[rightly]

Interesting topic.

Your explanation to your approach doesn't surprise me, I'd have guessed. 
Certainly seems to work well.

Marr did have some great tunes, he often provided an interesting environment for morrisseys lyrics.  The passion he had/has seems huge. If you can reign in your natural tendency to write melody based songs n try out this other technique I think it'll pay off, at least it'll be an interesting experience.

[jacksimmons]

Well it's been a long old while but about two/three weeks ago my Dad came down and laid the final backing vocals for the middle section of Georgie. With these done it was sent with the rest of the tracks from my album to @Boydie, and after a little back and forth and my tweaking the mix the final mastered version is up on Soundcloud and will be up for streaming soon.

Here it is:



I wrote most of this song in the winter of 2017, began the recording process about this time last year, and now it is FINALLY finished. Thanks to all those that have followed this thread, and those that posted feedback on this one in the Finished Songs section. I hop[ew this thread has been entertaining/insightful/interesting to some of you.

I am thinking about doing something similar with the making of my next album...

[MichaelA]

It must be quite handy having a Dad who can pop round and do backing vocals, Jack, ha ha! Well this sounds extremely polished now and it sounds very much like your meticulous approach has paid off. Good luck with the release and I hope you get a bit of traction with it.

[jacksimmons]

It must be quite handy having a Dad who can pop round and do backing vocals, Jack, ha ha! Well this sounds extremely polished now and it sounds very much like your meticulous approach has paid off. Good luck with the release and I hope you get a bit of traction with it.

Thanks Michael! I don't know how meticulous my approach really is. I am a fiddler more than anything. Tend to tweak and tweak when I should just bung stuff out.

It is very handy having my Dad around. He is really good at arranging vocals and I learnt everything I know about backing vocals/harmonies from listening/watching him. He also plays almost all the electric guitar on my tunes.

Thanks for the reply!

[PopTodd]

This one started by just reversing the chord progression to  "Cary's Here" (in the chorus). It was a good way to break out of a writer's block. But, as you can hear, it's a totally different song. Proud of the harmony in the chorus, too.
As I am currently blocked again, I should try that same thing with another song.
https://hoponpop.bandcamp.com/track/if-you-knew

[jacksimmons]

I've decided to resurrect this thread for my FAWM attempt. Don't know about an album this month but I am certainly trying to write as much music as possible. So here's what I've managed so far this month.

Slave to the Rhythm is the first complete song I've managed this month. It's been posted here in the Finished Songs sections but I thought I'd post a bit of my writing process for it here. As always I don't know who this is for but I think it could be interesting to someone maybe? Below recordings are SUPER rough noodlings from my iPhone Voice Memos app, which is how I write all my songs now. So below are what I have of my writing process for Slave + the finished article (unmastered):





Usually there's a lot of messing around with chords and tunes recorded before I settle on a melody I'm happy with. You ca hear a bit of that above and also with Dreams Away below. But with Lose Control and Body Politik I basically wrote the whole song before I started recording bits.

With most of these recordings essentially what you'll hear is a 'full' version that is just me making vague noises to the melody, before I go back and write lyrics, and then a rough version with lyrics so I have the tune/structure saved before opening my DAW.

Here is the first song I wrote in February called Body Politik. This had lyrics first and then a tune, which is not my usual process. As a result my first recording of it is with all the words.



Lyrics:

We can go out any night you choose
I’m free now to the end of time
I could be fatally in love with you
You’re the perfect threat, I’m loose a screw
What’s more, we can’t be sure the lights will stay on forever more

Got my finger on your pulse
It gets too high if you get too close
You’ve got my pictures, I’ve got yours
We don’t need to know the score
And sure I feel sick, we’re the body politic – oh oh!
And if they stare who cares? we can’t be tamed

So you thought we'd just forget
I'm not a carcass yet
You've got your friends I've got mine
We ditch them both in the nick of time
You know, these things just grow
Unless you pull them out root and stem

A curled lip, a pile of clothes
You threw yourself in to the river
As if nothing could go wrong
And if they stare who cares? we can't be tamed
Tonight we can't be tamed, who cares?
You know if life's a game we lost it long ago

Then I wrote Slave to the Rhythm (which admittedly I had an idea of a chorus for already). And then last week I came up with a tune which I haven't finished yet, called Dreams Away. I have no idea what this is about yet but I have most of the melody done. You can really hear me struggling to find the melody here so don't judge...



Lastly I wrote this tune called Lose Control last night. I had the 'Lose Control' hook and essentially nothing else but it came pretty fast and I wrote the basic structure of it:



And today I wrote the lyrics and recorded a rough 'full' version:



Lyrics:

Met you down at the football field and I'm sighing
Met you down at the football field and you do not mind
Looking like a bomb hit you
I am here to clear some rubble now
'cause I am out of control
Knowing there's more
A layer beneath your clothes
Give me a pout
I won't be something you don't care about now
Something you don't care about now

And your music makes me lose control
These feelings that are nascent in my bones
Wanna make you lose control and go now
I can make you go now
I can make you go now
And you know it's too late to pretend now
Hide it from our friends now
Can't hide it from our friends now 
I wanna make you lose control

Not illegal digging up our dead ground
Not illegal laying down if you do not mind
Not illegal crossing legs
Though it wakes up something deep inside
And I am out of control
I have this thing
I've wanted to hold in my hands
I have nights where all I can think about is you
Where all I can think about is you

And your music makes me lose control
These feelings that are nascent in my bones
Wanna make you lose control and go now
I can make you go now
I can make you go now
It's clear we've started sharing clothes now
Anything goes now
Everybody knows now
I wanna make you lose control

Oh oh oh don't mind
Oh oh oh don't mind
Don't care where you've been now
I can watch you swim now
I can watch you swim
Wanna make you lose control and go now
I can make you go now
I can make you go now
FADE OUT

I'm hoping to record the backing track for this one today before I go away for the weekend, and then maybe get the vocals down next week.

That's the end of my FAWM Diary #1. Thanks @PaulAds for the inspiration.



 

[pompeyjazz]

Fascinating insight into your writing process @jacksimmons Great how you've got those melodies down at an early stage. I think it's great to take snapshots of the development process of a song. I've found that filming rehersals is a great way to find out what I've done wrong !!! Anyway, you are sure the melody man. Great stuff Jack

[PaulAds]

Yeah…this is a brilliant insight into how you pull stuff together.

I’m trying to use this FAWM just to sort of brainstorm some ideas that I can expand on over the next few weeks.

It’s really brave of you to do this…shows promise of being great when they’re finished and produced.

Sounds really good as they are…thanks for sharing…I love being able to find out about how we all go about this business!

FAWM is really tough…I love confronting my own deficiencies and trying to pull things together, despite the horror involved.

[jacksimmons]

Thanks for listening/reading guys.

@pompeyjazz the 'melody man' I will take! Thank you! since I can hardly play any of my instruments the vocal melody is really the only place to start for me...

@PaulAds You seem to be doing a good job on FAWM so far mate. I am thinking of going down your route for a bit, writing some lyrics, and seeing what I can make out of them. it's the exact opposite of my usual process so will be interesting

Anyway, before I went away for the weekend I managed to get the basic track and vocals down for Lose Control. And I have spent today getting the guitars down. (I have to say after a few false starts). I'm pretty happy with the harmonies and backing vocals.



I struggled with the arrangement for this for a day or so. Just when I thought I was going to scrap it I made some headway. The above is still a pretty rough mix but it's all there, apart from the mid8 falsetto bit which I've scrapped and replaced with an instrumental break.