One phrase people like to say is: Good things come to those who wait. Does it really? I do know that quality often takes time. But that is action over time. Action of crafting. However, in some things like business one can be made to wait an exorbitant amount of time for something that seems so simple.
I needed to pick up my bus yesterday. It got it’s final little repair from the accident. The detailer is a nice bloke who is vastly interested in what’s going on for my music. He’s a great guy. When I explained the situation, he looked at me thoughtfully and told me he had no words of wisdom to impart. But then he started telling me how people who get out of their comfort zone are the only ones who truly make strides. Yes they can fail once in a while, but they are the type of people who get back up and go again.
He meant me. He knows I’m full well out of a comfort zone at the moment and working on the business side despite being an artist.
Which is why the phone call I got this morning was welcome and frustrating at the same time. The new deal I’ve been working on for my business is another 4-6 weeks away from being going thru. While it’s the furthest along any deal has come, I’ve been being told prior to this that it was supposed to be done and finished a month ago. Yet now I’ve got another month and a half. ARGH!!!
I finally had a co-write fail. I agreed to do a co-write with a new friend about a week and a half ago. I took her way out of her comfort zone. I have not heard from her since. Which is unfortunate. I thought the idea we got started on was going in a really good direction. But there is that comfort zone thing. And of course the time. She felt she could walk away with a really good song in two hours time. Time for a great song is not a matter of minutes or a couple of hours – it’s lots of hours.
The idea can spark in a moment, but refining it can take a whole lot of time. I’ve noticed in my more recent writing endeavors that the longer I focus on a song, the more I reexamine what it’s doing, the more time it takes and the better it gets. So does the feedback I get. The better the writer I co-write with, the more I get to know that a really damn good song takes at least two days of time. That’s a good number of hours to get to the good first draft. It was a wake up call she wasn’t willing to accept. Oh well.
I’m pretty sure I’ve featured the Tragically Hip before. They’re a great band out of Canada. Seems like a lot of great bands come out of Canada. At least a lot of popular artists have. I really like the ebb and flow of this particular song. It’s about time. The great thing about the vibe is that you can feel the length of time in it. That’s great prosody. If there is one thing the guys in Tragically Hip are good at, it’s vibe. Plus their lyrics tend to really bring out great images and stories. That’s a true sign of great writing.
I can’t express it enough that you ought to explore more of their music than just this song. They’ve got so much great rock it’s beautiful. I do hope at some point to catch them on the road. I’ve never seen them live and I would think they put on a good live show. Seen them? Let me know!