January 26, 2024
This week Sam and I started
working on “Stay Awake”
We updated a ROUGH sketch for it
on the Songs-in-Progress page
We started with just bass and drums
laying out the structure of it all
and then I added guitars today.
Keep in mind NONE of these
recorded takes will stay.
There is a whole process of
deciding on drum sounds
and guitar tones that comes later
in this whole process.
There’s currently a synth line
that might change to piano sound
or guitar (heard at the beginning).
A pitfall I often fall into with
writing songs is that I frequently
write them in a key that is
too high for my voice to feel
comfortable in for a whole song.
Being conscious of that this time
I changed the key from D maj
down to C major which feels
MUCH better on my voice.
As I did that though,
the second chord of the chorus
is played on E minor which
I realized quite accidentally
that if I made it an E major chord
it adds a nice twist to the chorus
to set it apart from the verses.
Also, I don’t know why but
it also adds a tinge more of emotion
which speaks to me and ignites
a bit more FEEL into the chorus
lyrics, “Stay awake for me!”
I’m really happy about how
those happy accidents occur
in this process.
Something similar happened with
Sam on drums the other morning
on this song and
we talked about how funny it is
that happy accidents might be
accidents to the conscious mind
but it’s like the subconscious
knows that that’s how the song
is supposed to go lol
so the inspiration kinda comes out
seemingly on accident
but the subconscious mind
was steering it in the right direction
the whole time haha.
I love it.
Anyway, we’ll be getting together
again this Sunday 1/28/24
to keep hashing the song out.
We may even be hopping on
the LIVE stream channel
in the private Discord group
Right now the song is
sorta sounding like
old school Coldplay,
Dashboard Confessional,
with maybe even a hint of
My Chemical Romance.
At first I was trying to fight
it sounding like those bands
but now I think I’m
not so mad about it lol.
Embracing the sound
as it’s unfolding. :)
Trying to let the subconscious
do it’s thang.
STAY TUNED.
/n8
“Fenwick & the Futures