Volume 11 – #5 – May 2008

Lots and lots and lots of people are writing songs these days. Despite the deteriorating live music scene, there’s an overwhelming glut of sound out there. And, of course, everyone has the right to express him or herself however he or she wants (at least in most of the world), including Brave Combo, so this is more of an observation than a complaint. I’m just stunned, on a daily basis, at how much potential listening is available, literally at our fingertips. But I bring up this topic to talk about the creative process. Songwriting can be tricky. How do you not sound cliché or trite? I’ve always found that a good ol’ fashioned major personal trauma can be very effective as inspiration. Get those emotions as close to the surface as possible and still function enough to pay attention to what my fingers are doing. Melodies almost always come first for me, but if I’m in a particularly dark or sad place I tend to spill over with thoughts that may or may not become actual lyrics. It’s a really good idea, at some point, to establish sure-fire objective distance if those words that are motivated by real feelings might actually become something you intend for others to hear. The willingness to bare one’s soul doesn’t necessarily mean that a great piece of personal expression is guaranteed to emerge. Let’s all imagine, right now, how many suffering folk are grabbing their guitars or sitting down at pianos and “telling it like it is” in their own “unique” way. I remember the first few times I felt this cold reality drop over me at realizing that most of my songs were, indeed, both clichéd and trite. I would often wonder if I could fool people into thinking my song was good just cause I came up with a cool guitar hook. It would also sting, over and over, knowing that classic songs, somehow, speak to lots of people, even if they don’t totally understand the song. So, a truly great song needs to introduce a new perspective or have a clever approach to an old one and should be universally relevant. Songwriting, I think, is a combination of craft and the sincere need to release inner conflict through that craft. That doesn’t mean, at all, that the results have to be downer experience for the listener. In fact, I’m sure many a happy melody has come from the need to be free of grief. Unfortunately, it’s hard to draw the line between self-analysis and self-pity when it comes to making art, and you constantly run the risk of then becoming primarily self-indulgent. And no one enjoys being around that for very long. Another must to avoid, when working on a masterpiece, is writing in the style or with the sound of artists one might admire. When I was a kid, rocking the teen clubs in Texarkana, Texas and Arkansas, I believed that the closer I could get to emulating my heroes, the better. I loved The Kinks, Nazz and Todd Rungren, The Yardbirds (all versions), Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck (all periods), The Music Machine, early Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Cream, Blue Cheer, early Pink Floyd, etc. and probably wrote some terrible songs that sounded similar to all of these musicians. I know I did. Time can bring out just how embarrassing something should have been. That’s an easy way to gain that “elusive” objective distance I mentioned earlier. Write and record an original song. Wait a couple of years. Listen to it again. If it doesn’t make you cringe, you may be on to something, but only if you’re being honest with yourself. If you’re not sure, wait another year and do your best to lose the only copy you have. One time I wrote a couple of songs, hired some musicians to play it with me at a recording session, paid a lot of money for the studio and engineer, made a master tape of the two songs, sent it to a record manufacturer, got about six 45 rpm test pressings to approve and hated it so much I abandoned the project. It never went beyond those six discs. That was a dark episode but I’m really glad I didn’t try to write a song about it. And so are you. I wonder what I could get for one of those rare items on eBay. It was to have been the first 45 single by Carl Finch and His Orchestra. But, alas, it wasn’t meant to be. I did finally figure out a few important things and eventually pressed actual copies of two more 45 singles that I could live with under that name and gave away most of them to people that I thought would help make me famous.

Boy this is a real “us versus them” world, huh? Too bad that someone else is screwing things up for us all the time. Makes you wonder what it’s all about. Why is the world such an unfair place? A few people have everything and more, some people may or may not have enough to get by but most people on the planet have almost nothing compared to the few at the top. Of course, we’re talking about material things primarily, but how is it that the lucky ones get to breeze through a life filled with privilege and excess and others fall asleep on dirt hoping they get enough rice and water tomorrow to make it another day? This is so out of balance, that the ultimate point of existing must not have much to do with comfort and convenience. Certainly the laws of basic nature, such as survival of the fittest, work into the picture, but I’m talking about something more than that; a reason that a specific person is born, hangs out a while and then dies, whatever the circumstances. Lots of religions have tried to make sense of it all and I agree with several concepts that come from spiritual leaders here and there, but no one alive today really knows the truth. The world is just unfair. Some suffer with every breath while others replace their two-year old movie screen in their home theatre with a newer, bigger, better one. Speaking of that, is plasma or LCD a better way to go? My old projection system is really acting up these days. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, my cute little antique popcorn vending cart doesn’t match the new carpet. My life is a living hell!!!

Speaking of television fun, episode #9 of AS THE WRENCH TURNS is finished. This leaves us one to complete and then the series if finished. For those who don’t know, Brave Combo is scoring the new PBS animated series about Click and Clack, the CAR TALK guys from NPR. The show is also using our version of “The William Tell Overture” as the main theme. This has been quite an experience and the fun hasn’t even started yet. The show debuts nationally on July 9th, although the actual broadcast day and time in your area may be different. So, please check your local listings and tell your friends to do the same.

Even though the world, as we once knew, is obviously grinding to an end, we are still coming your way soon, spreading our happy disease the best we can. We hope you find our tasty virus and delicious bacteria thoroughly infectious and feel motivated to bite the proverbial neck of your acquaintances and fill them with our bug. Look carefully at our itinerary, attend the polka unity sessions and writhe to our musical offerings as if, indeed, the days are numbered. Hail King Sammy!