Neil Fein's Blog

Jack Hardy said, at the last Greenwich Village Songwriter's Exchange: "This is not group therapy." Of course, a songlet I Am Not Your Therapist popped into my head on the way home.

A lot of this is starting to take root and work subconsciously. While the last GVSE itself wan't very helpful, on the drive home (I see a pattern) I thought, the problem with this song as it stands is, who cares what happens to this whiny guy in the song? The fact that the plot isn't very clear doesn't help the situation.

In instrumental news, "Rock Creek" has fallen by the wayside, as has "On the Mall (Recessional)". I think that an equivalent to the Songwriter's Exchange focusing on instrumentals — or even just on the music — might not be a bad idea if I can find enough musicians locally interested.

The GVSE is enormously schizophrenic about how they handle music. On the one hand, I've gotten some good music ideas from them, but criticizing the music seems to be a fallback when one can't figure out what to say about the words. It seems to me both should be given equal footing, really. But most of them are indeed folk musicians and the words do take priority in that genre. As a rock musician, my focus is on both: I want to produce music that illuminates thougtful lyrics.

To paraphrase Gene Wolfe: I'm looking to produce work that will cause the listener to want to hear this again — and get more from it each time. I'm not there, yet, but I've got the "thoughtful" part down.