You, [but] Better! Get [it] Ready!
How (I) prepare for Making
I’m heading into the studio this weekend! And although it feels sorta like I’m tripping and scrambling and gasping for breath, the truth is that the preparations for recording started many many months ago, and the timeline has bounced and stretched and recoiled many times over just to eek itself to some notable end — getting in front of a mic. Getting serious. Serious about play.
There’s a lot of talk and wonder about “process” when it comes to art of any kind. What’s your process like when you sit down to make a song? How do you visualize a painting? Do you start with a melody or a chord? Interviewers, running out of fuel from time to time, will turn to that old question — one that I always sort of falter at and answer without eloquence (“Well ya know it depends…. it’s always a little different…”) because it’s very hard to answer that and not sound totally contrived.
This time I’ve tried to take note. I wanted to map it out so that you could maybe come along the ride with me.
March 2023. Listening to American Coffee by Jenny Hval. Thinking about writing honestly, thinking about what kinds of words count as poetry (“I was watching Le Passion du Jean D’arc while I was having a UTI”). I think I could try to extract more of myself in songs. Have I been trying to hide behind anything? (Of course I have.) Franz Wright is honest, I like to think. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is honest in textures. Thinking about the height of plainspeak poetry in my mind, Berman’s “give a box of candy or a foot massage, some people don’t take the time”.
July 2023. Wrote a song in one go. That never happens! I think I was angry… Then I showed it to the person I was angry at. Roundabout confrontation (non-frontation). I’m interested in getting better at choruses but I’m kinda scared that’s a skill I’m missing. What counts as a chorus again?
August 2023. Touring the new album. Downloaded a meditation app — is this thing on?? Is this working??
September 2023. Remember what North Carolina is like while touring. Heavily consider moving back. Somebody somewhere told me they wish they could fall apart on me. Not much makes it into songs these days but… oh yeah that’s makin it in baby. Tour with Ben Sloan and Stephen Patota and get absolutely blown away by raw talent and passion and beauty and KINDNESS night after night.
October 2023. Email Ben and Stephen and decide to make something together. We’re all too busy. But the pot has been set to simmer.
December 2023. I’ve got all these scraps of songs. Some of them are just 1 minute ideas. Some of them are fleshed out but boring. Slowly the emails/ WeTransfers/ Dropbox links start braiding together. Randomly I’ll get a .wav file dropped into a group text… I’ll pop in an airpod and just absolutely LAUGH with joy — it’s been totally transmuted and blossomed into something all its own. Collaboration!!!!
2024. How are things coming together? What’s the continuity? Damn I’m so busy. I think it’s about Joan of Arc. On roller skates.
March. Hey when can we all get together? Who do we know and what resources do we have? Guitars and spaces and friends and couches. Make a plan to get the boys out to Tiny Telephone in August. I haven’t worked on the songs any more. Inspiration is feeling scary.
May. I think I got a few more in me. Reading The Nonexistent Knight and it’s on theme; thinking about balconies and chivalrous femininity. Wrote a song that feels like riding a horse through a bit compressor. The ‘Stemmys’ email is about 53 long now.
July. I bought chainmail. So did Ben. It’s VERY HEAVY. Made a mind map of inspiration — disco balls, neon pink swords, Skyrim if your character could also have a psychedelic awakening (please don’t @ me about skooma)
August. Hey we’re going into the studio in a week! This’ll be such a fun EP to make! Get an email from the label. Hey what do you think about making this an album? Oh…Hm. I put down the pen a while ago. But… Quickfire texts. A couple phone calls. Pull two more songs out of our collectively thin air. Sure! Okay. Rehearse for a day and remember that my broken bits and slices of songs, when in capable hands, can actually become something that’s something.
Today. Water bottle, chainmail, guitars, notebook. Snacks.
See y’all soon
xoxoMK
here’s my mind map for the (album? now? i guess?) — WELCOME