In all I had about twenty songs to select. I was fortunate that the writing was clearly superior on half of them and the arrangements were superior on a couple more. This made it easy to choose.
Also, It was pointed out to me that a number of the songs were very sad. So although these songs were well written and may have meant a great deal to me on more of a visceral level, I could see that they would be in conflict with the majority of the songs that were more uplifting and inspirational.
The music came first, in the order of appearance in the song. The opening chord progression,followed by the picking you hear during the verse, then the bridge build up through to the resolution.
The verse starts the vocal and I had the opening line right from the start. So I had to think about a songbird… or songbirds. This got me through the first two verses, to the last line of the second verse “They sing out their hearts for you”.
At that point, I recalled a great passage from a great book, To kill a Mockingbird. “It’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird” because Mockingbirds do no harm, “They don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us”. This gave me the bridge, the resolution and the third verse. Where I ask the Songbird(s) to join in and sing loud and clear… which is what being a Songbird is all about!
The ballads will continue to incorporate the classical stringed instruments. Hopefully this continued direction will take us to even greater heights.
I feel that the ballads on Songbird have broken new ground. What has been achieved is a greater depth for the ballad and a more modern role for the stringed classical instrument. The ballads will continue to incorporate the classical stringed instruments. Hopefully this continued direction will take us to even greater heights.
Not only did the musicians contribute greatly to this album, but everyone ( Engineers, Graphic Artists) did remarkable work. We all exceeded our former abilities in the making of this music and we are all very proud of its achievement.
Everyone had worked with me in the past except Rachel Schuldt (Cello). However when Rachel and I got together the very first time and played our very first piece of music, It seemed as if we had played together for years.
Since half of the songs on this album are “electric” ( Drums, Bass, Electric Guitar) and half the songs were Acoustic Ballads, the instrumentation was self evident. What happened along the way was, the more I brought the Cello, Violin and Vocal into the process, the more the ballads became special. What I want to convey is that even though these instruments were selected initially to be part of the process, the more we worked on the material the more I realized how much depth they were adding. So much so, that it became apparent that the more we expanded their role, the better the project became.
Songbird was written one song at a time. Each song comes from a particular event or series of events that I experienced over that time period. I was able to capture the moment(s) and translate them into music and lyrics. What was even more amazing was how the musicians that I worked with, were able to connect to the meaning and spirit of the material.
The music comes from whatever I have inside of me that creates music. The lyrics and meanings come from my observations and point of view. Anything can be inspiration. The trick is to go through each day on the lookout for things of interest and to look at them from a writer’s point of view. My purpose is to capture what I experience and translate that to emotion. Also, in particular, I try to translate the work of nature in this process as much as possible.