Saint Saviour: “I personally strive too exhausting to good issues, which actually kills a tune thought when it’s in its second of pure potential.” Picture: Dunleavy Images
Returning along with her new alt-pop album Sunseeker, Becky Jones displays on its creation and the insights gained alongside the way in which
When I started writing Sunseeker, we have been simply getting out of the dreaded C-word restrictions, so I used to be wound up as hell and determined to get artistic. It was that bizarre time the place you knew that, usually with out warning, you’d instantly be housebound once more or the children’ college would shut, and it was troublesome to chill out and ever really feel like you can work with abandon. I even have a day job, lecturing just a few days per week in a music school, so time may be very tight. I used to be scraping songwriting periods right here and there between these instances so I needed to adapt my thought course of and attempt to write extra rapidly. Listed below are some issues I discovered…
Extra songwriting suggestions
1. TO START A TOTALLY NEW ALBUM IDEA, GET OUT OF YOUR USUAL WRITING SPACE.
My home is noisy and messy, fantastically chaotic and vigorous. Nonetheless, I discover it troublesome on this setting to seek out the beginning of a brand new thread of an thought. Even when the children are out, I’m nonetheless distracted by the mess and the laundry pile. It’s nice as soon as I’ve discovered my path, however simply getting these first few concepts, I’ve began to exit to the coast to search for them. I see it as a conception and incubation exercise – then I return to London with this little seed of an thought and I can then get into obsessive writing mode and I’m away.
It started with a visit to Hastings. I discovered a cute flat on Airbnb overlooking the ocean at St Leonards[-on-Sea] and my different half gifted me a working week away. I arrange my keyboard on the window and simply stared on the sea all day for 5 days, brooding and writing. That’s how I began my final album Tomorrow Once more. One thing about trying into an countless sea and simply daydreaming in whole solitude, permitting issues to return to you, it’s simply artistic heaven.
For Sunseeker, I went again to Hastings however I stayed in a humorous little home in the midst of an enormous public park – it was the park keeper’s cottage – really a bit scary at night time by myself however in the course of the day the park was stunning and I may people-watch all day from the window!
Saint Saviour: “I discover motion very useful for artistic considering.”
2. NEVER WASTE TIME LABOURING OVER A SONG
Once more, with maximising time in thoughts, I work at my keyboard and mic with Ableton Dwell open and able to file concepts. I started to work with a brand new system the place I solely ever spend one hour on a single thought. So I sit on the keyboard, discover a synth or keys noise I like, then I begin improvising, keys and vocals. I purpose to get an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ melody in that hour – so successfully, with an A and B you’ve the melodic I.D. of a full tune.
I’ll simply be scatting phonetic sounds with my voice – lyrics come later. However in that hour, I ought to have an A and B, then I rapidly file, save the mission, open a brand new one and begin the method once more. This manner, I nearly completely keep away from that terrible feeling once you lose hours and hours tweaking an concept that isn’t working to dying. I’ll try to write 4 or 5 melodies in a day. I name them “nuggets”! On the finish of a day like that, I gained’t bear in mind a lot about what I’ve executed and I don’t return to take heed to them.
Then I’ll repeat this course of for, say, per week or so, each week day I can between school-drop and pick-up. This manner, you find yourself with these pure moments of inspiration and nothing else. Pre-kids, I spent an excessive amount of time self-editing as I am going and I’ve discovered that I personally strive too exhausting to good issues, which actually kills a tune thought when it’s in its second of pure potential.
What I really like about this system is that, once you hear again to the concepts a few weeks later, you’re amazed by a whole lot of it, (a few of it is usually horrible). You’ll be able to barely bear in mind writing any of it, you’ve a quantity of concepts, and you’ve got this contemporary perspective having had distance from them – and the sensation of contemporary inspiration retains coming.
