So after the first 8 days of my first February Album Writing Month, we’re making progress. After doing almost nothing for the first 5 days ‘cos we were on holiday in beautiful Thailand. Actually, I did manage a couple of sketches on the iPad but nothing substantial. However, yesterday, I wrote and recorded 3 songs:

The first is Hopes and Dreams which I worked out using the Trio+ pedal to lay down drums and bass then loop the chord sequence before writing the lyrics and melody. I had a fair bit of new ground to cover and learn here – mainly getting the drum track into the DAW and then adapting the tempo to fit. Also I used the arrangement track which is a really neat feature in Studio One that allows you to really build a track quickly. I thoroughly enjoyed multitracking this and adding other instruments (harmonica mainly). There is work to do with this in terms of the production and tidying up the rest of the song but I’m happy with this as first draft.

The next one was Wonderous Tales which I wrote as a response to a FAWM “skirmish”. A skirmish is when you are given a title, prompt or word cloud and have to write to this. It’s the first time I’ve done this and I found it really stimulating. I this case, I looked at the word cloud and just wrote down what cam into my head, then tracked a simple chord progression for the chorus followed by one for the verse. Again, I’m happy with this as a first draft but it needs work. The verse melody is not quite right and I think it needs a bridge. However, this approach to getting a song down is definitely one I will reuse.

Finally I was so enthused by the flow from the first two, I opened up my sketchbook from the holiday and bashed out Shadow in Plain Sight. This was actually a sort of a co-write with ChatGPT. I am very interested in how to use AI as an aid to the creative processs and this was my first foray. I asked it for a poem about homelessness and it gave me 4 stanzas. They weren’t suitable for use directly and anyway, I wanted to use it as a tool not as a substitute lyricist. This gave me a serious kick start and I am fairly pleased with the results. The recording method for this was similar to Wonderous Tales and I am now getting pretty quick at laying down the foundation and then cracking on with a simple demo. Again, theres work to do with this before it’s done – especially some of the lyrics.

I have now created a SoundCloud playlist where I will keep all of my FAWM submissions – feel free to visit and comment – either here or in the tracks. All feedback gratefully received as always!