How do "you" write "your" music?

[VREEEEVROOOOOW]

Raw > polished, period. I'm so sick of lifeless popular music (popular meaning Western non-art music, so pop, rock, metal, rnb, hip-hop, whatever) with hi-fi mixed trebs & bass, no dynamic range, verse chorus verse, flat monotonous reverse ambient muzak shit. And I don't mean music should be sloppy—play it like it means something, but play it right, whatever "right" is to you, but don't compress the fuck out of it, raise the vocals in the mix, pan the guitars, and in general make every conceivable effort to suck the life out of it.

Fuck popular music production depresses me.

/me puts on this instead:

[Dapper Bandit]

Raw does not necessarily mean bad! I daresay the userbase here will skew towards more niche musics but aside from that there are many "raw" recordings outside of the noize boi / shoegaze / whatever that sound excellent.

Shellac for example. Not polished to within and inch of it's life but they still sound (dude) incredible! The punky / fun Darkthrone records sounded good too.

Maybe rather than worry about how amazing your production could be or how intricate your song writing could be, take some time out to think about which artists thrill you. Ignore respect and listen to that music-obsessive kid inside you that thinks that [insert band] just fucking rips. Then take a look at what they sound like. Do they have tons of fancy chord progressions and lush production? If it's good enough for them, right?

If you want to sound like a cross between, I don't know, OM and NIN then fucking go for it, your passion for your art is part of the art.

[Dapper Bandit]

/me puts on this instead:

This would be an example of "raw but good" vs "I can't actually tell what is going on here", production wise. Muscially it is indeed double and triple raw. Monday night raw, even. Whilst not something I would throw on every night of the week it certainly left more of an impression than laptop noise, for sure.

"Pardon me chaps, I fear your kvlt trvvness has gone to far as I can only hear snare drums?"

[coldbrightsunlight]

Raw does not necessarily mean bad! I daresay the userbase here will skew towards more niche musics but aside from that there are many "raw" recordings outside of the noize boi / shoegaze / whatever that sound excellent.

Shellac for example. Not polished to within and inch of it's life but they still sound (dude) incredible! The punky / fun Darkthrone records sounded good too.

Maybe rather than worry about how amazing your production could be or how intricate your song writing could be, take some time out to think about which artists thrill you. Ignore respect and listen to that music-obsessive kid inside you that thinks that [insert band] just fucking rips. Then take a look at what they sound like. Do they have tons of fancy chord progressions and lush production? If it's good enough for them, right?

If you want to sound like a cross between, I don't know, OM and NIN then fucking go for it, your passion for your art is part of the art.

Yeah this is sort of where I was aiming with 'raw'. Shouldn't sound bad (unless that's the goal) but not everything needs to sound like a shiny U2 record. Shellac are a good example - sounds 'raw' as in not too much processing and sonic 'polish' but it's all played and recorded very well. It's a deliberate aesthetic choice.

So if you have a setup where you can get sounds that are pretty cool (but maybe not the ultimate perfect tone), and you're enjoying the vibes of the songs, record them now. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

[MrNovember]

I need to read through this thread for some inspiration. I tend to write about 50% of a song and either:
1) have absolute writers block and fail to write any lyrics
2) get overly critical about something and completely abandon the song

[Never]

I'm a huge believer in improvisation, because without it, I would never get anything done.

Easier to do when you're into more out-there / avant musics ofc, but not exclusive -- even lyrics can be improvised with practice -- no one could ever write like Malkmus or Cedric from ATDI without embracing spontaneity.

It helps me to offload decision-making to the machines, too -- I bought the Model:Samples recently because of its randomness features. Feedback loops are great (or I imagine, complex modular setups), since you have to give up the idea you could ever control or repeat any sound, and instead you have to look at the machines as a collaborative partner

What works best for me is to have something half-prepared, like a few drum loops or chord progressions or samples, then play and record through f-loops, effects, etc

Also, improvising puts you in a different headspace! You have to be in the moment / submerged in the sound, and you gain distance from your most conscious self

[cosmicevan]

I’m a musician who happens to play the bass as a primary instrument. I used to sh.t songs out, but these days I tend to be about spontaneous creation/improv/jamming w the gear. I’ve recently gotten back into writing though and I’d like to get more things recorded so I’ve been revisiting my process which is usually record the core idea on one, two, or three instruments and vocals and then write other parts on top. I just suck at drums and making beats for my music.

I mostly write on bass, mostly groove based or driven from a bass line. I also write on electric guitar...some chord based and some riff based. I can almost always get the core of a song out immediately, but it takes sitting down and consciously finishing a tune for me to get there. I used to bring things to bands as the bass part and we’d jam it so they could write parts and the song would take shape. Interestingly enough, 90% of the songs I write have no chorus parts but always have verse parts. I’ve also gotten way into being the entire band and building music live w loopers and other nonsense...so I’ve been writing to that setup as well lately.

