Here's a peek at my songwriting process! Lyrics don't write themselves, which is fortunate because I get to have fun discovering the words. For me it's a process, and typically starts with a concept or title. This song was different.
I still remember walking around my room, brainstorming, my small, silver Olympus recorder in my hand as I sang random phrases, praying to strike gold. Then I sang:
"No, No, I don't want to
cry, cry
I don't want to lie, lie
and wait for the World to fall down"
It stuck, through the ending got changed to "World to shatter," which flows better. The rest of the song went through many revisions, and luckily a lot of it got changed. Some phrases, though they didn't survive the final draft, would lead to better phrases and ideas. You can click on the images below to read some of my original thoughts.
What is now the bridge was originally the chorus, and was much longer. Every now and then, when I sing the song to myself, I hear the original phrasing and melody, and though I really like it, it wasn't right for the song. The last three lines of the original chorus got knocked off and turned into a bridge when Steven started arranging the song. The mini instrumental interlude he added was interesting, quirky, and spontaneous. We had a lot of discussion over it, discussed form and what not, and decided to keep it. During this interlude Steven originally had an instrument I called the "alien sound." We loved it, but the alien sound never survived the final mixing. It was too strange.
Oh, and the song was originally called "Won't Stay Down." That title was around for quite a while until it was replaced with the better "Done With Gravity." Now Steven and I are working on a piano version of the song, and we're really liking it.
You can read the final lyrics here
And view the video here.
No comments:
Post a Comment