So anyways, what were you doing on 12/26/11? Me, I was attempting to write and record 20 entirely new songs in 12 hours. Why would anyone in their right mind do such a thing? That was exactly what I wondered several years ago when a friend first told me about the 20 Song Game, which is less a game than an exercise in extreme songwriting, and which I have found myself taking part in twice now. Participants agree to attempt this feat simultaneously but separately, each in his or her own home or studio space, then meet up that night to discuss their experiences and share what they've recorded. You can read more specifics about the rules and ideas behind this "game" here if you're interested. I will just say it is as much an exercise in musical dexterity as it is in freeing your creative process from the hindrance of self-judgment. If you are doing it right (as far as I can tell), you won't have time to second-guess any decisions you make, for better or worse. And if you do truly allow your inner creative genius to run around unfettered, some surprising things will result. This "game" really forces you deep into the creative flow in a special kind of way. I think it may be the single most useful thing I've done creatively over the past few years, and also, probably not coincidentally, the most difficult! If you write songs, haven't tried this yet, and what I've just described sounds at all appealing to you, I heartily recommend getting a few songwriting friends together and trying it for yourself.
This was my second 20 Song experience, and it was much more fun and relaxed than my first. First time around, I hit a roadblock about 5 hours in after I decided to erase an entire song I had been working on. Then I started and promptly erased another. And another. I found myself buried beneath an avalanche of insecurity which not only took me several hours to dig my way out of, but also gave me a throbbing headache and made me a stressed out mess for the rest of the day. But I learned a valuable lesson from that experience. This time around I made a conscious decision to go with whatever song was coming together organically, however odd or unlike my previous work it might seem. My motto was essentially, "No matter how dumb it seems at first glance, just go with it 100%." And voila! Freedom! I did a much better job of turning off my inner critic, and I think this pack of songs is a lot more diverse as a result. I feel like I actually left my self-imposed box several times, and I'm very proud of myself for allowing myself to take those risks.
I should mention that, although I did my best, I did not quite reach 20 songs in the 12 hour period of the game. I did get to 15 however, one more than last time. I'll post each below along with the time of day when I started working on it, and a few thoughts about each. Or you can simply listen to all in a row on my Bandcamp page. Please keep in mind these are not finished songs or recordings in the typical, release-ready sense. They are far from flawless, obviously, with each song getting maybe 45 minutes of attention from start to finish, and some even less as you can see below.
8:04am Come to the Sun
Bleary-eyed after a night spent tossing and turning, I got into my recording space a few minutes late and wanted to get something under my belt right away. So this one is...short and sweet!
8:26am Old Man Joe
I had set out all kinds of instruments the night before so that I'd have quick and easy access to them throughout the day. My friend and AgesandAges bandmate Dan Hunt loaned me a pile of percussion instruments, and those were the first thing I reached for. Many thanks to Dan as these gadgets appeared over and over again throughout the day! I looped some into my trusty Boss Loop Station along with the creaking sound my old space heater makes when turned off, and some mic-tapping, and this minor blues popped into my head. For the vocals, I used this funky homemade harmonica mic called the Egg-Static, which I bought years ago on eBay for maybe $20. Tucker Martine had me sing some backing vocals into it on my first record, but this was its first appearance outside of my drawer of miscellaneous cables 'n things in quite a while.9:00am The Key
Next I reached for my first "axe," the Wurlitzer 200A given to me by Steve Moore. Probably the best present I have ever received. (Thank you, Steve, from the bottom of my heart.) As for the song, I was still feeling pretty sluggish mentally, and just let myself go stream-of-consciousness as far as lyrics are concerned. Interpret them as you will! I tracked backing vocals on the Egg-Static with some delay for psychedelic effect. These and all other main vocals from here on out were recorded on a Shure SM58. Because that's basically all I've got!9:40am What Do You See?
I grabbed my Casio MT-68 keyboard next (a 1980-something gem), hit the start button on the beats without looking at which beat was selected or at what tempo, liked what I heard, and hit record. Then I threw down some bass and keyboard sounds from the same Casio, and jotted down lyrics which I recorded with some kind of lo-fi sounding effect or other, which just felt like the right thing to do.10:21am House Trap
I've always been quite fascinated by bugs, spiders, etc. This song is clearly (I think?) about a spider. Or maybe the spider. Also notable is the use of violin. I don't play the violin (unless you count 6 months of lessons at age 4, which I don't) but I happen to have one around thanks to another friend, Lewi Longmire, which I hope to learn to play. He found this little beauty inside the walls of his house!
I fumbled around on it and found some notes that I liked, looped them, and upon listening immediately thought of long, thin-legged spiders. I wanted to add piano but had a heck of a time figuring out how to mic it with just a busted (read: duct-taped) mic stand and my SM58. In the end, I wound up taking the bottom panel off my Yamaha upright and just setting the 58 inside the bottom of the piano. So ghetto, I know, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.
