Yesterday I had a phone call with a friend who had asked me what I was up to. When I told him where I was and what I was doing he responded with you must relinquish your penis card immediately. That’s a very funny remark. Was I doing anything that really made me less of a man – no. Still, it a funny remark.
We all tend to see, hear or come across things in our lives that make us think the other person needs to relinquish something to right the injustice or whatever.
Not to take away from people who tend to create, but there are those who’s creations are better left not seeing the commercial light of day. I recently read an article with a hit songwriter who attended the same school I did. In it she mentions how she has 100’s of songs that will never see the light of day. Many that were written when she was writing a song a day for years. She soon realized that it’s not the quantity, but rather the quality. Good thing she figured it out because now she’s really in demand.
Today I was doing some writing with a buddy. I wanted to write a song that was an acoustically driven industrial type thing. He didn’t know if it would be possible. I didn’t either. However, we got into it and I came up with a melodic riff that flows in 6 and we put it over a standard 4/4 beat. We built the song up around it all and as I’m writing this I’m listening and thinking, hell yeah this works. At one point the co-writer mentioned, that’s an extremely hooky part [meaning the main riff]. Then he said, it’s a great thing that I get half of that. I thanked him for the compliment and went on to say there’s more in my head that will come out eventually.
If there’s one thing I’ve got, it’s an ability to write a hook, that I won’t relinquish.
One of my favorite bands that can write a hook like no other has to be Queen. Of course the ultimate in industrial is Nine Inch Nails. Which should I feature here? Well, since I recently had a Queen song, I’ll go with Nine Inch Nails. NIN is also no slouch to having some great hooks too. One of my favorites songs by the Reznor crew has to be All The Love In The World. There’s mood, there’s repeating figures, and a cool chorus to top it off. Plus the way they do a type of picardy third in the end of the song. Love it.
If you’ve not explored their world, do so.