Back in the studio!
Holy crap am i pumped to get down to writing and recording. We’re working today on the first song of the 2nd Act (although technically it’s S2 because of the opening radio show bit which is written but which i’ll deal with recording wise later). I got melodies for a bunch of the Act to go and this song i can sing in my head all the way through so i just have to nail down a vibe which is… suggestive of dieselpunk era but has a modern edge to it.
I get asked about when i write lyrics a bit so i thought i’d take today to briefly talk about it.
I do lyrics last. I did do one album where i did them mostly first, at least wrote them and the melodies long before i ever sat in the studio to do the music beds (Anamnesis). But i almost always do lyrics last.
When i started composing music i used to always do the music beds first. I would add the melodies later and lyrics last. In a project like the Operas i find i must have melodies most of the time before the music bed, so that has changed. But i don’t need lyrics until last.
Understand, that when i sit down to start making the music bed, i already know exactly where the song is supposed to go in the order of things and what plot wise or character wise is supposed to be happening in the song. I know what the mood should be… i know everything. I don’t need lyrics at that point and find i can make better lyrics when a melody is already present. Writing for the melody works better for me. I think i make better songs that way.
By writing the melody first, i know how the lyric and rhyme feel should go. Whether i should repeat phrases or snippets of phrases in the chorus. I sometimes get lyric ideas as i’m singing nonsense along to the song. (“Be my angel” is an example. I didn’t even have a melody for that, i just knew Annabelle Raises The Dead should have a subdued section before the rousing chorus cause it made a better feel. It was listening back to the music bed for that section when i started humming a melody and with it the words “be my angel” in it and then thought… “oh, hey, this works. I could just use this.”)
I simply can’t imagine doing it any other way. For a project like this. Like i said, i’ve written songs with lyrics first, but for something this complicated to put together there is no way i’d even consider changing to lyrics first. Whatever works for you and all that…
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