I like to use a pen.
Myself, I tend to come up with a message, or a thought that I want to elaborate on, and then I obscure it with silly metaphors about space travel or whatnot.
Or, I wait until I've got something I actually want to express, and I just write something down. Even if it's shit, it's a starting point, and you'll keep working on it because it's something I'm interested in. But "sit and wait" isn't an option, here, naturally.
Hmm. If someone came up to me, right now, and said "Right, write some lyrics," then I'd probably do something like this...
A. Sit and rack my brains for thirty minutes or so for good subjects. I've got a few themes that I use relatively frequently, usually based on lost love or frustration or something along those lines. Usually relatively sleazy, actually. I like a bit of sleaze. Selfish, too, but that's fine. It's a selfish art.
Outside of the cliches, let's look at the world. It's a fantastic, summery-looking day, today - the first in what feels like about a year! - so "emerging from the darkness" seems like a good song. I tend to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, so the changing of the seasons has a bit of extra significance for me. Plus, I've got a really annoying sore throat, which is taking me out of action for a bit. So, being out of action also seems appropriate. (There we go, that's a kind of frustration. I told you! I'm a two-trick pony. Frustration and lost love.)
Keep in mind it doesn't have to be profound. One day I was on this bus and I was getting really grumpy because it was going very slowly and I was coming to the end of a long journey and I just wanted to get on with it, and it was absolutely
scorching, so I just wrote a song about that. Yes, I wrote a song about being hot on a bus. Seriously,
anything goes.
So there we go.
- Lost love
- Frustration
- Emerging from the darkness
- Being out of action.
The first two are crutches, the latter two are things I've actually decided I'm inspired by, today. Tomorrow it'll probably be "life from the perspective of my dog" or something ridiculous like that.
Actually, that's not too bad.
B. Do any titles spring out?
I really, really like titles. I'm not sure why. I think I just like the idea of trying to sum up an entire piece of art in a handful of words. That's beautiful. I'm fascinated by the way they "shape" a piece, too. Or your perception of it, anyway. The song sounds the same, but when you change its name, you change the meaning you project onto it. That's massive power, and that fascinates me. A few small words suddenly gain a LOT of significance.
Like, take Danny Boyle's Sunshine. It's called Sunshine, and it sounds classy. If it were called "The Payload," it'd sound macho. If I called it "Twats in Space," nobody would take it seriously.
It's even better when it adds something to a piece. If it's just a line from the lyrics, then who cares? You're just mirroring what you've already written. It adds emphasis, yes, but I like to try and think of something different. A completely different statement.
Here are some titles I've instantly thought up, based on my "Emerging from the Darkness" and "Ill and out of action" themes. I don't have any music to help inform these, but as you do, that'll (hopefully) make it even easier! You can go "ooh, that SOUNDS like a
Maurice's Decision" (or whatever).
The Cave
Torn and Weathered
Glowing
Emerging from the Darkness
Vacation
The Catacombs
The Catacombs Are Behind Us
Through the Soil
Resolute
Into the Light
Winter Spirit
Out of Order
Breakdown
Sidelined
Sickness
Disabled
In the Waiting Line
Stand Still
Standstill
Pause
A Strategic Retreat...etc. etc. etc. I could go on for about five years. There we go though, loads of different titles, all of which have different moods. Some are cheesy, some are over dramatic, some are boring and predictable, some are tacky. But that's fine, they don't have to be good. And, through doing that, I've already decided that I like the "Emerging from Darkness" theme the best. In fact, my favourite title is definitely The Catacombs. And hey would you look at that, I've gone from absolutely nothing, to having a starting point I'm happy with!
C. Write!
I can't really tell you
what to write. It's your baby! BUT. I can tell you a few things that have helped me.
- You shouldn't be afraid to write a shit line. For example...
The catacombs are far behind us
Breathe the air...that's hideous. I'd be ashamed of that even if I'd left it to fester in the deepest recesses of my mind, let alone now that I've put it on the internet for everyone to see. But hey! I don't have anything better, so I'd put it on paper for now. And it might inspire a new line that
doesn't suck! About 80% of all lines I write suck. The gold is rare. But it's good. And the suck inspires the gold. So that's good. I've got it started, now.
