Dave Grohl, Songwriting and the Craft Thereof

I don't know how familiar you are with The Foo Fighters or not. Hopefully you are. You should be at least since they have been one of the biggest names in rock and alternative music since the mid 90's. Dave Grohl, the lead singer and rhythm guitar player for the band, has proven time and time again that a drummer's talent isn't limited to just smashing drum heads.

This past year, they set out to do something really great with their new record. They recorded it in Dave's garage and they did it all analog. This means that, contrary to modern recording methods, nothing was ever recorded onto a computer or processed by a computer. The entire record was recorded onto analog tape and processed with traditional analog outboard gear and analog mixing consoles. The significance of this is that no digital trickery was ever used to make the band sound better. No quantizing (digitally forcing parts to align exactly with the tempo of the song so that everything syncs perfectly), no auto tuning of vocals, just pure, raw rock music. All of the inconsistencies and imperfections that humans bring into music is present on the record.

When so much technology is available to make bands and singers so tight and so good, why would they do this? To bring back the human element into making music. It's a celebration of the craft of writing songs and making music, and it won them their tenth Grammy award recently for Best Rock Album. Here is an excerpt from Dave Grohl's acceptance speech at this year's Grammy awards.

“To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what’s important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing for people to do… It’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer. It’s about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head].” 

Dave Grohl acceptance speech at 2012 Grammy Awards.

Interesting thing to say. He definitely stepped on a few peoples toes with what he said. And it begs the question - Have we lost an appreciation for craft? Not just in songwriting, but in general.

To me, there is something really cool about a product that was made by someone who had to spend years of their life honing their skill and talents. Something that is truly great in quality but also contains a very human element. Imperfections from product to product, something that is completely unique and not exactly like any other. With many craft products, you are actually investing in something that gets better over time.

I do worry that many have lost the appreciation and vision of songwriting being a craft. Just like a wood worker spends years learning how to make a great rocking chair, as songwriters we should view what we do in a similar manner. We are crafting a piece of art from nothing. We are learning how to tell a story or communicate an emotion in a way that speaks universally to people and causes them to respond. That is a very human thing to do.

I also think there is a very spiritual side to craft. I daily rest in knowing that I did not come off an assembly line that God set up - that I was made completely unique. He created the world around me and every aspect of creation is unique and perfect. There are no two trees exactly alike. No two mountain peaks that look identical, no two rivers that run the same course. Knowing that there was attention to detail as God made creation, as he put me together, and ordered my life...that knowledge gives me purpose.

For artists, photographers, writers, musicians and songwriters, we should embrace the work that comes in making something great. Pour yourself into the process. Continually push yourself do to better and be better at your craft. There is something truly wonderful about it, and our job is to share our craft with other people.

I'm curious what you think. Do you think that as a culture we have lost an appreciation for craft? For honing a skill, developing a talent. Is there still a place for this in our lives? As a creative individual, are you practicing this? Are you investing in your craft? Or should we embrace the technology and advancements?

Some Photography

So I spent some time last week with my friend, David, at his shop. He's a local craft coffee roaster here in Fort Collins, as well as being the senior pastor at our church. We have been talking about putting together a little side project here in town that focuses on the craft culture here in Fort Collins. And as part of the preparation, I went and took some pictures of his shop.

It was very last minute, and unfortunately the only speed of film I had with me was really too slow to be used inside his shop, such is the downfall of shooting film. I was shooting between 1/15 and 1/8 shutter speed with no tripod, so there were many pictures that didn't turn out well. Although there was really too much shake on most of the pictures, I managed to salvage a few and I thought I would share them with you.

If you have the time, you should really check out David's business, The Coffee Registry. Head on over to www.thecoffeeregistry.com and start a subscription of some of the best coffee you'll ever drink. You can also find a few more pictures from the shoot on his site, as well.

For those who are interested, these pictures were shot with a Mamiya M645 1000s with a 80mm F/2.8 lens on Kodak TMax 100 film. 

I did a very light bit of editing in Photoshop.

Stuck In An Elevator or How To Survive a Creative Block Part II

People often say about traumatic situations that one day, you will be able to look back and see what God was teaching you in that particular moment. They say that sometimes that happens quickly, and sometimes it may be years afterward.

It’s been 12 years since I was stuck in an elevator, and I can honestly say I don’t think that God was teaching me anything life changing. Sometimes I think that maybe He just has a sick sense of humor. But through the randomness which is in my brain, I have managed to turn the story into an object lesson. There are things about how we survived being in an elevator that I have somehow twisted into being able to apply to those who may be experiencing a creative block. So enjoy: 

Don’t panic. 

Panic will not make the block go away any faster.

Not long after we got stuck, it slowly began to sink in with the three of us that we were going to be in the elevator for a while. Dandy Fenton began pacing back and forth slowly falling into a panic. It was actually quite amusing to watch this big guy taking one step in one direction then having to turn around and take only one step in the opposite direction. It didn’t take long for him to realize that no amount of panic was going to get us out of the elevator.

