Last night was a first time writing session with a new friend. I have a deadline for a song that has to be in tomorrow morning. The original co-writer has disappeared so I had to scramble and find another person that I felt could fit the bill and make it work. Fortunately Jamie Drake agreed and came over to the studio last night to get started. I already had the track written, but I need a female singer and I figure rather than pay someone for their time I’d include them on the writing and make it more worth their while.
As we got started she was humming a melody over the music I had recorded. Then we started tweaking the melody and running thru some ideas for lyrics. The first idea ended up being a little to over the top for the intended use of the track. So we had to put that aside and start again. The second idea is much more subtle but still very funny in the double entendres. Actually one line has a triple entendre. Very unique.
What made it hard for the co-writer is that she was very used to writing for herself and about herself. Making up a story about someone else was a bit out of her element. Then came the molding of the story to make sure it was going in a direction that would work for the chorus we had come up with.
As I said we got off to a late start. She had only had an hour sleep the night before and by 1 a.m. she was pretty well burned out. We got thru 3/4 of the song. Today we’ll finish it off with the bridge and get it sung so that I can rough out a mix tonight and pass it thru in the morning.
David Wilcox probably wasn’t thinking about writing sessions when he wrote Red Eye. Based on the lyrical content I can be pretty assured of that. However, I really liked the concept of the title Red Eye as lots of people can relate to it meaning being up late or catching an overnight flight or travel somewhere. Writing is very much a journey. Last night’s journey was a good one. I look forward to more writing with Jamie.
In the meantime, I have to say that I really appreciate David’s sense of rhythm and structure. He’s got a flow that gives the listener a real sense of ease even if the subject matter is heavy. That’s a real talent when it comes to songwriting.
Go explore David Wilcox and his music. You won’t be sorry.