Songwriting Competition

The open stage I play on Monday nights at Tip Top Tavern had a songwriting competition. Last week the host came up with a phrase ("the crossroads of nowhere" or "the crossroads to nowhere", not really sure if it's of or to) and encouraged everyone to write a song that used the phrase. I had decided that with all the fuss and struggle writing a song can be for me, I wasn't going to try to force it. If I write a song, I want it to be about something that I feel I need to express; it should be a healthy release of creative forces. I was certain that trying to fulfill an outside requirement would dilute the entire process to the point that I wouldn't be able to come up with anything good.

After an extremely busy weekend, I hadn't really touched my guitar since Thursday. I made a post on Facebook about how I wasn't sure if I was even going to show up to open stage in the evening, but a small handful of people did their best to convince me otherwise. So I sat down at about 3 to play a bit. I put my capo on the third fret to play "Clementine", but before I even started the song, a few other random chords just stumbled out of my hands without even thinking about it. I sang some lyrics.

When you finally find where you should be
I hope it's next to me
So I can still see your smile

That's it; that's what I had to work with. Not the greatest lines I've ever written, by any means. It all just poured out in a flash, and I played the chords and sang those lyrics a hundred times. It seemed like it could be the beginning of a song about someone who wants to hit the road, and I thought that might combine well with the songwriting challenge phrase. I decided that if the song was just going to pretty much present itself to me, ripe for the plucking, I might as well see it through and do the competition after all.

I wrote the entire song in less than an hour. It was a blur. I look back on some of the phrases now and I don't even remember coming up with them. I recorded a comically sloppy demo in haste, threw it on my iPod Touch, and listened to it over and over in the car as I drove around town. I played through it a dozen times after I returned home, before heading out to the bar, but I was still having trouble with the melody.

I got to the bar just in time to write out the lyrics and chords before my turn. I wound up having a little trouble remembering some of the melody, as well as how to connect the verses and choruses and bridge, etc. But I covered my mistakes well and managed to get through the song without falling apart, and I suppose I couldn't have hoped for anything more with a song only a few hours old.

There were some other really great songs, both before and after me. I was happy to see so many other people participating. I had resigned that I wouldn't win, and it didn't bother me in the least. And why should it? I had been given a week to participate, had told myself that I wouldn't, and had decided in the final hour to give it a shot. I am and always have been and always will be a terrible procrastinator.

The vote was held by secret ballot and the winner was announced about half an hour later. And it was...me? I admit I was surprised. I kept trying to work out what I had just heard; there's no way it was my name. I just didn't expect to win with my hastily thrown together jingle jangle whiny junk.

Anyway, I'm glad I did it. It actually wound up being kind of fun writing the song. I don't often write fictional songs, but incorporating the challenge phrase seemed to trigger a series of creative reflexes that might not have otherwise occurred on my own. I still don't know if I'll include the song into my live set. Maybe with a bit of polish it might make it someday. Maybe I'll record it and put it online for you to hear someday. Maybe. Someday. Procrastination...

Oh, you're holding on to a faded memory
And losing sleep, though it's not like you to worry
Everyone who knows you knows you will get lost

New Song "Stacy Please" (Recording)

Wrote a song. Recorded it. I don't really remember what it's about. Maybe it was about Stacy Dupree? Or perhaps Stacy Keach? Possibly Gwen Stacy? Seems plausible.

Maybe I didn't even write it. Maybe I just remembered a song written in a former life. I don't even own a bed, birds don't talk to me, and I've never had a sip of alcohol in my life.

I actually wrote this song in elementary school on the playground during recess.

This was the fifth and best take, and I discovered after I was satisfied and closed the book on recording for the evening that there is a weird stutter/glitch in the first chorus. Guess what, that's just how it is for now.