[dubkitty]

i've found that if i can get a significant section of a song done, i can sometimes work my way out from there to a completed composition. IMO a good riff, sequence, or tune and a couple of lines of text gives you a context around which it's relatively simple to figure out in a logical way what goes with it and what doesn't.

[Ghost Hip]

Few different ways I have written:

Most recently I made full drum tracks while bored at work with the DM1 Drum Machine app, then as soon as I got home I set up to start writing recording bass. I have the vibe of the vocals planned but no lyrics yet. I think generally with a typical song that has easily defined parts/transitions like verse, chorus, bridge, etc. I write the entire song on one instrument, then take it to the recording process or a band if I have one. Starting with a drum track without a solid idea for a song is really fun though because as a guitar/bass/synth player it's just a lot of space to explore and write in. I come up with the most interesting results when I have a drum track in a DAW and I just start adding harmonic instruments on top.

With instruments that are also song writing tools like the OP-1 or Korg DS-10, I'll write a full loop/pattern and do my damn best to make it into a full song. This is the most difficult method for me because sometimes I'll make a loop so full/final its hard to imagine a second part. The OP-1 always seems to challenge me with transitions between parts as well. OP-1 is almost like songwriting by problem solving, which I don't mind, but there are so many different options it can feel overwhelming. ds-10 is a lot easier to make a full track but its more a challenge to make it interesting with only 16 step patterns.

With modular/hardware compositions, I imagine I am similar to others, I typically think of a weird patch idea, see how it sounds, and try to build on it. Then once I have a lot going on, I think about whether its worth recording or scrapping and starting over. Biggest challenge for me is knowing when to stop. Sometimes I have something really good going and then I try to push it further and lose the magic.

[Never]

Biggest challenge for me is knowing when to stop. Sometimes I have something really good going and then I try to push it further and lose the magic.

100% !

[coldbrightsunlight]

Oh yeah I know that feeling

[Lurker13]

I'm a huge believer in improvisation, because without it, I would never get anything done.

Easier to do when you're into more out-there / avant musics ofc, but not exclusive -- even lyrics can be improvised with practice -- no one could ever write like Malkmus or Cedric from ATDI without embracing spontaneity.

It helps me to offload decision-making to the machines, too -- I bought the Model:Samples recently because of its randomness features. Feedback loops are great (or I imagine, complex modular setups), since you have to give up the idea you could ever control or repeat any sound, and instead you have to look at the machines as a collaborative partner

What works best for me is to have something half-prepared, like a few drum loops or chord progressions or samples, then play and record through f-loops, effects, etc

Also, improvising puts you in a different headspace! You have to be in the moment / submerged in the sound, and you gain distance from your most conscious self

Oh yeah, improv is where it's at. It's the funnest thing to do on guitar.

[friendship]

Maybe rather than worry about how amazing your production could be or how intricate your song writing could be, take some time out to think about which artists thrill you. Ignore respect and listen to that music-obsessive kid inside you that thinks that [insert band] just fucking rips. Then take a look at what they sound like. Do they have tons of fancy chord progressions and lush production? If it's good enough for them, right?

Great advice that I need perennial reminder of. Not a single one of my favorites don't have at least a couple bad songs, imperfect performances, cringe lyrics, etc, and it doesn't make me love the music any less. Just these past couple weeks I was beating my head against the wall because I felt like a song didn't have enough clever twists and turns and not enough sections. Then I pulled back and realized actually two sections is plenty for this particular song, and having no bridge at all is better than having a shitty bridge I forced myself to include.

Related: I must remind myself that I'm not allowed to think any recorded performance is dogshit until I step away for a few hours before listening to it for the first time. Errors that seem egregious in the moment of performing are never as bad as I assume they are.

[BitchPudding]

Usually the way I write goes like this:

I'll have an idea, be it a riff, a melody, a progression, whatever. I'll take that and play with it for a while, flesh everything out until I have the skeleton of the song. Sometimes this changes with time or when its introduced to my band but I get to this point at least before I start adding lyrics. For that I usually free write, edit down what I wrote to what I like or what stands out, then go from there and place words where they make sense and flow rhythmically.

Thats all there is to it, personally at least.

[Jwar]

I wish I had band input. That probably would help a ton. I just. I don’t know. I’m weird? I am introverted I guess. Aren’t we all? I really would love that though on some level.

Right now I am writing lyrics, then the instrumental sections.

I just wrote the lyrics to a new song yesterday and I have the melody in my head. Now I have to figure out how to make it actually come out. Lol Which I think I also figure out the initial part of today. My dog passed today, so I needed an outlet. Music is perfect when you’re in pain.