Lyrics - Your Every Move

Writing songs is a funny thing. In the next few blogs I'll give some examples of how shit goes down when it comes to lyrics.

Firstly, for me at least, music almost always comes first. That's a whole other blog's worth of trial and error, tape recordings of me mumbling, lost recordings, crushing self esteem blows.... with 1 out of every 20 attempts turning into a song......More of that at a later date!

This first example is from the song Your Every Move
from my album The Great Unknown.

This is a cool example of the lyrics coming together really fast. If you click on this image you can see the lyrics more closely. Most of these are what I actually used in the final version of the song (this is pretty rare).
The "Oh, oh oh" at the top of the page I didn't end up using at all. I totally forgot and that's why this song isn't on Top 40 Radio. Blast!!

I've come up with many shorthand ways to get my ideas down on paper. The X31000 in the middle of the page is a guitar chord. It lets me know which strings not to play and which to hold down.

I do enjoy the fact that some of the lyrics that got scribbled out were complete shit. "Caviar"??? Really? This is why I'm thankful for editing. I think writing is all about letting everything come out without judgment at first.....then going back later and judging the crap out of it. Writing lyrics is like being a little kid who gets to dress himself for school. Editing is the parent who makes sure you don't leave the house looking like a damned idiot.

Next up...Leave it All Behind

Leave It All Behind

One kooky thing about this song is the chorus. That weird guitar noise in the chorus is actually a keyboard ran through a distorted guitar amp. I love making crazy weirdo sounds. It's probably better that I don't have a band, because I would be able to make a whole lot more weird noises if I didn't have to hold down rhythm by myself all the time. In this song the stomping noises were done by my foot on a guitar case. Gotta make due without a drummer!

The guitar in this song is tuned low to high DADFBD.

This song was the last that I wrote for the album, I sort of gave myself a deadline at the end and this one snuck out. Sometimes deadlines can make cool things happen, sometimes they make nervous breakdowns happen. But since I can record everything at home, and have unlimited time pretty much, it leads to me trying to make everything perfect, but perfection doesn't exist. HERE is a link to a Seth Godin blog. I like some of the things that this fellow talks about. I think he helped me finish my album and take the plunge into being a working musician.

My new album The Great Unknown is available to buy HERE

Waiting Blues

I've always really loved the feel of Spanish music. I visited that sound on an old song called Deja Vu. Recently I'd been listening to a bit of Rodrigo y Gabriela and I think that sound had an influence on this song. It's one of the few groups that E. and I agree kick total ass. You can check them out HERE. Prepare to have your mind blown.

I tried to get some intensity in this song through some loud/soft dynamics. This song has minimal overdubs. Elizabeth wanted even fewer instruments (like always) but on this song there is still only 1 acoustic rhythm and 2 electric lead guitars. This is my weird version of a blues song.

This song is also going to have a video!!!! If you'd like to hear more about the Kickstarter campaign for the video you can go HERE. The guys from Mutual Co. are helping me get this thing off the ground and I think it's going to look fantastic. More details on that coming soon!

The Great Unknown

2 special guests on this track: James Lee Smith played lead guitar once again and Britt Scott sang backup vocals. Two Savannah Badasses. I hope to work with them again soon. I was listening to James' lead yesterday actually, and noticed how on the last note of solo he goes for a lower note, instead of a giant climactic high note like you'd usually hear in songs. It has a very tasteful effect. Especially because the chorus has more of a laid back underwater vibe anyways.

On a side note, it's so much easier to blog about someone else's playing/performance than it is your own.

In this song I'm reminiscing on the past, where I've been and realizing that the best things can happen when you give up and plunge into the great unknown. Now that can be about the highway, your future, or even God if you like. It's your call. It's your world, I'm just a squirrel trying to get a nut.

Your Every Move

For the guitar geeks out there, this song and Gone Now are both in DADGBbD tuning. Only this song has a capo at the second fret. Apparently this is my bitter song tuning, because both of those songs are kind of pissed off tunes.
In the beginning of the writing process I was just messing around with writing a 2nd song with that tuning for live purposes. I only take one guitar with me when I play live, so the less amount of tuning I have to do the happier the crowd is....or the drunker they are, I'm not sure really.

