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![Saint Saviour. Photo: Dunleavy Photography](https://www.songwritingmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/saint-saviour-1-by-dunleavy-photography.jpg)
Saint Saviour: “I personally attempt too onerous to excellent issues, which actually kills a music concept when it’s in its second of pure potential.” Photograph: Dunleavy Images
Returning together with her new alt-pop album Sunseeker, Becky Jones displays on its creation and the insights gained alongside the best way
When I started writing Sunseeker, we had been simply getting out of the dreaded C-word restrictions, so I used to be wound up as hell and determined to get inventive. It was that bizarre time the place you knew that, usually with out warning, you’d out of the blue be housebound once more or the youngsters’ faculty would shut, and it was tough to loosen up and ever really feel like you might work with abandon. I even have a day job, lecturing a number of days every week in a music school, so time could be very tight. I used to be scraping songwriting classes right here and there between these occasions so I needed to adapt my thought course of and attempt to write extra shortly. Listed here are some issues I realized…
1. TO START A TOTALLY NEW ALBUM IDEA, GET OUT OF YOUR USUAL WRITING SPACE.
My home is noisy and messy, fantastically chaotic and lively. Nonetheless, I discover it tough on this atmosphere to seek out the beginning of a brand new thread of an concept. Even when the youngsters are out, I’m nonetheless distracted by the mess and the laundry pile. It’s positive as soon as I’ve discovered my course, however simply getting these first few concepts, I’ve began to exit to the coast to search for them. I see it as a conception and incubation exercise – then I return to London with this little seed of an concept and I can then get into obsessive writing mode and I’m away.
It started with a visit to Hastings. I discovered a cute flat on Airbnb overlooking the ocean at St Leonards[-on-Sea] and my different half gifted me a working week away. I arrange my keyboard on the window and simply stared on the sea all day for 5 days, brooding and writing. That’s how I began my final album Tomorrow Once more. One thing about trying into an infinite sea and simply daydreaming in complete solitude, permitting issues to come back to you, it’s simply inventive heaven.
For Sunseeker, I went again to Hastings however I stayed in a humorous little home in the midst of an enormous public park – it was the park keeper’s cottage – truly a bit scary at evening alone however through the day the park was stunning and I may people-watch all day from the window!
![Saint Saviour](https://www.songwritingmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/saint-saviour-3.jpg)
Saint Saviour: “I discover motion very useful for inventive considering.”
2. NEVER WASTE TIME LABOURING OVER A SONG
Once more, with maximising time in thoughts, I work at my keyboard and mic with Ableton Stay open and able to file concepts. I started to work with a brand new system the place I solely ever spend one hour on a single concept. So I sit on the keyboard, discover a synth or keys noise I like, then I begin improvising, keys and vocals. I purpose to get an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ melody in that hour – so successfully, with an A and B you’ve the melodic I.D. of a full music.
I’ll simply be scatting phonetic sounds with my voice – lyrics come later. However in that hour, I ought to have an A and B, then I shortly file, save the undertaking, open a brand new one and begin the method once more. This manner, I virtually completely keep away from that terrible feeling whenever you lose hours and hours tweaking an concept that isn’t working to demise. I’ll attempt to write 4 or 5 melodies in a day. I name them “nuggets”! On the finish of a day like that, I received’t bear in mind a lot about what I’ve finished and I don’t return to hearken to them.
Then I’ll repeat this course of for, say, every week or so, each week day I can between school-drop and pick-up. This manner, you find yourself with these pure moments of inspiration and nothing else. Pre-kids, I spent an excessive amount of time self-editing as I’m going and I’ve discovered that I personally attempt too onerous to excellent issues, which actually kills a music concept when it’s in its second of pure potential.
What I really like about this system is that, whenever you pay attention again to the concepts a few weeks later, you’re amazed by a whole lot of it, (a few of additionally it is horrible). You may barely bear in mind writing any of it, you’ve a quantity of concepts, and you’ve got this recent perspective having had distance from them – and the sensation of recent inspiration retains coming.
3. WRITE ON THE MOVE
As soon as I’ve about 30 of those brief A-B melodies and chords, I’ll make a playlist of them and get out of the home. I discover motion very useful for inventive considering. So I’m listening to myself singing these melodies however with gibberish phonetic sounds and scatting, and serious about the character of the melody, what sort of phrases start to come back to thoughts which I may hold onto this melodic construction.
