Rewriting Songs

For the last several weeks I’ve been rewriting some songs that will go on a future release of Dead Soul Revival. That’s my new band by the way. I never release anything that I’m not completely happy with. I always trust my gut in this regard.  By the time I’ve gotten through pre-production on a record most of the songs are very close to their final form.

Having said that, inevitably there are always a few that aren’t stacking up to the others. For me this often has to do with the chorus not paying off like I think it should. This is when the rewriting begins.  This can be tricky because I’ve got to make it work with the elements that have already been recorded. 

With the song I’m thinking of I pretty much muted everything but the drums in the chorus and started experimenting.  What I came to realize is that the original chord progression would still work fine but I needed the guitars and bass to be playing a different feel. This led me to adding a sustained synth part that gave this section more of the type of feel I was looking for. I wouldn’t have guessed this would have changed it significantly, but it did. 

Sometimes a few simple tweaks is all it takes. On this one I’m adding different chorus vocal and melody as well. Which is already feeling much catchier and fits the vibe better of the song.

Let’s talk about these phrases that get thrown around a lot: vibe and feel. Music really is all about manipulating the listeners emotions. In fact, this is exactly why people listen to music: to enhance the mood they are already in or to put themselves into a different state of mind.  This can be accomplished in several different ways including tempo, rhythm, and scale or mode choice, not to mention things like the player’s performances. 

If you don’t know how to play the 7 modes (scales) I suggest you learn them. You’ve certainly heard them in use. They might as well be called the 7 emotions. I’m a future post I’ll go through the modes and describe the feeling each one brings.  You may already write songs using these and not realize it.  They provide the happy, sad, and all the emotional places in between. 

While it would be great if all songs were ready for prime time from the beginning, some require some finessing.  If you’ve ever worked with a good producer you’ve probably had them rearrange and possibly help rewrite your songs.  This is often the case and how bands end up with albums that go beyond what they could do on their own self producing. 

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