11:01am Can't Stand You
Okay, so here's where it started to get weird. Well, weird for me. Which is maybe some people's normal, I suppose! Hennyways, I wanted to stir things up, and do something more up tempo, so I went for the percussion again. First I looped some 16th notes on cabasa, to which I added more perc, then this line came into my head, which I managed to play, with difficulty, on the violin. And then...well, what can I say? I just got a little bit sassy.11:49am We Break Bread
I think this is kind of an odd song. Which is maybe more normal for me than the last one! We're talking floaty piano stuff, with off-beat lyrics about tiny organisms that feed off of dead flesh. Right back in my comfort zone ;)
12:20pm The Hounds
Here's my one attempt at guitar playing. (Thanks, Adam Thompson for loaning!) It's missing one string, but I didn't need that string anyway.
My family has a cabin on a lake in Northern Minnesota, in the Boundary Waters. A few cabins down, lives a man with a pack of sled dogs. Every morning they howl insistently to be fed. I wrote this thinking about that man, living his isolated life there in the winter, with his dogs.
12:55pm How Can I Get Over You?
I did not in any way anticipate writing a song that sounds like this. Ever. Nothing against it, it's just surprising. All I can say is, well, I listened to some Jackson 5 last week. Oh, and can you tell I like Hall and Oates?
1:48pm Lights. Camera. Action.
Another departure from my usual style. I will admit to being inspired by Glass Candy on this one. Resisted breaking out into a beat, but hoped that I was getting a slightly creepy, slightly dance-y vibe going. Casio loop, Microkorg bass patch of some kind, and a couple of vocal tracks with obvious effects.
2:55pm Perplexing Tides
I recorded the entire process of building a loop to form the underlying structure of this song. I started the loop with just vocals, then gradually added layers of percussion.
3:32pm All Through the Valley
This one is the most exciting song of the day for me as it came about through pure experimentation; it was one of those songs that felt so easy and right. I went back to the piano, and came up with a pattern of a few chords. I then repeated it, starting at the bottom of the piano and moving up an octave with each repetition until I reached the top. I then recorded another track on top of it, playing the same chords, but starting at the top and moving to the bottom of the keyboard. Then I added delay to both tracks, and panned them a bit, one to each side. There was such an exhilarating feeling to it, and I immediately had this scene come to mind of an impossibly vast valley with two of Henry Darger's Vivian Girls trying to run to each other across it without some unseen evil force finding them. In the middle of the song, they meet in the center of the valley, hold each other for a moment, are propelled into the air, and then pulled apart again running in opposite directions, which I felt mirrored the way the piano tracks met in the center of the keyboard in the middle of the song then moved apart again. Strange the things that pop into your head when you've been writing music for nearly 8 hours straight!
4:22pm Song 13
This was the only song I gave up on. Funny that it's the thirteenth song (not that I'm superstitious!) and that it came after a song that came together easily. I know I said I wasn't going to give up on any songs, whatever the apparent genre, but this song with it's microkorg synth strings and spaced-out kalimba and glockenspiel really felt like a cross between new age and post-rave chill-out. I just couldn't bring myself to spend the time I knew it would take to drag a vocal part out of myself that was fitting, and chose instead to shelve it and move on. I will spare you from listening to it.
4:57pm Followers Beware
After that last wasted half hour, I decided that I'd see if I had better luck hitting the kalimba with a mallet as opposed to plucking it. This helped me to arrive at a 5/4 beat which I found thoroughly confounding. Which is odd, considering how much I've been drawn to this meter in the past! But I just wasn't feeling it at first. I recorded some melodica, then muted it. Then recorded everything else, and at the last second before bouncing the track, unmuted the melodica just for fun. As you can see from the times listed, this song took the longest at more than 90 minutes! I guess my brain was starting to slow down at this point.
6:35pm Poor Mary
More than ten hours in, and it was clear that this was starting to get more difficult. But somehow I pulled out this little ditty. Another oddball for me, and with a really silly inspiration which I'll decline to mention....
6:58pm Missing the Old You
I bounced from the silliness of the last song back to the earnest side of the spectrum. Also notable, my first ever use of profanity as lyric! Considering that, I'll also note that this piano part was a real bitch to sing to. With 10 minutes to go, I was about ready to just scrap it and rerecord, but I realized I didn't have time and stuck it out. However, the song trails off, clearly unfinished...cuz as I was working the clock struck 8, and it was all over!
And here's what my living room looked like at the end of the day...
If you look very closely, you might spy a little black cat who was trying very hard to thwart my efforts throughout the day...
