Hi guys and girls!
I thought I’d use this month’s blog to give you an insight into how we write a song. The truth is that the process is always different and often times it feels like the songs create themselves, sweeping us along as passengers on the journey!
We recently finished writing a song that we’re all very proud of and that is very important to me, it’s called “Bridges”.
The story of the song is personal to me, and as is often the case with the lyrics I write, the song’s message was burning away at me for some time; tapping at the door of my creative subconscious before I eventually put pen to paper. The song is essentially about hope… More specifically it is about finding hope after reaching a point where it seems like all hope is lost. In this case the characters in the song are family members who start out in despair, find hope in the strength of each other and finally reach a point where their hope is realised.
As far as the music goes, the song started out as a simple chord progression that Josh was playing around with. He and I had a jam and let it start to take us where it would… Within an hour the basic structure of the song was hammered out. It’s a cliche but I genuinely believe the best songs are the ones that come easy. Too much time tends to over complicate the end product.
Next comes the fun part… Take the bare bones of a song to JD and Ollie and let them start to add some depth and texture. This is my favourite part of the ride because I honestly never know which direction a song will take at this stage. Here is always where the song really takes on its identity. Whatever happens usually starts pretty quickly and I love the rush of getting swept up in the wave of creation, giving ourselves over to the song and allowing it to take us on a journey. So many times I’m left breathless thinking “Wow! I love this song but what the hell happened to the one I had in my head?”
As it happens, “Bridges” was somewhat different. We experimented and came to the decision fairly early on that less would definitely be more in this case. The first part of the song has been kept simple in order to let the lyrics breathe as the pictures of the song’s scenes are painted. The main point of emphasis comes at the start of the second verse when the drums kick in, taking the overall feel up a gear. The last turning point came with the addition of a bridge that builds and builds into the final chorus. This part was so much fun to write and is great fun to perform too, it really creates the tension necessary to deliver the killer blow… The song now reaches a crescendo before arcing off into its resolution at the end.
Call me old fashioned but I want a song to show me something, make me feel something. Preferably I want to be told a story, with a beginning, a middle and an end. For me a song is a vehicle for delivering an emotion into the world. In my own case I know that if I couldn’t wrap those emotions up in convenient little 4 minute parcels of sound, they would very likely never see the light of day!
We hope to have a recording of “Bridges” for you soon. If you get a chance to have a listen we’d love to hear your thoughts. In the meantime, whatever you do, do it from your heart.
Chris. BC x
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