The First Mile

The inspiration continues kicking in.  It's at an all time high, it's got me soaring the clouds of my subconscious.

I have finally managed to achieve the life arrangement that I wanted to have for my writing.  I had never before been in such a situation and all I could do is speculate that this is what I needed.  And once I reached it, my suspicions turned to be true.  And below I will write what "this" is.

What I am about to say might be specific to personality types.  I have not delved into the psychology of it all yet, so it is just my experience.
I firmly believe that there is a certain mental state which the artist must achieve, and subsequently constantly remain situated.  This mental state I call the "writing trance".  When I am constantly thinking about the songs I wish to write, it is like having an open door for ideas.  I briefly mentioned it in the previous post.  When I am in this trance, verses hit me during the day, and they develop into entire stanzas.  Interesting and poetic ways of saying things come to me with astonishing ease.  It also comes at a price - to the world outside of this shell, I must occur like a zombie.  I get no productivity at work, I am constantly pensive, etc.

Now, what is absolutely key for accomplishing what I need to accomplish is this dire combo: when caught in such a trance, that I get overwhelmed with emotions.  Nothing creates a better out pour of ideas as emotions running high.

Recently I had a particularly bad morning in which I was overwrought with a mosaic of emotions;  I was furious, I was sad, I was disappointed, etc.  Being that I had all these great lines in my head, and some on paper, from being in the "trance", I sat down and started writing.  I wrote an entire song in all of 10 minutes.  Then I spent about an hour sitting back and staring at those lyrics.  They were perfect.  No matter how I twisted it, no matter from which angle I looked at the story, I would not touch them.  They were perfect.  The entire day I worked, I played, I did different things, but I kept going back and glancing at them lyrics every now and then. I felt infinitely powerful.  That is the most I ever accomplished with my songwriting: to be able to complete a song in so little time, start-to-finish.

And so, "Cross That First Mile" is born.  It will be simple, just guitar, vocals, and perhaps harmonica.  I have the chordal structure, but I haven't figured out the best key for my voice, hence the harmonica key is to come as well.
I can't wait to record this one. 


On the other front, I boothed "Slow Burn" with my song circle friends that I met in the Gotham Songwriting Workshop.  I got some great feedback from them, as well from other random friends I asked to give a listen.  I am still, however, struggling on the decision whether to make it electric.  To quote a recent listener: "It sounds like it should be played in a small, smoky blues club, where the singer just grabs the microphone and opens by smoothly saying into it: 'Slow Burn'."
To the woodshed on that one.