“It’s pretty sickening.”
I laughed when I heard Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich make that statement in an interview. He was describing the scene backstage at one of their shows and not in the way you might think. The band once dubbed “Alcohollica” now enjoys tea and lattes before shows and the level of civility and the irony of it, was enough to make Lars laugh. It made me laugh because I thought about the arc of my own life and found a commonality that rang true.
Arrrr matie! - Lars Ulrich (R), here with Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, doing his best pirate impersonation.
I started to think about the number of famous musicians who share that same story, who have been through the process of redemption. Countless musicians who've lived in excess and found salvation, including myself and others I know personally. We share this same experience. Apparently, it doesn’t really matter what level of success you’re on because it’s part of the human condition.
At some point, the excess falls away and you boil it down to two things… being the best musician you can be and playing gigs. Pretty cool.
The last time I blogged I wrote about a new song that I had been working on…. more hard rock sounding and different than what I had done before. It is still in the writing process, believe it or not. Or at least I can’t. This has been my greatest written musical challenge to date. The working title is called “Elevated” and has been in the works since 2004, officially.
At one point, it already had lyrics and was called “Haunting Things”. (Click here and scroll down if you'd like to read the lyrics to "Haunting Things") Then it lived as a different song in an original band and was called “Amends”. In its many different incarnations, I never felt like the melody of the lyrics worked with the music. I also never felt like the music was given its due. But now, I think I’m getting the song where it deserves to be.
In the process, it’s making me grow as a songwriter which makes it even sweeter. Songwriting is definitely a “feel” thing for me. An idea works when it “feels” right. It also helps to have an open mind about trying different ideas especially if you want to grow in your songwriting.
"Elevated"?!?!?!
Speaking of trying different things, I wrote a new song this past week that started with a poem that my wife Melissa wrote years ago. The poem spoke to me the first time she shared it. Usually, I write the music first and the lyrics kind of fill the spaces in between the music. This time it was the lyrics and the vocal melody that came first.
I started humming a melody and found the first chord and then the song just started writing itself. It was cool. I like to create new ideas when I write music… a cool riff or turn-around or something that’s new to me. But for this, there was no need to be clever or cute, just good. The "magic" is in the dynamic of the vocal melody over the chord progression but you'll have to be the judge of that. The song is entitled “Her”. I’m hoping to get a demo version up on my myspace page very soon.
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