There’s a part of making music that almost no one sees. Not the polished version, not the final mix, not the one that lands on an album or gets played live. I’m talking about that in-between space, the stage where something exists… but doesn’t quite know what it is yet…
Every now and then, I end up with a piece of music that sits right in that space for a long time. Years, even. Decades, if I’m being honest.
I’ve got one of those.
It started life about 30 years ago under the working title ‘Sorry‘. Back then it was an idea, something worth following and like a lot of ideas, it didn’t arrive fully formed. It’s been chipped away at, revisited, reshaped, pulled apart, put back together again and produced in many different ways.
And that’s kind of the point. Not everything I create is heading somewhere specific. Some pieces just exist because I couldn’t not make them. This one falls squarely into that category.
The arrangement of the track is complicated, probably more complicated than it needs to be, if I’m being honest. Which is exactly why it doesn’t fit with what we’re doing right now. The next album we’re working on is all about stripping things back. Simple, fast and a little furious. This track… is the opposite. It’s laid back and then grand and progressive with many layers of instrumentation.
So realistically, it’s not going to make the cut.
And that’s a strange place to land as a writer. Because I don’t hate it, quite the opposite I love it. There’s something in it that still grabs me.
There’s this quiet understanding that not everything has to have an outcome. Not everything needs a platform or a place to land publicly. Some things are part of the process. They teach me something and act as a kind of creative marker as to the journey I’m on.
That’s just how it works for me – and us. Perhaps it is easier being just two of us in OLDER – if we were a 5 piece band internal democracy with more than one song writer might lead to songs being released that leave another member unhappy. We have never had that conflict!
I’ll sit in the studio and build something up over months and eventually it reaches a point where we can step back and go, right… is this worth finishing? Does it fit with a current album or a current sound? Or is it just… its own thing?
If a song does make it through, that’s when a whole other part of the process kicks in. That’s when it’s time to bring in melody, lyrics, vocals. That’s where things really start to take shape in a different way and where Julie comes in.
There are songs you can build musically that only really come alive once the lyrics are written and voice is there to carry them (along with multiple harmonies if Julie has any say in the matter!). I can get something to a certain point, but that next step… that’s a different skill entirely.
So this track sits where it is. Not finished, not released, not forgotten either.
Just part of the OLDER story.
