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SILLY CURES FOR WRITER'S BLOCK
ACTION HAPPENS With so many dancers out there in video land, sometimes it is best to think of how one will perform your music. Especially if you are doing dance music, you might try and jam it out while you dance along to your drum machine patches. Trust me, if you have problems singing it when you are jumping around, so will artists. Words that are easier to dance with while singing, and don't involve a lot of difficult rhythms that might throw a dancer off will probably stand a better chance of getting chosen. Really complex things are probably best left to non-dancing rap, or pop ballads where the only action in a video might be the person sitting still or lying down while singing tougher lines. Always try to think of your more pop tunes in terms of the video that would be made from them-the artist might have an entirely different idea, but having some sort of story they can get inspired from always is a good selling point. BACK IN THE COUNTRY If you really want to write country music, perhaps that is just where you ought to go. Try driving out to where your audience is, if you know what sorts of folks listen to lots of that genre. Drive out to not only the boondocks of your area, but actually try looking for a place to rent the next time you need to move. You might just find a place that is not only affordable, but your neighbors might be continually inspiring you with things to write about. If you want to write rock, too, you will probably find plenty of folks who like it out there, too, and an excuse to crank it up-you might find a load of fans lined up at the fence listening in, too-we did at our practices. Our drummer cussing about the coyotes that were trying to sing along with us provided an excuse for me to write a song about coyote love, partly just to hack off the drummer who started insisting we practice inside, because a bunch of his pals where he worked across the way complimented him on our playing the following week at work and it embarrassed him to get so much attention. Those little slice of life events around you are often more noticeable in a country setting, too, since there seems to be so little going on around them, unlike in the bustle of an urban area. Getting out in nature is always relaxing and inspiring, but puttering around in trailer courts, going to livestock auctions, rodeos and hanging out around the local COOP are probably far more fruitful sources, just because you are likely to find so many real and interesting people there, not people just trying to look the part. If what you write about is their real life, it will resonate a lot closer and make it a better seller, anyway. So many musicians of all genres can relate to being in the country even if they are rap artists just contrasting it to the urban lifestyle, so don't discount it. We all could use a little relaxing in our hectic lives, anyways. Go To Page: 1 2 |
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