Hello everyone!
Another month, another song, another blog :)
That one is about my last mysterious, somewhat "strange" (as someone suggested) song.
I decided to work around an old illustration created by a friend of mine.
I really liked the imagery at first sight and that's why I decided to create as song around it, but I didn't really know which direction to take. So I just wrote as much as I could. Random words, full sentences....and I observed and took notes of every detail. I think I never spent so much time staring at an image so closely :)
I also listened to myself and to what this particular image made me think of.
The first draft of the song went into a completely different direction, one that was pretty sad actually. But I wasn't satisfied with this; I knew there was more to it, something different that I wanted to tell and I had this kind of mysterious feeling about it.
The melody really helped me create this "strange" atmosphere.
While going through my phone's files, I actually found an old recording of mine from 2016, buried amongst the various vocal snippets of me singing/humming something rather unintelligible. I listened to it and the simple melody just stuck with me. I remembered it instantly although I had completely forgotten about it. I tend to record quite a lot of melody ideas on my phone and then just forget about them :)
But I felt that particular melody could actually fit the atmosphere of the song. So I started to play around with some chords on the guitar while adding the melody to it. I had the beginning of the song. And now that I had a theme, a feeling, it was easier to write and find direction. I changed the lyrics quite a few times but the idea of the song being about going on an inner quest was pretty clear to me. So I used some of the words/sentences I had written at the beginning of my brainstorming sessions and within a few days the song was pretty much written.
It does have that strangeness, mysterious feel to it and I am happy with the result.
I really enjoy using imagery (still or moving) as a source of inspiration and I think I will continue to do so. I would like to work more into writing/composing for the moving image as I love it.
So I am putting it out in the world. If anybody has a project they would need music for (and you like my style), just give me a shout :)
So there you go!
A little behind-the-scenes of my songwriting process for "The Lake".
You can stream/download the song here: http://djanagabrielle.bandcamp.com/track/the-lake
Hope you enjoy it!
Beautiful illustration by my dear friend Essi Kimpimaki.
xo
