Writing

I've been going thru a bit of a music writing spurt recently. First time in years. Stuff seems to be pouring out at the moment. It's all part of the process... for every four things you write, one of them is good. You can recycle bits from the other three and turn them into one other song. That's what I'm finding, anyways. There's no hidden secret majesty or anything like that when it comes to songwriting... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I'm not writing 'art' or classics here, I'm just writing derivative rock'n'roll fun. I can't really say much, as I don't have much stuff of my own published over the years, really! heh heh.

I guess my gripe is... while Matt is an amazingly competent and technical guitarist (and I think he totally rocks with that!), when it comes to learning something 'new' he really starts to flounder. He seems to simply not remember stuff, like chord changes or feels or stuff like that - the backbone of any 'pop/rock' song. So yeah... introducing new 'originals' into the band... I'm finding the process pretty frustrating at the moment. That's just me, tho.

I'm much more of a rhythm / feel guitar player, while Matt's a technical type. When we play together (I play my bass as more of a rhythm guitar feels a lot of the time anyways).. So yeah... there's a lot of guitar feels and ideas i'm coming up with lately that I'm discovering that I either have to teach him from scratch, or he simply can't (or won't be able to) play. That's frustrating. I'm no amazing guitarist. I'm not. I've just been doing it for so many years now. So yeah, bringing along a new song is a bit of a hurdle for me... I guess it's just gonna take a whole lot more work than I anticipated, I guess?

Julian is no worries! He's able to hear something once, twice, and play a feel/groove for it almost straight away. He's very talented - but that's simply because he's been 'playing the game' (as I have) for over 20 years too. He's totally down-to-earth, and for me as a bassplayer, he's a delight to play with. No, seriously.

Matt simply has lesser performance experience playing with other people, and he struggles a bit being able to do a lot of stuff 'on the fly / off the cuff' sometimes. Mind you, when we 'jam' together, his ideas flow out of him easily and absolutely astonish us all. It's just a catch-22... when he has to 'think' about what 'feel' he has to play, he kinda flounders about a bit. Julian and are pushing him along tho...

Don't get me wrong for one minute. this is a different bloke to the Matt of a few months ago, who I was on the point of firing and kicking his arse right out of the band. he's improved as a person, as a guitarist a zillion percent. His positive enthusiasm is contagious for all of us.

For Julian and I... we've simply 'done all this before', while Matt never has. Julian and I have played in lots of different 'rock'n'roll bands' over the years, and experienced the working dynamics of putting things together and learning, presenting and arranging different material. Matt simply hasn't got and done that much yet. The only other 'band' he's ever played with for years was with Mick. Mick is a great guy and a competent guitarist, but as a 'band leader' he's fairly ineffective. Matt still sometimes to subconsciously think in less-than-constructive ways - but that's simply the background experience he's had playing with Mick.

We're trying so hard to build him up and help him learn "his chops" in working band dynamics. It just seems to take forever sometimes.

Oh, it's alright... I need to rant a little now and again.

The band is fine. The Night Before continues on, from strength to strength. New songs for the new album and to play live are still on schedule as planned.

It's just gonna take me a bit longer working things thru with Matt than I anticipated, I think.

Prove me wrong, dagnammit! Prove me ferking wrong!!!

Peas be with ewe

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