers of the older edition) and just dark enough to be realistic while still being satisfying and an overall happy read.

So in conclusion: if you’re hankering for a nice, long series that doesn’t require too much emotional investment and yet still has enough depth that you don’t feel embarrassed just picking it up, check these books out!