"I've got this theory about songwriting," he says. "I go to a tree, which has several doors in it. Every door has a bell that plays a melody when you press it, and has a pixie living behind it. If the pixie decides to let you in, he'll give you some kind of nucleus for a song, such as the melody from the doorbell or maybe a couple of lyrics. All the pixies have got different characters. Sometimes you'll get a snappy little fella who's very impatient, so that will have to be quite a quick song, but if you get a gentler, more patient pixie, you might end up with a ballad."It was great to pick the brain of another ARIA-winning songwriter and Sarah was charming. After reminding myself of Superjesus' material I'm surprised at some of the dark undercurrents in it but maybe that was grunge.
Superjesus' Sarah McLeod
Got to ask a few questions of Superjesus singer Sarah McLeod last night and found it fascinating to learn about her approach songwriting.
A couple of points really jumped out for me, first she said she usually writes in the key of A. This reminded me my formative years were spent listening to Metallica and they wrote almost exclusively in E (before dropping down and tuning up again in recent years). And now A reminds me of Apples, being the note they chime on boot-up. Anyway, she said she was surprised how low she sung on early songs and that it took her a bit of time to find her voice -- as it were -- and sing higher melodies.
The other point was that she went through bouts of songwriting, attributing this to creative flow but I wondered if deadlines didn't play a role when you're on a contract to a record label. Sarah said she'd work on material and then, before returning to it the next day, have another idea before listening to the first to avoid feeling like it was the one creative thread to explore. This seems like a good approach because often I'll find myself flogging a dead horse trying to make a song of a single interesting idea.
Sarah recounted that one of the blokes in ABBA had described songwriting as being like looking in a cupboard waiting for a monster to appear. You wait and wait and eventually get up to go to the toilet or something and there it is -- which I don't think suggested that he found his songs in the bowl but it reminded me of this line from Badly Drawn Boy's Damon Gough:
Funny business names
Previously I've entertained my loves of text and bad marketing ideas on this blog, so I thought I'd add a couple of Leeton business names that have recently amused me.Sadly I missed sharing the ad for "The Hairy Corner's opening" that appeared in the local paper last year.
I've been childishly giggling at the name ever since and considered making a prank call to see if they can offer me a hairy corner sometime. It wouldn't need to be big, in fact smaller is often better.
Kaka Pie is another business name that would've benefited from market research using even a small focus group.
In Greek the word 'caca' (which uses the hard c sound, like a k) means poo, so it was with some trepidation that I tried a kaka pie. It's basically a large flat-ish dumpling and tasty enough.
Cultured
When we moved in this was all grass.
Reminds me how disappointed I was settling into a lecture on culture at uni and they started talking about agriculture.
It's settling into one location that makes the investments in agriculture and culture both worthwhile.
You can see the chilli, pumpkin and beans but not the home studio in this pic.
Artshole
Can't remember which Facebook friend posted this pic. I've been thinking about writing a blog post on art for most of the year.The definition of art varies from 'works produced with skill and imagination' through to very subjective statements about recognising it when one sees it.
For a while I've been saying it's an outcome that engages with the expectations of the audience, because I think really good art anticipates your perspective and exceeds it. But then again, this is a subjective statement.
Scott McCloud has an idea that art is any activity that goes beyond what is necessary and provides a kind of additional ornamental 'look at me' sorta outcome. So that flushing the toilet with flourish could be considered art, I guess if I want to really trivialise it.
Anyway, this week I received payment for a video I made to promote my music. There are many music videos that I consider works of art, and they're a genre that fits nicely with McCloud's view of art, but it kinda illustrates for me that one person's marketing is another person's art. Reminding me of the classic debate about the distinction between commercial material and artistic works, which was something I first started thinking seriously about when reading Maxx Barry's book Syrup:
It reminds me of when I was writing about music and realised there is no distinction between mainstream and underground acts. They both produce musical noises, on record and live on stage, promoting the former with the latter and film clips, etc.
So once you deconstruct this distinction between art and commercial activity, all art starts to look like products and artists' expressions are acts of public relations and marketing. Or the artist might be the product, whatever.
Which leads me to conclude that the only art worth investing in are those works which inspire the community to make their own art and find fulfillment through realising an individual perspective on their environment and experiences. The rest of it props up egos and basically says your activities are only valuable if they produce a financial outcome.
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