THIS SONG TOOK ME 5 YEARS TO WRITE - What's your song writing process?
My artistic process for making music is always evolving. One of the songs below took me 5 years to write, the other took me 5 hours!
My song writing process has changed a lot throughout my life and I think these songs really capture this evolution perfectly. I used to spend days, weeks, months, and in this case even years to write some songs. I'd slave away for days to find the perfect guitar riff and would write and rewrite the lyrics until they were perfect. This lengthy writing process would have me really wrapped up in each song and generally it was a much slower way of creating music. I would try to get the creative juices flowing by finding inspiring times or cool environments to write in. I was much more caught up in the act of seeking inspiration than I was in the act of making music. Sometimes I wouldn't make music for a few weeks because the inspiration just wouldn't hit. This is how most musicians write music, waiting for inspiration rather than taking the effort to get it done all at once. I wrote music this way for years!
Once I started to take my music more seriously it became important to create a lot of content. This got even more intense when I started working with multiple musicians helping them write songs for industry placements and new projects. It was becoming pretty clear that I could no longer sit around and wait for inspiration to hit to write music. I was forced to start writing in a new way and it totally changed the game for me! Now I produce the instrumental, write the song, record the vocals, and mix the track all in one studio session. Usually it takes anywhere from 5-10 hours to make a new song start to finish in the studio. Treat it like work and force yourself to sit down and make it happen. Writers block is only real if you let it stop you! It never stops me. I sit in the studio and push through until the song is done. Don't wait for the perfect moment, take the moment and make it perfect!
The track below is called Yoko Ono and took me about 5 years overall to create. We slaved away to make the perfect instrumental and the lyrics were constantly evolving over years until it finally reached its final form. I love this track! But thinking back... I'm so glad it doesn't take me this long to write music anymore.
This next track is called Wasabi Bourbon and we wrote, recorded, and mixed this song in one studio session that took about 5 hours. It was such a fun time and one of the things that I love about this song is it's simplicity and chillness. We definitely captured the vibe of the day with this one. The funny thing is that the hook 'Wasabi Bourbon' actually started from an autocorrect on my phone when I was trying to type 'Bicardi Sippin'. We had a laugh but when we sang it the fit was perfect. Wasabi Bourbon it is!
Whatever your creative process is, I salute you for tapping into your artistic side and making that beautiful music! Keep grindin' my friends :)