The Truth Behind "Divine" Inspiration in Songwriting

A lot of songwriting is waiting, at least for me anyway. I’m not a prolific writer. I can’t just sit down at any given moment and churn out a new song. I’m not claiming that there is some divine inspiration either. Waiting for inspiration to grace you isn’t always the magical experience it’s made out to be. Occasionally you get an idea that wakes you from a dream and you feel as though you’re channeling a greater power, but that’s rare. Not only is it rare, but it isn’t random either. That divine inspiration is actually a product of the ideas you have brewing in your head. The more ideas you have and the longer you let them stew in your mind, the more chances you have for lightning to strike.

For example, I have dozens of song starts. I have a portable recorder (or my phone) and I record every little melody or chord progression I think has potential. I’ve been doing this since 2006. A lot of that material is still sitting on a hard drive somewhere, but every now and then an old idea pops up and becomes new again. Such is the case with a song I’m working on at the moment called “Blankets of Snow.” The music for the verses was written WAY back at the tail end of 2006. I played it sloppily on an electric guitar with the worst possible tone. The song was called “New Year” and had a lot to do with leaving the past behind… which is incredibly ironic considering I just pulled that melody back to the future. I decided to play the rhythm track on piano rather than guitar, which is much more pleasing to the ear. I kept the vocal melody exactly the same, but swapped out the words. This new song is going to be about long western New York winters and seasonal affective disorder. I knew that I wanted to bring back that verse because playing it on the piano felt so satisfying, but I needed something better. That music was written back in 2006 after all. I needed to add something that I could be proud of in 2017, so I struggled for a few weeks playing through the verse repeatedly, waiting for inspiration to strike. Two nights ago, it hit me. I had just written the chorus I’d been waiting 11 years to write. The words followed shortly after, but I wasn’t done. I heard all this vocal layering. I needed to get it out of my head and onto the proverbial tape. So here I present to you a very rough demo of a song that’s taken 11 years to reach me. It still isn’t finished, but at least I know it’ll be worth finishing!