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One of the biggest surprises to come out of "New Moon Smile" was my attempt to write my own songs; something I had not tried since college. I have been going to Hard Drive Studios for over a decade to rehearse and Vinnie always wanted me to write my own songs - mostly because he figured I would write in a manner that I would be able to sing the songs well. I had always doodled with the guitar and chords and melodies seem to come to me easily. Lyrics were always hard; they always sounded trite or plain stupid (you try writing some....lol).
Vinnie had mentioned most people write about what happens to them, things they see or hear or when they get a flash of inspiration. That's what happened with the "New Moon Smile" original songs. A friend had mentioned how the new moon DID look like a smile. WOW. It does! So I had that idea for the title track but getting the song down took awhile. The music came easily but those darn words......took awhile but in the end I only threw out two lines. From inception to completion was about two weeks of work and it was constant effort.
"Jodi's Shoes" was altogether a different effort. Jodi will have a Q&A blog being posted shortly but from my perspective that song was written in a single Sunday morning. I had known Jodi in passing for awhile but I really got to chat with her at two parties - on a consecutive Friday and Saturday. Suffice it to say she is a very interesting person and certainly charismatic. I woke up Sunday and there was the idea for the song. Everything came together in a few hours. Each verse started with a place we had spoken about; be it Spain, Minnesota or Tuscany. I amused myself with that little hook. The interlude in the middle of the song wrote itself in literally five minutes with very little editing done after the fact. I definitely feel that this was lightning in a bottle and am very pleased with how the song sounds in its finished state.
Recording it however was a beast....lol.
And Vinnie left out out one other piece of advice about composing....try NOT to compare yourself to Lennon and McCartney.......you will come up short every time.
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