This Time (Bonus Cover Tune Edition)

I got a letter in the mail today (not from my muse this time) with some song ideas in it.

I leafed through and some of the content reminded me of this cover tune I used to play with a project I had in college.

So I thought I'd throw down a quick version of that tune for this edition. It's a little higher for my range than I remember it being. Oh well.

Take it easy,

Seth

Try to Be

This is called Try to Be.

It's a tune we've had in the set list a while but haven't managed to record yet.

It was inspired shortly after I moved to New York. I was waiting for the L train at the Bedford stop, and noticed this girl, probably my age, dressed in a fashion that was, shall-we-say, "eccentric." And like a lot of people, it looked like she was trying very hard to be something that she didn't seem to be.

And I remember wondering where she had come from that made her feel like she had to try so hard. In striving to be something new and different, what was she trying to leave behind?

So, like most things in life, this was heavily influenced by completely unfounded assumptions that were made about somebody I didn't even know.

Enjoy!

Take it easy,

Seth

Rhymes and Reasons

So. 20 songs, huh.

As you may have guessed by the slowing of this once-weekly blog, inspiration is a little harder to come by lately. I enjoy the busy-ness of a full life, and not only a distinct lack of drama, which is not a bad thing unless you need songwriting material. ;-)

Heck the lives of my friends and family are even fairly drama-free so there's no vicarious craziness to channel into song.

So here's this song.

I won't pretend it was written recently - but it seems appropriate for the overall lack of inspiration I've been feeling in the songwriting department.

It requires that you know what a Muse is.

May it bring you inspiration in your own works of creativity.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Take it easy,

Seth

When I Come Down

So I've been in Ohio visiting family since last week.

Normally anything extra-curricular would be curtailed somewhat as not only was I visiting family and attempting to cook several traditional family baked goods, but also trying to keep two small children on a somewhat livable nap schedule.

However.

My little sister Kendra has an amazing voice and is a talented musician herself. We've been kicking around some ideas about doing a song together, and so we spent some late nights putting this duet together.

And it's a bit late, but it's #19 in the Fifty Rough Drafts Project.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making some music with my little sister (who totally needs to move to Tucson and join the band proper).

Take it easy,

Seth

The Stray

Here's song #18

I confess, this is not a new song.

However, it's one you've likely never heard because I don't have any decent recordings of it.

This is partially because it's hard to sing and partially because Brian and I haven't taken the time to properly arrange it.

Hence, this still qualifies as a rough draft.

Enjoy.

It's called The Stray and was inspired by a Robert Frost poem the name of which escapes me at the moment. It's like a 4-page poem and the part that stuck with me was almost at the end where one character says "Home is where they can't turn you away" - so I took that and sort of ran with it.

Drop me a note and let me know what you think.

Take it easy,

Seth

What Kind of Love

This song has been delayed for a bit.

I won't go into details but you'd be amazed how much time and attention a sick toddler demands.

At any rate, here's the latest and greatest. It's got a similar feel to the previous entry, and it's also a Song Fight entry. So if you want, meander over to SongFight.org and vote for me.

I love writing on a prompt (as long as it's the right prompt). It really makes me think a little differently and gets me past the most difficult hurdle, which is the "what the heck do I write about when I'm 18 or 19 weeks into a songwriting project and I've already written more songs in the last 5 months than in the last 5 years" hurdle.

Boo ya.

Hope you dig it.

Take it easy,

Seth

Down for a While

Greetings.

Another songfight-inspired piece, I'm quite pleased with this one. It's got a little bit of a Tom Petty flavor to it, if I do say so myself.

Have an un-influenced listen (well, except for the Tom Petty remark) and I'll blather more underneath the video down there.

This song came together over the last few days. Trying to change things or people that don't want to change has sort of been a theme in my life.

Sometimes all you can do is change yourself in order to either cope or grow (or both; growth is a product of coping if you do it right), and move on. Lead a horse to water but don't expect the damn stupid thing to drink, and all that.

The chorus came together in about 5 minutes almost as an afterthought (hey this song kind of needs a chorus, what should I do...) and it fit like clockwork. In a second draft I might strengthen the third verse a little, but I dig this as a rough draft.

Take it easy,

Seth

Paper Cut

If I'm counting right, this is song #15. Which is pretty nuts.

This is called Paper Cut, sort of inspired by the way things get away from us.

Rather than blather on, I'll just give you the song...

Drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

Take it easy,

Seth

Half Life

So I discovered this site called songfight.org - and apparently they do a different song challenge every week and a half or so.

