Everything Will Be Alright in the End

Tonight, I was 13, sitting in my sisters' room, skipping the first three tracks of the Blue Album until I hear the opening line of Buddy Holly, which is the first Weezer song I recognized from the radio.

Tonight, I was walking up to a Best Buy register. Pinkerton was in my hands, and it was the second CD I will ever purchase with my own money.

Tonight, I was 15. I walked into the Galaxy Theater in Santa Ana, and my sister warned me that the show was going to get loud. My brother-in-law Todd bought me my first Weezer t-shirt. It's red and there's a punk rock chick character on the front. She's wearing her own Weezer t-shirt, and she's throwing up rock hands.

Tonight, I was sitting in the backseat of my parents' car. We were cruising on the Eastbound 60, and I was singing along softly to Butterfly.

Tonight, it was my first year at UCI. A group of friends and I drove down to La Jolla to see Weezer. It was the first time I ever saw the band Ozma, and it was a night that changed my life forever.

Tonight, I was listening to the Green Album outtakes that Todd burned for me. I fell in love with Burndt Jam and Brightening Day.

Tonight, I was at the Gibson Amphitheater in 2010 for Weezer's Memories Tour. I scream along to every song on the Blue Album, except for Say It Ain't So. Monastically, I just stand and watch during that song.

Tonight, I was listening to Everything Will Be Alright in the End. It was streaming on iTunes before its release, and I listen to it 4 times non-stop. It's the first album since Pinkerton that I listen to from beginning to end.

Tonight, I walked up to a Best Buy register. I'm holding EWBAITE in my hands. It's the first physical CD I've purchased in over 3 years.

Tonight, I sang onstage with Weezer at the Observatory Theater in Santa Ana (formerly the Galaxy). I was feet away from Rivers Cuomo. I met some awesome people. I got to share the moment with Todd. I could barely contain myself as I recanted the night's events to my wife Rachel. I looked up the Weezer Fan Club and how to join. I stayed up until the wee hours of the night to write this.

Tonight, I was a kid again.

Thank you, Weezer, from the bottom of my kid heart.

I can't wait for it to be tonight again...

Writing songs

It can take me anywhere from 10 minutes to over a year to write a song. But even the songs that take over a year, typically only take around 30 minutes to an hour. It's just that it will be 10 minutes and 20 minutes and 15 minutes and 8 minutes... separated by over a year of space...

I read somewhere that Rivers Cuomo said the best instrument for songwriting is the piano. I think Daniel Brummel from Ozma said that in an interview, too. Most of my songs are written on guitar. I almost always write melodies first, and use basic chord structures as the backing arrangements. I have yet to write down actual chord structures or even tablature for any of my songs.

I've written a couple songs on piano, but they've since gone the way of the dodo. For whatever reason, I can never remember the songs I've written on piano, most likely because I play the instrument to infrequently to internalize anything. Also, it's a lot easier to remember barre chord placement on a guitar than actual chord placement on piano. The voicings of chords on a piano are much more numerous than on guitar. Or maybe I just think that because I only use barre chords and a couple open chord structures...

Lyrics tend to come second. Although lately, especially since starting Oh Girl with Adrian, auto-writing is the lyric writing method of choice. I didn't even know that Rick Rubin had been using auto-writing during his production sessions until Linkin Park talked about making their last album with him. Not gonna lie. Part of me is bummed that I share a lyric writing process with Linkin Park. (oh, you wannabe music elitist, you...)

In a perfect world, I'd post a video of one of my latest songs here as evidence of my songwriting style. Alas, it's an imperfect world, and I'll have to settle for the faint promise of a youtube video of a new song some time in the not too distant future.

"Would that I could write like this more often"- Calvin...