It’s easy to think that you have finally run out of creative juices - that you might never again make anything quality or that has any originality ever again. But fear not. Experiencing a block is not the end of the world. It won’t last forever, so be patient and be ready to wait it out. 

Embrace the downtime. 

As we worked our way through the stages of grief, we finally landed on acceptance. We were going to be in that elevator for a while and we had to make the most of it. I can honestly say that we learned more about each other in those 13 hours than we ever would have otherwise. Lots and lots of crazy stories and secrets shared. It was actually a really great time and the three of us look back on it and laugh and love to tell the story.

Sometimes we spend so much time writing, that we fail to get out and have experiences and live life. That is where our inspiration comes from. In general, writers don’t write about writing. They write about life. Look at a writer’s block as a way of being forced to get out and have experiences. Embrace the opportunity to take a break. It’s those new experiences that will provide plenty of material and inspiration. 

Get down to the basics. 

At some point, as we continued to sweat profusely because there was no air conditioning in the elevator, we slowly found ourselves taking more and more of our clothes off. First it was shoes and socks, then our t-shirts, until we were finally sitting on the floor of an elevator wearing nothing but our boxers - just the necessities.

We can often get bogged down with a bunch of stuff that we like to throw into our creations. Sometimes it’s a new technique. Sometimes it’s being so thrilled with a new technology and then trying to throw it all into our music, or art or whatever. All the tricks and technology can get in the way. Whatever it is, it can often slow us down and take away from the simplicity of the art.

When we are experiencing a creative blog, it often helps to get back to the basics. Strip everything down to the essentials and focus on those. You only need the basics to survive. If you can’t make something great with the very basics, then you don’t need all of the tricks. 

Remember not to stink everyone else out.

Whataburger can do horrible things to the bowels. We almost immediately instituted a no farting rule. Why? Because no matter how badly one of us felt we might need to express some gas, we had to remember that there were two other people stuck sharing the air, and it wasn’t fair to make everyone else smell our stink.

It’s tempting when experiencing a creative block to try and force the situation and put out something that is lackluster at best for people to enjoy. The truth is that it just stinks. That’s why it’s called a block. It’s the artist’s inability to do anything really great. So don’t bother. Don’t put stuff out just for the sake of doing it. Is it important to keep disciplined and exercising the creative muscles? Sure it is. But until you feel like you’ve overcome your block, don’t bother with putting out stuff for others that just stinks. 

Use a lifeline.

The biggest mistake we made was in not bringing cell phones with us. Granted, at the time, cell phones were large and bulky and didn’t fit comfortably in the front of your jeans like they do now. My cell phone was the original flip phone. This was post bag phone and pre anything cool. It was the size of a gold bar. This was also just at a point when people were starting to carry phones with them regularly. (Yes, I know this dates me a bit). But had we had them, we could easily have called for help and saved ourselves 13 hours of sweat, smell and full bladders.

There is nothing wrong with talking to others that you respect about your block. As an artist you need to have friends or mentors in your life that you can call and talk to when you run into a creative block. They can often provide great advice and insight into why you may be experiencing a dry spell and may be able to save you some time.

As I said before, a creative block isn’t the end of the world. They only happen for a season so enjoy the time off. Live life to its fullest and do what you can to embrace as many situations as possible, because these will be the things that inspire you later on.

If anyone else has any other advice about surviving a creative block, feel free to put it in the comments section below.

Stuck In An Elevator or How To Survive a Creative Block Part I

One time I got stuck in an elevator for 13 hours. No joke. My friends often give me a hard time for being an exaggerator, but this is 100 percent true. And to make it worse, it was a small elevator, maybe 4‘x5’. I’m going to give you the abbreviated version of the story. In the interest of protecting the innocent, I have changed the names of my band members. Now you should know that we were three pretty big guys. Two of us were over six feet tall. One of us, Dandy Fenton was over 300 pounds. The other guy, Krandon Bees, was shorter, but weighed about as much as I did (approximately 220 pounds). So there wasn’t a lot of room to move around.

We were in Victoria, Texas for a couple of weeks to record at the church where one of my bandmates was an interning. It was a pretty big church, and it had a huge youth room that also had all of the gear my band needed to start recording. We were pretty jazzed about the opportunity to have free access to the equipment and to get started on recording some new tracks.

On a Wednesday night after all of the students and church staff had gone home, my band and I began unloading our instruments and gear into the youth room. The room was on the second floor and we were fortunate enough that the building had a small freight elevator. So we brought in all of our equipment and began to set things up. It was around midnight and we were hungry (we were hungry a lot) and decided to make a run to Whataburger before we started tracking.

Now there are moments in life when you make a decision that in hindsight you know was quite stupid. My stupid decision came in deciding not to take my cell phone with me. My drummer made the same stupid decision. Our thought process simply being, “We’re just going to Whataburger. We don’t need them”. Famous last words.

We got to Whataburger just fine and had our fill of fast food and giant Texas sized soft drinks. Then we made sure to grab a refill, and headed back to the church.