So expect to see me submitting to that somewhat frequently over the course of the next 8 months or so. ;-)

This is a song for the prompt "Half Life" and as much as I wanted to make Black Mesa Research Facility references, it just didn't come up in the songwriting.

Anyway submissions close tonight and it'll take them a day or two to load them up. So if this is Saturday until the following Saturday or so, wander over to songfight.org and vote for my song.

I'll get bragging rights. And you know how hard it is to score bragging rights on the internet.

Hope you dig it.

Oh and if it is not after 10:30pm or so PST on Thursday 4/8 the video might not work. Youtube seems to be taking quite a while processing my upload.

Take it easy,

Seth

Edge of the Earth

So this tune is inspired by a series of books that a friend gave me at the beginning of an evening.

Then, after several glasses of wine were consumed by all, mentioned that it would be cool if I wrote some songs about said book series.

Since I a) consider myself a somewhat literary songwriter, b) enjoy writing songs on a prompt, and c) was drunk, I agreed that it would be pretty awesome to write an entire album about this book series that I had just been handed and hadn't even read yet.

And then it was promptly forgotten about for several weeks, at which point I started reading the books, liked them, and thought "hmmm...."

And now I'm in the position of needing a new song every week, and this little project comes in quite handy. An entire album is a little bit ambitious, but a couple of catchy singles can go a long way. ;-)

The book series, incidentally, is the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica by a writer named James A Owen. I've finished reading the first book, and this is sort of inspired by the climactic final scene. The main characters (who are intellectual/creative in nature) are on an island that is literally at the edge of the world, and trying to determine how to defeat a vastly superior army of supernatural creatures.

As rough drafts go this is pretty damn rough, but it's got some gems in there.

I may break this tune apart into a couple different ones and explore some of the ideas a little more as I just tried to capture a bunch of themes from an entire book in one song. But it's kind of fun to just throw it out there.

Oh and any similarity in the chord progression between this week's song and last week's song is all in your imagination.

Take it easy,

Seth

I'm on Facebook

Installment #12. A few days late, but here it is nonetheless.

This song's inception traces back to a couple of weeks ago and involved several glasses of wine, good company and staying up way the hell too late.

Names are omitted to protect the (somewhat) innocent. Daanon on the other hand, is guilty as hell.

Of course, this song is nothing like what we were talking about writing the song about. But I kept at least a mention of the cow.

Not my most inspired piece, but hopefully worth a chuckle. And who knows, it might remind you of somebody you know.

Take it easy,

Seth

Demagogue

This is called Demagogue. I've been kicking it around for a while. I'd rather not get political (and this was not written about who most people on either side of the fence would assume it's about anyway) so just listen and judge as you will.

Note: At time of posting, the video hadn't finished processing in Youtube yet, so if it's not working, give it like half an hour and try again.

Take it easy,

Seth

Music City

Newtons' first law:

An object in motion tends to stay in motion

An object at rest tends to stay at rest

Unless acted upon by an outside force.

Rather than take a bye for the week after being sick on Thursday, better to push on and not lose momentum with the songwriting. Loss of momentum is the Muse-killer. I will face my slowing momentum and let it pass through me.

Or something.

On a completely unrelated note, this is called Music City. It was inspired by a friend of the band (and then all sorts of fictitious stuff was added because I don't know the rest of the real story).

Hope you like it.

Take it easy,

Seth

Precipice

I was cleaning out some old files over the weekend, and in addition to finding a bunch of old band recordings I thought were lost forever, I stumbled upon this song I had written back in college (I think I played it once at the open mic at Ruby Tuesday).

It was mostly crap (which was why I hadn't ever played it again) except that I still liked the chorus. So I rewrote it around the choruses, gave it a little bit different direction, and it became a song that I really like. Judge for yourself:

It ended up being sort of a "leap of faith" song.

It sort of needs a bridge, but for a rough draft I'm pretty happy with it.

As always, comments are welcomed.

Take it easy,

Seth

SQL

This song is dedicated to all the I.T. guys out there.

Yes, I know there are quite a few talented I.T. Gals out there but they can find their own champion.



Sometimes I sit around at the Day Job waiting for a query to run or a report to process, and begin to ponder how many misunderstandings occur because of language and because of the infinite variability of humanity. How much pain and sadness comes from people who just aren't able to communicate. How language is a barrier to people being joined together,

Whereas, I can join two data tables together with a single statement in a fairly universal Structured Query Language. Presto. Unity. Or Intersectity if you're into Set Theory.

