I Hate Mornings

Photo by BdwayDiva1

Good question. Not anyone you’ve heard of, that’s for sure. In fact, although I fully intend to get my songs covered by big names, to cowrite with rising stars and to make a fortune in royalties from random Japanese TV ads, for the moment I’m writing for me.

h3. Who am I?

Andrea Stolpe “wrote about”:http://andreastolpe.berkleemusicblogs.com/2008/08/04/write-what-you-know/ authenticity of songwriting this week, and it hit a nerve:

bq. Back then it was Nashville, and so I my plan was to dive right into the types of songs that were making it as singles and basically write my version of them. This was always a frustrating endeavor. Just when I’d think I’d get the groove down, acceptable lyric material, and some good melodic ideas, I’d realize I’d be writing too close to the original. Even if I managed to draw a clear line between my tune and the one that inspired it, I was left with something that was an excellent caricature rather than an innovative trend-setter.

The only way I’m going to end up with a catalogue of great songs is to write for myself. Not for myself as an artist – I’m not planning to get famous that way – but for myself as a songwriter. Of course, this leads to some tricky decisions, and some serious self-assessment. If I’m writing for myself, how am I going to get the songs out there? And how am I going to build the reputation I will need to get them covered?

One way is to network and schmooze my way to the top. Although I’m not great at this I’m getting better and networking is absolutely necessary to get anywhere. But… there’s not much point networking if you can’t back it up with at least one success story. I will get my name known, which is a start. And it’s always fun to learn the new-media-speak lingo…

The second way is to sing my songs to people, either live or recorded. It seems like a weird way to do it because the songs are supposed to be for other people. But I can’t afford to produce top quality demos with session singers and producers. I know that I can deliver my songs the way they were conceived and with the right kind of attitude. The songs will need to stand on their own at some point and if they can impress through my strumming and wailing, they can go a long way without me.

h3. Brand awareness

So I need to build a solid brand around “Ben Walker, Songwriter”. Which is what I’m starting to do. I have started a good songwriting “blog”:http://www.ihatemornings.com which is starting to get noticed, I have introduced myself to hundreds of people as a songwriter, and I am writing songs (almost) full time. The blog, my business card and “all”:http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=529602587 my “online”:http://twitter.com/ihatemornings “profiles”:http://www.last.fm/music/JB+Walker are tied together by the “I Hate Mornings” “cartoon dude”:http://www.ihatemornings.com/images/2.png and I’m working on a redesign of ihatemornings.com to clean it up and highlight the good stuff without losing the cute, hand-drawn feel that people always seem to like.

But what about the songs? The production rate of songs for the “50/90 Challenge”:http://5090.fawm.org/writers.php?id=1747 is forcing me to write in a very natural style – I don’t have time to pastiche or pretend or rework. The process is starting to reveal my “true” style, which is (rather unsurprisingly ;o) sort of folky-country-pop with quirky and/or funny lyrics. It’s not everyone’s bag, but it’s what I do best. And if I can be known for writing great quirky pop, I’ll be a happy man.

h3. Going forward…

By the end of the summer (and the end of the 50-song challenge), I’m going to have a couple of healthy heaps of quirky folk/pop classics on my hands. October will be the month of rewrites and rehearsals, then I’m going to get back into the gigs as Ben Walker, Songwriter (hopefully with the “Legendary Swordsmen”:http://www.legendaryswordsmen.com rhythm section). I’m not going to waste my precious evenings playing no-hope support slots in Oxford pubs. I will organise decent gigs, roughly once a month, with other songwriters, and I’ll put on a good show. ‘Cos if I don’t do it myself, nobody will.