I usually work on the song in my mind for a long time, till I get a somewhat complete understanding of both arrangement and lyrical content. I never write down or record anything until I have this sort of whole picture. Some ideas get lost in the process. But I believe in evolution theory – survival of the ideas worth implementing. And it usually works – I end up with few songs but they all come out not too bad.

The exact process of programming/recording may vary. I usually do it in standart order: drums, bass, guitar and synth parts, then vocals, then the mix. During this I try to achieve the sound closest to what I had in my mind. Sometimes I start with a midi sketch before recording live parts.

I used Cubase but recently switched to Ableton although I haven’t yet done any solid works in it. May be this will change the process.

As for recording – I like to use Pro Tools and Reason hand-in-hand, combining recorded live instruments and samples.

To keep things interesting and keep the inspiration up, I just launched a new blog all about the craft of songwriting and producing. Check it out! http://www.servethesong.net

I would personally echo just about all of the above comments, i.e. I think a song can come in different ways, and whenever I’ve been stuck in a particular way of doing things, e.g. guitar riff first, then setting a challenge of starting with a drum loop or piano or bass can be a great way of attacking things from a different angle.

However, in general, I tend to get music first, and will record little snippets / riffs as ’sketchbook’ ideas that can be revisited later. Maybe one of them will catch my imagination and ’speak to me’, and then there’s energy to develop it musically and conceptually: depending on what the music ’says to me’, i.e. what vibe is there, that’s what determines the lyrics and what the song’s ‘about’. As to adding musical layers, that tends to be a jam-along addition of different parts, but these are honed to get the parts to fit well.

One example is a song called ‘Channel your Requiem’, which actually started as a rip-off of a chord sequence in one section of Mozart’s Requiem – I’ll be impressed if you identify which!

In the band I was in, we did a version we you can find here: http://www.myspace.com/onelifeleftuk. As you’ll hear, it’s a full histrionic rock epic, and that’s how it was originally written – the main ‘verse’ chord sequence came first, and the further sections were added as that main section developed. The lyrics and ‘concept’ came after, and the arrangement was honed afterwards. It’s not a radio edit, but it seems to want to be this long

As a production contrast, if you go to http://www.myspace.com/royalruin, you’ll find an acoustic version of the same song, except with a slightly ’swung’ feel. This was adapted to suit a solo (duo) acoustic gig that included old blues/gospel/spirituals standards, and it’s interesting to hear that the essence of the song still holds up despite being stripped of much of the rock shenanigans.

My main issue right now is that my two areas are disjoint. Lyrics tend to come to me and random times, so whenever I get the chance, I’ll sing them into my cell phone video recorder. It’s all pretty random and I don’t have a creative process for them.

However, instrumentals tend to be more embedded into my brain, so I’ll sit down and start with the drums that I have in mind. Then I’ll layer each instrument on top of the other (using Reason 4), and then slowly add variations until I have a finished instrumental.

The problem I feel with doing instrumentals this way is that, while I often start with a concept in my head, once I start adding the various layers, I’ll often end up in a completely different area than where I want to be. The more elements I add, the more the tempo seems to speed up (so I have to lower it), and then the whole song starts to change from there. It’s not always a bad thing, because it helps change up my patterns from what I had, but it’s also rather bothersome to try to create something that I have thought about, but end up with something completely different.

*goes back to studying for his exam…I promise*

Wow….there are so many different factors. I think it can vary so much even by genre. If you’re a rocker vs.more of a dance/tech/urban, your inspirations and ways that you start the creative process will probably vary greatly — a guitar riff vs. a beat, or a bass line.

I know for me personally I tend to “think” with my guitar when starting. But I’ve also had songs that grew from lyrics first, then music…or a melody that I started humming.

What’s interesting is how different the music can turn out when it starts creatively from different places. I know when I start things on piano, the songs tend to be a lot more “sappy” than when I start them on guitar, or if I do something more electronic it’s typically a much different personality (less “organic”, more mathematic type of feel). One of the reasons that I used to like some of the Thompson Twins’ stuff is that they seemed to have a way of doing “electronic” with an organic feel. (yikes, dating myself, here).

One thing that I try to be aware of is my own creative comfort zone, and trying to have a healthy appreciation for breaking out of it once in a while. Starting with my guitar is a great comfort zone, but sometimes our comfort zones can end up being creative shackles, too. Sometimes it’s good to stretch a bit and try new things. That’s when we grow…but it’s certainly not always “comfortable” pushing into new areas.

I like so many different styles of music. I just “went with” whatever I was feeling on my record, which made for some interesting differences across the album (lots of diversity). However, the flip side of that is that it may be harder for people to digest me as an artist (vs. an artist or album that is more cohesive creatively). I don’t really have one “sound” as a result. But, that’s okay…..I had fun creating it. )

But, at the end of the day, I would always take feel over formula.

sorry for my english

Not that I dibble with pure productions as well that end up becoming tracks, mostly jam-centric, play and see what happens.