BTS ~ Songwriting & Unreleased Songs

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The Songwriting Process

Bryan G. asked me to talk a bit about my songwriting process, so here it is! 😊

Apologies for the wind! We were a couple of months into lockdown and I was craving to get a bit of fresh air.

 

Hawaii Songwriting Trip

I spent the last week of October on “the Big Island” of Hawaii, writing and recording new songs with old friends (Patricia Bahia and Austin Willacy) and new (the producers we worked with). Here’s a little video footage from the trip ~ we recorded in the studio of Grammy-winning producer Charles Brotman. He had a 1971 Les Paul that I played in the footage that you see. But for the song we ended up scrapping the Les Paul track and using a Weisenborn acoustic lap steel guitar (like the kind that Ben Harper uses). It just seemed to fit the song better. You never know if something will work until you try it! 

The song you hear in the video clips is something we wrote and produced while in the studio ~ it took a total of about six hours. A totally different experience from writing my songs and then recording them with Seth, a process that takes much longer, due to our schedules. There’s something fantastic about blocking out a whole week to do nothing but write and record ~ it’s much easier for me to do when I'm away from all the obligations and distractions of home!

Best Friends ~ Live from the Lady Loft

I’m really excited about this song ~ I had the idea to write it several years ago at a class in Song School, my favorite songwriting camp in Colorado. The assignment was to write a song for your favorite product or company.

Since I had recently fostered and then adopted a kitten from “Best Friends Animal Society,” I wrote down some ideas for a commercial for Best Friends. The stuff I wrote down was forgettable, but I loved the idea.

Fast forward a few years to last week, when I was learning one of my LEAST favorite Aerosmith tunes, I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing (which was their only #1 hit ~ just goes to show you how much THAT means! 😜). Anyway ~ as much as I can’t stand Aerosmith doing that song (written by uber-pop hit writer Diane Warren), the bridge is a masterpiece of interesting (and great-sounding) chord changes, and I was inspired to use those chords as a jumping-off point for my September song.

I learned the progression and started singing various melodies along with it. I thought the melody from Nothing Compares To U (written by Prince, originally released by Sinead O’Connor) sounded nice with the chord progression, so I changed up the melody a bit and took it from there.

Now that I had some sort of musical starting place, I looked through my notes of unfinished lyrics to see if anything I had written down sounded like it could fit with this music.

The music was sweet-sounding, so when I saw my old notes on “Best Friends” I thought that would be a fun subject to try ~ and it was!

This song came to me easier than most do ~ I wrote it in about two days (after having the idea years ago!), and I’m really excited to record it and share it with the world (and especially with the folks at Best Friends!)

 

Coast ~ Performed by a 4-Woman Band 😉

Coast is a song I started writing years ago, but could never get past the lyrics for the first verse, and the groove I had in mind. So I kept the part I liked in my “Unfinished Lyrics” file, and the last time I rifled through those pages, this song jumped out at me.

I’d been feeling pretty melancholy lately, and listening to a lot of Pink Floyd (which you can hear a bit in the chord progression I chose). And I worked on it as I took my evening walks around the neighborhood.

I put this fun video together using the “A capella” app on my phone. I’m still getting the hang of recording flawless audio with that app, but I hope you enjoy it. 😊

 

I Got My Sisters ~ Bare Bones Version

Here’s a rough sketch of a new song I’m writing with Patricia Bahia. I’m VERY excited about the direction it’s heading (very rockin' and funky!), and as soon as we finish the lyrics, I’ll post a follow-up video with the complete song. 🤘

 

I'm So Bored ~ Live From the Lady Loft

Some years ago, I was cleaning out my gear closet and found a lyric sheet that my Uncle Roger had written (it was in the guitar case of the “FrankenStrat” that I inherited from him after he tragically died in a car accident when I was 15). I’ve had this lyric sheet since I was 15, but it wasn’t until last month that I decided to write a song based on his lyrics. So I guess you could say I co-wrote a song with my Uncle Roger, decades after he passed away 💕

Coincidentally (kind of a CRAZY coincidence!), I was in the midst of the Coronavirus lockdown, and his lyrics started “I’m so bored, honey, gotta get out…” 😱 When I saw that, I felt like it was the PERFECT time to take his lyric and use it for the basis of my next song.

The song doesn’t change much musically ~ I wanted to create the feeling of being bored in an unchanging environment… and the lyrics I came up with ~ based loosely on Roger’s original lyric ~ have more to do with the way I felt at the beginning of the pandemic than the way I feel now (e.g., I’m no longer feeling so afraid). 

I used the Danelectro Backtalk Reverse Delay pedal on my electric guitar ~ a pedal I rarely use, but came across while cleaning out my gear closet 😉 It was really fun and I’m gonna keep experimenting with it!

 

Light The Way ~ Live from the Lady Loft

This video shows the very beginnings of the first song that Susie Major (singer for RagDolls) and I wrote together. Susie sent me a snippet of music she’d written on piano, along with a very pretty melody, and I thought it’d make a beautiful, bittersweet chorus.

At the time, I was reading the autobiography of Ani DiFranco and was really inspired by her activism and dedication to making the world a better place. This song was directly influenced by that, and it ended up being written from the point of view of someone who’s been at the forefront of an uphill battle against the powers-that-be.

I imagined the person singing this song to a young protégé ~ like a Martin Luther King Jr. speaking to a young John Lewis.

It was written as a hopeful song during a really intense moment in time. Back then, things felt incredibly uncertain, especially with COVID-19 impacting everything around us.

Looking back now, I’m reminded of how much that period shaped the music and the perspective behind it. At its core, the song is still about holding onto hope and continuing to move forward, even when things feel overwhelming 🐬🌈 🌺

 

Stay Sexy ~ From the Lady Loft

Warning: Explicit lyrics 😈

Stay Sexy is a quirky little ditty I wrote, which was inspired by the podcast “My Favorite Murder,” a comedy true crime podcast hosted by comedian Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. 

The podcast is a fun mix of comedy, girl talk, and true crime stories ~ plus every episode ends with Georgia’s cat Elvis meowing for a cookie 😻

The song I wrote is full of advice to avoid being murdered by a random serial killer ~ all in the words of Karen & Georgia. Warning! There’s a few F-bombs in there ~ I blame it on Karen & Georgia 😜 cuz that’s how they talk…

This is a *very* rough demo of how I envision the structure of the final recording to be. The actual recording will be swampier & swankier, in addition to having “The Karens” on background vocals (defense attorney and fellow “My Favorite Murder” fan Karen Nash, and hopefully Karen Kilgariff herself) 💜 

 

Yes You Can ~ Live from the Lady Loft

Here’s a rough version of Yes You Can.  I’ll keep you posted as we get into the studio with it! 🤩

 

I Got My Sisters ~ Songwriting Session

This is a behind-the-scenes look at how Patricia and I began writing I Got My Sisters 🤍

Due to the Coronavirus lockdown, we had to do this session via Zoom, but we generally meet in person to work on new material.

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