Sorry for all the computer noise in the background. This crotchety old laptop likes to keep both of its fans on high pretty much all the time these days.


it's friday night, 1 a.m.
no idea where i've been

stacy please don't go
i am dying to dream tonight

it's time to sleep, but i hate my bed
it's much too large for just one head

stacy please don't be cruel
i am trying to scream your name
but you know i'm a fool
thought that you might want the same

it's saturday, i hear the birds
saying to me it could be worse

stacy please don't cry
smoke your last cigarette
and for now i'll try
to drink until i forget

stacy please
stacy please
stacy please
stacy please

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"When I Return Home" (Recording)

Here's a song you probably haven't heard yet. It's not exactly new, but it's also not terribly old. It has existed for many eons in the nebulous void where songs go after I've written them but they aren't included in my live set. This is yet another in the growing list of material that's in a new or different style for me, and it sounds quite unlike anything I've ever done before or since.

I sequenced the drums and bass guitar in Reason, and the rest of it is just acoustic guitar and vocals. The drums sound a little stiff and robotic, and that was completely intentional. I had a little fun running them through the exquisite saturation/distortion plug-in that comes with Reason. The structure is straightforward, the style is pretty pop, and the vocal melody is simplistic.

Have a listen over on my MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/lazychimp

Lately conversation's been strangled
I'm trying hard not to worry
But I wear it on my sleeve
No need to hurry now

I want you here with me

The phone rings and my heart starts beating
A hundred times a minute
But I won't forget it
Don't think about the distance

I know we'll go dancing
When I return home

There is one heart of mine
And it belongs to you
Don't you forget, keep this in mind
If you should want to stray

I hope you'll be waiting
When I return home

New Song "Dandelion" (Recording)

Another new song. Again in kind of a different style for me. I've never offered up my own dissection of a song I've written, but what the heck, this is a blog. Here we go.

(I think it'd be a solid idea to listen to the song and read the lyrics before diving into all my forthcoming blathering.)


The car won't start
The bars are all dark
Your friends are all gone
And they wonder where you are
Yeah they're wondering where

The phone is dead
I'll write you instead
Scribble down some bullshit
About how I miss you in bed
Yeah I miss you

It's all I can do to watch you go home
The fumes of our lives still hang in the air
If there's a god, well he's left me alone
For twenty-six years, so honey why should I care?

The change, it came
But I'm still the same
And if I seem blue
Then maybe you're to blame
Yeah you're to blame

It's all I can do to watch you go home
The fumes of our lives still hang in the air
If there's a god, well he's left me alone
For twenty-six years, so honey why should I care?
Why should I care?

The car won't start
The bars are all dark

The keg is dry
There's smoke in our eyes
There's ash in the trays
And we're saying our goodbyes
Yeah we're saying goodbye

It's all I can do to watch you go home
The fumes of our lives still hang in the air
If there's a god, well he's left me alone
For twenty-six years, so honey why should I care?
Why should I care?

It all started a couple weeks ago with the opening guitar part, which I just played over and over again. I love the way it resonates; it's standard tuning, but it kind of sounds like an open D tuning. I actually recorded just that guitar part and threw it on my iPod and listened to that in the car a lot. The third and fourth lines of the chorus kind of happened simultaneously as the chorus chord progression appeared, and for a while that was all I had. It took about a week for me to sit down at midnight one evening, when I felt the creative forces flowing, and I was alone in the house. (That's a big one for me, I think, when it comes to songwriting: being alone.) I stayed up until 3 in the morning writing out the verses. I tried something new with those, too; I wanted to be descriptive of the surroundings, to sort of build up a scene. I liked using imagery of broken things, places that closed, things that are generally done or used up. The feeling is that it's the absolute end of the end of the night.

The second verse doesn't really fit this mold, but it seemed to come out of nowhere, and I liked how it just encapsulated me right now. The last year of my life has seen an inconceivable amount of growth and change, but sometimes I still feel like the same old me, for better or for worse. I mean, here I am back in Indy, after all, doing music. So what's new? Exactly. Well, there's more to it than that. A lot's new, or at least different. And the truth is that the good outweighs the bad, but I still find myself plagued by ridiculous and unfounded self-doubt from time to time.