It was our laziness that sealed our fate. Make no mistake about it. Had we even exerted the smallest bit of effort, we could have avoided all of our troubles. But, feeling lazy when we returned to the church, having been filled up like plump little piglets, we made the decision to use the freight elevator as opposed to simply walking up a flight of stairs.

We made it about two or three feet off of the ground when the elevator stopped. There was the flickering of lights that one might associate with an elevator stopping, and then a few half nervous jokes. My drummer made the comment that it would probably start again in a moment after it reset. (I don’t know that elevators really reset. It’s just something you say.) But the elevator didn’t start moving. We were stuck. And as we assessed our situation, we discovered that not only were we stuck, but there were several factors that assured we were going to be stuck for a while. These included: 

• No air conditioning. This doesn’t seem like a big deal if you live in Colorado. In South Texas however, in mid summer, it’s quite a terrifying prospect. 

• The panel on the ceiling of the elevator (you know the one – it’s what everyone in the movies uses to escape situations like this) was bolted shut, and made of steel. There would be no theatrical escapes. 

• We could not open the elevator door. Again, you see this in movies a lot. It works really well with doors that open from the middle. Not with freight doors that open from one side. 

• The emergency call box didn’t work. Yup. That’s just bad luck. 

• We didn’t have our cell phones. This is where hindsight is 20/20. 

• The church offices were not located in the same building as the sanctuary and youth room. They were located across town in an office building. The building we were in would not be used again until Sunday morning. It was Wednesday night. 

There are many details about that night that I won’t mention because this blog would double or triple in length. Those may or may not include spooning each other on the floor in our boxer shorts (because it was hot and the floor of the elevator was cold) while we tried to sleep. If you are curious about the rest of the night, ask me about it sometime.

Long story short, we were finally rescued the next afternoon around 13 hours later, when another youth intern randomly brought a group of kids to the church to work on something in the youth room.

As I look back on it, the whole predicament raises some interesting questions. Namely - have you ever been stuck? I mean stuck in any way, not just in an elevator? Maybe your car was stuck in the mud or snow. Maybe you accidentally got locked in a room. Maybe you felt trapped in a relationship. I think it’s safe to say that most of us have experienced that before. It’s an incredibly frustrating place to be.

As a creative, have you ever experienced a creative block? If you have, you know that it is equally frustrating, having the desire to create but being unable to actually get anything out. It’s similar to being stuck on an elevator. Feeling trapped and claustrophobic. Sometimes it feels like creatively you are stuck in a box and don’t know how to get out of it.

In my next blog, I will let you in on a few lessons I learned through my elevator experience, and how to apply those to a creative block.

The Songwriter and the Listener

I think there is a great connection and relationship between a songwriter and the listener. When an artist chooses to make music and then allow other people in on that world, a journey happens. The songwriter begins the journey and is then a facilitator as he works his song to a place that it can pull others in on the journey as well. Songwriters by nature allow themselves to be quite vulnerable and take a risk at allowing others into their world, and a unique interaction happens when the listener begins to take in a song and allows himself to become immersed in the music.

This relationship is often underrated. It shows itself often times in the creative process. I know of many artists who refuse to acknowledge the value of the listener and actually enjoy making music that is unapproachable. The act of songwriting being some great, mysterious thing -- a process to be shrouded in secrecy and hidden from public view, like a magician protects his tricks. Fortunately, there is no Songwriters Alliance that can blacklist artists when they allow people to see the creative process (any Arrested Development fans?). The reality, however, is that songwriters depend on the listener and undervaluing them is a huge mistake. 

Music exists to move humanity. It speaks to the spirit, evokes emotions and responses. Songs are not meant to be self serving, and no songwriter is an island. It is irresponsible for the writer to make music only for themselves. Sure an artist can choose to push ahead creatively. They can try new things, new production techniques, new styles, new instrumentations. But without regard to what others think, at the end of the day if no one enjoys or accepts it, what good did it serve?

The other side of the coin is that many artists are so wrapped up in making people happy and selling records that they become slaves to the listener. This too is a problem because it deprives the artist of the joy of creating something that truly comes from who they are. To allow things to remain the same and be stagnant is a horrible place to be. Humanity is not meant to remain in one place. It is in us to move forward and progress and this is ever so important for the artist. 

So songwriters do have a responsibility to challenge the listener to try new things. That is a healthy and necessary part of the creative process. The balance that an artist must find is in how to serve the listener and at the same time be creative. But how do we go about that? I’m not sure there is an easy answer. I do believe, though, that the artist must find a way to allow the audience to become invested in the work. And this means that as songwriters, we must lift the veil and mystique. Allow the listener to see us work through the creative process. Because of the great invention of these interwebs that are doing things like bringing you my blog, websites like YouTube, and Vimeo, and SoundCloud, we are seeing more artists do this now than ever.

I want to do this in my own music as well. I’m planning on beginning production on a new record in August, and I’m very excited about this. Between now and then, I will be posting regular videos of my songs as they progress, to make you, the listener a bigger part of the journey. I appreciate the support that everyone has  given me thus far, and I’m looking forward to tickling your ears with more musical goodies as the year goes on.