This song is about women who use other people just to get ahead. It specifically veers towards the entertainment/acting realm (yea you Paris). Women who show skin just to get ahead. That's all I have to say about that.

James Lee Smith recorded some amazing lead on this song. That solo definitely brought the intensity level up. It's always great to have some different guitar playing perspective on my recordings. He recently told me it was his favorite guitar solo that he's recorded to date. Pretty Awesome.

Also, my girlfriend, who this song is definitely NOT about!, she talked me into keeping the "Hip Hop" beat that is in this song. It was originally used as my click track to play along to, but she heard me playing it and made me keep it. I'm glad she did. It became the opening track on the album.

My Mistakes

My cousin Jay tells me that I need to buy a mandolin already because I'm always trying to emulate one in my songs. This song's weird stringed noises are all done by guitar. I really put this guitar deception to work in a song a few albums ago called Boy's Girls and Fools. Check it out here.

I'm sure that my overdub obsession started with The Smashing Pumpkins and Queen when I was a teenager. This Queen song Keep Yourself Alive just blew my mind. Listen to that solo at 2:35...I mean come on!! I used Open E Tuning (EBEG#BE) on this song with a capo on the 2nd fret.

This song is a laundry list of mistakes that I've made in my life. And in the end I think they all happened for a reason. All of your mistakes can eventually lead you to the thing that makes you most happy.

She Moves Me

This song is written about Bonnie Raitt. I have a soft spot for great female blues and jazz singers. On my last album there was a song called I Can Never Know that was my tribute to Joni Mitchell, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone.

The sound of this song was influenced greatly by Gregory Alan Isakov. His album This Empty Northern Hemisphere was in our car's CD player for seriously a year straight. It is a perfect album. I don't know that I've listened to any album that consistently since Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright.
I first saw Gregory at a small show in Fort Collins, Colorado about 6 years ago with probably 5 people there. I checked out his show because all of the local musicians in town were all in agreement that he was better than they were lol. I recently saw him play in Evanston, IL and the place was packed and silent. Check out his music.

Because of his influence I was planning on making my album very mellow. However, slowly but surely my own personality took over the writing process. I guess I can only be myself whether I like it or not.

You're Not Alone

This was written in Chicago and Savannah. The verses finally came together last year. This is one of those songs where each verse is potentially coming from the point of view of a different person, but they all come together with the message of the chorus.

Britt Scott, a Savannah musician who currently plays with Crystina Parker in their folksy duo Lovely Locks, did some awesome vocal tracks on this song. I think if you include all of the vocals by her and I there are at least 5 voices on this song. You don't wanna know how many guitars there are. I think her voice on the chorus of this song really took it to a whole new level. I've always wanted female vocals on my records. Finally on album 5 or 6 or whatever this is, I got it!

Keep You Warm

This song is about taking care of the person you love even after you are gone. I wrote this song when I was freezing my ass off in Chicago.
Sometimes (more often than I'd like to admit) I feel like what I'm doing with my life is kind of pointless. If aliens were watching me from above they would think, "Why is this guy filling up notebooks of word vomit and making all this noise with these stringed wooden things?"

With this song I'm trying to say when I'm gone, just burn everything to keep yourself warm. All those notebooks really aren't important in the scheme of things. I hope this song gets that point across....and if not...oh well! I've already sent it to Itunes lol.

Also, please don't burn my album collection to keep yourself warm. Trust me, Jeff Buckley and The Beatles can keep ya comfy with their voices alone.

On an instrumental note, I think this is the first song I've recorded that features organ so prominently. I actually let my guitar take a break for once...or at least for about 23 seconds. There's actually alot of organ on this album, just very very low in the mix. I feel like it really thickens the sound up.

Dear Clementine

This song was written about the movie
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
It's probably my favorite love story of all time. It was directed by Michel Gondry. I want this guy to make my music videos.

