Where do you get your best song ideas

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jack Hammer
  • Start date Start date
When reading a book. It comes out like some kind of soundtrack.

Also, when walking alone at dawn to get to the place where I ride the bus to work. I think being still half asleep helps.
 
For me, its all about self-therapy. Cheaper than a shrink too. :D
 
i always get ideas at different places at different times, on my mood, and balh blah blah. but usaually í get good ideas when i'm taking a crap so i keep a pen in the bathroom so if some idea comes i just take some toilet paper and write on that. this usaually happens around 3 am. sometimes i bring my guitar too


VIVA LA ME
 
I get my best ideas when I'm drinking (usually, in moderation ;))

One thing I've learned over the years is that I don't like being creative under pressure. Like, "we need to finish this song so we can play it," etc. That blows. Avoid those situations if you can.

As for place, I like outdoor pubs or beer gardens when I sit alone. It's also a great way to pick up chicks as they see you write. carry a pack of smokes (even if you don't smoke) and lay it down next to your pint and your notebook. Either you write undisturbed and get a song or you're interrupted by beautiful but intrigued women. You win either way. :D

stone
 
Lol, I'll have to try that! It has always amazed me how many attractive young ladies are prepared to sleep with some weird beardy guy who writes a song about them.

To me it's not important how I get my ideas, but how I put them together afterwards. I find Buffy the Vampire Slayer a great source of one liners... seriously. Also, listening to other great music, the news, watching films, reading books, mishearing song lyrics... ect. I'm a bit of a whore when it comes to finding material. I'll take it from anywhere/everywhere so long as it sounds cool. I keep a notebook and a tape machine on me at all times.
 
I write best when I'm dog ass tired. Like after a real long day or after I've been away on a business trip or sick as a dog. Something about digging deep for it makes it better.
 
I get the greatest ideas by drinking huge amounts of caffine. I stay up until 5:00 am. Im usually pacing back and forth in the street. A long walk in the darkest woods alone at night does the trick for me.
 
I work the graveyard shift at the local grocery store and on my days off I stay with the schedule (sleep in the day). There's not a lot to do at night so sometimes I'll just get away from all the stresses of life and I'll go out and just drive.
I'll take a scenic highway or a country road, or just a drive past my old school. This helps me clear my head a little. Some nights I just find a good place to park, turn off the music, sit, listen, and relax. Sometimes I fall alseep and sometimes I just sit for hours. Meditation I guess you could call it. But anyway enough about that, I usually get my best ideas while I'm on the toilet pooping.

Modus

(On the toilet seriously, I can't write a serious song. When I try to write a serious song it turns out crappy, and I don't know why.)
 
I think that my best stuff comes when instead of writing about what is going on around me...I write about the people that I have meet or the people in my life. Life experiences seem to be a little too cliche for me.
 
I do instrumentals.... two main types. Accoustic piano tunes and electronic "concept" pieces.... (what can I say, I'm an old ELP, Yes, Kansas, King Crimson etc. fan). On rare occasions I get a flash of inspiration or find something while noodling on the piano. Usually, I get what I want from watching TV or listening to the radio. I listen to music, both the tunes on the radio and background stuff on TV and the radio and listen for how things were crafted etc. I often hear a little riff and ask.... what would happen if they did this differently?? I am not such a great musician that I can sit down and play it exactly anyway, so I "start out" by making it my own anyway. After that, it is usually craft which takes over. Of course the rare song which is purely inspiration is pretty cool too!

Take Care
 
'Walking about' seems to be a common thread here.

I have come up with a few of my best ideas when on a walkabout during the day at work - I just set off walking around the site where i work. i don't force it, but sometimes ideas come from the things i see or maybe my mind chews over something that's happened previously and a few lines come.

When i get back to the desk its time to type the wrods into a wordprocessor before they get forgotten. The tune i have to keep singing over to myself until i can get to go home and record it. i don't mind that, the 'danger' of losing the tune helps me to be disciplined and to keep going over it in my mind during the working day until i can get home and make it 'safe' by recording it. This helps the development of the lyric too, as i have to keep looking back at the lyric during the working day and singing it over, which sparks off ideas for some new lines.

The best ones though are never forced, they almost seem to write themselves with not too much effort. Others get re-written several times and then discarded!

I have also been inspired by books - I wrote a couple of songs after immersing myself in WWI history, also TV shows and of course other artists songs too where i have concsiously attempted to emulate what others have achieved, but in my own style. It never comes out the way I intended which is good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top