Strolling while doing this appears to assist me so much, perhaps it’s retaining part of your mind engaged and distracted so you’ll be able to totally daydream, perhaps it’s that I’m taking in cues from the atmosphere, however I write just about all of my lyrics whereas strolling. It’s a bit harmful however I stroll and kind phrases into my notes on my cellphone. Generally I’ll cease and sit in a churchyard or one thing – I stay in SE1 London so I’m spoiled with Tower Bridge down the street, the Thames and the vacationers who I discover very fascinating to look at.
Generally I’ll get on a random bus and simply sit and go wherever, while listening, trying from the home windows and typing. I wrote the lyrics to Poetry from this album in a taxi. I truly awakened with a shock in St James’s Park one afternoon having unintentionally fallen asleep whereas writing Cellophane throughout a fast sit-down. That music turned a few statue within the park. I don’t know why, but when I’m nonetheless, my thoughts isn’t as agile with phrases.
Once more, I’ll attempt to not overwork an concept, so I’ll transfer via the melody concepts shortly, making notes for each, however by no means labouring too onerous. This manner I’m slowly writing round 10 songs on the identical time. Primarily I by no means attempt too onerous to jot down any aspect of a single music for too lengthy, as a result of I really feel that it’s counterproductive.
![Saint Saviour](https://www.songwritingmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/saint-saviour-2.jpg)
Saint Saviour: “I by no means attempt too onerous to jot down any aspect of a single music for too lengthy.”
4. TRY WRITING TO A CLICK
For Sunseeker, I used to be deliberately making an attempt to jot down some upbeat music, however whenever you sit down on the keyboard it’s fairly pure and tempting to sit down there and write a downbeat ballad, as a result of the keyboard permits an expensive, sustained sound, in distinction to a strummed or plucked guitar.
I began to hearken to my reference songs and work out the BPM with a metronome, after which have a click on or a beat going at that tempo whereas I composed. Utilizing this system, I discover that you simply naturally start to think about a rhythmic groove constructing beneath the topline, and it retains you in time. I do know it could actually appear annoying to listen to the metronome going the entire time, however I discover that it’s actually value having it there to maintain you on message with the tempo and attempt to write one thing with a motivated feeling.
5. FOR KEY-PLAYING WRITERS: TRY WRITING WITH A GUITAR SAMPLE OR VST INSTRUMENT
This was fairly revolutionary for me. I wrote Rock Swimming pools from my final album on an iPad utilizing a very nice VST acoustic guitar instrument known as Guitarism and I discovered that it unlocked one thing for me when it comes to writing deliberately for guitar. To that time, this was essentially the most upbeat music I’d written. Now I usually write for guitar as a result of I truly desire the sound of plucked strings to the piano, particularly whenever you need that mild, light sound I really like in albums by Sufjan Stevens and Aldous Harding.
Later, when writing Sunseeker, I shifted to utilizing my keyboard once more as a controller (Guitarism is nice however you’re a bit caught in diatonic keys with out fiddling to customize which are inclined to kill my circulate) however utilizing the guitar and dulcimer sounds on Spitfire Labs free pattern packs. I completely love Spitfire Audio and I exploit the free packs so much to discover sound once I’m writing.
I wrote a lot of the album solely utilizing these sounds and completely moved away from the sound of the piano. For Sunseeker, I believe this was truly the defining sound of the album – once I took the songs to Invoice [Ryder-Jones] to start arranging and producing I had a whole lot of guitar-sound references and he did an enormous quantity of taking part in and arranging plucked elements and layers of counter melodies and rhythms.
I used to be aiming for a breezy sound and I believe plucked strings cowl the concord with out taking over an excessive amount of area. Maybe because of this individuals name it Baroque/Chamber Pop. I took this proper via to the blending stage, giving the engineer Nathan Boddy a whole lot of nylon and acoustic guitar reference sounds.
The brand new Saint Saviour album Sunseeker is out on 22 March through VLF and is taking part in in Manchester (The Lodge on 27 March), Stockton-on-Tees (The Georgian Theatre on 28 March), and London (The Courtyard Theatre on 30 March) this month. Discover out extra at saintsaviour.co.uk
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