Another new thing for me is to return to the verse after the bridge. I always liked the way Ben Folds does this in so many of his songs. I think too often I go straight back to the chorus as almost a knee-jerk thing; like "well, I wrapped up that little noodly doodly bridge with a weird key change or something (see also: "Clementine" or "This Medication"), now let's hammer out the chorus and clock out!" This time I wanted to continue the 'story' (not that there really is a definable one) and I felt like ending the third verse on the "goodbye" line really brought it to a close. I was also in this mindset when I wrote "Externalization of an Inner Monologue", where I didn't even bother with a bridge, although you could argue that the first of the final three choruses functions like a bridge.

There are a few lines in here that vaguely hint at this being a relationship/love song. But I'm leery of milking that theme too much, and I feel like there are some other things in life worth singing about, if I can just find a way to do so. To that end, I think there's more in this song that can apply to other things. Your friends wonder where you are when you've been away or out of it; you change a little or a lot; you bid farewell to people in your life. In fact, "our lives" in the chorus used to be "our love", but listening to the song in the car it just struck me that it's really what the whole song is about: the fumes of our lives, the remnants of the lives we (or I) would like to have had but didn't.

I haven't been able to think of a name for this song, so I've been asking for help in coming up with one every time I play it, and the only person to ever suggest anything was Kat from the Wah Wahs, and she christened it "Dandelion", and so it shall be. Thanks!

So, did I kill the mystique by breaking it down and spoon feeding everything? Sorry. Rest assured I'll never do the same for songs like "Speed Dial", "Metropolis", or "Willem Dafoe".

P.S. This was the best of six takes. If I had decided to do a more normal recording (i.e. in Pro Tools) I might have been tempted to edit between my favorite two, but I'm running with the live thing for now so that's how it'll be.

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Externalization of an Inner Monologue

Here is the most recent song I've finished writing. It's in a very different style for me, but I'm not censoring myself. If something stylistically different comes out, I'll let it. I'm calling this one "Externalization of an Inner Monologue". There are a few minor flubs, but it was the best of five takes, and that's all I'm good for right now.

God damn her for finding me
I thought that I was finally free
I thought that there would be no second chance
But no amount of miles could ever be
Enough to try and put between
A lover and the love he never even had

It's bad enough to look for love
With no hope of ever being a part
Of the kind you write songs about
With the hope of breaking somebody's heart

I should have known not to trust
Myself or anyone that I know
I've already gone too far
No amount of careful advice
Can lead to love or save someone's life
If he's not looking and doesn't want to be found

There's no such thing as honesty
Or not the kind that I was hoping to find
It takes a while to get it through
To know they're finally listening to you

I wrote this song behind the wheel
Of a grave made of two tons of steel
But I'm sleeping now in a concrete bed
And I can't tell if this is even real

It's bad enough to look for love
With no hope of ever playing the part
In the kind you wrote songs about
But there's still hope of breaking some poor girl's heart

So god damn you for finding me

Metropolis (new music)

I haven't got much to post lately. Here's a song I wrote recently (with a little help from Dan on a couple lines). Listen to it here (with a little help from Greg on the guitar part at the bridge).

"Metropolis"

I know that you're up there
I'm up there too
And that's where I'll stay
If it's alright with you

I'm floating on the air
We move from place to place
As you sleep the day away
Try to keep a little faith in me and you

If that's okay with you, I'll stay

If you go, don't leave me here
Cuz this city is being overrun by
Businessmen in Cadillacs
Singing songs about drawing up a contract

You're laying in the yard
With your head up in the sky
Playing seventh chords
Dreaming of July

You're taking this too hard
But still you count the days
And the things we can't afford
And the things I couldn't say to you

If that's okay with you, I'll stay

If you go, don't leave me here
Cuz this city is being overrun by
Businessmen in Cadillacs
Singing songs about drawing up a contract