There’s something to be said for living in the moment. Or at the very least, being ready to do something on a moment’s notice. Such is the case, or rather was the case for me yesterday. I was knee deep in working on a new song and watching a tutorial video on some new software when I got a call from my friend Greg. Seems he had a last minute cancellation at a studio for a demo he was recording with a couple of guys he had co-written a song with. Thus he called me and asked if I’d be willing to do the gig. I said sure. Within an hour I had a studio full of boy band singers.
One thing is for sure, you never know what you’re gonna get, when you’re working with a group you’re not familiar with. What often seems to happen when people rent my studio with me at the helm is that I’ll start as the silent engineer, making sure that the sounds are good and people are happy to be there. After a while though, it never fails that people begin to lose their perspective. At which point, I need to step in and start doing a little directing. Helping them make decisions that are normally left to the producer.
Of course, being the outsider and not tied to the material in the same manner probably helps. I can provide a fresh view. Though I attempt to do it as little as possible because I deem it to be a producer role and since they’re not hiring me as a producer, it’s tough to keep flowing with the advice.
I’d say that part of that gig came from saying “yes”. What a funny little word. It’s not a verb, it’s not a noun. What exactly is it? Good question. In fact I can think of how nice it is to hear that word from friends. I did have a plan to go hang at Canter’s again last night. Don’t worry, I did. Though I will say it was an odd evening. The energy there felt more chaotic last night than in any of the times I’ve been there. Wacky energy was hanging around. Maybe it was the election going on. I don’t know. My friend Aubrey showed up a bit later that evened it out a little.
Eventually I felt the length of the session and the time of the evening gain on me. I had to split and head home. Nothing like crashing hard. Right?
A whole lot of the time such things happen when there is a misunderstanding. Which is what brings me to today’s pick by Jason Falkner. Jason has a real penchant for playing with words, along with music. Kinda hard not to considering some of the music company he’s had in his past – Jellyfish, The Greys, etc… He’s a very talented individual. I like the play of words in this song especially with the title.
The strong points to this song are the intro and the immediate move from there into a chorus. Not a standard practice in most commercial songwriting. But provides a good twist here. The other thing you’ll likely notice is that the music and the rhythm really tie into the vocal support. Lots of movement and hits that emphasize what he’s doing with the words. That shows he has no misunderstanding about how to craft a song – even if it’s not the most commercial thing you’ve heard.
I can certainly relate to the concept of misunderstandings that happen in a moment’s notice a lot lately. Can you?