The images are just incredible in this movie. When Jim Carrey is going through his memories there are so many random images that go by. It reminds me of Blonde on Blonde era Bob Dylan and how he used such odd specific images but somehow you can relate to it very easily and draw on your own life. I dig it! Not that I'm on the same level as these amazing artists, but they totally influence me. I think this might be the first song I've written about a movie.

Someone else who may have influences this song: Andrew Bird. I saw him live at Millennium Park when I lived in Chicago and it was amazing. Those string plucking sounds on this song are just me trying to emulate the sound of his violin on guitar. I used this trick on a song on my last album called Takes One to Know.

Skin and Bones

I threw my chronological order off a bit here because this song was actually written before Golden Days
but seriously who's keeping track.

E and I were house sitting in Kentucky and she was going through her Ghost Hunters/Paranormal State phase...You know those shows where they never actually see ANYTHING! Anywho, I was standing in the kitchen playing guitar after she went to bed. It wasn't that I couldn't sleep because of that TV show....Of course not, I mean...I'm a grown ass man....that stuff's for....shhh....what was that......Scoobie..?
I played that opening little riff of this song about a million times. Maybe the spookiness of that show and the darkness of that house inspired this song. It's all about being alive and knowing that there's something better in store for you and that you really do have a soul. "Everything that you've broken's made you real. Forget about your bones what's in your soul no one can steal."

Golden Days

I recorded this song in my closet in Chicago. I always envisioned the chorus of this song being sang/sung/singded/(not sure) by an old circus announcer of some sort. The little dude who stands in the middle of the tent with a megaphone.
The lyric about "swinging on the willow tree" in the chorus, is one of my earliest memories in life. When I was young I remember two little girls swinging on the branches of their willow tree wearing church dresses. I think they were my neighbors. It just always stuck with me, so I decided to put it in the song....Although, with the way memories work I may have stolen that scene from Fried Green Tomatoes, or Forrest Gump. Oh well. It's my memory now!
This song is fun to listen to with headphones because the guitars pan left to right at the beginning. For a time I was thinking the whole album may turn into a little jazzy swing thing in the style of Golden Days because I like that style of music so much, but my writing tendencies were too scatterbrained for that to happen....Maybe someday.

Gone Now

I've decided to give a little insight into each individual track on "The Great Unknown." I'm going to do this in chronological order just for the fun of it. Today's track is Gone Now. Let's get to the oldies!
This song was originally released about 5 years ago on an out of print album of mine called "My Memories and Me." This is an ex-girlfriend song in all it's splendor.
I added new vocals, backwards guitar, claps and foot stomps to the new version.

The opening riff is highly, HIGHLY, influenced by Edith Piaf. The initial idea was to combine the sweetness of a French song with the intensity of the alternative/folk/indie/nonsense that I do. The guitar is tuned low to high DADGBbD. I think the tuning came when I was trying to figure out the Edith arrangement that had violin, horns, and whatever else those crazy French people play. Stay tuned for more!

-Todd

Alternate Album Covers

I worked with some great people on this album as far as designing and photography go. Paul Suzynski took some great photos for me in some risky locations. I'll save our breaking and entering story for a later blog.
Krista Block handled all of the graphic design for the album. This is the first time that I didn't design an album by myself and man does it make things so much easier! I never knew what the hell I was doing so it was great having her help to bring these ideas to light.
I posted the album cover a few days ago so I thought I'd post a few alternate ones that didn't make the cut, but I feel are still pretty freaking cool.
These two were taken by Krista's dad in Germany when he went on his own little road trip.

Krista took this one. We eventually used it for the inside of the cd.

This was taken by my dad. It's my grandfather's farm Jeep. Probably like the first Jeep in existence. Seriously. Gramps keeps it real. I think it runs on anger. It only starts when you're pissed at it.
As you can see I had some cool option so it was hard to choose. But I think we found a good vibe to go with the music. Click on those images to make them bigger. Happy Sunday.
-Todd