It's Thelma.
One of these guys is my brother.
The other isn't.
He's not Louise's brother, either.
He's Dwight Baker, my songwriting partner for the week. And he's a handful.
He's been making fun of me for 3 days. "You're so passive-aggressive! You hated my idea and you just gave me that 'uh-huh' face."
Guilty as charged.
See, co-writing is really hard. You have to do all these things I'm notoriously bad at. Like keep your mouth shut while you try out somebody else's (usually bad) ideas. Then try to shut your brain up while you try out your own. You basically pull teeth out of each other's heads for, like, 7 hours straight. Then you go home, drink a beer, and try NOT to think about the song for a few hours (which is impossible). So you go back and mess around with the lyrics while the other person isn't around. As big of a pain as it is (and just look at Dwight, what a smartass) I'm actually having a blast. I'm sort of relieved to be writing; as many of you know I'm notoriously neurotic about it and always convinced I've written the very last song I will ever write, ever.
Anyway, I've known Dwight for a pretty long time. He used to play drums in my band, way back before I even made my first record. He got to where he'd just say "thanks" when people would tell him it was good to see me and Darin working together again.
Everything Dwight touches turns to gold. When I met him he was playing in a band and running a small record label that he subsequently sold for way more money than I'd ever made. After that he built a studio and started producing records. Oh, and writing songs for the bands he produced. Not much really happened with the songwriting until this past year, when four of them ended up on a record that sold 2 million copies. Now he's getting calls for country songs, which is a problem because he doesn't really write those. That's where I come in. We've written two songs in the past three days, so technically we're one song behind. Two days to go. We'll see how it shakes out.
Oh yeah, and I had a great cooking class last night. Here's one of the recipes: Take some strawberries, puree them in the blender and put a few glugs of Grand Marnier in. And some vanilla. Then scoop some vanilla ice cream into a champagne glass and pour some of the strawberry stuff in. Then pour champagne on top of that. Put some whipped cream on the top. Celebrate something you just created....
07 March 2008
Greetings from the Trenches
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Its fun reading this blog. My entertainment is your work. From my perspective I never see or think of the mundane tasks or difficulties it takes to deliver the product you do. I've always appreciated a good album or book and reading this makes me appreciate the books I read and music I listen to all the more. Thanks for doing what you do, pushing through the tough parts and sharing with all of us.
I find it amusing that someone else has reistered using my email. May you turn into a pirate with a peg leg and your children make you walk the plank...everyday..Ok so now ya know who posted the pirate parody under the guise of "anon" (anon is a great pirate word). I'll leave you with this...September 19th is the International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD--go ahead and google it!!). So mark you calendars. In the meantime, talk like a pirate and become the best you can be!
PS. As Outlaws, the owners of this blog have to appreciate that the forebearers of the outlaw trade on the high seas, were none other than...that's right, the pirates. Thanks for letting a pirate post! Ayeeeeerrargghhhhaayeearghhhohyeayabetcha!
I totally agree with the co-writing comments! Songwriting is hard enough by yourself, let alone with two people. Though it is a challenge it really does make us better songwriters.
Enjoy reading your blogs! Think I might try one of your recipes too!
Post a Comment