God I'm a nerd.

Take it easy,

Seth

Promises

Wow, seven new songs. I could take the rest of the year off and still have written more songs in 2010 than I wrote in 2009. It ain't easy to make the time but it's worth it.

I like the chorus on this one a lot. I managed not to get stuck in that "repeat the same four chords" circling pattern that I find myself in on occasion. Lyrics in the verses could use a tad more focus to tie them back to the Chorus content.
Or, go the opposite direction and focus as much on detail as possible. Always a struggle to "show" rather than "tell."

Anyway, here's the tune. You'll have to forgive the lack of drama in the performance. I can only make so much time. ;-) Next week: spandex, strobe lights, and a mullet wig.



Take it easy,

Seth

Thirty Thousand Feet

Here is installment #6 of the Fifty Rough Drafts Project.

It's called Thirty Thousand Feet.

It needs a Second Draft but it's got some promise. Got tired of the ABAB style so I dropped some ABBA. Yeah, Freshman English!

I can think of nothing else poignant or clever to say, so I'm going to spend the time I would have spent coming up with something poignant or clever working on the new website.

Take it easy,

Seth

Estragon

Not to be confused with Eragon (that's next week), this song was inspired by a play I saw back in college called "Waiting for Godot."

The play is a little bit confusing, but like all great works of art leaves lots of room for people to project their own selves into it.

Thus "Waiting for Godot" can be either an Existentialist, Atheist, Christian, or Nihilist allegory, depending on who you ask, how much they've had to drink, and whether they've actually ever sat through the whole play or not.

The character Estragon strikes a chord with me, in that he's kind of spacey and doesn't have it all quite together. So I tried to write this from his perspective.

(I was not right on top of the camera so you may have to turn your speakers up a little. Bear with me. There was nothing to be done.)



Incidentally, there was recently a London version of this play starring Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan. OMFG I bet that was amazing...

Take it easy,

Seth

Come as a Surprise

Here's song #4 - A wistful approach to the confusion of a one-way relationship.

In fairness this is another one that I've been working on for a while and haven't finalized until just now.

Getting the skeletons out of the closet just makes room for more skeletons!

And metaphors that don't quite work are like blue jeans one size too small. You just wish they hadn't gone and ...done that.

Anyway, enjoy the tune while I scramble for what I'm going to do next week. Any ideas?

Take it easy,

Seth

Not Your Fault

This is a tune I've actually been working on forever. I mean for-freaking-ever.

So sometimes a deadline is a good way to say "Enough is enough - get it finished enough for a rough draft." It forces you to make decisions rather than dither around waiting for the song to become more than it is. Then once you've got the foundation established you can still labor over the details for, you know, another couple years or something.

That said, this came out pretty well. Though, you'll have to turn up your speakers in order to really hear what I'm doing on the guitar.

I'm quite interested to hear what cello and saxophone are going to do to this arrangement-wise. It's got a lot of room for the dynamics to rise and fall.

Maybe the darkness/red light motif was a little over the top, but you gotta admit it's more interesting than just watching me sit there and play.

Take it easy,

Seth

Homecoming

Entry #2 in the Fifty Rough Drafts Project.

This song was inspired by a certain little sister who shall remain nameless.



If I was to do a second draft (and I might - this tune came out well and there are a couple of strong themes and phrases to build on) there are a couple of things I'd clean up.

But part of what makes this song neat is the honesty and that it's not over-thought-out. If that makes any sense.

Let me know what you think.

Take it easy,

Seth

Hero of My Story

This is the first installment of the Fifty Rough Drafts. It's a new song, written over the course of a week.

I figured there were enough Youtube videos out there of some chump just sitting and playing guitar, so I opted to get a tiny bit theatrical. It turned out to be kind of fun so I may continue to do that. I'll try not to go overboard.

Anyway, here's the clip. Thanks for tuning in.



The inspiration comes from a theme that strikes a chord with me for some reason - that each villain is the hero of their own story. So this is a song about a guy who, in order to become a hero for himself, had to become a villain to somebody else.

Which could be most people really.

Take it easy,

Seth

Fifty Rough Drafts

One of my New Years' Resolutions was to write or learn a song every week in 2010.
This blog will attempt to chronicle that.

Results will likely be spotty - some good, some bad.
Posts will likely include some essays on songwriting and inspiration, and a recording or video each week of the new song.
My focus is to stimulate creativity, write, learn, and grow as a songwriter and hopefully as a person.

Pretentious? Perhaps. But it's honest.
This is the reason I'm a musician.

Seth