- Don't be pretentious.
Nothing I hate more than people who try to overload their lyrics with long words. It doesn't make you look clever, and it just makes them hard to sing. Shorter words are actually
better. They positively
gleam with connotations, mood, feeling. "Ashamed" has so much more mood and says a LOT more than something like "pejorative."
- Not every line has to be a metaphor.
Seriously, unless you're an italian progressive metal band, you don't want to be harping on about "The crystal corners of my unanimous soul are at one with the universe, we fly through time and witness creation from a neon streetlight." It looks rubbish. On that note, avoid the words "sphere," "soul," "moonlight," "mind," "psyche" etc. etc. etc. They can be used well, but are usually shit.
- Don't bother fitting the lines to the music.
Heck, you don't even have to think about the music. I find that if I try to fit all the lines precisely to each section of music, I'm too busy writing stuff that fits, and less bothered about writing stuff that's good. Besides which, if I'm writing lyrics set exactly to the music, then that usually means that they come with the single most predictable vocal melody I can think of. Better to write the lyrics completely separately. In my experience, it leads to better words with more interesting melodies.
- Ignore all of the above.
I can't say I've ever gone "right, song... A. brainstorm sources of inspiration. B. possible titles! C. get a move on, thinking about the following criteria." It's all a matter of feeling and there is no guide. This is just how I'm feeling today - my ol' uninspired self. In fact, I've never written in this order before. Sure, it's a good idea, but it's a complete lie of an idea! I started by saying "this is what I would do," and then proceeded to write reams and reams of rules I've never followed before in my life! I'm not even sure where they came from. I
never choose a title first, who the hell put that as step B!? Can't have been me. I remember typing it, but surely not.
Good rules, though. I like 'em. Proud of them. If you're gonna follow ANY rules, I'd be flattered. But my advice is, don't.
The above is just how I'm feeling today, of all days. Tomorrow on the other hand, I'll come up with a fantastic first line (and that'll be step A), and then I'll sit there chewing the end of my pen for about an hour trying to think of a follow-up, before giving up and making a coffee. And then maybe in a couple of weeks I'll go crazy and write a whole song at once! Punch out a whole thing in one fell swoop! Pow, in the can. Well, kind of. I'll be smug for the rest of the day, sure, but the day after that I'll go back and edit it all - probably with one hand over my eyes so I don't have to read it! And then I'll change its title five times. (Actually, I change titles a
lot.) Seriously. Don't think too much. Just... go for it.
This is a massive post, but tbh I've just realised that I wrote something a lot more concise, a lot more sincere, and a lot more useful on MP.com a few months back.
It's difficult, but you don't need to have a lot of experience.
You just need something to say, and an interesting way of saying it. Pick words that have depth and feeling.
These words don't include "perspective," "sphere," "mind," "psyche," etc. etc. There's a tendency for people who try to write lyrics to write massive long things along the lines of "The winter of the mind haunts every corner / Is my life a transient miracle? / A mental fugue for chastity supreme" or whatever. Big words don't mean good lyrics, in fact they tend to lose a lot of meaning and soul. Not every line has to be run through the thesaurus. In fact, the more unnecessarily complex a song's lyrics are, the more I tend to cringe when reading them, and the less good they're going to sound when sung. They're a bad substitute for depth.
Just write about what you know.
Also, make sure you want to write about something.
Doesn't have to be anything profound, could be a silly story about a dentist, and if you want to write a song about a dentist then that's brilliant - you go and write that song. But if it's not a story that you want to tell then don't bother telling it. You may as well just write nonsense. Hell, just write "barracuda, barracuda, barracuda, barracuda." It's better than writing something insincere just for the sake of having lyrics.
The bolded bit is particularly important.
Bah! I don't know. There's only so much I can say. This post is already far too massive and far too contrived. I was only planning on writing the first three paragraphs. I think I just enjoy typing. If you're doing it right, you'll read this post, disregard it, and do your own thing! But hopefully, if you're struggling, I've given you a few starting points.
Topic: How do you write lyrics? (Read 2802 times)