The Best Songs

… mean something. 

Make us feel a certain way and hold a special place in our hearts. 

The best songs transport us to a time and a place. It might be happy or sad or a symbol of triumph or a reminder of longing. 

The best songs hit us slowly and all at once. 

The best songs can also be the worst songs. It just depends on who is listening. 

Make every song in hopes that it will be the best song but also knowing that there will never be a best song. 

My Writing Process

It will consist of several stages. 

I’ve been doing the first stage for forever, which is regurgitating ideas. 

Wait… I haven’t really been doing that for forever. 

I’ve actually almost always tried to start and finish my songs in one sitting. Inspiration to finished product over the course of 15 minutes, 49 minutes, an hour and a half, a couple hours. 

I’m not really a “go back and finish it later” kind of guy. 

That’s going to change. 

Stage One: Regurgitate ideas. 

Stage Two: Go back and pick out the good ones. 

Stage Three: Begin to give the idea form and structure and a… FEELING. 

Stage Four through whatever: KEEP GOING

Stage Finished: Let go of the creation once it reaches “the moment of being finished”, which in and of itself could occur any number of times and I need to become disciplined and adept enough to pick the correct occurrence. And by correct I mean as close to its best as possible. Which may or may not be super clean and polished. 

Okay. Time to keep writing. 

Patience

It’s a long long slog of a journey to get to your dreams. 

Keep your eye on the prize, brah. 

These posts more and more have turned into positive talk sessions from myself to myself. 

And I’m very okay with that. 

But no toxic positivity here. 

Keep it real. Keep it honest. Keep it going. 

Finish

Even if it’s bad. 

Finish. 

Even it’s not exactly what you want. 

Finish. 

Even if you want to go back to the drawing board. 

Finish. Especially if you’re on a deadline. Finish and learn and make the next one better. 

You are not captured in any singular creative endeavor. 

Finish and push forward. 

Habit

Make it a habit to write. Even when you don’t want to. Even when nothing is inspiring you to. Even when everything feels really really really bad. 

Write out of habit. Then edit out of necessity. 

It’s not all going to be groundbreaking. 

But consistency is the goal and leads to groundbreaking. 

Write as MUCH as possible

That’s the whole point, right?

I’m realizing that it’s not about WHAT I write. It’s about HOW MUCH. 

More writing equals more fun. 

The results are a bonus. 

The act of coming up with something and attempting to make it new and fresh IS the point. 

It’s a weird mix of quantity over quality because the quantity leads to quality. 

As long as you’re learning and evolving along the way. 

Not Thinking About It

Sometimes, when I’m playing guitar, I realize that my fingers and hands are moving, and I’m not thinking about it. 

They go where they need to go. They press the strings and strum the patterns and make the music… but I’m not thinking about it. 

Muscle memory from years of playing. 

And it’s weird because when I start thinking about it, I more often than not fall out of the zone and end up making a mistake or at least not playing quite as well. 

Strange lesson to learn. Sometimes things are better when you’re not thinking about it. 

Writing

When you write, it doesn’t work and it sounds bad and it feels wrong and you wish it could be better and notes all sound sour and you feel like a complete hack…

… until you don’t. 

Because every once in a while, something clicks and you write something you’re proud of and you can’t wait to put it out and share a piece of yourself with the world. 

Every artist/musician/writer/performer is chasing that feeling. 

Here’s to the chase. 

Dreams and Goals and Making It

When I was younger I had dreams. 

Of playing shows, releasing albums, jumping in a van and driving cross country to gigs, playing in front of 1000s of people, building a fan base, hearing our songs on the radio, having a single gain traction, seeing our soundscan numbers start to skyrocket, playing the big festivals, playing late night shows, playing SNL, touring with our favorite bands, winning Grammy’s, being rock stars. 

Some of those dreams came true. 

Others are still a distant fantasy, sitting in a jar labeled “another lifetime” on a shelf hanging in a dusty storage closet in a dilapidated studio apartment in my mind. 

Now that I’m older I have goals. 

Pick up your guitar everyday. Write as much as you can. Get your ideas out of your head and into the world. Collaborate with the amazing musicians in your sphere of influence. 

And older me also realizes that it’s truly a dream  come true to still have those goals. And it’s a dream to get to work towards those goals everyday. 

“Making it” is relative. And for me, at this point in my life, making it is all about MAKING IT. Making music. And making moves everyday to achieve my goals. 

Here’s to making dreams come true. 

Middle of the Night

I post a lot in the middle of the night. 

It seems to be the only time there’s any time. 

But… it’s also one of the times I’ve realized is a creative sweet spot for me. 

My brain tends to be a lightning rod for ideas between 10pm and 3am. 

But even more important… I’m able to coax those ideas out of my brain and into the world during that timeframe. 

I think this is why I was always intrigued by the idea of a lockout studio. If I had a place where I could go be loud from 10pm to 3am… I wonder how much more I would create. 

Make the time for what you want to do. You don’t need a lockout to do it. 

Ideas

Ideas don’t mean much if they don’t get off the ground. 

Stop posting. Start writing. 

Easier said than done. Posting is simple. And doesn’t take much effort. 

