I have completed 4 songs based on my experiences over the last couple of years. Throughout the creation of these songs I drew inspiration from my favourite artists, my life experiences, and the changes I observe in myself and the people and world around me. While writing I like to compile all of my ideas into separate recordings and then build up the structure from there. I tend to come up with one or two parts, record them and then allow them to inspire the other parts for the song. After this I usually decide what parts are to be repeated or not, and then build the rest of the structure from there. I enjoy focusing on melody and chord changes with more technical parts and riffs in between to create an ebb and flow to represent whatever feeling I am portraying at the time of writing.
Pillars:
My main inspiration for this song came when I was experimenting with clean passages and I ended up coming up with a part that sounded like it could be an intro so I started from there. The rest of the song flowed pretty naturally from there and I ended up coming with a lot of parts that all fit really well together. During the writing of this song there was a natural build and release of tension between each of the parts which reminded a lot about the human life cycle of birth, growth than death. In between all those stages comes experience through triumphs and tragedies and the change in feel between each of the parts shows this. The song ended up being around 10 minutes and the climax of the song comes quite late which represents a turning point or a life changing event that causes you to rethink the way you live your life.
I also originally wrote lyrics for this song and they were centered around the idea of our ancestors choices having an affect on the way our world works and the way we live today. I also incorporated the idea of going back in time and having the opportunity to change the past. Whether it be something that we had done in our own lives or even what others had done in order to possibly alter our current life without knowing if it would turn out for better or for worse. This ties in with the human life cycle of experience and tragedy as we can often make decisions that affect our loved ones for better or for worse without realising it.
The idea for the song title "Pillars" came from the fact that we build our lives around our experiences. The way we think, the way we interact with others and the way we deal with events that occur in our life all come from our experiences. The more we experience in our lifetime the stronger the metaphorical pillars, and the more of them there are. But relying on our experience can also be our downfall as we can often be too reluctant to change our ways.
Vacant Consciousness:
The Inspiration for this song once again came from messing around with riff ideas but this time it came from the main riff. After refining this part of the song I wanted to create a really dramatic dynamic shift between each of the parts. I wanted the main riff to be really intense and then the chorus to be really powerful with lot's of changing chords and a strong sense of melody and a release of tension.
I started with the fading intro to represent a transition from perception to thinking, almost as if you were transitioning into a dream. The riff that comes in straight after the intro is representative of overthinking. When we overthink things our mind jumps from one idea to the other with no logical connection and all of this false information can be extremely overwhelming which is where the chorus comes in. The chorus represents a break in this tension and is a moment to stop and think about the circumstance that you and your brain are so worried about. Instead of worrying about it in this moment, you take a step back and take a breath and realise a lot of what is "going wrong" is in your head, and isn't actually happening. Instead of worrying you observe for a little while and clear your mind. The bridge section is the purest form of it and it is the most stripped back part of the song, represent a clear conscious. We often get caught up in each others life alot and instead of worrying about ourselves we end up worrying about each other. We watch each others tragedies unfold with no intervention. Through social media we become envious of each others lives and this causes us to question our own. But through stepping back and observing our own lives we can realise that life is what we make of it and being envious of each others lives only causes us to dread our own.
The title "Vacant Consciousness" comes from the idea that overthinking can often lead to alot of empty and meaningless thoughts and also removes us from the world around us. We often think to the point of making up situations in our head instead of accepting the situation and figuring out how to change or endure it. It also comes from the idea that watching others lives removes us from our own, and our mind is constantly worrying about other people, essentially abandoning our own thoughts and feelings.
Altering The Past:
This song deals with similar themes to the ones found in Pillars. Being given the chance to change the past would you follow through with it? It is based on a moral turning point of doing what is best for you, or what is best for the people around you. I also wanted to portray the idea of making the best decision for the long term rather than the short term. The main inspiration for this song came from listening to a lot of Katatonia and Death. I admire both bands simple yet complex song structures. However it was their dynamics that caused the inspiration for this song. Katatonia's songs have a dramatic shift in feeling throughout the song and at any given moment your mood can shift with the music because of the rise and fall in dynamics. Death inspired me with their constantly moving riffs and also their dramatic shift in feel.
The start of the song is mellow, creating a sense of comfort but then there is a drastic shift in feeling and dynamic shifting riff comes in. This symbolically represents being thrown into a two way decision and whichever decision is made will effect one party for the worse and one for the better. As we come into the bridge I wanted to create a sense of disorder and rising tension. The constant movement of the melody creates a sense of discomfort and indecision. We are often faced with decision that we know will hurt in the short but in the long run will greatly benefit us in our personal growth. Making these decisions is tough, and this song is about being wise enough to make that decision. I wanted to keep this song relatively simple in order to convey the message more clearly. This is what I get out of the song now rather than what my intentions were while writing. Upon reflecting on this song and how I felt at the time this is the meaning that I get out of it now.
The Pain Of Recollection:
This song came from a time of loss and also listening to a lot of Alice in Chains and Katatonia once again. When we reflect on our lifes events our minds are often drawn to the tragedies and losses that we have endured. These memories are often painful, but there is also beauty in remembering our lost loved ones.
This song came out purely from sitting down and starting to write because I needed to get a lot of built up emotions out of me and this is the best way to do so for me. I almost instantly came up with an extremely melancholic chord progression that I also turned into an arpeggiated, harmonised riff. I wanted to keep this song extremely simple to portray the primal feeling of loss. Dealing of loss and the feeling of being lost are situations we have been dealing with since the start of our human evolution. We need to get these emotions out in order to survive because in the long run these feelings can be extremely destructive. The main riff repeats many times to represent the idea of a consistently recurring thought and often having to force ourselves to let that thought play out, rather than pushing it away. Overall I wanted this song to flow in a way where tension is built up over a short period of time and then released over a longer period of time. When I listen to this song now it brings back the feeling of loss and being lost but also makes me realise how precious life is and also how precious the people within our lives are. Similarly to Vacant Consciousness, the release of tension between some riffs is meant to represent stepping back and actually coming to the realisation of how important appreciating every moment in life really is.
The title "The Pain Of Recollection" simply comes from the idea that sometimes remembering events that have occurred in our life can be painful. But it also serves as a reminder that in order to appreciate the good times in life we must suffer and endure some bad times.
Feel free to listen here:
https://soundcloud.com/user-678301522/sets/compositions-for-music
