Video Killed The Radio Star... Issue #33

As I said last week, I'm working on some new songs for the next couple of shows the band and I have coming up (soon to be announced). After finishing SONGS FROM THE ORANGE ROOM, I hit a little bit of a dry spell songwriting wise as I focused mainly on the promo business at hand for the album release and all the other non-creative stuff that goes along with it. I think a lot of people feel that songwriters are always filled with ideas and a never ending conduit of musical inspiration.

NOT TRUE.

I can only speak for myself when I say that I many times it's hard to find something that you want to write about, or a riff that sounds good anytime you sit down with your instrument. If someone has found a formula for that...let me know. Usually in my case I get a flood of song ideas (about 4 or so) that all may sound a little similar in some ways. After a while one starts to stick out, or maybe I'll decide they're all crap. Something cool in the past few months though I've found is at least FINISHING the ones I'm not sure about instead of cutting them off before they've been fully realized has helped with new ideas a lot. This has especially proven useful lately as I've began to write more songs for other people to record and perform. I'm not saying that attention to quality is dismissed in writing for others, but more that it gives me the chance to explore outside of my normal idea of "what I sound like" without being self-critical and I usually stumble across some fun musical surprises that otherwise may never be found.



I've included a new live video from the release show at the HIGHDIVE this week, and after talking with a local director I met at the comic shop I've decided that it's time to do a proper music video. That said, you would think that someone who spent his teens obsessively watching MTV would have lots and lots of ideas right? Well, right now that's not the case, but I'm working with a wonderful person by the name of Heather Canik to figure it out and we plan on shooting in the middle of February.

Growing up, my favorite videos were the ones that told a story all the way through the song. For some reason I always felt like Snoop Dogg and all early 90's R&B artists (here I go again) had the best story lines no matter how ridiculous they were. I'm sure I can't fit into that template (no matter how hard I try), but I think I'll take a little of what I loved about that stuff and try to make it my own. I think that the process will be really fun and I'll let you know more when I do too.

"With my mind on my money and my money on my mind..."

Have a good week,

Kyle