Tuesday June 20, 2006

Better late

So I didn't make it yesterday. Perhaps it's just that I need to have a weekend - rest days are important. I will be up at the bach later today, and opening my Day 7 Care Package...waaaahey!

Apart from dayjob work, I've done some good things with these last few days. I played my songs to Tyree and Sian - who were both very encouraging. They are my official Support Team - they call me every day at least once to see how I'm going and keep me on track. Word up, you two.

I also recorded my two new songs ('Harm' and 'I Can Run') - and in the process, ended up re-visiting the arrangement of both songs. They were already shorter than I usually write, but I've edited them shorter again - both way under three minutes. And they feel good.

I think one of the most important reasons I've been able to write so freely - in fact, write enough to enable me to actually cut stuff out - is a daily practice I've been doing since the beginning of the year. Let me be clear again - whether it's songwriting, fiction, non-fiction or poetry, my usual problem is under-writing. I find the process of first draft very difficult, and often end up paralysed in a proto-editing phase, where I'm trying to make cuts and changes to text that's not full enough yet.

Since New Year's Day 2006, I've been doing something Chris and I have simply called 'Ten Minutes'. It was our New Year's Resolution. Every morning and every night, I journal for ten minutes, and Chris meditates. Every month we get through, we reward ourselves by buying a new CD. And so far we've made good every month. I've missed a few - particularly nights - but I just make it up the next day by doing 20 minutes.

I write about nothing and everything. No censoring, no editing, no sensible sentences some day. I just try and do that thing of keeping my pen moving, not lifting it from the page. Loosely based on Julia Cameron's concept of 'Morning Pages', I guess.

I totally credit this Ten Minutes miracle with the first draft freedom I now feel. I've been producing more poetry, more non-fiction (especially tour blogs) and now more songs than ever before.

Try it.

I've got a few hours to go on my dayjob work before I can leave, so this is just a quick mihi. But a special shout out to Fionnaigh, who sent me a very uplifting email yesterday, telling me what my songs mean to her and how much she enjoys them. Wonderful medicine for Cover Songs Syndrome. Thanks, Fi.

x

It's well into the afternoon, but I'm here!

And I'm settled in front of the heater, with my guitar warming up beside me. It is *so* good to be back here - it feels like a treat. I've gotta say this isn't always how I've felt about creative time. It can be a frightening, days-long version of the Blank Page or the Empty Canvas. But I guess the Ten Minutes thing helps with that, too - it helps that energy move through and out of you. Writer's Block seems a long way off, at the moment.

About to open today's package..

Day 7 Care Package:

Oh! A watercolour.

This time the leaf shapes and the negatives spaces amongst them seem more like teeth, or knives. The colours are all shades of grey - from near-black to near-blue. The palette the ocean seems to be rendered in on some cloudy days, particularly at sunset. A mixture of metallic silvers and soft greys. Christine's favourites.

Going to do some free writing now. Tonight Chris and I are going to an open mic night here in Waikanae - we may do some songs. I may even sing one of these new ones. But in the meantime, I've got two hours to make something.

 

x

Well. This one sounds like the Beatles.

I've never been a big fan. But Chris has their 'Let It Be' album. I've loaded it into my laptop, so it's been on rotate along with everything else from Daphne Walker to CAN. It's the first time I've listened to them by choice rather than having them endlessly playlisted on the radio stations I've grown up with. And I'm developing a big respect for them, I have to say. You know, only about 30 years after everyone else.

 

The things that are reminding me of the Beatles in this song are the number of chord changes and the nature of those changes. Actually, there's even a bit of Christine White in there...She's got quite a signature style, and several of the tracks on 'Pirouette' have a real Beatles feel to me. There's one chord progression in this song that's a straight out rip-off from her song 'Everyone Smiles'.

Sorry, honey.

I've got an hour to finish this number. At the moment it's called 'The next house'. Or 'Someone shouting'. Or something.

x

You know, I guess there's nothing stopping me having a really short little song on the album. And this could be it. The two verses I've written feel quite complete as a story and a musical journey. I could keep going. Or I could stop now. I could aim to make this the song with the big instrumental break...heh heh.

On another note (ouch) I've been thinking of doing a reprise of 'Harm' - using the chords and tempo of one of the other versions. There were many versions of that song as you may recall - I had much difficulty deciding on a final one. But in the process, I video'd and kept one in particular with slightly different words and melody, performed much slower. It could work as a little filler on the album. (Seems like I'm still making an album, even though I got very discouraged about the idea the other day. Hmmmmm.)


Once again, Sian's influence in the lyrics - and possibly the mood - are clear. There's knives in this song, and there's space that's left when someone/something is taken out of it. And there's leaves...well, the word 'leaves', anyway. The verb rather than the noun, but hey.

: )

Yeh, I think I'm going to *leave* this song as it is. I'll video it now, and then tomorrow morning, start on a new one. Actually it's more likely to be Thursday - I've got Dayjob meetings in town all day tomorrow.

Wicked. Another one down.

 

x

H