Dora Song
A fellow songwriter offered me some advice. To leave my "novelty shit" behind closed doors and only publish "honest songs". My response:
I've been thinking about what you said. I'm glad you said it, it's made me re-examine my songwriting. And I want to encourage you to continue speaking candidly with me, so I'm really giving it some serious thought. I've been trying to figure out why I hide behind novelty so often in my lyrics. I've come up with somewhat of an answer, but I'll keep thinking about it.
I think comedy is one of my only weapons against songs that are absolutely depressing. Most (if not all) of my songs are about regret and death and malaise and failed relationships and how pointless everything is. And some of them are (appropriately) sad sounding. And some of them take themselves seriously. But if every song I wrote was like that, I wouldn't be able to listen to it for very long.
The Dora song is (at its core) about a person who would rather die than admit that the world is complicated. It's about someone who has had their romantic notions about life shattered, but their romantic notions about death are still in tact.
I've heard that story before -- in real life and in sad songs of every genre: "Adam's Song" by Blink-182, "Suicide Note" by Kyle Spratt, "Goodbye" by And Then I Turned Seven, "Gloomy Sunday" by Sarah McLaughlan, "Suicide Song" by Hatsune Miku etc etc.
I hid the sentiment inside some Dora references and major chords because it's a new way to get at the same feelings, for me anyway. I also think that using the simplicity of a children's show character as an example of lost ideals is appropriate, thematically.
Anyway, thanks for letting me talk about myself lol. I swear in person I'm not so self-involved. See you on Monday!
http://soundcloud.com/lostnumbersband/dora-and-the-undiscovered
I've been thinking about what you said. I'm glad you said it, it's made me re-examine my songwriting. And I want to encourage you to continue speaking candidly with me, so I'm really giving it some serious thought. I've been trying to figure out why I hide behind novelty so often in my lyrics. I've come up with somewhat of an answer, but I'll keep thinking about it.
I think comedy is one of my only weapons against songs that are absolutely depressing. Most (if not all) of my songs are about regret and death and malaise and failed relationships and how pointless everything is. And some of them are (appropriately) sad sounding. And some of them take themselves seriously. But if every song I wrote was like that, I wouldn't be able to listen to it for very long.
The Dora song is (at its core) about a person who would rather die than admit that the world is complicated. It's about someone who has had their romantic notions about life shattered, but their romantic notions about death are still in tact.
I've heard that story before -- in real life and in sad songs of every genre: "Adam's Song" by Blink-182, "Suicide Note" by Kyle Spratt, "Goodbye" by And Then I Turned Seven, "Gloomy Sunday" by Sarah McLaughlan, "Suicide Song" by Hatsune Miku etc etc.
I hid the sentiment inside some Dora references and major chords because it's a new way to get at the same feelings, for me anyway. I also think that using the simplicity of a children's show character as an example of lost ideals is appropriate, thematically.
Anyway, thanks for letting me talk about myself lol. I swear in person I'm not so self-involved. See you on Monday!
http://soundcloud.com/lostnumbersband/dora-and-the-undiscovered