3. WRITE ON THE MOVE
As soon as I’ve about 30 of those brief A-B melodies and chords, I’ll make a playlist of them and get out of the home. I discover motion very useful for artistic considering. So I’m listening to myself singing these melodies however with gibberish phonetic sounds and scatting, and interested by the character of the melody, what sort of phrases start to return to thoughts which I may grasp onto this melodic construction.
Strolling while doing this appears to assist me loads, perhaps it’s protecting part of your mind engaged and distracted so you’ll be able to absolutely daydream, perhaps it’s that I’m taking in cues from the setting, however I write just about all of my lyrics whereas strolling. It’s a bit harmful however I stroll and sort phrases into my notes on my cellphone. Generally I’ll cease and sit in a churchyard or one thing – I dwell in SE1 London so I’m spoiled with Tower Bridge down the street, the Thames and the vacationers who I discover very attention-grabbing to observe.
Generally I’ll get on a random bus and simply sit and go anyplace, while listening, trying from the home windows and typing. I wrote the lyrics to Poetry from this album in a taxi. I really awakened with a shock in St James’s Park one afternoon having unintentionally fallen asleep whereas writing Cellophane throughout a fast sit-down. That tune grew to become a few statue within the park. I don’t know why, but when I’m nonetheless, my thoughts isn’t as agile with phrases.
Once more, I’ll strive to not overwork an thought, so I’ll transfer by the melody concepts rapidly, making notes for every one, however by no means labouring too exhausting. This manner I’m slowly writing round 10 songs on the similar time. Basically I by no means strive too exhausting to put in writing any factor of a single tune for too lengthy, as a result of I really feel that it’s counterproductive.
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Saint Saviour: “I by no means strive too exhausting to put in writing any factor of a single tune for too lengthy.”
4. TRY WRITING TO A CLICK
For Sunseeker, I used to be deliberately attempting to put in writing some upbeat music, however once you sit down on the keyboard it’s fairly pure and tempting to take a seat there and write a downbeat ballad, as a result of the keyboard permits an opulent, sustained sound, in distinction to a strummed or plucked guitar.
I began to take heed to my reference songs and work out the BPM with a metronome, after which have a click on or a beat going at that tempo whereas I composed. Utilizing this system, I discover that you just naturally start to think about a rhythmic groove constructing beneath the topline, and it retains you in time. I do know it might appear annoying to listen to the metronome going the entire time, however I discover that it’s actually value having it there to maintain you on message with the tempo and attempt to write one thing with a motivated feeling.
5. FOR KEY-PLAYING WRITERS: TRY WRITING WITH A GUITAR SAMPLE OR VST INSTRUMENT
This was fairly revolutionary for me. I wrote Rock Swimming pools from my final album on an iPad utilizing a very nice VST acoustic guitar instrument referred to as Guitarism and I discovered that it unlocked one thing for me when it comes to writing deliberately for guitar. To that time, this was probably the most upbeat tune I’d written. Now I usually write for guitar as a result of I really favor the sound of plucked strings to the piano, particularly once you need that mild, mild sound I really like in albums by Sufjan Stevens and Aldous Harding.
Later, when writing Sunseeker, I shifted to utilizing my keyboard once more as a controller (Guitarism is nice however you’re a bit caught in diatonic keys with out fiddling to customize which are likely to kill my movement) however utilizing the guitar and dulcimer sounds on Spitfire Labs free pattern packs. I completely love Spitfire Audio and I exploit the free packs loads to discover sound once I’m writing.
I wrote many of the album solely utilizing these sounds and completely moved away from the sound of the piano. For Sunseeker, I believe this was really the defining sound of the album – once I took the songs to Invoice [Ryder-Jones] to start arranging and producing I had a whole lot of guitar-sound references and he did an enormous quantity of taking part in and arranging plucked elements and layers of counter melodies and rhythms.
I used to be aiming for a breezy sound and I believe plucked strings cowl the concord with out taking over an excessive amount of area. Maybe that is why individuals name it Baroque/Chamber Pop. I took this proper by to the blending stage, giving the engineer Nathan Boddy a whole lot of nylon and acoustic guitar reference sounds.