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A song out of thin air

12 Jan 2012 1 Comment

by annfeld in blog, music Tags: blog, music

Driving home last night, I was caught in a torrential downpour that led me to drive no more than 55 mph on the highway. Even going a mile over that felt unsafe. Unfortunately, rain usually equals heavy traffic, especially with all the tunnels in my area. Hampton Roads is connected by bridges and tunnels, and you’d think that people would finally learn how to drive carefully tunnels, as in not immediately slowing down while going through tunnels causing everyone else behind them to slow down too. But I digress.

So I got caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic about a half a mile from the tunnel. I had to go from a comfortable 55 mph down to a snail’s pace for about thirty minutes. Just to go half a mile. UGH.

At least I had music to keep me company. Just in the last thirty minutes I sat crawling along the highway with all the other cars, I had two songs that randomly came up on my iPod that had to do with water and rain. “Flood” by Jars of Clay, and the obscure 80s song “Wildwood” by Trees, a song that begins with the sound of rain falling. My iPod must’ve known what the weather was like at that moment.

One song in particular really caught me amidst the random music mix. It was the song “All This Time” by Sting, a song that I enjoy very much but haven’t played as much as I’d like. Just haven’t been in much of a Sting mood lately.

Since I had nothing else to do except let off the brake every few minutes to crawl another fifty feet to the next car in front of me, I sat and listened intensely to the song. This was the first time I really listened to the lyrics and music other than just singing along to the chorus as usual. For all its peppiness, the song is actually quite thoughtful. There are different layers to the lyrics that really intrigued me. For one thing, I’d heard that the song was written about his father’s death like most of the album it was from (The Soul Cages). So there’s the element of the narrator dealing with his father’s death and wishing he could give him a simple burial at sea instead (“if I had my way, take a boat from the river and I’d bury the old man/I’d bury him at sea.”) Then there’s the obvious element of the cycle of life going on and on like the river he mentions in the song. (“And all this time, the river flowed endlessly to the sea”).

And now for the song itself:

So during the song, I began to get an idea for a song of my own.

It started with a line. In times like these, I grab my phone and type out the line before it floats away. Later that evening, I began fleshing out the idea for these new lyrics. Earlier today, I perused through Logic for any random snippets of songs that I began but never finished, and I found a song I started with a simple drum beat and piano riff, but put on the shelf for some other time.

As I played the song fragment through my tinny computer speakers, it hit me. I have to use this song background for these new lyrics. It’s pensive and thoughtful. Perfect! Even if I do have fifty thousand of these different song fragments sitting here on my hard drive, it’s a good thing I keep them all for times like this! Then came the vocal melody that I practiced while puttering around the house for about an hour, then recorded in my studio. A minute and fifty-one seconds of musical bliss, with an intro, two verses and a chorus, all recorded.

So by dinnertime tonight, I had half a new song done, when only twenty four hours before, I had nothing. Talk about creating a song out of thin air! I’d had days before when I’d record most of a song. However this was different. Not many of my other songs have ever come out this fully formed in such a short period of time. When I let my husband, who is essentially my producer, in on what I’d recorded, he told me that other than the chorus (which admittedly does need work with the melody), he absolutely loved it and I should keep going with it! He even suggested that I keep the demo vocals since they fit with the sad subject matter.

So we’ll see what happens with this one. :)