Writing… doesn’t take much effort either? Open the notes app and write lyrics. 

Stop letting yourself off the hook. The whole point to being creative is to at some point CREATE. 

“I think about it all the time

I cannot sleep at night”…

They All Can’t Be Winners

Writing a lot is important. 

Editing a lot is even more important. 

The best photographers know it’s not about displaying all the photos taken. It’s about displaying the BEST photos taken. 

Get in as many repetitions as you can writing and performing so that the need to edit becomes less and less necessary over time. 

More Thoughts on the Suitcase Kit Concept Album

Band Name Ideas:

Medallion Status

Non-Rev

Bulkhead Seating

Overhead Full

First Class Upgrade

Song names will be airport 3 letter codes: SNA, LAX, MCO, etc. 

All drums on suitcase kit. 

Guitars on travel electric guitar?

Bass on travel bass?

Recording

I spent a solid 90 minutes recording today. 

3 vocal scratch tracks at 7am (NOT recommended).

Then a guitar scratch track and 3 more vocal scratch tracks (1 of them a redo) at 10:30pm. 

2 Notes:

Warm up your freaking voice. You’re not in your mid 20s any more and you WILL damage your vocal cords if you don’t properly warm up. 

Let go. It doesn’t have to be right on the click and exactly on perfect pitch. The mistakes and happy accidents are what make it uniquely yours.

Hiding

I’m posting to Instagram several times a day across multiple accounts. 

I’m working on music everyday (guitar, some recording, vocals occasionally).

But my focus has definitely been on posting to social media. 

I think I’m using social media as a way to hide from actually making music…

Time to break the cycle and make some music, bruh. 

Hypothetical Question

In this day and age of social media and blogging and streaming and access to information and hyper production of content, is it the job of the artist to also be a relentless self-promoter? Does that compromise the integrity of the artist? 

Something something about remarkable art being the best kind of promotion…

Or like Cal Newport’s book, be “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”…

Doubt

Doubt lies in waiting and pounces during moments of weakness. 

Fight doubt with action. Keep going. Keep moving. 

Doubt doesn’t help anything. Focus on taking one step at a time. 

Flashback Friday- Eighth Note Kicks

The first time I synced up 8th note kicks under quarter note hi-hat strokes was during a sushi dinner with my parents. 

I had been trying to air drum Brainstew by Green Day, but I couldn’t get the kick pattern. I always doubled the quarter note hi hat stroke to 8th notes to match the kicks on the 1. 

But then… for whatever reason… everything clicked while we were waiting for the miso soup. I was air drumming with chopsticks and under the table, I finally figured out the 8th note kicks on the 1. 

It’s a huge dopamine hit to finally get a challenging musical technique into your body. And it’s always fun to chase that feeling again and again. 

Guitar Practice Log #3

Picked up my guitar for the 10th day in a row. I can fairly honestly say I’m not sure I’ve done that in over a decade…

Workshopping a lot of old Oh Girl songs at the moment. There is a lot of good stuff that Adrian and I never revisited after we made up the songs on the spot.

Playing guitar standing up is like riding a bike…?

Funny how some songs just come back to you. 

Fingers are hurting less!

Connect the Dots

It’s easier to do in retrospect. 

When you’re in the midst of something, it can seem like it’s its own unique thing. But nothing exists in a vacuum. 

Sometimes looking back can reveal something entirely different than what you thought in the moment. 

Yes. This is vague. But it’s also exciting. 

Oh, girl!!

Failing…

… become easier to deal with over time. 

Especially when you realize that failing means you’re one step closer to actually succeeding. 

Reflections on Songwriting

It doesn’t have to be good. Most of the time it won’t be good. Become comfortable with the not good. 

The most important part is that it gets done. 

And break up your sessions by trying things you’ve never done before. Play one chord and see if you can’t craft a song out of it using rhythm and melody. Write progressions using only open chords. Write using only single notes. Move into Drop D tuning. Put some distortion on the guitar. Play with a pick. Play using only fingerpicking. 

You never know where inspiration will come from so try anything and everything. 

Guitar Practice Log #2

30 minutes on the solo from John Mayer’s New Light. 

I enjoyed learning this solo for a couple reasons. 

First, it’s not super difficult, so getting the notes and fingering was fairly straightforward. 

Second… with the notes being simple, the tone and feel of the solo is hard to replicate because it is all about dynamics. Which is great for me to work on, especially since I don’t consider myself a good soloist to begin with. 

It was fun to tweak the pickup selection, the volume, and tone knobs on the guitar to try to replicate the tone, too. 

It’s weird to think that I’ve been playing guitar for almost 24 years, and I’ve never tried to exactly match a solo before, definitely not in as much detail as I attempted tonight. 

My fingers are definitely out of guitar shape. I need to develop some callouses. 

2024 Goals

Aim high. 

Focus. 

Push. 

• 365 posts on Instagram (daily)
• 156 blog posts (3x a week)
• 52 Reels on Insta/ FB (weekly)
• 52 YouTube shorts (weekly)
• 12 demo songs (monthly)
• 4 professionally recorded songs in a weekend session