In terms of musical creativity, 2010 was a pretty bad year. I wrote a grand total of only four songs – each hastily recorded as bare-bones demos and left as such. I was certain that 2011 would yield a whole lot more new stuff.
Seems I was wrong. Although I was a more productive, most of what I produced was not new: ‘First Light’ was one of the aforementioned demos; ‘Stereo Lies’ was a reworking of someone else’s song; those Two Covers were covers, obviously; though ‘The Desert’ was new, its accompanying b-side had been in the vaults for over a year.
Yes, my total solo songwriting output for the year: 1 song.
Pretty lame.
So, I am naturally endeavouring to do a whole lot more in 2012. During previous dry spells, I’ve usually expressed “hope” that I’d write more. Now, I’m making a full on declaration. I will write more songs this year.
I was tempted to participate in this WeeklyBeats challenge – to write, record and release a song a week for the entire year. Ending 2012 with 52 new tracks would be fantastic. And getting that disciplined with regard to songwriting would be great.
The main reason I’m not going to participate, though, is because of the challenge I’m going to undertake in February – the RPM Challenge. That challenge is to write and record an entire album in the month of February. I partook in 2007, 2008 and 2009, resulting in my first, second and third albums. And now, after taking the last two years off, I’m ready to do it again.
While the WeeklyBeats challenge would result in a larger volume of material – and the potential of developing a good writing habit/ethic/routine – I feel much more invigorated by the album challenge. It’s more intense, focused. Each time I’ve done it, I’ve found it wholly rewarding. And you end up with a brand new album by the end of the month…
That could be the springboard to greater productivity for the rest of the year …or it might not. I’m not going to make any promises beyond March.
But even if the only music I make this year is an RPM album, I’ll have done more than in 2010 and 2011 combined.
Anyway, Happy New Year!
See you on the other side…
