Entry 2B: Development
With a general topic idea decided upon, the work was just beginning. You can’t very well sit down and make something out of nothing without first having some thoughts bouncing around in your head. Both Bryan and I approached this brainstorming phase in different ways, which I think is necessary for success.
I took my normal route to songwriting and got out my little leather-bound book for a few weeks’ thinking. I filled its pages with everything from cryptic lyrical snippets to probable recurring motifs for the finished work to quotes by the founding fathers. However, time was of the essence, and as I flip through this abstract diary I soon see the framework of individual tracks begin to emerge in the scribbles.
It was about this time that I went on a dystopian binge and read a few novels that would help inspire the overarching story of the album. While keeping in mind both plot and musical substance, I penned the general ideas for the first three tracks. The first, in my mind, would be among the most gripping on the album: something enticing and energizing (the prospect of some slap bass entered my mind) as the protagonist was (in this track) a part of the evil establishment, not yet realizing there was more to life.
Then, to assure the listener that we were not a funk band (or hard rock, or neo-classical progressive as it may be), the next track would reveal an entirely different side of cloudcover. This quieter number, the first real entry in the protagonist’s secret diary, was to be a ballad of hope, realization, love, etc (and a great place in my mind to begin the motif of: love interest = idea of freedom). However, what’s important is that, while I was crafting this conceptual skeleton, I was staying intentionally nonspecific. Limiting yourself musically OR conceptually can be much worse than having too little of a plan at all!
As I was rounding out the first three tracks in my brain I really wanted to be able to adequately introduce the dystopian regime. Having been recently inspired by Daft Punk’s new album, I excitedly considered the utilization of vocoders to represent the antagonistic characters. The third track was cemented in my mind as being a look inside the establishment, once again a stark contrast with the previous track.
After mentally preparing this initial trio in some detail, I chose to become much vaguer in my preparation. The protagonist would become more aware, decide to rebel (directly or indirectly), there would be conflict, insights would be reached, and there would be some sort of resolution. I knew that the mournful mid-album yearnings of the protagonist were perfectly suited for moody and swirling indie rock (*cue Bryan’s obsession with The National*), the late-album emotions would undoubtedly call for some anthemic masterpieces, and we certainly would not have heard from the evil vocoder-speaking dictator for the last time, but beyond that I decided to let the dust settle on the rest of the album before continuing with too thick of a skeleton.
I continued to write in my notebook about the remainder of the album as we began composing and recording the songs in roughly the order they would appear on the finished product. Leafing back through the cream-colored pages I see ideas that were used as-conceived, ideas that eventually were shaped into something useful, and those that never will be heard. But that, of course, is the way it works in art.
Thank you for tagging along with us as we made the first chips into our giant piece of indie-pop marble, and we hope you continue to stick around to watch as our work continues to take shape with the next update.
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